Alvarado accuses Congress of engaging in a "delaying tactic" regarding the legislative process for a major infrastructure project, and calls for "seriousness" in the matter.
On Monday, the Finance Committee of the Chamber of Deputies had a marathon session, as its members had to process the approximately 1,500 proposals submitted by parliamentarians to the President José Antonio Kast's mega-project for reconstruction and economic recovery.
Initially, it was reported that the deadline for submitting amendments was noon on Monday. However, later, legislators were informed that these proposals could be submitted until the time of the votes. In this scenario, advisors and parliamentarians stated last night that the number of proposals had reached 1,500 or 1,700.
This exorbitant number was described as a "tsunami" of proposals, and it provoked criticism from the executive branch. This was expressed by the Minister of the Interior, Claudio Alvarado.
In a conversation with radio Pauta, Alvarado stated that he found this behavior of the Parliament "strange."
"It's strange because a project that has forty or so articles, and 1,500 proposals are presented to it. To me, logic suggests that there is some problem," he said.
In this regard, he stated that "clearly, there is a deliberate, delaying action here. I was a parliamentarian, and I feel that one must have a certain degree of seriousness in the things they present," he asserted.
The minister even suggested that he would "dare to bet that a large part of the proposals are not related to the substance of the project... they are proposals of form or to make a show..."
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The Chamber of Deputies' Finance Committee had a marathon session on Monday, as its members had to process the approximately 1,500 proposals submitted by parliamentarians to President José Antonio Kast's mega-project for reconstruction and economic reactivation. Initially, it was reported that the deadline for submitting amendments was noon on Monday, but later, legislators were informed that these could be submitted until the time of the votes. In that scenario, advisors and parliamentarians stated last night that the number of proposals could reach 1,700. This exorbitant number was described as a "tsunami" of proposals, and it provoked criticism from the executive branch. This was expressed by Interior Minister Claudio Alvarado. In a conversation with radio Pauta, Alvarado said that he finds this behavior of the Parliament "strange." "It's strange because a project that has forty or so articles, and 1,500 proposals are presented to it; to me, logic suggests that there is some problem," he said. In that sense, he stated that "clearly, there is a deliberate, delaying action here. I was a parliamentarian, and I feel that one must have a certain degree of seriousness in the things they present," he asserted. The minister even suggested that he would "dare to bet that a large part of the proposals are not related to the substance of the project... they are proposals of form or to highlight a point that everyone knows," he maintained. For Alvarado, the parliamentarians are trying to make the "deadlines established by the government, with the urgency of the project, be prolonged." However, he affirmed that "the deadlines must be met." Consequently, he stated that "if there is this number of proposals, the president of the committee will have to call meetings as many times as necessary to meet that deadline." With this, he affirmed that the processing deadlines will be maintained. "If the parliamentarians are so active, they cannot submit the proposals and then ignore them. Well, they should go defend them, and if it takes working day and night, they should do it," he said.