It was only 10 lines of text, but with a direct message. With date September 22the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Toha (PPD), sent a letter to the senator and president of Renovación Nacional (RN), Francisco Chahuan, with an unusual request: notify the executive annoyance by the statements of the former Undersecretary of Crime Prevention Katherine Martorell -who is a member of the community chaired by the senator-, and request that he publicly retract his statements.
In part of the letter -signed by Tohá in her capacity as vice president of the Republic- it is indicated that “I would like to express our annoyance at the statements issued by the RN militant and former undersecretary in the program Unfiltered September 15th”. And he continues that the affirmations (of Martorell) are false and constitute an affront to the institution of Presidency of the Republic. “We strongly reject his actions and the offense it represents to involve the Presidente Gabriel Boric Font in situations of this gravity,” he added.
In consideration of the above, Toha -who at that time was serving as Vice President of the Republic because Boric was on tour in New York to participate in the General Assembly of the United Nations – told Chahuán that “we remind you of the damage that your statements generate in the democratic coexistence of our country. Given the above, We request that the author of these statements publicly retract.”
During the September 15 program, which is broadcast by the Vive signal, Martorell stated that, according to what was published in a media outlet, Boric I was aware of the summons Lucia Dammert, the former head of counsel for the Second Floor, to testify in an FBI case. That same day Dammert submitted his resignation from the position and Miguel Crispi took over in his place.
“President Gabriel Boric did know that Lucía Dammert was going to give this statement as a witness, he knew perfectly well that this was going to happen, and he knew even before naming her. Back then, when he found out, Mr. García He was already deprived of liberty for all these cases that are related to kidnapping, drug information and, nothing more and nothing less, than with the Sinaloa cartel, with the Chapo Guzman. She was at the center of all the information that a country has, she was in La Moneda, this is very serious, “she said in the program hosted by Gonzalo Feito.
His statements were made following the publication of a report by the web media Interferencia in which it was denounced that the federal police had requested the testimony of Dammed in the framework of a drug trafficking investigation once morest Genaro Garcia Lunaformer Secretary of Public Security of Mexico during the government of President Felipe Calderon (2006-2012) and who was arrested in 2019 for having collaborated with the Sinaloa cartel.
However, the Executive categorically ruled out that publication. And, following an official consultation with the United States, the government issued a statement -on Wednesday of last week- denying the alleged summons to Dammed to testify before the FBI, the main investigative agency of the US State Department. At the same time, the former head of advisers complained, through her Twitter account, that “the magnitude of the personal and professional damage generated is enormousso that I have decided to exercise the necessary legal actions to expose his intention”.
Consulted by the letter, Martorell limited himself to saying that “I am of legal age, so I regret that the minister has not contacted me directly. As she wrote to the president of RN, he will be the one to respond.”
Chahuán, meanwhile, was upset by the leak of the letter and assured that he had already responded to Tohá and that this is a private matter. Regarding the content of the Secretary of State’s claim, the RN helmsman assured that “it seems delicate to me from the point of view that it is part of a cancellation practice that I believe is very complex in democratic regimes where it does not have to limit freedom of expression.”
In that sense, he added that “when I became aware of this annoyance, I spoke with Katherine Martorell to find out what the matter was. And she had made a statement on the show when there was no official version from the government and she only explained the content of a post.”
Likewise, the senator defended Martorell and stated that “she is an extraordinary militant and only made a political opinion regarding a report” and that “it is very complex to install prior censorship, where they have the right to express their opinion.”
