Chilean police force mired in major embezzlement scandal.
| Autor | Witte-Lebhar, Benjamin |
An unfolding corruption scandal involving the Carabineros, Chile's uniformed police force, threatens to exacerbate what pundits say is a confidence-in-leadership crisis in the South American country, which will hold presidential and parliamentary elections later this year.
The "Pacogate" story, as some media outlets call it (paco is a slang term for police in Chile), broke in early March but continues to make waves as prosecutors push forward with their investigation. Congress has also launched an inquiry into the affair. To date, more than 40 people--mostly police but also a few civilians--have been indicted. And the list keeps growing, as does the amount of money thought to be involved.
This is hardly the first corruption scandal to make headlines in Chile. In recent years, the public has been bombarded with reports about convoluted campaign financing schemes, conflicts of interest, tax evasion, and corporate collusion. There have even been allegations against family members of the president, Michelle Bachelet, whose son and daughter-in-law are accused of using their privileged connections--and insider information--to execute a shady land deal (NotiSur, April 24, 2015, and May 29, 2015).
And yet, even in that context Pacogate stands out, in part because of just how brazen the crimes appear to be. This is a case of embezzlement in its most cut-and-dry sense: The police officers and civilians implicated in the affair are accused of lifting funds from the Carabineros treasury and funneling the money into private accounts. They took millions of dollars in taxpayer money, in other words, and pocketed it.
The case is also jarring because the alleged criminals are police--professionals who have been trained and tasked with upholding the law--and because until now, the Carabineros, unlike so many other key institutions in Chile, were relatively well-respected by the public.
In early March, just before the scandal broke, the Carabineros had an approval rating of 77%, according to the polling firm Cadem-Plaza Publica. Support for the Bachelet administration, in contrast, stands at just 23%, an April survey by GfK Adimark found. Chile's two main political blocs--Bachelet's center-left Nueva Mayoria (New Majority) and the opposition Chile Vamos (Let's Go Chile)--also have serious popularity problems, with approval ratings of 13% and 24% respectively. Support for the two-chamber Congress is lower still, at 10%, the GfK Adimark poll suggests.
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