This Sunday will mark one year since on June 16, the TimeLine media reported the contracts of the Housing Seremi in Antofagasta with the Democracia Viva foundation, linked to representatives of the Democratic Revolution.
Since that moment, as the Radio Bío Bío Research Unit revealed on June 22 with the report “Paying box?: Government delivered $3 billion to pro-Boric foundations in the Antofagasta region,” a long list has been unleashed. of agreements that are now being investigated by the Public Ministry.
Without going further, The amount being investigated reaches $89,961,933,591. This sum is divided between agreements of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning (MINVU) itself and the regional governments throughout the country.
MINVU under the magnifying glass
The Prosecutor’s Office initially began the investigation into the Living Democracy Case, a case that has three people formalized and several others in the crosshairs of justice, including Representative Catalina Pérez (RD). However, as the investigation progressed, a veritable cobweb, very well woven, was revealed..
An example of this is that, according to the general assessment that the Prosecutor’s Office has presented in confidential presentations, of the total number of foundations or corporations whose contracts with the MINVU were analyzed, 40 are today investigated under the presumption of criminal acts. The amount being investigated is $12,221,799,718.
This is how Antofagasta takes first place in amounts investigated with $3,173,000,000, which are separated into agreements with six different foundations, including Democracia Viva.
In Tarapacá, the amount is high despite the fact that only the agreements with two foundations are being investigated. The figure investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office reaches $2,496,916,823. On the list, the Valparaíso region follows with six contracts with foundations that are being investigated and that yield $1,853,575,397.
The Metropolitan Region is also on the list of questioned agreements. According to the breakdown handled at the Public Ministry level, there are six contracts delivered directly to foundations or corporations for a global amount of $1,822,515,316.
Then, always at the level of agreements signed between the MINVU and foundations, the Los Lagos region follows. In that area, the signing was carried out with two foundations in which $833,370,970 was transferred.
In Rancagua, O’Higgins region, transfers were also made. According to the investigation led by the Prosecutor’s Office in that area, three agreements were signed with foundations, transferring $618,276,932.
For its part, $431,024,765 is the amount that was deposited in the Atacama region, where two foundations won contracts.
La Araucanía is also on the list. According to the documents reviewed by the Radio Bío Bío Investigation Unit, the Temuco Regional Ministerial Housing Service delivered $208,366,902 through a contract with three foundations.
Coquimbo was not far behind. During the execution of the 2023 budget, $296,456,570 was injected directly into four foundations. In Arica and Parinacota something similar happened when $162,076,043 was transferred to a single foundation.
The Ñuble region also had deposits. In Chillán, its capital, it was decided to sign an agreement with a single foundation, which received $106,800,000.
Similar to what happened in Chillán, in Talca, Maule region, the Housing Seremi signed with a single foundation the transfer of $89,000,000. In Los Ríos the same model was used and $80,000,000 was transferred to a single entity.
The Bío Bío Region signed agreements with two foundations for an amount of $50,420,000.
GORES naked
2023 was a good year for collecting resources via projects to 67 foundationsespecially at the level of regional governments, which, with a large wallet of money transferred from the central level, used them discretionally.
So much so that the amount being investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office, almost a year after the “Conventions case” or also known as the “Foundations case” became known, amounts to $77,740,133,873.
The Radio Bío Bío Research Unit had access to the document that summarizes region by region how the governors, with the support of regional advisors in some cases, directly delivered multimillion-dollar agreements to foundations. These would have been related to political groups or, directly, be involved in projects of dubious execution, as occurred with the “lingerie case” in the Bío Bío region.
This is how Gore Araucanía, led by Luciano Rivas (Indep-Evópoli), has the highest number of agreements. According to the investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office, this amounted to $44,539,187,304, which was distributed among thirteen foundations.
The Los Lagos region, led by Patricio Vallespín (ex-DC, now independent), signed ten agreements with foundations, having transferred $15,130,154,920 for different purposes, including property studies.
In the Biobío region, led by Governor Rodrigo Díaz (independent), recognized former mayor of Michelle Bachelet, significant amounts were transferred.
Although the most recognized is the “Lencería case” of Camila Polizzi, the money that reached the foundation linked to former president Michelle Bachelet is also subject to investigation by the justice system.
Gore Biobío transferred a global total of $8,080,178,000 to twenty-one foundations.
The regional government of Atacama, led by another former Bachelet collaborator, Miguel Vargas (independent), transferred a total of $2,402,549,546. These monies reached eight foundations.
The northern gate of Chile is also on the list of regional governments investigated. In the case of Arica and Parinacota, the Gore of that area transferred $1,936,903,000 to three foundations.
In the case of the Metropolitan Region, led by the also independent Claudio Orrego (Former DC), dozens of agreements were signed, however, only the one signed with ProCultura for $1,683,788,000 is being investigated.
Like the Metropolitan region, the Regional Government of Aysén, led by Andrea Macías Palma (PS), maintains an agreement under investigation by the justice system for $1,673,356,000.
The Antofagasta region signed four agreements with foundations that are in the eye of justice. The sum of the questioned transfers reached $673,517,414. The governor of that region is Ricardo Díaz (independent – former RD).
Another of the country’s regional governments that has been in the spotlight is Valparaíso. In fact, Radio Bío Bío reported on June 13 that by order of the regional prosecutor of Aysén, Carlos Palma, the cell phone of Governor Rodrigo Mundaca (independent) was seized.
The amount investigated in that area of the country is $562,164,689 after two agreements were signed.
The extreme south of Chile was not spared in the justice investigation. The Gore of Magallanes and the Chilean Antarctic is also being investigated after $543,285,000 was transferred with two contracts with foundations.
The neighboring regions of Ñuble and Maule maintain similar movements at the level of regional governments. The first is directed by Óscar Crisóstomo (PS) and the second by Cristina Bravo (DC). The amounts that were transferred in both were only to 1 foundation with different figures: Ñuble $268,100,000 and Maule $246,950,000.
Dance of millions of pesos that, looking at the comparative table of how the money was transferred, has drawn the attention of researchers that many of the $77,740,133,873 were destined for social programs or help to people who required institutional support.
Formalizations
It should be noted that, according to the investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office, the more than 100 agreements that are being reviewed in the different investigations are only part of the total universe of agreements signed by both the Executive and the regional governments. For now, according to data that can be reviewed in the different courts of the country, not all individualized cases are formalized since economic reports and reports from the Internal Revenue Service (SII) are expected, which will be key to starting the formalization process, as as has happened with Living Democracy.
However, some of the authorities mentioned in the lists managed by the Prosecutor’s Office have not yet testified in the case, despite the fact that some have had their technological equipment seized, as was the case of the governor of Valparaíso.
Others, such as the governor of Maule, Cristina Bravo, are already accused in the case being pursued in that area, as explained in a document released this week by the Antofagasta Prosecutor’s Office itself, on the Social Urbanism side.
Foundations that disappeared
On June 22, the Radio Bío Bío Investigation Unit team revealed the nexus of a series of foundations, including ProCultura, whose top leaders had some type of relationship with the Gabriel Boric campaign (2021) or with the campaign of the I approve (2022). Several of these foundations, once the report was known, announced legal action over the report; However, to date these actions have not materialized and all of them are even being investigated by the justice system.
Furthermore, practically all of them have announced the bankruptcy of their organizations, claiming that they have no financial income, despite the fact that they have not returned the funds to the State. Of course, some of those resources were frozen to prevent them from fleeing, as would have happened in the Los Lagos region.
