The Regional Prosecutor of Aysén Carlos Palma heads various investigative proceedings within the framework of the Proculture aspect of the Covenants case, which are carried out in the regions of Valparaíso, Metropolitana and Biobío.
After judicial authorizations for entry, search and seizure, operations were carried out simultaneously in the cities of Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, La Calera, Las Condes and Concepción. In total, about 20 homes and public entities, including the Regional Government of Valparaíso, Serviu and Seremi of Housing and Urban Planning of said region, among others.
The Aysén regional prosecutor said that they have worked directly with personnel from the Pro Culture Case Task Force, the Anti-Corruption Brigade and also with the support of the Economic Crimes Brigade of the respective regions and personnel from the Criminalistics Laboratory.
“The purpose, I insist, is to gather evidence that allows us to determine whether a crime has existed here or not, and if there is, determine possible responsibilities,” stated the criminal prosecutor.
Since December to date, when the investigation was assigned by the National Prosecutor’s Office to the Aysén Regional Prosecutor, numerous investigative proceedings have been carried out in the regions of Ñuble, Biobío and Magallanes and the Chilean Antarctic, now added to Valparaíso and the Metropolitan Region.
The investigations led by the Public Ministry include detectives from the Task Force that the PDI created especially for this cause, with police officers from the Metropolitan Anti-Corruption Brigade, Bridec Metropolitana and the regions in which the investigations are being carried out, joined by experts from the Central Criminalistics Laboratory and the team of professionals from the Aysén High Complexity Prosecutor’s Office.
Regarding the figures involved in this investigation, as part of the different agreements assigned to ProCultura in Chile, they amount to approximately 6 billion pesos.
Leaks investigations
At the same time, the Regional Prosecutor reported that a second investigation was initiated for violation of secrecy following leaks in some media of the resolution of the Valparaíso Guarantee Court that authorized the intrusive proceedings.
The investigation is joined to a second case for the same issue, but with authorizations for proceedings in the Metropolitan Region issued by another Court. The order to investigate was delivered to the Metropolitan Anti-Corruption Brigade of the PDI.
