MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile: Monsalve resurfaces in Viña del Mar

“My silence is due to respect for due process,” Monsalve argued

After a fortnight virtually in hiding, Chile's former Undersecretary of the Interior Manuel Monsavle came back into the limelight Friday in Viña del Mar. His whereabouts had been unknown since resigning following rape charges filed against him.

“My silence is due to respect for due process,” Monsalve argued when he was spotted. “The most important thing in a situation of this nature, which is of extraordinary complexity and gravity, is to know the truth,” he added. “What I have said from the beginning is that the allegations should be investigated regardless of whom they affect, in this case, it is an allegation that affects me but should be investigated equally, regardless of the position or rank of the person and that is why I have resigned from my position,” he went on.

“I have also reiterated that in a judicial process, it is also necessary to maintain the presumption of innocence and I want to say that my silence is not that I am avoiding any issue, I am not used to avoiding issues no matter how complex they are, my silence obeys the respect for due process,” the Socialist physician elaborated.

“There is a team of lawyers that you know who is in charge of my defense, and I am working with them so that the truth and the defense are carried out in the corresponding spaces,” he also said.

Monsalve vanished into thin air after resigning as Undersecretary of the Interior due to a rape complaint filed on October 14 by a government official. He had last been seen at the Palacio de La Moneda. After that, local media monitored his home in Viña del Mar and also a residence in Concepción, where his family is, in a move to both seek a scoop and warning of any possible flight attempt.

But one way or another Monsalve managed to avoid being seen. It was driving his daughter's car that he was spotted and approached by a hoard of reporters. After speaking for about 5 minutes, Monsalve got into the vehicle and sped away.