In 2015, then Justice Minister José Antonio Gómez refused to sign nearly 500 sentence reduction decrees, according to La Tercera. The decision led to an open clash with the Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court that lasted almost a year.
The episode has resurfaced amid the current crisis. Justice Minister Fernando Rabat changed the executive branch's criteria for granting this benefit following controversy over sentence reductions for sexual abusers. José Antonio Kast's government suspended new decrees and is reviewing whether it can reverse those already granted.
Sentence reductions were part of the law that created a social reintegration system for people deprived of their liberty. The aim was to reward good conduct in prisons and support inmates' reintegration over the long term.
Gómez, a Radical Party member, always considered sentence reductions a benefit rather than a right. He also interpreted the law as requiring four conditions to be met jointly: studies toward a qualification, work certified by a trade credential, treatment for addictions or criminal impulses, and good conduct.
The courts interpreted the law differently. Their rulings held that the decision rested exclusively with the Sentence Reduction Commission and that the ministry's role was solely to implement it. They also established that sentence reductions were a right.
"The courts were basically saying that the commission was sovereign, and that was unacceptable," Gómez recalled to La Tercera. He added that the cases included murderers, child abusers and rapists. According to the former minister, his advisers identified cases that did not meet the legal requirements.
The inmates filed habeas corpus petitions. Gómez lost every case. Even so, he says he has no regrets and would act the same way again: "Just because a court says something is white doesn't make it white."
The pressure escalated. According to Gómez's account, messages reached him from the Supreme Court about possible contempt proceedings, and the Supreme Court justices complained to then President Michelle Bachelet. The nongovernmental organization Leasur then took the case to the Prosecutor's Office.
The complaint resonated in Congress. Then Deputy Gabriel Boric wrote on X: "Extremely serious complaint against Minister Gómez over the arbitrary imprisonment of more than 500 inmates." Together with Giorgio Jackson, he went to La Moneda with Leasur to deliver a letter and alleged malfeasance in public office.
The Public Prosecutor's Office opened a case, and Gómez became a suspect in the investigation. The investigation was closed. "The Prosecutor's Office concluded that nothing I did constituted a crime," he said.
Today, the case involves different figures but the same tension between the executive branch and the courts. The political cost now falls on Kast's government: Communist Party President Lautaro Carmona called for Rabat's resignation, while Kast backed his minister.
Gómez welcomes Rabat's response. He says he understands what Rabat must have thought "on seeing the hundreds of Supreme Court rulings" and approves of his political decision to act quickly. The government promised a law to bar those convicted of sexual offenses against minors from receiving these benefits.
