The Minister of Women and Gender Equity (Ministra de la Mujer y la Equidad de Género, Chile's cabinet post for women's affairs), Judith Marín, criticized the suspension of the pretrial preparatory hearing against former Undersecretary of the Interior (subsecretario del Interior, the deputy minister in charge of internal affairs and security) Manuel Monsalve. In her view, situations like this are "reasons why women stop reporting".
According to BioBioChile, the minister spoke on the program Expreso Bío Bío. There she said that, as a minister, she must respect due process. However, she added that "as a woman" she must demand that complaints be taken "with the seriousness and the diligence they deserve".
The hearing had been scheduled for this Monday the 5th at the Séptimo Juzgado de Garantía de Santiago (Santiago's Seventh Court of Guarantees, a pretrial court). The court rescheduled it for March 3, 2027, because notification had reportedly been served after the deadline.
"When proceedings are drawn out, in a way it means belittling or minimizing a complaint, and I don't think that's right," Marín said. As reported by El Mostrador, the minister also described the discouragement felt by victims: "They say: 'Well, I'm going to report it,' but what for, if this takes so long?"
Monsalve, known at the time as the "security czar", is charged with sexual abuse and rape. The complaint was filed by a woman who was then his subordinate. The Ministerio Público, that is, the Public Prosecutor's Office (Fiscalía), is seeking sentences totaling 14 years and 2 days of imprisonment.
The minister defined the government's role in the case. "Our role is to make the institutions work, to ensure that the investigative steps can be carried out in due time and that these cases can also move with the speed they deserve," she said.
With the new date, the stage prior to Monsalve's oral trial will be delayed by almost five months. The hearing was set for March 3, 2027, at the same Santiago court.
