The Prosecutor’s Office investigates financing by proculture of the campaigns of at least two candidates. This is Sebastián Balbontín (who nominated Mayor of Limache already Core by democratic revolution and then the Broad Front) and Elizabeth Aguilera (which nominated the Constituent Convention by non -neutral independent).
According to information collected by BBCL Investiga, the director of Proculture, Alberto Larraín, transferred between July 2021 and January 2024 $ 53,442,000 from its account to Balbontínwho according to prosecution would be his current partner.
In addition, there were contributions delivered through Francisco Fuentes Araya, who was director of Natural Heritage and Sustainability of Proculture, both to Balbontín and Aguilera. In total $ 4,400,000 were deposited.
According to Araya Fuentes, Larraín ordered him to make some contributions to candidates using the electoral service system.
To base this before the Public Ministry, Fuentes delivered a copy of three transfers notifications made by Larraín on March 9, March 23 and May 4, 2021, for a total of $ 4,500,000.
Balbontín, the favorite
$ 3,400,000 Sebastián Balbontín received when he was a candidate for mayor of Limache through contributions from Francisco Fuentes between March 9 and May 5, 2021. The origin of these would have been Alberto Larraín.
After losing that candidacy, Balbontín was elected the same year as regional counselor. It was in that period when, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, the direct transactions of Larraín began, in total 126 between July 2021 and January 2024.
In a letter from the prosecutor Patricio Cooper to which BBCL investigates, the persecutor details that in 2022 the Foundation achieved the direct allocation of a “lotating design, specialties, confidence works and expropriation file, Camp Lomas de Bellavista, Apple 33 and the vineyards of Irene Frei, of the German Villa commune” (…) for an amount of $ 248,373,378“.
“Prior to the signing of the agreement, between the months of November and December 2021, meetings were generated between officials of the Serviu de Valparaíso and the Proculture Foundation (…). In these various instances a series of public officials participated, leaders of the camps of Villa Aleman Larraín, ”says the persecuting entity.
On the other hand, Cooper noticed that Catalina Rengifo, who appeared on LinkedIn as a territorial proculture coordinator in the Valparaíso region between April 2022 and December 2023, had exercised tasks of responsible for social networks and Brigadista de Balbontín in his 2021 candidacies, so he received $ 1,700,000.
In addition, “from the bank account of Alberto Larraín Salas, in the
period in which both campaigns are executed, There are transfers to Catalina
Rengifo for a total of $ 4,175,000“Cooper said.
Lota’s “mother”
In the case of Elizabeth Aguilera, it was a single deposit on March 24, 2021, for $ 1 million. At that time and until now, he served as president of the Citizen Table of Heritage Culture and Tourism of Lota.
Precisely in that commune, Procultura had obtained the administration of the local tourist circuit through an agreement with the Development and Production Corporation (Corfo) in 2020, and then through a tender in December 2021. For the latter, the Foundation received $ 480 million for a year of work.
“Great joy, today assumed his candidacy for the Constituent Convention Elizabeth Aguilera, who is like my mother in Lota, lifelong leader, fighter and tireless servant. He talks about real dignity and participation in the coal basin. I can’t imagine a better candidate.”
-Thus he announced on Facebook on December 9, 2020 Alberto Larraín Aguilera’s postulation. Both had collaborated in the book “Lota; Land of coal”, which was published that same year.
But it was not his only connection. On July 20, 2020, when it was announced that Proculture would temporarily take over the tourist circuit, Aguilera attended as president of the table.
“We have been known for Procultuulto for three years and we have had a very good relationship of pairs that interest them and work for Lota’s heritage. We hope this is the opportunity to create a new way of doing things mainly with the participation of citizenship and, above all, with transparency“, Expresses a Facebook publication of that day of the citizen table of Lota.
Despite his explicit support to Aguilera’s candidacy, it is unknown why the psychiatrist decided to triangulate the payments.
Thursday
Although on paper the project in Lota was awarded to Proculture, in practice this was executed by the Spa Patrimonial Tourism Agency, a company constituted on June 14, 2021 by Francisco Fuentes Araya himself.
The agreement with the Corfo was the subject to the interior of Proculture. This is stated in emails sent by members of the Foundation in which they expose how – after the projects in the name of the institution – these projects derived to other companies.
In simple, they outsourced the initiatives in the different regions of the country. This effectively happened with the Lota Tourist Circuit, where the administration of the heritage sites fell to the Araya firm.
“There are other projects that we are carrying out, where we are outsourcing the services/activities committed to the agency. For administrative issues to outsource these projects to the agency, we have to deliver to the agency the total resources assigned to the project, including the amounts that are the ‘Fee’ (fee or commission) of Proculture,” says an email sent by Constanza Gómez, one of the directors of the foundation, in March 2022, to Maria Sabbagh Vidal, consultancy of the Aninat study.
The legal impediment
As can be seen from an audit carried by Aninat, the objective of using the agency to execute the administration would lie in an alleged legal impediment of providing paid services.
However, there is apparently no impediment, because “there are only limitations in regard to maintaining the non -profit purpose of the foundations,” according to the audit.
In addition, in the concession contract through which Corfo granted Proculture the administration of the aforementioned tourist circuit of Lota, it is expressly indicated that “the concessionaire may not transfer or transfer in any way, whether it is totally or partially, the rights and obligations that are born on the occasion of the tender and the present concession contract”.
The background also reveal that María Sabbagh herself – of the study in charge of the audit – was subject to investigation after prosecutor Carlos Palma, today suspended by his links with the Hermosilla case, asked the PDI to raise an alert every time she left the country.
The same requested with respect to the former Minister Giorgio Jackson, who – according to sources aware of the investigations – was “subject of interest” for Palma. The order ordered to the Civil Police regarding the founder of the Democratic Revolution remained in force from January 2024 until the beginning of this year.
The Biobiochile Research Unit contacted Elizabeth Aguilera, which declined to issue comments. Meanwhile, no response from Sebastián Balbontín has been received.
