Opinion: Chile’s president criticized for benefiting his friends with government jobs

By Daniela Carrasco

One of Gabriel Boric’s presidential campaign promises was that he would end “pitutos” (nepotism), that is to say, that state positions would not be granted to his friends and close ones but that people would be evaluated by their merits and professional experience in the field.

However, new cases have come to light in which political favors are paid with positions in the State, such as ex-conventional and coalition friends.

Thus, it is revealed again that what was proposed in the campaign was only a hoax to obtain more votes.

Recently it became known that Nicolás Valenzuela Levi, director of the Santiago Metro and militant of Revolución Democrática (party of the Frente Amplio), wrote on his Twitter account, “Evading, not paying, another way to fight” along with the hashtag #EvasiónMasiva, on the same October 18, 2019.

This tweet, published from Barcelona, was deleted by Valenzuela because it received transversal criticism from the political world.

However, the government defended his appointment as a member of the Metro board.

For her part, the senator of the Christian Democracy, Ximena Rincón, shared on this same social network images of Valenzuela in which he appeared hooded and another posing next to a church in which he maintained that there was “a lot of firewood” -alluding to the burning of churches-.

Valenzuela is the nephew of the Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzuela (of the FRVS party).

As a result, the opposition has called for his resignation as a condition for approving the 2023 Budget Law.

Similarly, Luis Cortés (president of the inter-company union of Metro workers) opposed his appointment.

Valenzuela, who assumed the presidency of Metro de Santiago in April 2022, receives a millionaire’s salary.

Despite the above, Camila Vallejo (spokeswoman of the pro-amplista government) defended the appointment of Nicolás Valenzuela -despite the messages with an octubrista spirit- and that “the Government is not going to go back on this”.

However, on October 13, Valenzuela finally closed his Twitter account.

This case not only reveals that the government supports the destruction and insurrection of Oct. 18 but also that they are not capable of backing down in the appointment of a character that recalls the violence to which the subway facilities and all their users were victims.

Let us remember that the Chilean insurrection began with the massive evasion of the subway, which then, of the entire network, more than 20 stations were burned simultaneously. Of them, nine were completely unusable for months.

The burned stations are located in middle-class and vulnerable areas. However, this is of no concern to President Boric’s government.

On the other hand, recently, the ex-conventional Constanza Schönhaut (militant of Convergencia Social, party of the Frente Amplio) took over as advisor to Minister Carolina Tohá (appointed head of the Interior portfolio a few weeks ago).

Schönhaut is known for her friendship with Boric, which goes back to their university days, and because she has a love relationship with Minister Giorgio Jackson -the current Minister of Social Development and Family and Boric’s right-hand man-.

For this reason, the opposition questioned her appointment.

Likewise, another ex-conventional arrived at the Ministry of the Interior.

César Valenzuela (Socialist Party) arrived at the Undersecretariat of Crime Prevention under the Ministry of the Interior.

Minister Tohá has been accused of paying political favors for these two appointments, which she tried to deny.

However, it was not only the ex-conventionals who were left without work after the exit referendum of September 4, as their advisors were also left without a salary.

So far, ten advisors have already started working for the government.

And as if the above were not enough, different authorities close to the Chilean president himself have stood out for their polemics that show that they are not qualified for their positions.

One of them is the Chilean ambassador to Spain, Javier Velasco. Velasco was called to “order” by the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the end of September for two controversies.

The first dealt with a criticism of the last “30 years”, ignoring his legacy in a forum in Madrid in the context of the celebration of the Association Agreement between Chile and the European Union, and in which Pablo Iglesias presided over the ceremony.

For this reason, even former President Ricardo Lagos responded to him, arguing that he “does not know the numbers” or the macroeconomic progress of those 30 years.

The second scandal involving the Chilean ambassador to Spain was an image that circulated on social networks of him sitting in an official embassy vehicle next to a barefoot woman while he hugged her feet.

Criticism was transversal, accusing him of having exceeded all limits of decency, that he has not respected diplomatic codes, and they have even asked for his resignation.

However, everything reported so far is only the tip of the iceberg. The Chilean media La Tercera investigated the ruling party’s kinship and friendship networks.

Among the pro-government world, the relationship between Nicolás Grau (Minister of Economy, to whom CLP 120 million -US$128,000- was lost when organizing a university party of the Student Federation of the University of Chile in 2005) has his Matías Grau in the Undersecretary of Social Services stands out.

In addition, his cousin, Luis Santa Cruz Grau, is an advisor to presidential projects. And a sister-in-law of the minister is the chief of staff of the Undersecretary of Social Evaluation.

On the same scale, there is the case of Claudia Mix (the deputy of Comunes of the Frente Amplio), since her sister, Patricia Mix, is the Seremi of Culture of Valparaíso.

And the deputy’s son, Ariel Jara, works in the Provincial Delegation of Talagante.

Within the communist world, there are several kinship connections. Juan Pablo Jadue is head of IT of the Administration and Finance Division of the Undersecretary of Telecommunications, the brother of Daniel Jadue (mayor of Recoleta and former presidential candidate of the Communist Party).

In addition, María Elisa Kaelin, who works in the general secretary’s office of the San Joaquín Municipal Corporation, is Daniel Jadue’s partner. Thus, there are countless cases of close relationships in different public service positions.

Regrettably, the narrative in Gabriel Boric’s presidential campaign was built on false promises.

Because on the one hand, there would be no problem in the existence of kinship relationships if the people involved met the necessary credentials to hold a position. But most of the cases of the current government show that this principle is not fulfilled.

In short, this Executive has not only stood out for its somersaults and contradictions but has also failed to fulfill the main promises with which it came to power. Undoubtedly, the frenteamplista government is the government of the “pituto”.

With information from Gaceta