Esteban Valenzuela Van Treek (FRVS), future Minister of Agriculture of the Government of Gabriel Boric, records a conviction for serious libel with publicityd, those formulated in 2020 through social networks against an avocado farmer from the Peumo commune, O’HIggins Region.
The complaint was filed by the farmer who owns the Tralcan company, whose lawyer Nicolás Garrido assures that he operates “a sustainable and environmentally friendly business scheme, in addition to fully respecting all legal and administrative regulations related to it.”
But the also academic from the University of Concepción, divulged posts and videos between June and July 2020 about the allegedfelling of native forest, causing serious damage to the environment.
On these, however, he made scurrilous remarks that “consisted of comparing the property of the plaintiff (the farmer) with a concentration camp, that Mr. Del Río could be racist, delinquent, belong to a mafia and participate in corruption“, reviews the sentence of the case (check the document).
“As can be seen from video evidence dated Friday, June 19, 2020 (uploaded by Valenzuela) to his personal account on the social network Twitter), expresses and suggests that there are ‘families bought’ by my client, as if it were part of some kind of mafia that uses these illicit means. Worse yet, in the same video he states that ‘he is going to call the Carabineros to denounce this criminal.’ Just like that,” Garrido stated in the lawsuit, an excerpt that reproduces Third.
The audiovisual record was then uploaded to YouTube on July 30, 2020 and was disseminated through Twitter and Facebook by the future minister, he also assured.
COMPLAINT: Tralcan company of Nicolás del Río in #ValleQuilicura region #OHiggins prevents free transit to verify the danger of alluvium on the hill that they scraped for avocado monoculture @tvalenzuelavt @LandeckH @pamela_poo @HacemosR pic.twitter.com/YtQfDYmDbZ
– Forests for Cachapoal (@BosqueCachapoal) June 19, 2020
In the same publication, it is stated that accuses a false crime of injuries, pointing out that my client (or that someone linked to him, but apparently under his instructions) had ‘shot another person with pellets’. As if all the above were not enough, even suggests a crime of kidnapping, supposedly orchestrated by my client and/or his company and his ‘lackeys’, when it was he himself who voluntarily entered the path and land of my client, as evidenced by the video and other evidence that is included in an addendum to this presentation”, complements.
Convicted in the first instance, Valenzuela presented before the Court of Appeals of Rancagua a appeal for annulment against the ruling of the Court of First Instance and Guarantee of Peumo, alleging, among other points, an “erroneous assessment or assessment of evidence” regarding his arguments to defend the veracity of his statements against the farmer.
However, the higher court reasoned that the accusations made by the future minister “do not enter into the analysis of the truth”, since the Peumino court rejected the crime of slander -also accused in the complaint-. Thus, rejection the appeal last Wednesday, January 19, 2022.
With this, he confirmed the sentence imposed on him by a fine of 10 monthly tax units and the 21 day prison sentence in its medium degree, although the latter will fulfill it through the conditional referral substitute modality for a period of one year.