Mauricio Weibel: “Private pension funds …

From Santiago, Chile

Nail A resounding defeat for the government of businessman Sebastián Piñera was the refusal of the Constitutional Court to review the proposed third withdrawal of 10% of pension fund administrators (AFP) this had already been approved by the Chilean Congress. This is in addition to the start of Congress consideration of a constitutional reform to introduce a tax on the “super rich” to establish an emergency basic income (but only once).

For a country plunged for months into an institutional, health and economic crisis, the fact that the president himself refused to withdraw the money that the citizens themselves saved was a political error which the decision of the TC ratified. . In fact, since yesterday he has met with his emergency committee and where various sources agree that the government is even more bankrupt than on October 18, 2019 when the massive protests began in what was known as of a “social epidemic” which left dozens dead, 500 young people suffered eye injuries as a result of gunshots in the face of police officers and a plebiscite where the amendment of the Constitution was approved.

And just as the TC is recognized as one of the authoritarian enclaves left by the Pinochet dictatorship and which allows any law approved by Congress to be “shortened”, the other institution inherits the 1980 Constitution – which is to start to be rewritten after the election of voters on May 15 and 16 – these are the AFP. An instrument created by none other than the president’s brother, José Piñera, which allows various private companies to invest with the money obligatorily deposited by workers to retire.

A complex system which, in simple terms, forces contributors to choose different types of funds with varying degrees of risk and administrators whose owners are North Americans (Cuprum, ProVida), Italians (Plan Vital), Colombians (Capital), Chileans (Modelo, Uno) and Chilean-American (Habitat) who in turn allow other companies or holdings to “play” with this money on the market. Of course, contributors do not participate in the profits, but they do participate in the losses, which results in low pensions that do not match the savings. By the way, the armed forces and the police have a different pension system to this day.

The journalist Mauricio Weibel, immersed himself in this system in the book The fall of AFP (Aguilar) but not so much in its structure as in its effects: illegality, money in tax havens and fraud. Its opening pages are revealing: a former Provida benefit chief who had worked for 28 years applied for her disability pension. She had been bedridden for two years, without receiving payment for her medical license, and AFP had an express order to prevent its affiliates from obtaining this pension, even though the case was terminal. And of course, his attempt, lawyer through, was rejected. A completely normal type of practice in this system.

But this is only the “softer” part of an investigation that orders and exposes the misuse of these funds by military officials, the normalization of judicial havens, various acts of corruption and Characters like the businessman Julio Ponce Lerou – son-in-law of Pinochet – ideologue of a series of operations to buy and sell shares through public limited companies and closed investments, organized around the mining company SQM. In this “game” called “Cascadas Case” because of the structure of the scam, only the main AFP (Habitat) lost more than 11 million dollars, while the rest between 20 or 30 million, according to the book. . The businessman has earned no less than $ 128 million, having to pay a fine of $ 3 million in 2020, the most expensive fine in Chilean history.

State capture

“The AFPs have always been the icon of the economic model installed in the dictatorship,” Weibel explains. “They extract and keep workers’ retirement savings, to invest them in financial instruments, almost half of which are abroad. In other words, billions of dollars deposited in stocks or bonds of large companies, through operations which have often served to socialize the losses of economic groups. How can it be wise to take $ 85,000 million out of the economy to buy securities or currencies outside of Chile? If these resources were repatriated and invested in the real economy, we would have a society with more jobs and, ultimately, fairer ”.

– From the first pages of the book, the ideology of the Chilean elite who designed this system is very well reflected: authoritarian, tutelary and closed in on itself.

—In Chile and Latin America, the elites have carried out long processes of taking over the state, its resources, structures and repressive capacities. This is not a problem only in Chile. Or only from an ideological sector. The takeover, the attack on civil society and the precariousness of democracy have occurred in almost the entire continent, with the exception of Uruguay and Costa Rica.

– What are the things that impacted you the most and that caused noise in your investigation?

– Theft of invalids and terminally ill patients, who have been fraudulently refused their pensions. I think this act shows the profound inhumanity of the neoliberal system

– The external image of Chile, but also that which was imposed on us, is that of a serious country, without great corruption, where the control took place.

“Unfortunately, impunity and abuse are prevalent situations on our continent, which have survived for decades and centuries. Justice has never been a pillar of our development. This allowed for inequalities in the massacres.

– What is the responsibility of the Concertación which governed during the transition to democracy?

“The Chilean center-left has chosen to live with the model, benefiting in private, to the detriment of large sectors of workers. Parliamentarians have come to receive allowances up to 40 times the minimum wage. The dictatorship model has become naturalized, supported by an exclusive political model, a media system with serious problems of pluralism and a growing concentration of wealth, in the midst of an ever-increasing social and territorial segregation of the middle and poor layers.

Weibel admits that the massiveness and self-governing form of the “social epidemic” surprised him. “Without the revolt, we would not change the Constitution and open a new social and political cycle”, although he also admits that this fraudulent machine imposed by the Chilean economic elite will surely continue to surprise us in the future. . “They believe they own other people’s lives, not just their wealth.”

Espionage and monsters in democracy

Weibel, who also uncovered the cases of military corruption in the book Treason (2016) was spied on along with other journalists like Alejandra Matus, Pascale Bonnefo and Javier Rebolledo, who also investigated the sewers of power. According to the Ciper Journalistic Investigation Center, the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE) tapped phones and requested personal information, also including officials who allegedly testified to reporters.

– What are the professional effects knowing that there was espionage on your work in the midst of a democracy?

“We still suspect it, while investigating military corruption.” There have been equipment thefts, threats to our sources, follow-ups.

-At Mercury Two Sundays ago, a letter from a rear admiral appeared justifying it, since it is about protecting the institution from its own officials who can reveal sensitive information.

“The journalistic investigative work that I carried out opened the door to Justice to investigate 850 active and retired military personnel, including the last four commanders-in-chief, and also made it possible to recover approximately $ 4,500 million for the national budget. Espionage and threats to freedom of expression were to silence this effort.

“Do you think it’s fear of the military or of intimidation or both?” This worries me, given the persecution and violence against journalists, especially by independent media, during the epidemic.

– I have always believed that the one who uses violence is because he is deeply weak, because he is afraid. And yes, today we have very serious problems in Chile with the safety of journalists.

– What does this espionage of journalists symbolize – I know it is not only with you – in the midst of a democracy? That the ghost of dictatorship continues to materialize?

“As Gramsci said, these are the monsters that emerge when the old order falls and the new is not yet born.” The important thing is that we are going to demand truth and justice, in addition to building memory. Freedom of expression is essential because its exercise allows us to claim all other human rights.