Scandal in the Constituent Assembly of Chile: a Convention member claimed to have cancer to be elected

An unprecedented scandal splashes into Chilean politics. A voter who became known for his fight against cancer and his demands for better public health during the 2019 social protests were reported to the prosecutor’s office after he confessed that he has never been sick.

Rodrigo Rojas He jumped into the media for his haggard image, no hair or eyebrows supposedly for his chemotherapy treatments and his militant demands during the demonstrations of that year which defeated the government of Sebastián Piñera.

From this makeshift platform in the streets of Santiago, Rojas got into politics and was elected constituent by the City List in the elections of May 15 and 16.

But it was all a lie.

The convention responsible for drafting the new Constitution which will replace the one inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet denounced this Monday to the Parquet Rojas after confessing on Saturday to claiming to have cancer.

Rojas, according to the accusing text, would have lied in the declaration of interests and assets which is required of all constituents. There, he claimed to have a debt of 27 million pesos (just over $ 35,000) to fund cancer treatment.

“We learned from the media that Mr Rojas claimed he did not have cancer and therefore the aforementioned statement would not be reliable,” the complaint said.

What will happen now?

The scandal surprised Chilean society. From the constituent convention, they assured that they would analyze the issue in the coming days, although the political future of Rojas is uncertain.

However, the resignation of a member is not provided for in the regulations, except in the event of serious illness, according to the experts cited by Efe.

“There will be no corporate defenses here. It is not a good idea that between peers there is the possibility that we get laid off, but there has to be an institutional solution,” said the deputy. -Convention president, Jaime Bassa.

Rojas had already resigned Sunday from his post on the board of directors of the constituent body.

His breakthrough in politics

Rojas rose to popularity at social protests in 2019 as an anonymous citizen who claimed to have cancer and demanded better public health.

The image he projected was extremely fragile. No hair or eyebrows and with her chest exposed, her face went viral on social media. In one of the steps he even appeared with catheters in his body.

Yet the lie ended last Saturday when he confessed to not suffering from the disease, on which he based his entire speech to make the leap into politics. He also hosted a blog on his fight against this evil.

Rojas was elected by the Popular List, which he himself founded. It is about a heterogeneous group of independents resulting from the social protest and came third in the constitutive elections.

Its success has been interpreted by analysts as a rejection of mainstream parties.

The Constituent Convention was largely upheld by independent and progressive citizens.

The body began in July to draft Chile’s new constitution as a political means of alleviating the social crisis in which the country was plunged, the most serious in its 31 years of democracy.