President-elect José Antonio Kast, who will take office as head of state on March 11, announced this Tuesday the unprecedented break in the transfer of command process with the Government of Gabriel Boric. The decision was communicated after the failed 22-minute meeting with the Chilean president in La Moneda, where the China Mobile company’s submarine fiber optic cable project was discussed, to connect the Valparaíso region with Hong Kong, which the United States rejects. The differences in the versions about how much information the outgoing Administration gave to the incoming Administration about this matter caused Kast to abruptly end the meeting and suspend the bilateral meetings between the ministers and future ministers of various portfolios, who were in the Government Palace. In addition to this, the Republican accuses that there is a “lack of transparency” in different ministries of the left-wing Administration. In a press conference from his office, the future president of Chile argued his decision to end the transition process. He pointed out that, unlike what Boric said this Monday in an interview with the Mega television channel, the president did not inform him about the Chinese cable project, but rather on February 18, in a telephone call, he “outlined,” among other topics, a “complex situation” regarding the project and the contrary position of the United States Government on it. That call occurred two days before Washington, on the 20th, sanctioned three executive officials, including the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz, accused of “undermining regional security in our hemisphere.” The incoming Minister of the Interior, Claudio Alvarado, assured this Monday that the president-elect “was never informed, nor was he aware of this situation,” in relation to the cable. For this reason, Kast’s rhetoric this morning has been to highlight the difference between «inform» and «state» or «outline», although he acknowledged the telephone call between the two before the controversy broke out publicly on February 20. Gabriel Boric at the Palacio de la Moneda, this Tuesday. Ailen Díaz (EFE)
The change of scenery
Boric’s statements in the television interview this Monday generated discomfort in the incoming Government. The Chilean president pointed out that he had informed Kast that he wanted to talk about the cable and the position of Donald Trump’s Government regarding it «weeks before» – in reality it was two days, according to what was known this Tuesday – of the sanctions imposed by the United States. «Was he planning to give an interview like the one he gave yesterday, to say the things he said yesterday?» Kast said this morning. «Well, one has to take responsibility for the things one says and does, and at the time one does them. If a bilateral and orderly and responsible transfer process was being developed, and the superior of the State decides to raise some situations that affect the other superior who comes after him, clearly there is a change in the scenario, and an action has a reaction,» he added. Kast, however, defended that the suspension of this morning’s meeting was not only due to Boric’s refusal to «clarify» what he said in the interview, but rather that “it is a response to a transfer process” that started “in the best way”, but along the way it has been found that there is a lack of information. «What has happened in matters of fiscal administration is even more serious than the lack of information; in our opinion there is a lack of transparency, and we have been seeing this in different ministries, in different departments,» accused the Republican, who announced «an administrative task force» led by future Minister Alvarado to compile all the existing information, not only in the ministries, but also through the Council for Transparency and the Comptroller’s Office. The objective, Kast said, is to have “the greatest amount of information and be able to contrast it with the data” that they are given when they take over the Government.
José Antonio Kast during a conference this morning.Ailen Díaz (EFE)In his press conference, the president-elect also pointed out that he had already held three previous meetings with Boric since he was elected last December, -two formal and one within the framework of the Congress of the Future-, but that the Chinese cable or the approval of the concession signed by Minister Muñoz at the end of January were not addressed. It was annulled two days later due to a typing error, as reported by El Mercurio the day after the US sanctions, in information that, until now, the Boric Government had not made known. In addition, Kast criticized that in the bilateral meeting between Minister Muñoz and the future leader of the portfolio, Louis de Grange, in mid-February, he was not informed of the issue. “If there is a matter of strategic interest, a relevant geopolitical matter that is related to a ministry, what I would have expected is that in the information that is delivered directly to the minister it would be pointed out that there is a situation that arises again, that had already occurred in previous years. [durante el Gobierno de Joe Biden ya habían mostrado su rechazo a la Administración de Piñera]and that there had been a State decision on how to address the issue of connectivity. But none of that happens,» said Kast. In the 16-minute telephone conversation between Kast and Boric on February 18, the Republican also expressed his concern about «the serious fiscal situation» that affects Chile. «There are no clear figures regarding the state of the country’s fiscal situation,» he accused in the press conference from his office. He also asked him to instruct his ministers to review and check the situations that seek to «give continuity to trusted people in senior positions,» something that for them «it is serious, especially given the instructions that the president himself had given, that no one trusted by his Government should continue in the next Administration.» In addition, in the conversion on the 18th he told him about his concern about the process of rebuilding homes in Viña del Mar and the south-central area affected by the 2024 fires. Regarding the issues that Boric raised, among them the cable, the president told him that he «could initiate, sign or not sign a decree that initiates the issue of the concessions,» according to Kast. But the Republican, as he revealed, told him: «You should not make relevant decisions in the days you have left, because that corresponds to the new Government.»
