This Wednesday, during a hearing on precautionary guarantees before Judge Ponciano Sallés, prosecutor Xavier Armendáriz, who is investigating the rape complaint against Manuel Monsalvethe resigned Undersecretary of the Interior of the Government of President Gabriel Boric, presented against him by an advisor who was under his command in La Moneda, revealed a series of actions that the 59-year-old doctor, suspended from the Socialist Party, carried out days before The official will finalize the accusation on October 14. Among them, asking a detective from the Investigative Police (PDI), then under his authority due to his position in charge of public security managementapproach “the victim’s inner circle.”

Monsalve faces an accusation for events that occurred between the night of Sunday, September 22, and the early hours of Monday, the 23rd. According to the complaint, filed on Saturday, he had dinner with his 32-year-old advisor at a restaurant in the center of Santiago. , where they drank alcohol. After this, the complainant has indicated that she woke up the next morning, without remembering anything, in the Panamericano hotel – located near La Moneda – where the then Undersecretary of the Interior resided. The doctor resigned from his position on Thursday, October 17.

“We know that there have been previous efforts without any complaint or any official communication to higher authorities by the accused. He ordered proceedings to be carried out with secrecy that They not only assisted in these camera interventionsbut, in addition, they reached the victim’s inner circle,” Armándariz said about Monsalve before the Seventh Guarantee Court of Santiago in a hearing that requested the defense of the former undersecretary to request access to the investigation. “And the first detective who spoke with the victim was a person within the course of these proceedings ordered, requested, suggested, and I am not going to use any more verbs because I still do not know exactly how to frame that activity, until we have complete facts from of the accused. “They approached his apartment,” he added.

Since last week, the Public Ministry has been investigating the efforts that Monsalve made when asking PDI intelligence officials to review the security cameras in the hotel where the attack was allegedly committed, according to the newspaper. The Third. But, this Wednesday, Armendáriz has provided more information regarding the days before the complaint will be finalizedthat until now were a mystery. The prosecutor said that the information was obtained through the statement of a PDI official, who indicated that he [Monsalve] “He asked them to approach the victim. So if he does this, we don’t know if it’s going to happen again. “It is an investigation that is ongoing, which is just beginning.”

At the hearing, Armendáriz, accompanied by prosecutor Francisco Jacir, put the undersecretary’s efforts in context: “Between the accused and the victim there is an asymmetric relationship. One is the boss of the other. But, furthermore, he is not just any boss. He is a public figure. He is a figure that has weight in the social sphere. It has power, it has influence, it has reach. “He’s not just any boss.” And he added: “On the one hand, we have a person of weight, in a crime, in a context of the sphere of sexuality, of a person who is subordinate to him, and who carries out actions that could, could mean loss of evidence ”.

Monsalve said that “he didn’t remember anything”

Armendáriz, who is the regional prosecutor of the North-Central Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office, also explained that the investigation began on October 14, when the victim reported.

The next day, in the afternoon, Armendáriz went to the Panamericano Hotel, as part of an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office, with a court order for entry, search and seizure. He held a brief meeting with Monsalve, who was still undersecretary of the Interior. The prosecutor reproduced the dialogue and told the judge that the doctor told him that he would “like to testify” in the sense of “declare that I don’t remember anything.” And I was going to continue and I said: ‘Wait a minute, Mr. Monsalve, you are accused in a case.’ Then, he added, he reminded him that remaining silent was within his rights as a defendant.

According to the prosecutor’s account, Monsalve reiterated his idea: “I don’t remember anything that happened in the events and I reserve the rest with my lawyer. More words, fewer words, but the alleged statement is an exchange of words of the type I just said, which must have lasted, I don’t know, a minute.

At the hotel, Monsalve agreed to take a mouth swab sample, allowed his room to be searched, and handed over some items of clothing. Four mobile phones have also been seized.

Hours before the meeting with the prosecutor, Monsalve held a meeting with President Boric, where they addressed the complaint. The president pointed out on Friday, in a controversial 53-minute press conferencethat he did not know the detail, and that the official told him that he had checked the hotel cameras, which has generated a series of controversies. The doctor remained on the job for two more days, even traveling to the Biobío region to speak with his family. He resigned on Thursday the 17th, after speaking before a budget committee in the Senate. His resignation came two hours after the newspaper The Second revealed that the Prosecutor’s Office was investigating him.

The complaint against Monsalve has hit the left-wing Administration not only because of her feminist seal, but also because she was in charge of a position that was both trusted and strategic, public security, a management that she carried out in the midst of an unprecedented crime crisis in Chile, marked for more violent homicides with firearms and the break-in of transnational organized crime gangs. His resignation, prompted by the serious accusation, occurred on the eve of the municipal elections of October 26 and 27in which he had a key role in management and organization. In his replacement, Boric appointed on Thursday Luis Corderowho was the minister of justice and one of the strong men in his Cabinet.

Cordero was consulted about the efforts that Monsalve made with the PDI and pointed out that “the Executive repudiates any action that he or any public official in the exercise of their position represents an improper exercise of their function.” “I want to distinguish two things: one, the reported facts, which are the origin of the complaint and the complaint against former undersecretary Monsalve, are very serious in themselves. Secondly, some actions that he carried out in the intermediate period that are being investigated, if true, are also very serious.”