During noon this Monday the first official session of the Investigative Commission on Organized Crime and Intelligence Systems, requested after the murder of the former Venezuelan lieutenant Ronald Ojedaand which was formally established on April 23.
On this occasion, the Minister of the Interior and the undersecretary of said portfolio were summoned, Manuel Monsalve. However, Carolina Tohá He excused himself from participating in a communication received Monday morning to the commission.
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Despite that, Monsalve did attend the event, and he did so in the company of renowned guests: Ana Lya Uriarte, legislative coordinator of the Undersecretariat; The general Julio Jaramillohead of Intelligence of Carabineros; Luis Marco, director of the National Intelligence Agency (ANI); and on behalf of the PDI the general prefect attended Consuelo Pena, deputy director of Intelligence of the PDI; and Cristina Vilcheshead of intelligence of the institution.
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At the beginning of his presentation, The undersecretary requested that part of the session be kept secretboth for the data he wanted to provide and for the questions that the parliamentarians might have for him and those who accompanied him.
In the half that was broadcast, Monsalve spoke about refugee applications in our country, the benefits of those cases that are accepted, and delved into the work that is being done for immigration control at the borders.
According to the figures presented, since the Refugee Protection Law came into effect in 2010, nearly 31 thousand refugee requests. Of that universe, 11 thousand have been archived, 9 thousand have been rejected, 10 thousand have not had a resolution and around 1,000 have been accepted.
Of the thousand shelters that have been granted, only 75 correspond to Venezuelan citizens, 46 of which were delivered during this Government. Of the total refugees, nine of them have the status of former members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
A number of former military personnel that is relevant if one considers the list of 33 people that the Government of Venezuela classified as traitors to the country for participating in an operation against Nicolás Maduro.
List of which the undersecretary himself provided background and He mentioned that they identified that a group of those accused of participating in the operation were in Chile.
“Much reference was made to 33 members of the armed forces who had been put on a list by the Venezuelan government., who were accused of having participated in an operation against the president of Venezuela. Of those 33, the record that Chile has is that There were only 7 of those 33 people in national territory, That is the information I can provide about it,” said Monsalve.
“There was never a complaint”
After the murder of Ojeda, One of the strongest criticisms was the alleged lack of protection by the Chilean system for the former lieutenant.since independent of having refuge status in Chile, he was kidnapped with great ease from his own apartment in Independencia.
For this reason, one of the points that the undersecretary highlighted most in his presentation was the “benefits” that are granted to a person when they obtain refuge in our country, which correspond to having a permanent residence and the right to not expulsion.
“There is no record that the Chilean State takes particular protection measures with respect to people who have refugee status,” Monsalve said.
The undersecretary added that for extra actions to be taken there should have been a formal complaint in the Prosecutor’s Office, something that did not happen before Ojeda’s kidnapping with respect to any Venezuelan citizen. “There was never a complaint, of any nature, of any of them regarding possible risks to which they considered they were exposed in national territory,” he said.
Of course, after the kidnapping of Ronald Ojeda, a complaint was registered from a Venezuelan refugee, who by order of the Prosecutor’s Office received special protection measures.
Sharp criticism from parliamentarians
The most tense moment of the day occurred precisely around the lack of security for the refugees, and the Democratic representative Joanna Pérez rebuked the undersecretary for the lack of protection that Ojeda received and asked him if the Interior knew about his political motivations, as well as his trips outside Chile
“Was there information from the Interior about this type of actions by a refugee?”said Pérez, alluding to the movements that were revealed in a Mega Investiga report.
Although prosecutor Barros himself confirmed to Mega Investigate that Ojeda’s trip to Cúcuta reinforces the political thesis carried out by the Public Ministry, Monsalve stated that he does not know if it is information that has been “verified” in the course of the investigation.
“The only thing I can say about it is that he already had refugee status, and Because he has refugee status, if that had happened he had the obligation to report before leaving the country.”, stated the undersecretary.
Point in the conversation where Monsalve once again emphasized that there was never a complaint in the case of Ojeda (or any other Venezuelan), so no particular protection measure was applicable. “All our obligations as a State regarding refugees have been fulfilled, all of them,” he stated.
The background information presented by the undersecretary in the first part of the session, in addition to what was discussed when secrecy was established, did not satisfy all those present, who harshly criticized what was stated in this first meeting.
“The truth is that there is not much to say. There is not much to say, the information is vague, little analyzed. I hope that this will change as the Investigative Commission progresses because otherwise the result of this will not be what we really want,” said the president of the instance, Miguel Angel Becker.
The next session was scheduled for Tuesday, May 14, an opportunity where the Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Carolina Tohá, was summoned again.
