Former Supreme Court minister Ángela Vivanco defended her innocence against the prosecution's querella in the Belarus plot case. She stated that her judicial rulings were correct and dismissed the accusations for lacking logic. She announced she will handle her defense separately from that of her partner, Gonzalo Migueles.
Ángela Vivanco, former Supreme Court minister, responded on Tuesday to the chapters querella filed by the Los Lagos regional prosecutor's office, led by Carmen Gloria Wittwer. The probe examines alleged crimes such as bribery, kickbacks, money laundering, and influence peddling in the so-called Belarus plot, linked to the Belaz Movitec consortium and a dispute against Codelco.
Vivanco maintained that she ruled according to law in the decision favoring Belaz Movitec, which went through the chamber seven times with majority votes of 4-1 or 5-0, without her vote being decisive. In an interview with Biobío TV, she said: “What I have to do now is defend myself on that, because I am firmly convinced that what I ruled, I ruled in law, and not because I had any other kind of interest”.
She denied visiting the offices of lawyers Eduardo Lagos and Mario Vargas, representatives of Belaz Movitec, arguing that the Public Ministry's geolocalizations are inaccurate and refer to nearby locations like a hair salon and her apartment on Napoleón street. “I never visited the office of Vargas and Lagos, never”, she stated, noting the lack of entry logs, cameras, or witnesses to confirm the visits.
She challenged the claims of irregularities and undue pressures raised by Codelco's lawyers, suggesting they emerged late and amid an irregular ethical process that led to her express removal. On the querella, she criticized the prosecution for rushing: “It seems to me that the Prosecutor's Office, strangely, hurried to put together a case for which it did not have all the pieces”.
Vivanco will pursue an independent defense from Migueles and the other implicated parties, who are detained in the case. She dismissed links to her partner's trips or businesses, emphasizing their professional separation.