The former councilor of La Serena, Mauricio Ibacache Velásquez, and current candidate for mayor of the same commune, rejected the arguments for which he was dismissed from the Gabriel González Videla Municipal Corporation, accusing a lack of probity and of not fulfilling the job for which he was hired. He stressed that he was fired for purely political reasons and that it is no coincidence that the current candidate for the mayor’s seat for the Radical Party – the same political tent as Mayor Jacob – filed the summary against him.
What moment are you in today?
“On the labor side, unemployed and in a campaign that brings together several candidates. It makes me a little sad and upset, because there were five of us. The unfortunate thing is that Roxana Adaros, who appointed her to the Christian Democratic Party, later lowered her, somewhat inexplicable if they later make a connection with another of the candidates. It is unfortunate because it breaks the balance of gender equality. We were three men and two women and there is only one left. Therefore, the 40% drops to 20%.
What do you think La Serena is missing?
“It’s a long list. To begin with, the total abandonment of the historic center, the institutions, the buildings, is the main thing, and that is linked to the insecurity that is being experienced. It is not possible for a city, once a tourist , close its doors at 6 in the afternoon. That is nonsense. There is a lack of investment, you can see how many stores are abandoned in the center, which have no longer been rented and that makes the economic strength that we had when we were there. tourist power has disappeared. Here the authorities have not been up to the task. It is not possible, for example, that we have the CCU building torn down ten years ago and spending 4.5 billion pesos on rent in a building period, because that is what it is. that the municipality currently spends. It is a major nonsense”.
Is it nonsense or bad management?
“Lack of management, but the absurdity comes from the lack of management. I have said it in all the media and in all tones, because we do not have experts. What is this about having one of the largest stables in Chile launched for ten years and having to pay 1.1 billion pesos a year in rent. With that money you could have recovered at least two of the emblematic buildings inside the CCU, have decorated them and saved so much rent.
Are you critical of the mayor for this?
“I’m not criticizing him personally. What I’m criticizing is that he should have taken the reins of this and gotten advice. I’m not saying this for the officials that I’m fond of, but on big issues you need an economics engineer, a highway engineer, in construction, as was done in the Serena Plan. One has to criticize the things that one has to criticize, but the only thing I can say is that with the mayor, until recently I had a very good relationship, and every time I have “I criticized him, I did it on the third floor of the municipality in private.”
Why didn’t you do it publicly like you do now? Because he was a civil servant?
“I’m talking about my period as a councilor. Every time there were things, tenders that did not seem appropriate to me, I even voted for some tenders that I thought were good and later I discovered that they were all ‘trouble’. I’m not saying this for the mayor, but The companies that won tenders were formed, sometimes, 20 days before and I vehemently pointed this out to them. Another thing is what I did after being a councillor, when I was an official of the Corporation (Gabriel González Videla), where I was. The mayor himself decides to fire me and the summary is instructed, curiously, by Ernesto Velasco – today a candidate for mayor – In other words, it is clearer that my dismissal was for a political issue and that is why I am here, to clarify several things. “It has absolute political overtones. The mayor throws me out and the person who is conducting the investigation is the mayor’s candidate, Ernesto Velasco.”
I understand that they accuse him of lack of probity in the dismissal letter.
“Yes, but I reverse the lack of probity. If in three and a half years no one questioned me and no one paid attention to my schedule, and no one knew what I did! Then the lack of probity belongs to the people who have to supervise the corporation. Another lack of probity of those who are accusing me is that I have not yet been notified of my dismissal. I found out through two media outlets and for that I am grateful to El Día daily, because I called both Mi Radio and Mi Radio. this diary so that they would give me the possibility of being able to reply.
And what does he say in his defense when there is talk of a lack of probity and that he did not fulfill the role for which he was hired?
“I fulfilled the role for which I was hired quite well and not only in the schools that had the SEP (Preferential School Subsidy) money. At my request the corporation hired four extraordinary music teachers and the foundations for five orchestras have been formed. “I got almost 9 million pesos in instruments, half of which I put out of my own pocket and the corporation has not put a single peso into instruments for the children who are already learning music.”
Did your contract say you had to form orchestras?
“That’s why they hired me. And also to support everything related to culture, not just the students. We gave guided tours to the regional library, we played during difficult times at the CESFAM, to ease the burden on those who were waiting to get vaccinated. We have We have taken free classes in emblematic schools, such as Darío Salas. We visited the Villa San Bartolomé School, the School in Las Rojas, which do not have a single SEP peso and some of these schools are called artistic.
In other words, do they fire you for doing your job?
“They fired me for a political issue, because the mayor did not want me to go to primaries, in circumstances where he himself, with Ernesto Velasco, told me years ago, ‘calm down a little, let me go for a third term and We are going to support it.’ That was when I became independent and was on the radical list, they committed to that. Not only did they break their word, but they were very upset that I was a candidate now.”
At what point does your bond with the mayor break?
“When he realizes that I am going to be a candidate for mayor, either directly or in primaries.”
