MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile: Monsalve arrested – arraignment hearing set for Friday

The charges against Monsalve might go beyond those of a sexual nature and include his maneuvers while still in office to conceal the facts

Former Chilean Undersecretary of the Interior Manuel Monsalve was placed under arrest Thursday to face rape charges after allegations in this regard by a member of his staff forced him to resign on Oct. 17, three days after the complaint was filed.

The Socialist physician's detention was carried out by the Investigative Police (PDI) in the Agua Santa sector of Viña del Mar, in the region of Valparaíso. An arraignment hearing is scheduled for Friday, after which he is expected to be remanded.

“In Chile, no one is above the law,” President Gabriel Boric Font wrote on X. His government's popularity took a nose dive after the Monsalve scandal broke out, not only for the alleged sexual assault said to have taken place on Sept. 22 but also for the maneuvers to cover it up, which have largely splashed Interior Minister Carolina Tohá who was Monsalve's superior but is also Boric's technical number two. These diversions would explain the 3-day gap.

Unlike a month ago, when the PDI Director General Eduardo Cerna tipped Tohá of the scandal, nobody warned her Thursday that a court had ordered Monsalve's arrest. Tohá was with a group of Socialist parliamentarians when she learned of the arrest.

In the meantime, Monsalve's lawyer Lino Disi said his arrest was “unnecessary” and claimed that the Prosecutor's Office had “yielded” to media pressure because Monsalve posed no flight risk, which would be proven by the fact that Police found him at his home. In addition, he underscored the Public Prosecutor's Office's reluctance to cooperate: “We have learned most of the information in this case through rumors”, said Disi. “Manuel Monsalve is innocent and we will prove it in court”, he insisted.

After reviewing footage from 172 security cameras, sleuths reconstructed the events of Sept. 22 from the restaurant meeting to the trip to the Panamericano Hotel, where the alleged events took place. Monsalve and the complainant left together from the Ají Seco Místico restaurant minutes before 11 pm to the Panamericano Hotel, where the alleged events took place. While Monsalve walked normally, the alleged victim showed an erratic walk consistent with that of a person who had had too much to drink. When Monsalve tried to kiss her, she visibly pulled away in an attempt to resist.

The 150-page PDI report also pointed out that the victim barfed inside the cab they rode to the hotel, apparently due to the state of drunkenness in which she was, and how she tried to move away from the vehicle on several occasions during the trip.

Lawyer and former prosecutor Carlos Gajardo told CNN Chile that Monsalve will most likely be remanded. “The fact that they have already asked for an arrest warrant is very indicative that they are going to ask for preventive detention tomorrow because they are already saying that there is a flight risk,” Gajardo stressed. He also explained that the charges against Monsalve may include those of an official nature, such as the potential use of reserved funds or having violated the Intelligence Law to conceal the events.