translate time goes by, more and more information about the fraud in the Carabineros is emerging: the amount already exceeded $22 billion, and those involved amount to more than 70 people, from civilians to Carabineros, among them colonels and generals. I can’t stop wondering how nobody spoke up before, how the Director General, Bruno Villalobos, did not suspect a case like this is what is practically his own house? It all seems so strange, to say the least.
It is strange that in the face of an irregularity such as the one in Carabineros, the resignation of the director general is not demanded. At least in the private sector, this has been the trend and it has all the logic in the world: if in a company a general manager or executive is involved in a case of corruption, which he may or may not have been involved, it is practically natural that he should step aside. This is what happened with Matte, Ponce Lerou, Délano, and Lavín, who left the boards of directors after irregular practices were revealed in the companies they managed. Regardless of whether General Villalobos was involved in the fraud or not, or whether we believe in the presumption of innocence, it is very difficult to execute a clean process if he is still in command of the institution. Who is going to dare to testify against him in case he was indeed involved, or how do we give a sign that things have changed?
This scandal forces our authorities and future governors to ask themselves what they would have done in President Bachelet’s place to prevent such a case. We have to go one step further since we will be judged with the eyes of the future. Only four of the pre-candidates for the presidential chair made it clear that they would have asked General Villalobos to resign, but none of them have said how they would have prevented such a corruption case in an eventual government.
Challenge to the aspirants to La Moneda: what would they do to prevent a corruption case of this size? We know that some have shown some concern about this scourge and have included proposals in their programs or roadmaps at a more general level. There is at least an intention to have a cleaner State. However, they lack to imagine concretely a government with bad practices in the public sector.
