In an apparent sport of submission and dependence on energy, the previous president, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, confessed to Criterio.hn that he met at his home with Chinchilla during which they talked in regards to the embezzlement of Social Safety, whereas a former nationalist deputy advised what he supposedly Chinchilla requested to be re-elected as legal professional normal within the interval 2018-2023.
Tegucigalpa, Honduras. – Óscar Fernando Chinchilla, the one Honduran who has managed to take a seat within the chair of the legal professional normal of the Public Ministry (MP) twice consecutively and exploit the place to work topic to energy, thus selling a hegemony of impunity and corruption that It lasted nearly a decade, since this August 31, 2023, by constitutional mandate, he should abandon possession of the Prosecutor’s Workplace.
Óscar Chinchilla is 51 years previous, he’s initially from Santa Rosa de Copán, positioned within the excessive west of Honduras. He’s a lawyer and notary public. His skilled profession started as a personal legal professional and professor on the Catholic College of Honduras.
Presently, he’s married to Catherine Chang Carías, which made him the son-in-law of Rigoberto Chang Castillo, chief and former deputy of the Nationwide Get together. Chinchilla’s spouse held the place of director of the Central Financial institution of Honduras (BCH) appointed by former president Juan Orlando Hernández and, equally, she was head of the Central American Financial institution for Financial Integration (CABEI), a place she left in March 2022. yr that President Xiomara Castro changed her with Belinda Martínez.
From 2003 to 2009, Chinchilla served as a choose within the Court docket of Appeals primarily based in Santa Rosa de Copán, and later was appointed as a choose of the Supreme Court docket of Justice (CSJ), heading the Constitutional Chamber, the place he gave his opinions. first steps of complicity with the political management.
As a part of these pacts, Chinchilla was the one member of the Constitutional Chamber who survived the technical blow of the Constitutional Chamber, on December 12, 2012, by voting towards the unconstitutionality of the Particular Growth Areas ( RED) which later, in June 2013, mutated into the Employment and Financial Growth Zones (ZEDE). This place was the prize for him to develop into legal professional normal of the republic that very same yr with the assistance of his pal, Juan Orlando Hernández, who at the moment held the presidency of the Nationwide Congress and managed to dismiss the 4 magistrates who opposed him. its tips.
Criterio.hn tried to speak with Chinchilla to have his place on the accusations which were leveled towards him in his efforts, nonetheless, the press division of the Prosecutor’s Workplace, devoted to what’s customary, responded with a short “not accessible.”
“This was a really unhealthy administration or administrations as a result of they elected him illegally in 2018. His efficiency within the combat towards drug trafficking, corruption and arranged crime was restricted or non-existent, the truth is, they’ve even accused him of being a part of these teams,” mentioned political analyst Raúl Pineda Alvarado.
The political analyst, Raúl Pineda Alvarado, considers that the administration of Óscar Fernando Chinchilla additional weakened the combat towards corruption and impunity. (Photograph: Jorge Burgos-Criterio.hn)
On August 31, 2013, after a number of failed makes an attempt, the Nationwide Congress elected Óscar Fernando Chinchilla as legal professional normal and Rigoberto Cuéllar as deputy. Chinchilla, a member of the Nationwide Get together and till that day served as president of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court docket of Justice (CSJ) and Cuéllar, near the liberals, served as minister of Pure Assets and Surroundings.
“Chinchilla’s first interval handed with out ache or glory, as a result of what could possibly be demanded of him? “If it was already recognized that he was associated to a political get together that sought advantages and evidently couldn’t rescue the Public Ministry from the poor administration it had years in the past, within the time of [Luis Alberto] Rubí and [Roy David] Urtecho,” Alvarado assessed. , who was a nationalist deputy.
Chinchilla grew to become the pinnacle of the Prosecutor’s Workplace, after the Nationwide Congress in 2013, then chaired by Juan Orlando Hernández, appointed an intervening fee that eliminated Luis Rubí from the place of legal professional normal and Roy Urtecho as deputy prosecutor, after discovering them that they had been concerned in varied irregularities and that they had been accountable for the fee of a number of crimes.
Though at the moment it might be the other, Chinchilla’s first interval was not as precarious because the second, since in that first course of the Prosecutor’s Workplace innovated, creating, for instance, the Technical Investigation Company (ATIC), delivered to mild some circumstances of corruption, he dismantled drug trafficking and arranged crime gangs and, ultimately, labored with the defunct Assist Mission Towards Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH). Though all the pieces is consistent with the agreements that, inAt that point, they had been achieved to realize the “governability” of the Nationwide Get together.
After he took the reins of the Public Ministry, in September 2013, he ordered an investigation of what at the moment was an entire presumption: the mega embezzlement from the Honduran Social Safety Institute (IHSS) and, in the identical approach, he carried out operations resembling Perseus, Earthquake, Styx and Dignity, during which it was doable to seize main drug lords who’re at the moment disadvantaged of liberty in the US.
Chinchilla managed, by then, because of a marketing campaign orchestrated by the media, civil society organizations and the US embassy, to develop into an accepted prosecutor, whose achievements outweighed the failures dedicated in full complicity with the powers of the State manipulated by the Nationwide Get together, to such an extent that the US authorities requested his re-election, as did civil society, which named him “the five-star prosecutor.”
And, with that excuse, the target of the plan that these in control of manipulating the powers of the State had already drawn up in thoughts was achieved. Chinchilla was illegally re-elected in 2018 by the Nationwide Congress, then chaired by the nationalist Mauricio Oliva. , as legal professional normal, leaving apart the work carried out by the Proposing Board at the moment, because it was not a part of the choice course of carried out by the proponents.
Chinchilla’s reelection was supported by the Liberal Get together bench, with the excuse of giving governability to the Nationwide Get together. The one opposition was that undertaken by the benches of the Libertad y Refundación, Anti-Corruption Get together and Pinu-SD events.
“The political negotiation by which he was re-elected was in order that his second time period could be innocuous, innocent. He [Chinchilla] additionally negotiated, what he requested for was, on the finish of the second interval, he could be built-in as a choose of the Central American Court docket of Justice, to acquire diplomatic immunity for ten years,” mentioned Pineda Alvarado.
Chinchilla’s re-election was unlawful as a result of it violated what Article 22 of the Natural Legislation of the Public Ministry says, which accurately mentions “the legal professional normal and deputy elected by the Nationwide Congress will come from the listing despatched by the Proposing Board.” These rules stipulate that the election have to be carried out 30 days earlier than the time period of the present authorities expires or thirty days after the definitive emptiness happens [due to resignation, death or dismissal, as happened in 2013].
One of the extreme crises that the Public Ministry confronted, below the tutelage of Chinchilla, was in February 2023, when prosecutors started a normal work stoppage demanding a wage readjustment, which they ended up attaining after participating in a number of dialogues.
Associated Information: Luis Javier Santos is ignored of the choice technique of the Public Ministry
The above, for the pinnacle of the Specialised Fiscal Unit Towards Corruption Networks (Uferco), Luis Javier Santos, was enough cause for Chinchilla to be questioned by the Nationwide Congress or, by his personal resolution, to resign from the place.
“In any nation on the planet what occurred (disaster within the MP) is severe, he needed to resign as a result of he was incapable of dealing with conditions like these within the Public Ministry and that they put an appropriate individual (…) it was not recognized the place he was , after I needed to lead the negotiations and inform them: there isn’t a cash for the will increase,” Santos mentioned in statements to the media as soon as the suspension of labor within the MP was over.
“He (Chinchilla) needed to be questioned by Congress as a result of he didn’t act with due diligence, neither in the latest disaster nor within the earlier ones (…) what occurs is that we’re used to so many adverse issues that we don’t see the seriousness of the disaster that it left,” he added.
From the Congress chaired by Luis Redondo, there was discuss of an alleged interpellation of each Chinchilla and the previous president of the Supreme Court docket of Justice (CSJ) Rolando Argueta, each sturdy arms of Juan Orlando Hernández, however they didn’t advance with the problem as a result of lack of dialogue between the benches.
On a scale of 1 to 10, Santos rated Chinchilla’s administration with a 5, arguing that he was by no means as much as par with the prosecutor’s workplace and was prepared to keep away from investigations towards politicians who had been in control of looting the state coffers within the nationalist hegemony (2010-2022),
“Within the Public Ministry there are corrupt individuals, as in different establishments, however it may well nonetheless be managed by having an legal professional normal who manages the establishment correctly and is illiberal of all these acts,” Santos mentioned.
Luis Javier Santos was one of many 26 attorneys who utilized for the choice course of carried out by the Proposing Board between June and July 2023, however within the public interview part he was excluded by the proponents by a questionable valoration
HE WORKED SUBJECT TO POWER
Chinchilla, in his first yr as legal professional normal [2013], realized in regards to the mega case of corruption within the Honduran Institute of Social Safety, however as an alternative of bringing it to mild, he advised it to the then president Porfirio Lobo Sosa.
“Look, take heed to me one thing. There are two methods of working: as we did and as Juan Orlando did. Did I understand in regards to the insurance coverage? If i seen. Prosecutor Chinchilla got here to my home and advised me: look president, there are deep issues on this insurance coverage subject. I advised him: look, lawyer, you proceed your investigation and it does not matter who the hell falls and deduces duty. That was in 2012 or 2013,” Lobo Sosa advised Criterio.hn.
After the 2013 elections, Lobo Sosa advised the media that he was conscious of the case of corruption in Social Safety, however that he remained silent in order to not have an effect on the victory of his get together [Nacional] that, after his administration, [2010- 2014] continued for eight extra years in energy below the management of Juan Orlando Hernández. Years later, Lobo Sosa mentioned that his confession was a joke.
In the course of the interview, former President Lobo Sosa mentioned that his authorities intervened in Social Safety and the case was made recognized, as soon as prosecutor Chinchilla assured him that all the pieces “was below management” as a result of doing so earlier than might suggest the lack of the proof.
Lobo Sosa’s confessions have uncovered the submission and dependence of Óscar Chinchilla as legal professional normal of the republic, since removed from the previous president sustaining that he requested him to infer the duties of the case, it’s questionable that he got here to his home to speak about investigation processes that, immediately or not directly, might incriminate him.
For the previous director of Forensic Medication of the Public Ministry and present undersecretary of Safety, Julissa Villanueva, Chinchilla, with this background, incurred against the law associated to the violation of the duties of officers, for which at the moment, as an alternative of continuous within the owned by the Prosecutor’s Workplace, must be serving a jail sentence.
“What Chinchilla did with President Porfirio Lobo is named omission of the duties of officers. If I’m a prosecutor and I’ve that data in my fingers, I haven’t got to ask somebody what to do, a lot much less a president, why did he do it? As a result of he wished to ‘chew’, or he was merely fulfilling his mission by being within the prosecutor’s workplace, which was to control energy on the comfort of politicians and that’s the reason he have to be judged,” Villanueva analyzed.
The Undersecretary of Safety and former Director of Forensic Medication of the Public Ministry, Julissa Villanueva, denounced, on the time, that Fernando Chinchilla crossed her path to boycott some investigations.
In line with paragraph 3 of article 349 of the Penal Code, Óscar Fernando Chinchilla could possibly be topic to a tax injunction for violating his responsibility as an official, since he delayed the actions he needed to execute from his place, on this case as legal professional normal. of Honduras, upon studying of the looting of the IHSS.
The paradox of the case, though Lobo claimed ignorance, is that a part of the cash looted from Social Safety, which amounted to greater than 7 billion lempiras, was to finance the proselytizing marketing campaign of Juan Orlando Hernández, and the then presidential appointee Ricardo Álvarez.
This data was disclosed in 2014 by former prosecutor Roberto Ramírez Aldana, who confirmed that in 2012 and 2013 a part of that cash was used to finance the political marketing campaign of Hernández, the then presidential appointee Ricardo Álvarez and a number of other deputies, because of the creation of NGOs with which Social Safety was looted.
And on June 4, 2015, Juan Orlando Hernández himself assured that a part of his political marketing campaign was financed with Social Safety cash, however he justified that he had no data of it, so he was not one of many major concerned.
“My get together has knowledgeable me that the sum is about 147,783 {dollars} [about 3,653,880 lempiras]. There have been 10 checks, however I’ve nothing to do with corruption within the Honduran Social Safety Institute. The investigations should proceed regardless of who falls,” the previous president confessed at the moment.
CHINCHILLA, ALLY OF DRUG TRAFFICKING?
After his unlawful re-election, rumors started to unfold extra about how he occupied the place of the Prosecutor’s Workplace to guard drug cartels, in complicity with former president Juan Orlando Hernández, who additionally managed to fraudulently re-elect himself within the 2018 normal elections and at the moment. He’s disadvantaged of liberty in the US, accused of drug and weapons trafficking.
The indictment towards drug trafficker Geovanny Fuentes Ramírez, who was arrested in Miami, United States, in March 2020, explains how Juan Orlando Hernández in 2013 [president of Congress at the time] requested him to not fear in regards to the regulation or investigations, because it hasThey had appointed prosecutor Chinchilla to guard them and, in the identical approach, the medicine that had been circulating by the nation.
In line with the accusation, all the Honduran justice and safety working system was being manipulated, taking big steps in the direction of turning into a narco-state – as cited by the US authorities. For instance, the transport of drug shipments was protected by the identical police, which at the moment was directed by Juan Carlos “El Tigre” Bonilla, who can also be imprisoned in the US for having ties to drug trafficking.
What was established within the accusation towards Geovanny Fuentes, who was sentenced in 2022 to life imprisonment, additionally passed off in that of former president Juan Orlando Hernández, however this additionally reveals that JOH – recognized by the acronym of his identify – obtained bribes from him and different drug traffickers, in alternate for utilizing the Prosecutor’s Workplace led by Chinchilla to keep away from investigations, arrests and even extradition.
In brief, Chinchilla was one of many key items that the Hernández clan used to guard them and different drug traffickers in his line. Since 2016, the Public Ministry has mounted operations resembling Operation Cervero, Raid I, Raid II and Operation Volcán, with the purpose of dismantling drug trafficking organizations resembling Valle Valle and Los Cachiros.
At the moment, a detective from the Public Ministry recognized as Josías advised the Contracorriente media outlet that the drug traffickers they arrested started to query them why they didn’t seize these on the opposite line.
“Whenever you catch a drug trafficker, and he sees that you’re not touching one other prison construction, the very first thing they demand of you, is not it true that this one despatched you? Or did he ship you that one? And I’m harmless,” Josías mentioned and that’s how data started to achieve him that linked Antonio “Tony” Hernández, brother of JOH, on the planet of drug trafficking.
“Tony” Hernández was one other key participant within the JOH authorities, as he took benefit of energy to advertise, facilitate and settle for millionaire bribes in alternate for offering safety, by the police, and impunity by the Chinchilla Prosecutor’s Workplace, trafficking of medicine in Honduras. “Tony” was sentenced, in March 2021, to life imprisonment plus 30 years in jail in the US.
Though the identify of Óscar Fernando Chinchilla has been talked about in American courts, on repeated events, he has restricted himself to addressing the problem within the nation to defend himself, ultimately, dwelling virtually in anonymity, observing how his profession as a legal professional normal of Honduras.
“For the non-delegation of actions towards drug trafficking; for the poor investigation he did into crimes towards life; On account of impunity in femicides, Chinchilla must be prosecuted right here or in one other prosecutor’s workplace,” Villanueva thought of, suggesting that Chinchilla is also requested for extradition by the US.
Villanueva assured that the Safety authorities are conscious that considered one of Chinchilla’s plans, after leaving workplace within the prosecutor’s workplace, is to flee to Nicaragua, simply as Ebal Díaz, one of many former officers of the Hernández authorities, did.
“Let him do it; let him attempt; Let her go away, possibly they’ll carry her again, nobody escapes from justice, justice will come to Ebal Díaz; Every part has its second and the president’s promise is to punish the corrupt they usually have been corrupt with the Honduran individuals,” Villanueva warned.
Ebal Díaz fled Honduras in January 2022, after the inauguration of President Xiomara Castro. After his escape, a month later, the Ministry introduced that he was investigating him for an alleged act of corruption linked to the “container home rip-off” case. The previous right-hand man of Juan Orlando Hernández was naturalized as a Nicaraguan citizen on June 17, 2022, however his utility was licensed since November 2020.
In brief, the Chinchilla Prosecutor’s Workplace acted late to stop the seize of Díaz, who has additionally been accused by the New York Prosecutor’s Workplace for his alleged participation in drug trafficking.
Some analysts think about that one of many first duties of the brand new legal professional normal of Honduras, who will likely be in workplace in the course of the interval 2023-2028, will likely be to open an investigation and file a tax injunction towards Óscar Fernando Chinchilla and the management that labored on his facet within the Public Ministry to advertise corruption, leaving apart impunity as effectively, for instance, in femicides that thus far stay unresolved in addition to violent deaths and criminalization of environmentalists and defenders of the territories.
***
Errata: Criterio.hn hereby states that within the publication below the headline: Óscar Fernando Chinchilla: the one lawyer who sat twice within the legal professional normal’s chair and labored topic to the facility of August 312023. An inaccuracy was made within the decreasing: The previous president, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, confessed to Criterio.hn that he requested Chinchilla to not air the mega Social Safety fraud, whereas a former nationalist deputy advised what Chinchilla supposedly requested for to be re-elected as legal professional normal within the interval 2018-2023.
Additionally within the quote: “I do not forget that Chinchilla got here to my home within the capital and advised me: look, president, with reference to Insurance coverage there are deep issues (…) I advised him: do not carry it to mild proper now as a result of we face to an electoral course of and might hurt improvement (…), however I continued with the investigation and regardless of who the hell is concerned, the respective duties have to be deduced,” former president Porfirio Lobo advised Criterio.hn.
The proper factor ought to learn:
Bajadilla: In an apparent sport of submission and dependence on energy, the previous president, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, confessed to Criterio.hn that he met at his home with Chinchilla during which they talked in regards to the embezzlement of Social Safety, whereas a former nationalist deputy advised what that Chinchilla supposedly requested to be re-elected as legal professional normal within the interval 2018-2023.
He quotes: “Look, take heed to me one thing. There are two methods of working: as we did and as Juan Orlando did. Did I understand in regards to the insurance coverage? If i seen. Prosecutor Chinchilla got here to my home and advised me: look president, there are deep issues on this insurance coverage subject. I advised him: look, lawyer, you proceed your investigation and it does not matter who the hell falls and deduces duty. That was in 2012 or 2013,” Lobo Sosa advised Criterio.hn.
Moreover, to place in context, the paragraphs had been added:
Chinchilla, in his first yr as legal professional normal [2013], realized in regards to the mega case of corruption within the Honduran Institute of Social Safety, however as an alternative of bringing it to mild, he advised it to the then president Porfirio Lobo Sosa.
After the 2013 elections, Lobo Sosa advised the media that he was conscious of the case of corruption in Social Safety, however that he remained silent in order to not have an effect on the victory of his get together [Nacional] that, after his administration, [2010- 2014] continued for eight extra years in energy below the management of Juan Orlando Hernández. Years later, Lobo Sosa mentioned that his confession was a joke.
In the course of the interview, former President Lobo Sosa mentioned that his authorities intervened in Social Safety and the case was made recognized, as soon as prosecutor Chinchilla assured him that all the pieces “was below management” as a result of doing so earlier than might suggest the lack of proof. .
Lobo Sosa’s confessions have uncovered the submission and dependence of Óscar Chinchilla as legal professional normal of the republic, since removed from the previous president sustaining that he requested him to infer the duties of the case, it’s questionable that he got here to his home to speak about investigation processes that, immediately or not directly, might incriminate him.
You will need to point out that, though a misinterpretation was manufactured from the statements of former president Porfirio Lobo Sosa, it must be famous that what the previous president confessed revealed a dynamic of presidential submission, management and dependence in such necessary positions to fight corruption and impunity like that of the legal professional normal of the republic.
