2024-09-18 13:33:28
CDE requested preventive detention for Cathy Barriga after the Prosecutor’s Office provided new information, which will be determined in a new hearing.
The former mayor of Maipú, Cathy Bellywas re-formalized this Friday, September 13, whose hearing raised speculation about a possible modification of its precautionary measure to preventive detention. However, There was no change with respect to total house arrest where it has been since January 18, 2024.
In the instance, the State Defense Council (CDE) requested preventive detention for the former communal leader, whose determination will be made at a hearing that the court set for the October 29 at 9:30 a.m.
The crimes that Cathy Barriga is accused of
In the reformulation, the Eastern Prosecutor’s Office added new information against Cathy Barriga, who is charged with crimes of tax fraud y forgery of public instrument during his administration.
In this context, the former communal authority of Maipú was accused of falsifying the financial statements submitted to the Comptroller’s Officea situation that would increase the $32 billion deficit that remained after his administration, since the organization now estimates that the real amount would be $60 billion.
After the hearing concluded, Barriga’s lawyer, Cristóbal Bonacic, said that the reformulation was carried out because “the accusation against our client has been changing. From the beginning it was thought that That money had ended up in his pocket of Mrs. Cathy Barriga. That was absolutely ruled out in the investigation.”
He added: “Today the accusation is simply that there is a deficit. We have to ask how many municipalities in the country have a deficit. Therefore, All mayors are perpetrators of tax fraud“.
Regarding the accusation of falsifying a public instrument, the lawyer maintained that she has no responsibility. “The Municipality of Maipú has more than three thousand employees, they are the ones who prepare the documentation according to certain calculations that are made and that is not the responsibility of the mayor. The reports are prepared by multidisciplinary work teams, and the last signature is the mayor, do you understand that the mayor reviews the 130 billion of all the invoices? No,” he declared.
After that, when leaving the Justice Center, Cathy Barriga said that “as the first female mayor that Maipú had, I have always felt very violated by the complaint presented by Mayor Tomás Vodanovic (FA)”.
Regarding the current mayor of one of the most populated communes in the country, he stated that “there are people who They need to hurt others to be in power.”
“I am very calm and I hope that justice will be done soon, nothing more, to restore peace and life to my family, to my children, above all… I am a person with values, with principles, from a traditional Chilean family, with a lot of effort and work. It is impossible that I have ever done any of the things I am accused of.“, he assured.
This article reports on an ongoing judicial process, so the persons identified as detained or accused should not be considered guilty or treated as such until they are convicted by a final judgment. (Article 4 of the Criminal Procedure Code).