Undersecretary of Children Carol Bown responded to criticism of her sayings against Judge Silvana Donoso, one of the members of the court who granted parole to Hugo Bustamante, the prime suspect in the murder of Amber Cornejo.
“I only took charge of the pain and indignation of many families who fear for the integrity of the most sacred, which are their children. And the truth is, I didn’t want to refer to any particular judge,” Bown said in an interview with EmolTV.
“What I did was a critique and a self-criticism. And on the part of the Magistrates’ Association, which has said he is very upset about my sayings, I understand your annoyance. Humbly, I want to offer apologies and I regret that my sayings have deflected the discussion,” he raised.
The undersecretary insisted that she did not seek to “generate a controversy with another entity of the State, but that together we take the work seriously, because we are all part of the system of comprehensive protection for children and adolescents and the invitation is to work together”.
Asked about the possibility of being asked to resign for his comments, Bown said that, if so, “I would go with my head held high.”
“If I have to resign for defending the rights of children, for defending Amber and for putting myself in the shoes of the mothers who have suffered this kind of violation, I will have to do so. I’m trusted by the President, and if he asks me for resignation, there’s no other, but I’d leave with my head held high. I did it for the most vulnerable children and I’m proud to have done it,” he argued.
“They called me, I spoke to the Minister of Justice (Hernán Larraín), I told him that I was sorry to have entered his area and he told me that he did not agree. This was the product of a very painful thing that happened,” he said.
The letter sent to the Supreme Court
In parallel, Undersecretary Bown sent a private letter to the Supreme Court where, again, she apologized for her sayings.
In the letter, published by the newspaper La Tercera, Bown states that he wants to “apologize to you and all the members and members of the power it represents, for the apparent meddling in the judiciary, especially considering that it is an independent power of the Executive issue that I respect and value. This, particularly given my training as a lawyer.”
“In my quest to protect and defend the rights of children and adolescents, especially those who have been seriously violated, as is the case with Amber, I wanted to express my concern about the failure of the system in protecting the most vulnerable. For the above, I reiterate my readiness to carry out reforms together, as we have discussed in other circumstances and meetings with the Judiciary and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights,” he added, in a letter that was read at the beginning of the ordinary plenary of the Supreme Court by President Guillermo Silva.
In his sayings, Bown states that “I did them in a personal capacity and they do not represent any government of which I am a party, let alone the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.”
At the end of her letter, the undersecretary asks that “this does not prevent us from continuing to advance the work done so far, in order to improve the comprehensive system of protection for children and adolescents, in order to prevent cases like this from continuing to occur”.
