The Forum of Sao Paulo (FSP) denounced on Wednesday the resurgence of judicial persecution against the mayor of the Chilean commune of Recoleta, Daniel Jadue, who from the previous day faces an oral trial accused of alleged corruption.
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The also militant and former presidential candidate for the Communist Party led the Chilean Association of Municipalities with Popular Pharmacies (Achifarp), a solidarity initiative to protect people’s health by guaranteeing fairer prices for medical services, particularly for citizens with fewer resources.
The day before, the Prosecutor’s Office filed charges for alleged fraud to the tax, bribery, unfair administration, fraud and bankruptcy. It also formalized seven other accused. Jadue, who will present his arguments this Thursday, declared after the session that the Prosecutor’s "staging" was very weak and that he has no evidence.
On the case, the FSP expressed through a statement that the communications, judicial and political persecution towards Jadue is, in fact, aimed at ending "a project of democratization and popular protagonism that substantially improved the lives of thousands of Chilean families, generating a national and international reference as far as local governments are concerned".
The text reads,
I support Mayor Daniel Jadue! No to lawfare in Chile! We see with concern the communication, judicial and political persecution of Daniel Jadue, Mayor of Recoleta, and above all of what he represents: a project of democratization and popular protagonism.
The Forum made clear that the judicial war is used by the elite of power and financial capital to defend popular leaders and the social policies they implement to eradicate poverty and reduce deep social inequalities.
He assured that these sectors, which do not succeed in defeating the people at the polls, seek to impose their interests at all costs over popular sovereignty, which is why they criminalize and destroy politics, "sentencing before any impartial judge through hegemonic means, violating the principle of due process and the constitutional guarantees of the accused".
The platform denounced that for this they use the hegemonic press, impose a communication matrix and press for the opening of a judicial investigation that supports the installed matrix without being concerned with seeking the truth.
He recalled that at the end of last April Jadue "was threatened to prevent him from leaving the country without judicial resolution or any process beyond the hegemonic press". On that occasion, and despite the fact that the Prosecutor’s Office had not issued precautionary measures, he was prevented from travelling to Venezuela and participating in the Encounter for a World Social Alternative. The mayor of Recoleta described this measure as arbitrary and in violation of his constitutional rights and guarantees, as well as due process.
The Forum called on the international community to prevent the continuation of the ban on political leadership and the rule of law.
In this regard, he stated that "divert from the path popular political leaders and deeply uncomfortable for the status quo is the guarantee that those above need to guarantee the election of candidates subject to market interests, who ignore the population, especially the poorest".