The complaint for alleged sexual abuse and rape against the Undersecretary of the Interior of the Government of President Gabriel Boric, Manuel Monsalve, who resigned on Thursday, has struck the heart of the left-wing Administration, with a feminist seal since he took office in La Moneda in March 2022. The 59-year-old socialist doctor was a key official in La Moneda, in charge of public security, and his resignation, in an unprecedented scandal in the South American country, occurs in the midst of an unprecedented security crisis, that he monitored daily, marked a new type of crime, with increasingly violent homicides committed with firearms.
Morning Express provides the keys to the hardest week of the Boric Government, in which the president has tried to give a sign of transparency in the face of the crisis, but lodged the conflict in La Moneda.
When Tohá and Boric find out
It was on Tuesday the 15th when the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, learned that there was an investigation against Manuel Monsalve, as stated on Thursday. This was communicated to him by the director of the Investigative Police (PDI), Eduardo Cerna. The police chief has said that he only informed him that they were carrying out “investigative actions” regarding an investigation into a sexual crime and that the person involved was the Undersecretary of the Interior.
Regarding the reasons why he told Tohá about the incident, Cerna said it was because the PDI had “a permanent and direct link with him.” [con Monsalve ]and he was investigated.” “I communicate that to you, not the details of the investigation, I inform you, I actually inform you of that investigation that we were carrying out.”
Then, the minister informed President Boric, who in turn met with Monsalve at night.
That Tuesday, the Government gave Monsalve time to go to the Biobío region to speak with his family.
Both Tohá and Boric have indicated that they did not know the content of the complaint.
The complaint is made public
On Thursday the 17th, shortly before noon, the evening The Second published on its cover that the Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation against the undersecretary for sexual abuse after a complaint filed by “an adult woman,” who had already testified. Shortly after, prosecutor Xavier Armendáriz, regional head of the north-central metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office, said from the Justice Center that he is the one in charge of the investigation.
“The only thing I am going to say about this is that it is an investigation that is ongoing, with procedures already completed and others in progress,” said Armendáriz. And he added: “I would like to make it clear that the institutional position, position, power, etc., that a person has, for this prosecutor who is speaking, has never been an issue that has to do with the result.”
Then the newspaper The Third reported that the complainant was an advisor to the Undersecretary of the Interior, part of Monsalve’s team, therefore, she was under his command. It was also specified that the accusation, filed on Monday, October 14, was for the crime of rape, and that the reported incident occurred on Sunday, September 22 – the last day of the long National Holidays holiday – at the hotel where the The former authority was staying during the week because it is close to La Moneda (he has residence in the Valparaíso Region).
A resignation and 48 hours of reservation
On Thursday the 17th, shortly after 2:30 p.m., Monsalve held a press conference in La Moneda. For the first time, in his two years and seven months in the Interior, his voice trembled in front of the microphones when announcing his resignation. “As you know, during this week a complaint has been filed against me of which I do not know the details.” And he added: “I want to reaffirm that I have not committed any conduct constituting a crime, which is why, within the framework of the investigation, I will prove my innocence.”
Shortly before, Monsalve had participated as Undersecretary of the Interior in a budget subcommittee at the Congress headquarters in Santiago. At that time it was still not known when the Government had found out what was coming, which became clear when Minister Tohá gave a press point in La Moneda, at approximately 4:30 p.m.: she said that both she and the president had spoken with Monsalve on Tuesday. According to the minister, “to this day, neither Manuel Monsalve nor the government authorities are aware of the complaint. “We know very general information.”
Tohá also said that the socialist doctor was allowed to travel to the southern zone to speak with his family and announced that Luis Cordero, the Minister of Justice, would replace Monsalve in the undersecretary of the Interior.
The spokesperson of the Minister of the Interior opened a flank to La Moneda regarding two points. The first, related to the fact that she revealed that both she and the president were aware of the complaint – although not of its content, she noted – 48 hours before the press reported on the Prosecutor’s Office investigation. The second, because it raised the question of why Monsalve continued to fulfill his duties and only resigned on Thursday.
Monsalve and the hotel cameras
Monsalve’s advisor, 32, filed the complaint for sexual abuse and rape on October 14. According to the Chilean press, due to events that occurred on September 22, when after dinner at the Peruvian food restaurant Ají Seco Mistico, in the center of Santiago, where they drank alcohol, he woke up the next day at the Panamericano Hotel, where the The undersecretary was staying during the week, since it is close to La Moneda and he has a residence outside of Santiago.
This Friday morning, The Third reported that Monsalve, when he was undersecretary of the Interior and had power over the police, due to his position as responsible for public security of the Government, that days before the complaint he commissioned intelligence personnel from the PDI to review the cameras of the Panamericano hotel, where the events for which he is being investigated would have occurred. For this reason, the Prosecutor’s Office opened a new case for violation of the Intelligence Law.
According to the newspaper, the Prosecutor’s Office found out about the situation on Tuesday, when another PDI team arrived at the hotel, by order of Armendáriz, and there they learned, from the workers, that police personnel already had the records.
Boric’s 53 minutes
This Friday, during an activity in Lampa, in the northern area of Santiago, where Boric together with the Minister of Social Development, Javiera Toro, visited the Piuquén day care center for the elderly, the president, surprisingly, decided to address the time the case of Monsalve. He did it for 53 minutes that became a controversial press conference: although he tried to give a sign of transparency, and offered to answer all the press’s questions, he only opened up flanks. It will remain in memory when his communications advisor tried at least twice to stop him from continuing, but Boric continued.
“I want to be very clear: I had no information about the details that have been reported in the media,” said Boric. “Neither I nor Minister Tohá have seen the content of the complaint,” he said. “On the part of the Government there has not been nor will there be any intention to cover up, to hide, to hinder, to do anything.”
Boric reported that on Tuesday the 15th, when he met with Monsalve, the then Undersecretary of the Interior told him that “he had checked the cameras [de seguridad] of the hotel (…). I don’t think it’s my place to tell the details of the case. I imagine that everyone will understand that… I also only know one version.”
And he added: “I don’t know when, I don’t know how. More than what Undersecretary Monsalve told me that day at night is that he had checked the cameras and had seen on the cameras that he had arrived with this person. I wanted to see what state it had arrived in. If evidence was tampered with, I don’t have any information.”
The opposition quickly attacked the president. Chile Vamos, the traditional right-wing conglomerate, announced the creation of an investigative commission in the Chamber of Deputies. Also, the bench of UDI parliamentarians, part of that same coalition, asked the Prosecutor’s Office to summon Boric to testify as a witness for possible omission of a complaint due to the fact that Monsalve informed him on Tuesday of the review of the cameras of the hotel.
The first appearance of the spokesperson
On Friday afternoon, in his first statement since the public outbreak of the Monsalve caseGovernment spokesperson Camila Vallejo said that it was on Tuesday night that the president conveyed to Monsalve that, “given the seriousness of the matter, it was evident that the continuity of his position was under review. In other words, this evaluation or decision began to be made on Tuesday night and was completed and transmitted on Thursday, the day that, in addition, the former undersecretary, of his own accord, also presented his resignation.”
Vallejo’s absence during the first 24 hours of the crisis had attracted attention in Chile, especially after the president’s controversial and lengthy spokesperson in Lampa. It was later learned that the spokesperson only found out about the Monsalve case on Thursday, two days after the undersecretary spoke with Boric and Tohá.
The annoyance of the Minister of Women
The complaint against Monsalve has struck at the heart of La Moneda, an Administration that has presented itself with a feminist seal since it took office in March 2022. For this reason, the first spokesperson of Antonia Orellana, Boric’s Minister of Women and Gender Equality, on Thursday afternoon, after the Undersecretary of the Interior had resigned, generated noise. He did not mention Monsalve, but emphasized in a message: “We want to remember that sexual crimes are probably the most difficult to report within our Penal Code. They imply many consequences and that is why they are classified as crimes of public criminal action prior to private action.”
On Thursday the 17th Orellana had just arrived from Geneva, Switzerland, where he spoke on behalf of Chile at the UN within the framework of the VIII periodic report to the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
This Saturday, however, in an interview with Meganoticias, he said that he was informed of the complaint on Thursday, upon landing. Just like Vallejo, the Minister of Women is part of Boric’s political committee. “Obviously, I would have liked to find out sooner, but that does not mean that once I had informal knowledge, I asked to verify the information formally, and once I was formally informed I fulfilled my duty,” said Orellana.
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The annoyance of the Minister of Women
Two days of silence
budgets sometimes
Boric’s 52 minutes
Lack of spokesperson
The feminist seal
Monsalve’s chambers