translated from Spanish: Justice Ministry and Sename accuse MEP Saffirio of “irresponsibility and political use of children”

Mr René Saffirio on Tuesday demanded that Justice Minister Hernán Larraín and National Prosecutor Jorge Abbott resign, accusing them of hiding a POI report on the Sename.
His statement provoked not only the debunking of the institutions referred to, but also a hard replica during this day by the Under-Secretary of Justice, Juan José Ossa, accompanied by the national director of the Sename, Susana Tonda, who raised that “what Mr. Saffirio pointed out is false, insulting and irresponsible” and they blamed him for making “political use of childhood.” “The POI report mentioned by the Member has never been delivered to our Ministry or the Sename. So it’s false to hide. This was noted in public statements by both the POI and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, who expressed that our Ministry has not received such information and that they intended to deliver it in the coming days as an input for future public policies”, both authorities indicated with respect to the document called “Analysis of residential functioning in juvenile service-dependent centres” prepared by the IDP on behalf of the prosecutor with preferential designation for the Sename case, Marcos Emilfork .
“Confuse the report”
The report has lapidary figures, such as the view that 100% of Sename’s direct administration centres violated the rights of children. The investigation also found that in 50% of the total centres investigated during part of 2017, sexual violations were recorded.
However, Ossa and Tonda stressed that “the Member seems to be confusing the report prepared by the IDP and that, as we said, it has not been given to us, with other information that Prosecutor Emilfork did give us in June last year. This information did not mean that they were related to deaths but, on the other hand, to children and adults who were at health risk (some, unfortunately, with unrecoverable diseases) so that whatever action is possible was taken. Far from concealing this information by the Sename, it was forwarded to various institutions to provide information and take whatever action was possible. In addition, Sename himself disclosed this information.”
They also regret that the “parliamentarian has hinted that the alleged concealment would have allowed, at that time, that there would be trafficking in the organs of minors.” “This allegation is delusive. Before this government the Sename at that time had serious problems, but from there to sustain the above there is a gigantic stretch (…) It should be remembered that during the previous government he made that complaint to the authorities of the time,” they added.
In the end, they suggested that “it is not acceptable that, abusing parliamentary jurisdiction, such accusations are made, which only account for the irresponsibility and political use of children. In this sense, Mr Saffirio has been critical of all public policies driven by the government and by the opposition, but we do not yet know what his proposals are.”

Original source in Spanish