Desbordes continues his dispute with the government and responds to Undersecretary Silva: "What am I going to talk to you about with that kind of arrogance?"

The dispute over the expansion of Santiago 1 prison continues. The mayor of the municipality, Mario Desbordes, this time responded to the Undersecretary of Justice, Luis Silva, who, in a conversation with the "Desde la Redacción" program of La Tercera, defended the expansion of the penitentiary facility, despite the position of the mayor and the local residents. "I want to say this with complete frankness, it seems incredibly arrogant when he (Undersecretary Silva) says, 'I'm going to invite the mayor to talk, but I'm already inviting him to the inauguration,'" the mayor said in a conversation with the morning show "Mucho Gusto" on Mega. "Undersecretary Silva, honestly, Minister Rabat, what am I going to talk to you about if you're already telling me, with that arrogance, that you're inviting me just to inform me?" Desbordes added. The mayor went further and stated that: "Honestly, it doesn't make much sense. I'm going to continue opposing this. I regret that the former communist minister (Jaime Gajardo), the communist, you know, the treatment was wonderful, it was different. I didn't find out about what the ministry was doing through the press like I do now." Regarding this, Silva had stated that: "I want to invite Mayor Mario Desbordes to the inauguration of those works, which we will be carrying out in agreement with the residents and the mayor. The mayor will be there, I assure you." The Undersecretary had also indicated that they were hoping to talk to Desbordes about the prison, assuring that "the expansion of Santiago 1 should be seen as an improvement." In response, the mayor of the capital said that he was "concerned after hearing the regrettable statements of the Undersecretary of Justice this morning. It shows me that the Undersecretary, the newly appointed minister, still doesn't have a clue how the penitentiary system works." He continued: "There are several things. First, Undersecretary, I have some bad news for you: not all the legal cases that we, as a municipality, have filed to oppose this project have been closed. So, please, talk to your advisors and have them inform you a little better, because what you said this morning doesn't reflect reality." "Second, the Undersecretary almost threatened us, saying to Santiago, 'Listen, you're in a ticking time bomb. This is going to explode at any minute due to the level of overcrowding in Santiago 1.' In other words, he's threatening us that things are going to get out of control and therefore this is going to explode. I want to tell the Undersecretary what he's proposing, which is an expansion to incorporate 1,600 spaces, but for people who are already there. In my experience, which is far more extensive than his in matters of the penitentiary system, in 100% of the cases, when you create 1,600 spaces, within 2 or 3 years you have 3,000 or 4,000 people." "So, don't come to me with the story that this is going to alleviate the problem because what's going to happen is that 5,000 people will end up in those 1,600 spaces," he concluded.