The First Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals unanimously accepted the chaptered complaint against Supreme Court ex-minister Ángela Vivanco in the Belarusian plot case. This allows the Public Ministry to file charges and request precautionary measures. Evidence suggests Vivanco accepted payments to favor CBM company in a dispute with Codelco.
The Santiago Court of Appeals made a pivotal decision on Wednesday by accepting the complaint filed by Los Lagos regional prosecutor Carmen Gloria Wittwer against Ángela Vivanco. The unanimous ruling from the First Chamber, composed of ministers Fernando Carreño, Guillermo de la Barra, and substitute minister Fernando Valderrama, states that there are 'serious, precise, and consistent indications' of the alleged facts.
According to the judgment, Vivanco, leveraging her role as a Supreme Court minister, accepted economic retributions from lawyers Eduardo Lagos and Mario Vargas, representatives of the Chilean-Belarusian company CBM, with whom she had been friends since at least 2022. These payments were allegedly to favor CBM in the judicial dispute with Codelco during 2023 and 2024, without recusing herself and voting in its favor in key decisions, such as cases Roles N° 141.421-2023 and N° 1.150-2024.
The court details that Vivanco received money for herself and her partner, Gonzalo Migueles, committing infractions in case processing rules, as per the Ethics Commission's report. Although substitute minister Valderrama proposed declaring the complaint inadmissible due to impropriety, arguing Vivanco no longer has special immunity, this opinion did not prevail.
The Prosecutor's Office stated that this sentence advances the criminal pursuit, awaiting a possible appeal from the defense to the Supreme Court. The ex-minister, previously removed through an internal disciplinary process, now faces a step toward formalization in this judicial corruption scandal.
