Amid intense pressure from the opposition for its formation, this Monday the names of the parliamentarians who will make up the investigative commission reviewing the management of former Public Security Minister Trinidad Steinert were finally announced. The President of the Chamber, Jorge Alessandri (UDI), proposed his 13 members, who were approved in the chamber by agreement, without the need for a vote: these are the Republicans Cristián Araya, Macarena Santelices, and Fernando Ugarte, UDI Jaime Coloma, the broad frontists Tatiana Urrutia and Gonzalo Winter, Tamara Ramírez (PDG), Mauro González (RN), Bernardo Salinas (ind.-PC), Raúl Leiva (PS), Jaime Araya (ind.-PPD), Patricio Pinilla (DC), and Álvaro Jofré (PNL). Thus, the Special Investigative Commission (CEI) to investigate the acts of the former secretary of state will have 60 days to produce its respective report.
Threat from AC
The opposition's offensive began after the Comptroller's report declared an information request made by former Minister Steinert to the PDI during her time in the cabinet as inadmissible. This request led to the controversial removal of the police prefect (r) Consuelo Peña from the police institution and prompted a group of deputies to push for a special commission to review her management.
And in the absence of this, days before the deadline to file a constitutional accusation against the secr…
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Amid intense opposition pressure for its formation, this Monday the names of the parliamentarians who will make up the investigative commission reviewing the management of former Public Security Minister Trinidad Steinert were finally announced. The Speaker of the Chamber, Jorge Alessandri (UDI), proposed his 13 members, who were approved in the chamber by consensus, without the need for a vote: these are the Republicans Cristián Araya, Macarena Santelices, and Fernando Ugarte, UDI Jaime Coloma, the far-left Tatiana Urrutia and Gonzalo Winter, Tamara Ramírez (PDG), Mauro González (RN), Bernardo Salinas (ind.-PC), Raúl Leiva (PS), Jaime Araya (ind.-PPD), Patricio Pinilla (DC), and Álvaro Jofré (PNL). Thus, the Special Investigative Committee (CEI) to investigate the acts of the former secretary of state will have 60 days to produce its respective report. The opposition's offensive began after the Comptroller's report declared inadmissible a request for information made by former Minister Steinert to the PDI during her time in office. That request led to the controversial removal of the police prefect (r) Consuelo Peña from the police institution and prompted a group of deputies to push for a special commission to review her management. And in the absence of this, just days before the deadline to file a constitutional accusation against the secretary of state, the opposition had raised the possibility of submitting an accusatory bill. It is worth recalling that on Wednesday, August 19, the former secretary of state was exonerated from political responsibility that she might have had in her role, as indicated by Article 52 of the Constitution, which grants a three-month period to constitutionally accuse a former minister of state when they leave office. One month after the Comptroller's statement, and after the first attempt to form this oversight body was rejected, the same opposition deputies intensified the pressure and, in the parliamentary committee meeting last Wednesday, issued a warning: if the commission was not formed, they would accuse the former minister. This amid suspicions from the sector that the ruling party benches were delaying providing names to join the commission, in order to shield Steinert.