Former Chilean mayor fled the country to avoid jail and is wanted by Interpol

The former community chief of Antofagasta, located more than a thousand kilometers from Santiago, who was in office from 2012 to 2020, was convicted of having paid about USD 30,555 to a communications company, using resources earmarked for education and health from the municipality for her re-election.

According to information from the Public Prosecutor's Office, the former mayor paid the Main Comunicaciones agency, so that adviser José Miguel Izquierdo would improve his image with the population of Antofagasta and thus remain in office. T he used to seek re-election in 2016 came from the Municipal Social Development Corporation.

Rojo was sentenced this Thursday to five years and one day in prison by the Antofagasta Guarantee Court. The former executive secretary of the Antofagasta Municipal Corporation, Edgardo Vergara, was convicted of the same crime, who was sentenced to three years and one day of probation for fraud against the Treasury.

The Chief Prosecutor of Antofagasta Cristián Aguilar stated that this fact is “a precedent in the sense that a sentence with an effective sentence of enforcement for the crime of fraud against the Treasury had not been achieved.”

To this he added, “he could be eligible for probation at the time, but for that he must serve half the period imposed by the sentence,” the Prosecutor said.

The Public Ministry reported that prosecutor Aguilar requested in June 2018 the precautionary measure of national roots from the former mayor. However, ten days after this request, the Antofagasta Court of Appeals rescinded the measure ordered against Karen Rojo, following the appeal filed by her defence. At the instance, the Court founded the decision that there were no precedents to justify the existence of a flight hazard.

Despite what was handed down by the Court, Rojo fled as soon as the Supreme Court handed down its sentence. Taking a flight to the Netherlands in order not to serve the actual prison sentence, as confirmed by La Tercera.

In this regard, Antofagasta councillor Ignacio Pozo said that “I find it regrettable what is happening with Mrs. Karen, who had to flee the country. She is the second mayor, who in less than ten years, is accused and prosecuted for fraud against the Treasury.”

In view of the escape of the convicted former community chief, Interpol, an international criminal police organization, issued a red alert for the search and capture of Karen Rojo.

The head of Interpol Santiago's Chilean head office, Maximiliano Macnamara, specified that, “today this Interpol office requested the General Secretariat of Interpol in France to publish a red notice against this person, which will be available to all 194 member countries of the organization.”

The Investigative Police agreed that “at the time of carrying out immigration control in the International Police of the Investigative Police (PDI) he did not present any legal impediment to leaving the country”.

The complainant lawyer Rolando Jara told TVN that “this situation clearly reveals that we are facing a person who is unfortunately a criminal and who does not want to face what he must face like any other situation”.

The lawyer added that “although Mrs. Karen Rojo had a nationally rooted precautionary measure, she would have, eventually, performed the same behavior of leaving, because the Chilean border is extremely extensive and we already have experience, recently, of how people leave and enter illegally in Chile by steps not enabled”.

The Public Prosecutor's Office reported that, having the knowledge that the convicted woman left the country, all legal and police steps are being taken to locate and extradition in order to ensure that the sentence handed down by the Oral Criminal Court of Antofagasta is effectively complied with. However, Chile does not have an extradition agreement with the Netherlands.

In any case, the Local Prosecutor's Office of Antofagasta reiterated to the community that they will use all the legal tools to obtain the extradition of the convicted woman.

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