The appearance of Dobra Lusic to the Senate Constitution, Law and Justice Commission in its attempt by L Bequeathing to the Supreme Court, became an institutional embarrassment for the Republic of Chile.
Beyond the correct conduct of the session by the President of the instance, the absence of a civic quality questionnaire to Lusic, rightly distorted the inquisitive character that should have that session, which is intended to establish whether a candidate It has the merits to ascend to the highest court in the country.
The candidate was able to easily dodge the important judicial issues that were of concern to public opinion, including cases of traffic in influences and, directly, hid or twisted others, without anyone apremiara.
A couple of examples Pro Isapres
It is accustomed to say that the judges speak through their failures. If that is the case, Judge Dobra Lusic has given sufficient evidence to lean towards the interests of the isapres when it has had to resolve issues linked to them.
It is not just some individual judgments on particular cases, with respect to which – indeed – it did not give sufficient explanations, but rather of its notorious participation in power blocs to solve global criteria, always in favour of the isapres.
On August 3, 2015 – by 16 votes against 11, with Lusic being an important part of the vote of majority – the plenary of the Court of Appeals of Santiago accomodated the presentation of Consalud and hive for, henceforth, to set as permanent criterion the reduction of 130,000 to 50000 pesos Of the personal costs to be paid by health insurers to affiliates ‘ attorneys, when they lose a unilateral upward protection resource from the health plan. The reduction, which finally favored all the isapres in the territory of the Court of Appeals of Santiago, admitted as an argument – paradoxically – that the returns of these insurers had fallen by 41% due to such payment. It should be remembered that Lusic, in his appearance before the Senate, merely noted that he did so because “the issue had become an industry of litigation.”
No senator asked him anything else, nor did he require him to go further, even though in the Court of Appeals, when this controversial agreement was taken, there was a great deal of discussion with arguments of enormous public transcendence.
What is more, the minority vote judges considered that the personal costs were a mechanism of procedural balance favorable to the affiliates against the contempt conduct of the isapres to raise the price of the health programs unilaterally, forcing the Affected to go to court to defend their rights. The coasts, they said, help to balance the power (of the affiliates) to the Isapres and their huge legal teams and are not an incentive to litigation, but a fair retribution for the work done and a lawsuit won.
By actively supporting the majority vote, a feathered Lusic gave the isapres several million dollars annually in its jurisdiction, as a real incentive to abuse.
No one in the Senate commission asked Dobra Lusic if he would be among his plans, to reach the supreme, to push this same criterion of guidance Pro Isapre. Because other courts of elevation not only have not diminished the personal costs of the lawyers of the affiliates, but have increased them.
Another case that draws the attention is the relative to the gratuitousness of the Plan Auge against the policies of Banmédica, subject Judicializado the year 2011. This isapre doubled the year 2010 the monthly value to its 600,000 beneficiaries, from 0.12 UF to 0.24 UF. With this, he went on to collect additional revenues, regardless of the home of the affiliates. But in July of that year it began to grant the benefit called “Zero Cost Hospital”, which covered the total value of hospitalizations and exempted any legal co-payment in the closed network of the Isapre for the 69 pathologies-Auge, making it applicable only for Members who lived in regions, excluding those in the metropolitan region. Users of the system considered it discriminatory and presented a protection resource.
In July of that year, the Fourth Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Santiago, with the vote of Dobra Lusic, rejected the resource of protection and validated the performance of the Isapre.
The appellants appealed to the Supreme Court and this, repealing the contested judgment, accomodated this appeal, stating that “the current legislative trend in the field of Isapres and health benefits (…) It is aimed at progressively limiting the freedom of these institutions to establish the conditions of the contract and the adjustment of its price, freedom that was recognized to them practically without restrictions in the decree with force of Law No. 3 of 1981 of the Ministry of health… “.
The country’s highest court noted that excluding the beneficiaries of the metropolitan region is “illegal and violates the security referred to in article 19 N ° 2 of the Fundamental Charter”, which enshrines “equality before the law” and “prohibition of” establishing differences Arbitrary ‘ “.
Nor did he deserve questions or comments from the Senators this case, which had huge public implications and a large volume of citizens involved: more than four hundred thousand Banmédica affiliates. Will judge Lusic to change this current Supreme Court criterion to get her to integrate?
The bad memory about John Campos
Between May 8 and today, several days have passed when new backgrounds have emerged that add arguments to the ethical objection so that Dobra Lusic can assume as the new Minister of the Supreme Court. The main thing is that the candidate not only did not report important facts that were consulted, but also rightly hid or lied about the circumstances of his official performance.
The first and most important is that before the Senate commission lied about his knowledge of the “operator” judicial John Campos Benavides, on who said to know him in a vague way, however having appointed him 16 times as an alternate notary in the jurisdiction of the Santiago Court of Appeals. And as stated by the notary Gloria Ortiz, from the 25th note, to the Judicial prosecutor Carla Troncoso in the administrative summary that this took place, Dobra Lusic asked directly to her, already in the year 2017, that “instruct (John) fields how to take a Notary”.
From this recommendation of Lusic, who was “visiting minister” of the notary Ortiz, would be born the habit of leaving as a replacement to Campos Benavides when the headline was absent.
Also the President of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Minister Ana Cienfuegos Barros, stated in the same investigation that, in mid-October 2018, received the call of Dobra Lusic recommending to John Campos as interim notary of the 5th notary of San Miguel, replacing Pilar Gutiérrez, who had been named at the notary Zaldívar in Santiago, for having a lot of experience in his jurisdiction. She named it – as she said – because Pilar Gutiérrez had also recommended it, saying that her husband, Alejandro Espinoza, criminal lawyer of Pablo Longueira and other prominent politicians involved in illegal funding of politics, knew him.
Human rights
The bad memory of Dobra Lusic reaches even its participation in the human rights trials, which both thrilled-during the session of the Commission-to the socialist Senator Alfonso de Urresti. She thanked him and then heard him say “I clarify that I have not failed in operation Colombo.”
But it did.
In his capacity as a member of the first courtroom of the Court of Appeals of Santiago, he was given a ruling, unanimous decision with Guillermo de la Barra and Jenny Book, the 192-2016 role in which the former Cés army officers were sentenced to effective sentences of 7 years in prison. Ar Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, and 5 years and one day agent José Orlando Gonzalo Manzo Durán. This, for the murder of Professor Arturo Barria Araneda, who was made to appear as dead in Argentina, according to a Brazilian publication ad hoc, due to quarrels among extremists, which was a montage of the DINA.
All those mentioned had been sentenced in the first instance to higher penalties, to 13 years Pedro Espinoza, Cesar Manríquez and Raúl Iturriaga Neuman, and to 10 years José Orlando Manzo Durán. The ruling of the room chaired by Lusic lowered the penalty in half. Not to remember? None of the senators present remembered?
Senators have the floor
The government’s last-minute stance is that everything is in the hands of the Senate. Legally that is so and politically also, although the Minister of Justice can hardly be put aside from the Chapuceramente acted in this failed process of inter-institutional cooperation between state powers. Nor is the Supreme Court exempt from responsibility, due to its lack of expertise and control at the time of the elaboration of Quinas.
There is no explanation for the presence and performance of Senator Ximena Rincón in the Committee on Constitution, Law and justice, not only by flattering and supporting the candidacy of Dobra Lusic, but recognizing that “he called her several times on the phone” and thanking That “I would have answered” calls in which I would have asked him about the facts that began circulating in the press. The press and public opinion have a right to wonder now what they talked about or what compromise might have been taken between the two, in such unusual calls and outside the Republican procedure, given the warm support made by the parliamentary candidate, without That at least by formality would have existed, if not a rigorous questionnaire Civic, a dignified republican attitude in their participation.
The icing on the cake was the silent presence in the Commission, but with sounding further opinions, by the socialist Senator José Miguel Insulza. For him, everything is relative, it happens whenever the bond and the Pituto are used, and the good and the bad in politics does not exist, because “nobody bathes every day with holy water”.
The question for this senator would be: what are the limits of Republican ethics and the functioning of institutions forcing them to go to the “Holy water bath”? And how long, so that the evils pass and the bad memory is erased?
The content poured in this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of the counter.
