For years, members of parliament across the political spectrum, especially from the center-left, have been demanding to publicize and bring to light the funding and resources every candidate uses to finance their respective political campaigns. Usually, the right-wing receives more endorsement than their left-wing counterpart, because of their conservative approach towards the economy that usually benefits the CEOs of major companies. Senators and representatives are given millions of pesos that are used to clog the streets with banners, posters and signs with their faces, decorated with catchy slogans.
Yet what seemed to be a scheme working within the margins of the law has encountered an unexpected roadblock that could potentially bring about a change in the tide. According to reports emanating from “El Mostrador” and “The Clinic”,The Penta Company, a group being investigated for the violation of article 97 of the tax code regarding the “maliciously incomplete or false tax declarations that may lead to a lower tax payment than ought to be the case”, has been accused of making donations, outside the legal framework in order to benefit UDI senators’ electoral campaigns. Ena Von Baer, Ivan Moreira; defeated senate aspirants Laurence Golborne and Pablo Zalaquett, and former presidential candidate, Andres Velasco, are said to be involved in the scandal known as “Pentagate”. The fact that Velasco’s name came up was viewed as the greatest surprise because of the reputation he built during his campaign as “an alternative outside the establishment”, despite the ideas he had regarding the economy, where he aimed at keeping status quo, a proposal more characteristic of a right-wing conservative. If we take this into account, then it shouldn’t be that much of a shock to see him involved, as he has also been recently referred by the right-wing as “a lesser evil” for future elections.
Furthermore, one of the senators alluded in the report, Ivan Moreira, defended himself against the accusations and claimed: “I received undisclosed contributions; therefore I can’t possibly know who made them. The only background information I have is what was said in the media (…) all my accounts are clean, my expenditure report was approved by the Electoral Service (SERVEL) and it was made public”.
Then, he launched a counter-attack and added: “If there were an investigation over this affair, then let’s start looking into the more expensive campaigns. Let’s begin with the presidential and afterwards, the parliamentary”.
A few days later, an investigation carried out by Ciper Chile showed that one of the UDI’s “lieutenants”, Jovino Novoa, was in charge of designating which candidates would be sponsored by the Penta Group and how much money they would get from them. According to Ciper, “Senator Von Baer was one of the most favored by Novoa’s alleged decisions. Former UDI senator, Carlos Bombal, is also said to have had a major role in this scheme, as he now works for the Penta group”.
As expected, Novoa adamantly denied the accusations. “Ciper’s publication in which I was implicated is absolutely false. The UDI is not operating under an illegal financing system and it never did. I have never participated in any financial programme that operates outside the law and I have also never acted illegally in any regard in my life”, said the President of the Jaime Guzman Foundation.
UDI President, Ernesto Silva, decided to take matters into his own hands, but instead of carrying out an internal investigation within his party to clarify the facts, he met and requested the national prosecutor, Sabas Chahuan, to look into the press leaks taking place while the Public Ministry works on the issue.
“We came to ask the national prosecutor to open up a case that stops and eventually punishes the continuous drip of information in the hands of public prosecutor, Carlos Gajardo. In our view, these constant leaks are an act of illegality that calls for an investigation and a timely sanction by the Public Ministry”, Silva said.
Ironically, independent representative, Gabriel Boric, revealed a list with the exact amount of undisclosed endorsements given to the 120 members who won a congress seat at the recent election. In fact, Silva himself led the list with 268.249.000 pesos in anonymous contributions.
As we can see, the first layers of this case are just starting to unfold, in what could potentially be a scandal that will continue to develop over the following days.
