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By Global News Service
On July 26, the commune of Recoleta in Santiago, Chile, will be forced to elect a new mayor to replace Daniel Jadue, who is currently in preventive prison. Since Jadue could not report to work for 45 days after being incarcerated, an automatic mechanism removed him from the mayor’s office, even though he has not been proven guilty.
The Chilean justice system accuses him of tax fraud, swindling, concealment of assets, bribery, and unfair administration. Jadue was arrested and put in preventative detention on June 3. He allegedly committed these acts when he was the president of the Association of Municipalities with Popular Pharmacies (ACHIFARP).
Some see Jadue’s arrest as an attempt to remove the most successful communist politician in the country as mayor and to damage the Communist Party of Chile. Jadue himself asked, “Can anyone think that with the attention of the public prosecutor’s office always on our administration we would commit illicit acts that would jeopardize such a wonderful project [as the Farmacias Populares] that has improved the quality of life of thousands of people? This accusation could have happened years ago or several months after the elections. But the accusation is made ‘coincidentally’ in the middle of an election year.”
Sociologist José Salvador Cárcamo stated that Jadue’s case represents persecution: “Lawfare has moved to Chile… [the Farmacias Populares project] affected oligopolistic and monopolistic interests that acted as cartels through three pharmacy chains that comprise 90 percent of the market: Cruz Verde, Farmacias Ahumada, and Salcobrand.”
from the Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service
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