SANTIAGO, Chile
President Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday refused to resign over political scandals that have rocked the country’s political establishment since the beginning of the year.
“I have not resigned and I am not considering it,” Bachelet told foreign correspondents in the La Moneda government palace in Santiago. “I don’t even know to whom I would resign.”
Social media in Chile lit up this past weekend with rumors that Bachelet was meeting with ministers in Santiago to discuss her imminent resignation after a well-known political commentator said she was contemplating such a move.
The president was instead in the north of the country overseeing the response to deadly flashfloods in the region, Bachelet said.
Her popularity has fallen to historic lows in recent weeks after the publication of details of a 2013 meeting between her son, Sebastian Davalos, and Andronico Luksic, one of the country’s richest men, that resulted in a $10 million (6 million Chilean pesos) bank loan to a company part-owned by Davalos’ wife. The money was used in a land deal that earned the company profits of around $2 million (1.2 million pesos).
Davalos was subsequently forced to resign as director of the presidency’s sociocultural program and is now under investigation. Bachelet reiterated Wednesday that she hadn’t had any knowledge of the deal until it appeared in the media last February.
The revelations coincided with a long-running investigation by public prosecutors into illegal payments by major companies to dozens of politicians and their relatives, which has so far left two of Chile’s richest men and a former minister in jail, awaiting trial on bribery charges.
Bachelet played down the impact the case could have on Chile’s image as one of the least corrupt countries in South America.
“There may be corruption in Chile but it is not widespread,” she said.
Rather the scandals of recent months showed that the country is capable of dealing with the problem.
“Here, there are no first or second class citizens … if relatives of the president are being investigated … that shows the institutions are working,” Bachelet said.
The crisis of confidence in the country’s politics offered an opportunity to strengthen institutions and fill legal vacuums.
Later this month the government plans to send new rules for political funding to be debated in Congress.
