Claudio Orrego’s message to Alberto Larraín: “Check the WhatsApp”

On July 7, 2023, Governor Claudio Orrego sent a message to the founder of Proculture, Alberto Larraín. The text, in which I was about “brother,” said the following: “I thank you for the greatness you have had to take care of the project and me as a person and authority. That is not forgotten or words to thank.” At that height the scandal had already exploded. The Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Orrego and Larraín for proculture contracts with the Government.

He cofundador of proculture Alberto Larraín declared judicially at the end of 2024 and was then interviewed on March 5, 6 and 7, 2025 at the National Prosecutor’s Offices.

On that occasion they showed him a message that the governor of the Metropolitan Region, Claudio Orrego, sent him on July 7, 2023 at 11:36 AM with the following textual message by Telegram:

• “Hello brother… .. By any thing, check the Whattasp in case we have something complex.”

In the judicial statement you are asked about the message and answer:

• “I don’t remember that message, since I don’t use the telegram application. I have downloaded it on my cell phone, but I have never used it. I use WhatsApp.”

Then a screen capture obtained from his cell phone in which Claudio Orrego writes the following in 5 consecutive messages:

• “Dear Brother: I have been leaving the Cultural Center of La Moneda where the entertainment program received an award for its collaborative contribution to the mental health of Santiago and Chile. I want you to know that I personally went to receive it in the company of all the foundations and, when I could use the floor, I thanked all the foundations but especially you.”
• “I imagine the duel you are living. You don’t know how much I feel. There is no mistake that justifies the community and human cost they have had to pay.”
• “For my side I thank you for the greatness you have had to take care of the project and me as a person and authority. That is not forgotten or words to thank.”
• “My commitment is to move forward with the project at what costs, always defending it with arguments and the forehead high. Because we both made the most important health program in Chile and al reality, and that nobody can erase it.”
• “I send you a hug full of affection. Tell me when we can get together, no longer in a workplace, but simply in the human. Hugs.”

Then he is consulted: “It is something that the governor usually uses, that is, treating people as a brother, is something pastoral.”

Larraín responds:

• “To his consultation, when the message refers to taking care of it as a person and authority, it is understood that we should guarantee that, despite the closing of the Foundation, the continuity of the program should be guaranteed, so the issue of insurance policies, make available all reports, and be available to any alternative of continuity of the project, for example, which had already mentioned about the Felix Bulnes Hospital.
• To his consultation, effectively Mr. Orrego has been in my house, when I militated in the DC. And in my case, I have gone to his previous house, when it was his presidential candidacy in 2013.
• To his consultation, I am not sure if the message was prior or after the anticipated term of the agreement with the Metropolitan Gore ”.

Panorama general. On June 8, 2022, the Metropolitan Regional Council approved the proposal of Governor Claudio Orrego to appoint Alberto Larraín as director of the Development Corporation chaired by the same governor.

• Twenty -one days later, the delivery of $ 1,683,788,000 to Proculture for the CDate program was authorized.
• In May 2024, 10 months after the Foundation joined the Case Scandal, the Gore complained against Proculture for the alleged improper appropriation of $ 1,010,379,291 not restored by the program to prevent suicides staying.