11 ag. 2022 – 00:26 hrs.
What happened?
The commune of San Francisco de Mostazal, located in the O’Higgins region, is one of the richest communes in the country because of the millionaire figures they receive for the Monticello Casino. Nevertheless, its inhabitants live in absolute precariousness.
That is why a former mayor is being investigated for having invested the funds in another destination that is not social work, which is the end of the money received from entertainment venues.
“The community is the same”
Jose Parraguez, Director of the Hijos del Sol school attests to the precariousness in which they live, for example, their school. With 300 students, it shows rotten gutters, shabby roofs and broken doors, the same ones that must house its students.
Unfortunately, according to records of the municipal authorities, other establishments suffer the same fate. The current mayor, Santiago Gárate, received the commune in deplorable conditions and with millionaire debts, accumulated in the last 12 years.
“The money from Monticello should go to benefit the commune and he sees that the commune is the same,” the mayor accuses, asserting that these resources, by law, must be destined for the social development of San Francisco de Mostazal. However, that did not happen.
“They got rich”
It is for this reason that Gárate blames his predecessor Sergio Medel, who spent 12 years commanding the commune. He himself maintains that he suspects that these funds were destined for other purposes and does not rule out possible corruption.
“We have lost 12 years, because I think there are people who came to profit from all this. I don’t get rich overnight“accuses the mayor.
Residents of Mostazal must live between half-built buildings and the precariousness of the streets and accuse that these funds were never used to improve their quality of life.
Veronica Mirandaleader of the 1,000 population Bernardo Retamalalleges that in the commune “we don’t see anything beautiful. We don’t have a beautiful square, there is no parking, we have unsanitary bathrooms, there is no entrance for an ambulance, a car bomb, there are many things. There is no money. It’s always the same answer“.
Similar is the position of the councilman of Mostazal, Jose Vega, appealing to the fact that in the locality “investment works are needed, something that will always remain, that people can enjoy.”
“We have the privilege of having the casino and the community is the same. It’s the opposite. It’s worse because it’s full of holes everywhere“, regrets Garate.
Complaints against the former mayor
Vega, along with other municipal authorities, have filed complaints and lawsuits against the former administration of Sergio Medel and his close circle.
In addition to this, the new mayor of Mostazal ordered a forensic audit that, by law, can only review the last four years of the former mayor’s administration. The study showed that, between December 2016 and June 2021, the municipality accumulates a debt of 8 thousand 39 million pesos.
Even the audit found that only in the education department there were about 400 million that could not be justified. These were even paid for with lunch vouchers with the same provider.
Christian Sobarzo, legal head of the municipality, explains the latest precedent: “This procedure was used to buy money and to contract directly a supplier of the commune. The supplier was reiterated, it was the only one. Supplier that, obviously, was out of the system, there never was Registration”.
For this reason, the municipality of Mostazal filed a complaint for treasury fraud against former mayor Sergio Medel and the heads of the municipal education department.
“It is exhausting and shameful to know that part of Mayor Medel’s administration and certain officials were taking the resources. One who has denounced realizes that it is unfortunate that the resources have gone elsewhere“, laments José Vega.
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