The lawyer Ángel Valencia (right), together with the Minister of the Interior Carolina Toha (second from left to right), during his ratification as National Prosecutor, on January 9, 2023.min_interior (RR. SS.)
The Chilean Senate has approved this afternoon the proposal of President Gabriel Boric to the National Prosecutor's Office.
Lawyer Ángel Valencia will lead the Public Ministry for the next eight years, replacing Jorge Abbott, who ended his term on October 1 when he turned 75.
The contest, which begins with a nominee presented by the Supreme Court and then with the president's choice of a candidate sent to the Senate, has been especially complex.
La Moneda previously sent two other names to the Upper House –José Morales and Marta Herrera–, which did not get the 33 necessary two-thirds endorsements.
Not only because they were not supported by the opposition, but because the government failed to order all of the ruling party.
At a time when Chile is facing a public security crisis recognized by all political sectors, the institution was led by a surrogate for more than 90 days, which has represented one of the main problems in recent weeks for the Chilean Executive.
The Minister of the Interior, the socialist Carolina Tohá, this afternoon asked the Senate Constitution Commission to “close the chapter” on the appointment of the national prosecutor.
The approval of Valencia in the chamber, a criminal lawyer with extensive experience, but who does not belong to the Public Ministry, represents a respite for the Government in the midst of especially complex weeks.
President Boric's decision to pardon 13 convicts on December 30 – 12 linked to crimes committed in the social outbreak of 2019 – has led to an unprecedented political crisis that adds chapters with hours.
On Saturday, the Minister of Justice, Marcela Ríos, and Boric's chief of staff and one of his most trusted men, Matías Meza-Lopehandía, left the government through a process that the president himself described as untidy.
The opposition has presented this Monday a constitutional accusation against the resigned Ríos and asks that the president revoke some of the freedoms, such as those of the beneficiary Luis Castillo, with an extensive record of common crimes.
In the negotiation process for the election of the leader of the National Prosecutor's Office, it was one of the last episodes that ended up catapulting the fate of Ríos in Justice, because in the opinion of his critics, he revealed his lack of political experience, a criticism that floods to the Government assumed in March and that is marked by an important generational change in the left.
The nomination in the Public Ministry not only clouded the relations of the Executive with Congress, with accusations crossed precisely in 2023 where substantial reforms will be debated in Parliament, such as tax and pensions.
The negotiation confronted the Government with the Judiciary itself, from where a conversation between Boric and the president of the Supreme Court, Juan Eduardo Fuentes, was even leaked, in a symptom of the displeasure of the judges with La Moneda.
In the dialogue, which was never denied by the Government, Boric would have asked the president of the Supreme Court to hold a new contest for the National Prosecutor's Office, after the first two failed nominations.
Valencia was one of the favorites of the Supreme Court, which together with Morales obtained 17 endorsements to enter the first five proposed by the judges of the highest court.
The Government, however, refused to propose it in the first instance, despite the fact that Valencia had support from different political groups.
When the Senate rejected the proposed second name, that of Herrera, Boric assured: "It worries me as President of the Republic, because I have the impression that this vote has to do with what the public rejects: internal disputes, roosters [games of power] with the Government.”
The words of the head of state did not help to calm the waters.
One of the main criticisms of Valencia came precisely from feminist groups.
“We reaffirm our distrust of his career as a private defender of attackers, sexual abusers, rapists and kidnappers of women and girls, discrediting complainants in favor of his argument.
In addition, he has been a defender of people linked to political and economic powers," wrote the Chilean Network against violence against women a few days ago, a feminist organization where the current Minister for Women of the Government, Antonia Orellana, worked. points to him as one of the detractors of the candidacy of the current national prosecutor.
The minister, a member of the Social Convergence party, like President Boric, has recognized influence in La Moneda and in the circle of close political decisions of the president.
Boric opted for Valencia for pragmatism and political realism.
He was not the candidate of La Moneda, which preferred a woman to come to office for the first time, but the Government could not expose itself to a third defeat, even less in the midst of the pardon crisis.
Shortly before learning that the president had chosen his name to propose it to the Senate, Valencia accused having been "victim of accusations, misrepresentations and false statements."
In his eight-year term, he will have the challenge of contributing from the Public Ministry to a public security crisis that includes elements such as greater firepower, the rise in crimes of greater social connotation, such as homicides, and the entry into the country of international criminal organizations.
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