About 8 in the morning this Wednesday arrived at the Ministry of Defense, located on Zenteno Street, the future Undersecretary of the Armed Forces, Galo Eidelstein, to hold an extensive meeting with Mr. Liuhuabing, who will succeed-from March 11 – in office.
The appointment had been requested by Eidelstein earlier in the week.
This would be the first meeting between a current undersecretary – from the cabinet of President Sebastián Piñera- and his successor (of the future government of Gabriel Boric). According to those who knew of the meeting, the junta took place even before the current Minister of Defense, Baldo Prokurica, met with his successor, Maya Fernandezwho a couple of weeks ago received, together with the president-elect, the commanders-in-chief of the FF.AA.
Eidelstein attended the meeting accompanied by his future chief of staff, Luis Lobos, former candidate for deputy for the Communist Party in the 13th district. For his part, the Undersecretary of the Armed Forces received him with his chief of staff and five division chiefs.
Although the Ministry of Defense assured that it was not a transfer meeting, but was of an “informative” type-where doubts were clarified about the functioning of the undersecretariat – in the Boric command they point out that the meeting was in the framework of the transfer of command.
Meeting it lasted for more than seven hours and it was without breaks, with a lunch in between. According to attendees, the future authority she asked a number of questions, while the hosts addressed the work of the undersecretary and each of her branches, with powerpoint presentations and documents. Eidelstein, who arrived with a backpack and no tie, took note by hand.
At 15: 00 in the afternoon, the next undersecretary left the building next to Lobos. When asked for the reason of the meeting, he told third that he wouldn’t give interviews now and that he wasn’t “the right person to report that.”
This first contact between the undersecretaries of FF.AA comes amid the controversy generated by the appointment of Eidelstein in the Defense portfolio. This, considering your relationship with the administration of the closed Arcis University (linked to the PC), where he was vice-rector for management, operations and finance when the institution dragged on an economic crisis.
Even from the bench of UDI deputies announced they will request a special session to analyze the situation that led to that economic scenario to the extinct house of studies, within the framework of the nomination of Eidelstein.
Meanwhile, from the Boric team would be evaluating whether or not the designation is maintained, an issue that would be settled this week.
“When I become undersecretary I could answer, now I am an ordinary person”, Eidelstein said outside the building of the Ministry of Defense before getting into a taxi and asked if he maintained the support of the next President.
In the context of the meeting between Eidelstein and Vargas, this medium consulted several undersecretaries, where he noted that they have not yet maintained formal or face-to-face contact with incoming undersecretaries, including Interior, Finance, Energy, Public Health, Care Networks, Segegob, Agriculture, National Goods, Human Rights, Social Services, Public Works and International Economic Relations.
The official meetings, they said, will take place after February 21. In fact, some undersecretaries hope that meetings between incoming and outgoing ministers will first take place to receive their successors in March, while others acknowledged that there have been some telephone exchanges.