Senator [SP] … if you go to CONAF ask … Mr. [PB], he is more concerned about what [Senator SP] thinks, about what is happening with the forests in Chile.”56 b) On May 13, 2004, he gave an interview to “Radio Chilena” and stated: "[...] the senator [SP] has spoken with both the head of CONAF, and the Seremi de Bienes Nacionales, and has asked for their cooperation on the illegal occupants who are illegally cutting down the alerce trees and who are stealing them”; […] “these people arrive and say to Bienes Nacionales, I have been occupying this land peacefully, calmly, uninterruptedly for five years, so give me a title. […] [L] the officials of Bienes Nacionales themselves who went to the field, found that these people did not meet the requirements to be able to request the title and so they reported it, and the Heads of Bienes Nacionales ordered these reports to be changed - I obviously have the documentation to back up my statements - and to give titles to these people, and behind all this there is always Senator [SP];” […] “whether or not the senator's conduct [...] constitutes a crime [...] that will have to be decided by a court"; "[...] a specific case in which I learned about this issue is the case of [...] the legal representative of the Sarao forestry company, which owns a 50,000 hectare plot of land. Now he cannot exploit it. And what is the pressure that the Ministry of National Assets and [the] senator [SP] are putting on him? They say look, if you donate to us, you are going to make a donation of 10 thousand hectares, we will solve the problem of these people and you will be able to exploit the other 40 thousand hectares”; “I understand that the reason why Mr. [CW] [Director of CONAF] was arrested is because he admitted to various people that he could not do anything to protect the alerce in the case of my client, Forestal Sarao, because Senator [SP] had asked him not to do so.” Mr. Baraona then clarified that he was not saying that “Senator [SP] is corrupt, a thief or that there is money for politicians, since [he] is not aware of this, nor does [he] believe it to be the case [...].” He also pointed out that the heads of CONAF and Bienes Nacionales had a “servile attitude towards the parliamentarians of the area, [...] of course, in order to reach these positions they obviously have to be endorsed and approved by the regional senator.”57 c) On May 17, 2004, Mr. Baraona was interviewed on the program “Poder y Poderes Políticos”, broadcast by the UCV TV channel, and reiterated what he had stated in previous interviews. He mentioned that the Seremi de Bienes Nacionales granted titles and regularization documents to people who did not meet the requirements, and had distributed 10,000 hectares in 2002. All this because Senator SP specifically wanted 10,000 hectares of the estate to be donated to solve the problem of the people who were there, in order to “look good” with those people. Similarly, he stated that “Senator [SP] is behaving like the 'landlord’ of the estate, as we say in colloquial language. In other words, he believes that this region is his, so he is directly involved with the people who enter [public] office, in how a position is exercised, in what is done and what is not done. And that is not his job [...].” He also asserted that the oversight systems “were destroyed, destroyed by [CW, Executive Director of CONAF] and [PB, regional director of CONAF], who did not [supervise] even though Mr. [C, legal representative of Forestal Sarao S.A.] asked them to do so, [...] and [Senator SP] was behind all this.” He pointed out that “[CW, the Executive Director of CONAF] told a group of forestry engineers - the group of forestry engineers for the native forest - that he could not supervise this property because he [Senator SP] was behind this, he told them ... if you want me to supervise it, you have to talk to [Senator SP...].” Finally, Mr. Baraona stated that “he met with the Provincial Director of CONAF, [LB] and asked him to do something, to which he replied that unless he spoke with [Senator SP] he could not do anything, proposing that they have a lunch and meet with [Senator SP]. He reiterated that he did not believe that it was a matter of dirty money to finance political campaigns, because the politicians were acting with good intentions.58 d) On May 17, 2004, Mr. Baraona stated on Radio Bio of Puerto Montt that Judge RM, Magistrate of Los Muermos Court, who was in charge of the investigation against the Executive Director of CONAF and who ordered his arrest, “decided to recuse herself from continuing to hear the case, not only because of the pressure and threats she received, and the pressures from CONAF’s lawyers, but also because in her capacity as a judge investigating the illegal 56 57 58 Cf. Judgment of the Court of Guarantee of Puerto Montt, of June 22, 2004, supra. Cf. Judgment of the Court of Guarantee of Puerto Montt, of June 22, 2004, supra. Cf. Judgment of the Court of Guarantee of Puerto Montt, of June 22, 2004, supra. 18