translated from Spanish: Operation LAN: Underground Palace to neutralize Armanet deployment

have been days of sweet and verjuice for the Government. After a criticized revisionist stance within the framework of the 45 years of the coup d ‘ état, this Wednesday the currency scored a triumph to bring forward the gender identity Act, under margins which own President Sebastián Piñera was defined. A story that came to calm tempers to the interior of the Palace, where it had been uneasy due to the fall in the polls and the resurgence of the LAN case.
The ghost of one of the main spots on the resume of the President, revived after the publication of the book by journalist Sergio Jara, Piñera and the Lions of Sanhattan, collecting the testimony of the former general manager of the runner’s bag Banchile , Francisco Armanet, who said that you saved as evidence in a safe a CD with telephone recordings of 2006 between the today President, his team of Bancard and Banchile operators.
Information which was confirmed by the wayward and private entrepreneur in a CNN interview, which also noted that it would only deliver the audio if requested by a judge, since he prefers to “protect the presidential function”. Words that have been interpreted as an “opportunistic blackmail” by some officials of the ruling party, while from other sectors have highlighted the need to know the detail of audio, because “citizens have the right to know all the events as they reveal the skills and character of who leads the State”, as noted the analyst and rector of the UDP, Carlos Peña, in his Sunday column in El Mercurio.
In La Moneda reigned for secrecy since then. It was logical that statements by Francisco Armanet fall lousy at the core of the head of State, so much, that it is an issue that, since then, has been little addressed and discussed at political meetings of the Executive, in the Cabinet, as also in the political Committee with the Parties of Chile are going. The reason is simple: is the own President Piñera who does not want to talk topic, neither in Palace, nor in his coalition and less in the media.

The President has stubborn in turning the topic page, badly wrong, it’s a complex episode, when it was fined by the Superintendency of securities and insurance (SVS) for more than 600 million pesos for the purchase, the year 2006, of shares of LAN , company that Pinera was a shareholder. Armanet literally for Piñera claims were a piece of ice in the back.
In the hard pinerismo recognize that the President does not want to touch the issue, because “in your mind you have it solved, he feels that it already paid pecuniary and politically for this case and that it is a closed issue”. That fits with the public reaction that took place in Palace these days: “this issue was settled more than 10 years ago, if they exist or not these recordings has no relevance, because the facts in all their merits were widely investigated by the SVS”, said Minister spokeswoman, Cecilia Pérez, Wednesday, September 5.
Among those who know the head of State for decades, stressed that the LAN case is of those themes that Piñera not delegated to anyone, “he manages it directly”, and more, talks about the issue with very few and gives specific instructions on some third party. That explains – added – Chile we parties nor their parliamentarians to receive instructions or downspouts communication regarding this, neither has discussed the topic in the political Committee on Monday at La Moneda and the rest of the Government only reigns silence, expectation and, also, certain quotas of concern.
“Nobody was told nothing and nobody said anything,” they recognized from the Congress.
The silence inside the Executive has been such that the information was not socialized even with sectoral ministries, “everything was resolved within four walls,” said in La Moneda, where insist on the argument that this is a matter “of the past that not” deserves greater detention”. That Yes, Palace acknowledges that in the case that the subject of the recordings come to climb to U.S. Justice. UU, hence “things change”.
That, because, even though the cause is prescribed in Chile, the edge that involves the SEC in the United States remains in force, which leaves a latent risk flank for Piñera. Flank that has been identified by the opposition, so it already letters are being taken on the issue.
The true plan decision to avoid the case LAN, not talk about it and make that does not exist, does not mean at all that there is a real indifference in La Moneda about the topic. In fact, since the day that Armanet gave the interview on CNN Chile, on September 4, was launched a buried but effective deployment Palace to neutralize the issue and that it does not grow. Government sources and also some close to the piñerista Administration confirmed that, since then, “efforts at the highest level have made” with certain media, precisely so that the matter is left out informative guideline. Efforts that have been effective in thick lines.
In parallel, ensure that there has been no less deployment – task that would have given him some Palace officials – to delegitimize promptly Armanet figure and, thus, weaken the credibility of his sayings. Try to delegitimize him has not been a complex task, because the once successful financial Executive would be effectively passing a bad economic time, with more than one order on its head and this situation paved the deployment of La Moneda to neutralize it.
Several sources, even in the Government, explained that that allowed the focus and “add to spreading the rumor” that only Armanet seeks money with the subject of the recordings: “That is what is being done to reach the media”.
But sources at the enterprise level and in media claimed that the financial Executive has not requested money for his statements and in the Government environment recognized that neither asked to Pinera, which contrasts with the versions that Some representatives of the Executive have launched to feed the discredited strategy.
In Palace not denies the deployment to neutralize Armanet, although they prefer to avoid the issue and is hiding in the lowered communication marked by the spokesperson for lower profile on the issue, repeating that it is “an already settled issue”. The same happens in Congress, where parliamentarians from Chile we argue that it is “unnecessary to return to” this episode.
Insists on that level surveys the LAN issue would not affect the President, since it is prescribed in Chile and “have already taken it are too often”. But questioning points to ethical axis – something that always bothered greatly to Piñera that draw you in face – and, despite the deployment of neutralization that has made La Moneda, the same siege has been broken at times. Statements such as the of the former SVS, Guillermo Larraín, who said that “in the U.S. you go prisoner” by cases such as the purchase of shares of LAN, or penalty, in El Mercurio, fell as cold bucket of water in the Palace.
For communication analyst Carlos Correa, the strategy taken by La Moneda is correct, because damage by the LAN case “it was already assumed by the public, is part of the inventory of the character and the people know by who voted (…)” even, on certain groups is slightly positive, because it gives the impression that can grow the country.” He added that so far the case does not mean an increased risk, but it is indisputable that panorama would change considerably if the recording light: “It is not same as the recording”, since it suffices to recall the episode of the Radio Kyoto, where more than the content, was the way that Pinera was expressed of Evelyn Matthei what hit him.
“If that audio gets to know, opens a meme, a meme Wikipedia encyclopedia and for the Government, which is well obsessed with social media, this would be harmful. There if it would affect his image and his figure”, said the analyst.
The arremetida opposition inside there is diversity of positions in this matter. Although everyone agrees the “unacceptable” operation carried out by President Piñera, there is no consensus on what to do with the information given by Armanet and regarding his “veracity and intentions”.
Since the former new majority recognize that they may not be “idly”, there is a duty to ensure that the truth is known, but they stressed that, while that does not happen, “is not much we can do. “Rather than kicking, this old-fashioned Government won it”.
Even so, voices criticizing the conduct of Piñera have risen. The onslaught has been led by members of the PC, Hugo Gutiérrez and Karol Cariola. The latter indicated that if the President “it has nothing to fear, I challenge them it is he himself who require Mr Armanet information is known and is presented”. Not only that, Cariola will point directly to the institutions of the United States and will be sent the information to the financial market and to the Congress of that country, “since in US this type of offences not prescribed as quickly as it takes place in Chile”.
Gutierrez, meanwhile, entered a complaint to the public prosecutor, so that the national prosecutor, Jorge Abbott, investigate while the offence would already be prescribed. “It is not tolerable for a private point so categorically having tests and history involving the President of the Republic in the Commission of an unlawful and in this country is as if it does not pass anything, since all pass unnoticed, as that it had secured the” impunity,”stressed Deputy.
In the broad front are studying actions to be followed, and during the last week have had conversations with attorneys in the field to analyze the prescriptibilidAd of the crime. In this sector would be Deputy of movement autonomist, Gonzalo Winter, who would later draw a future action. “For the sake of democracy, President Piñera should disclose the recordings to clear any doubt if he was warned of committing a crime and, even so, gave the order to buy. Citizens have the right to know if the most relevant to the highest authority of the country are your earnings or the interests of all. The confidence of the people has no prescription”, said Winter.

Original source in Spanish

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