2024-04-20 14:38:57
Accusations of high workload, the closure of the Human Rights Unit and questioned hiring have marked Marisol Prado’s management at the head of the organization.
The Legal Medical Service (SML) faces a silent crisis after the arrival of Marisol Prado as national director, with harsh accusations from officials against the communist militant.
From the Association of SML Officials they showed that The changes and restructuring within the organization after the arrival of Prado have generated uncertainty, feeling of vulnerability and instability in their jobs, especially in the Thanatology Unit, which has been on paralysis alert since last April 8.
The workers of this unit have reported an excessive workload, which is replicated in numerous overtime hours without rest and without the possibility of replacement in the event of vacations or administrative permits.
Given this, they raised a request to improve the work of the SML at the national level, since they state that “resources are only allocated to the metropolitan headquarters in all aspects, from basic personal protection supplies to the expansion of the staff and improvements salaries to the improvement of infrastructure.”
Among the requests of the officials is the payment of overtime worked in February and March, along with improvements in the civil service career, since They point to the hiring of “new officials without any forensic expert or with verifiable skills, to the detriment of personnel with experience and track record in this Service,” among their main demands.
Closure of Human Rights Unit
On April 8, the Legal Medical Service made one of its most controversial changes since the arrival of Marisol Prado to the National Directorate: the closure of the Human Rights Unit.
This division was created in 2019 with the purpose of carrying out identification procedures and determining the cause of death in cases linked to human rights violations during the dictatorship.
However, the controversy generated by the appearance of 89 boxes with human bones, linked to causes of forced disappearance after the coup d’état, “forgotten” in the facilities of the University of Chile, added to remains in other SML headquarters, without the knowledge of the Human Rights Unit, they forced their closure.
This way, The Victims of the Dictatorship Unit and the High Complexity Unit were created, both dependent on the metropolitan Legal Medical Service.
These changes They were lamented by Marisol Intriago, director of the now extinct departmentwho took to social media and noted that “the new administration, of the Government, and of the institution, closes a 15-year process of committed and professional work, “by political agreements and access to public funds for objectives that we do not know.”
Daughter of the president of the AFDD arrives as an advisor to the SML
On November 10, La Moneda presented the so-called National Search Plan for Truth and Justicean initiative to which the Legal Medical Service joined.
But this announcement was not very well received by the service workers, since they denounced that Marisol Prado hired social worker Tamara Alvarado as a Cabinet advisor.
The questions regarding his arrival, linked in addition to his high remuneration – which would be more than $2.5 million, according to officials – mainly point to the fact that She is the daughter of Gaby Rivera, president of the Group of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees (AFDD).
Along these lines, they assert that It is not a coincidence that the AFDD comes out to defend Marisol Prado’s management in the face of questions arising from the political world due to the new hirings made by the National Directorate.
Thus, through a public statement, the group of family members stressed that “it supports the work that the new national director of the Legal Medical Service, Dr. Marisol Prado Villegas, has been doing in matters of human rights.”
“We have witnessed their interest in carrying out serious, responsible and diligent work, demonstrating their openness and willingness for dialogue and transparency. Elements that encourage us to recover and maintain trust with this public entity, a trust that has cost a lot to recover,” closed the AFDD.