Screenshots of the video disseminated on social networks of the robbery of the Ministry of Development, in Santiago.
Just five days after 23 computers – which have already been recovered – and a safe deposit box, which is still lost, were stolen from the Ministry of Social Development of Chile, the Undersecretariat of Cultural Heritage, which depends on the Ministry of Cultures, has also suffered the theft of two laptops from the Pereira Palace, a building located a few blocks from La Moneda. in the center of Santiago de Chile.
As reported by the Undersecretariat of Cultural Heritage, directed by Carolina Pérez Dattari, militant of Democratic Revolution (RD), on Monday afternoon, at 19:48 p.m., "an individual, skipping the established security measures, entered the offices" and stole two computers from the building on Huérfanos Street. The distribution, however, learned only this noon of the facts when the guards checked the security cameras. He then called the police and filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The robbery in the undersecretariat is added not only to the one that occurred last Wednesday, July 20 in the Ministry of Social Development, but, in addition, this same portfolio, in charge of Minister Giorgio Jackson, has reported this morning that an unknown person entered its dependencies, something that the distribution described in a statement as "a new irregularity" because "it was not identified or registered by the security company and that it did not have authorization". Along with reporting this situation, the ministry reported that it terminated the contract with the firm HM Spa that was in charge of the custody of the building located on Cathedral Street, also in downtown Santiago.
According to Carolina Tohá, Minister of the Interior, "what happened (in Social Development) is that a person entered the ministry, apparently taking advantage of an oversight by the security company that is in charge of guarding the building. He wandered around the building, but he didn't manage to steal anything."
Last week's robbery of the Ministry of Social Development has provoked a confrontation between the government of leftist President Gabriel Boric and the Chilean opposition, particularly the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) party, of the traditional right, which has conditioned the dialogue with the Executive for the resignation of Jackson from the Cabinet. The minister, very close to the president, is blamed for being the founder and leader of the Democratic Revolution (RD), one of the parties that stars in the Conventions Case, the scandal over the transfer of millionaire state funds to non-profit foundations investigated by the Prosecutor's Office. In fact, Boric, as soon as he returned from his tour to Europe, this July 24, described as "unacceptable" the pressures. "How do they come up with it?" he said.
For the theft of the 23 laptops were formalized last Friday two people, a 60-year-old woman, for receiving stolen items, and her grandson, Miguel Angel Apablaza, nicknamed the Black boy, who from the prison of Puente Alto, in the south of Santiago, directed the operation executed by three men dressed in white suits. In the execution of the crime, Apablaza, through his mobile phone – and with the classic uncle's story – posed as Minister Jackson before two Social Development guards, and thus managed to steal the 23 computers as well as other items that were in Jackson's own office (among them, your own computer).
On July 7, meanwhile, there was also an attempted robbery of the Ministry of National Assets at 2:40 in the morning, which was made public only last Sunday, when the scandal over the theft of the 23 computers had already erupted. On that occasion, a guard received a phone call from a man posing as Undersecretary Sebastian Vergara of the PPD, a ruling party of the moderate left, and asked for access to remove computers. However, according to a statement from the ministry, "following protocol, the guard did not accede to the request and reported the incident to the head of security of the ministry and the supervisor of the security company."
This fact, unlike Cultures and Social Development, the attempt was not reported to the Prosecutor's Office. As Justice Minister Luis Cordero explained in an interview on Sunday, this did not happen because it was not evident to them "that a call of these characteristics with that error constitutes a crime. It's mistaken impersonation."