Same «Modus Operandi»: Lawyers Charged in Belarus Case Were Plaintiffs Against Daniel Jadue in Achifarp Scandal

Original article: Mismo «modus operandi»: Abogados imputados en «trama bielorrusa» fueron querellantes contra Daniel Jadue en caso Achifarp

As the year comes to a close, it is striking that the media has not focused more on a significant fact: the lawyers charged in the so-called «Belarus case» are the same individuals who acted as plaintiffs against former Recoleta mayor Daniel Jadue in the Achifarp case.

Both processes feature overlapping actors and a similar modus operandi. Eduardo Lagos, Mario Vargas, and Isaac Ramírez were behind the legal assault on Jadue as well as the lawsuit regarding the alleged Belarusian fraud against Codelco.

Maria Paz Guerra, who is a plaintiff against Jadue and sister of former prosecutor Manuel Guerra, alongside Gabriel Silber—who is also charged in the Belarus case and has recently been implicated in a new scandal related to the Dominga project, as reported by Reportea—are also part of the same legal firm.

Moreover, this team of lawyers has close ties to Luis Hermosilla and Gabriel Zaliasnik. According to revelations from The Clinic, along with other figures like criminal lawyer Samuel Donoso, they participated in planning the lawsuit against Daniel Jadue in the Luminarias case, aiming to tarnish his public image.

Additionally, Vargas and Lagos advised their client César Ramírez—the seller of the company that sued Jadue—to self-report for alleged bribery related to hand sanitizer, transforming what began as a commercial dispute into a criminal case.

Key Witness in Achifarp Case

César Ramírez, a key witness for the prosecution in the Achifarp case, has a criminal history for customs smuggling and false statements from 2019. At that time, he also self-reported, again under the counsel of the same lawyers, Mario Vargas and Eduardo Lagos. He was convicted for smuggling fruit from China to Canada, labeling it as Chilean, which significantly damaged Chile’s reputation as an exporting nation.

In the context of the Achifarp investigation, Ramírez unexpectedly changed his testimony in August 2021, claiming that the then mayor had solicited a bribe in the form of canisters of hand sanitizer, which he allegedly accepted during a meeting on July 1, 2020.

Later, his driver, Óscar Doussang, corroborated this version during his own statement to the prosecution. It’s important to note that Doussang has a pending accusation for falsifying circulation permits and despite claiming to be unemployed, two weeks prior to his testimony, he vacationed in Miami with his family.

These elements configure a pattern that critics argue recurs in cases driven by Vargas and Lagos, where key actors or witnesses, whose statements—or even convictions—serve their legal strategies, end up enjoying vacations in the Caribbean or high-cost cruises, raising legitimate questions about the transparency and integrity of these processes.

Lastly, it should be mentioned that in both cases, the immediate environment of Luis Hermosilla includes Mario Vargas, Eduardo Lagos, and, in Jadue’s case, several members of the Chadwick family, such as Ximena Risco, Samuel Donoso, and Mauricio Smok. The links between both cases are so evident that on the exact day Vargas and Lagos were arrested, the prosecutor in the Achifarp case was removed from her position to take on another role.

This occurred after she had suffered a serious judicial setback, when Judge Brito decided to expand the investigation to undertake pending actions that Prosecutor Herrera had persisted in avoiding.

This action specifically involved reviewing the chat between Hermosilla and Mario Vargas after The Clinic published evidence of a judicial setup attempt by the former in the Luminarias case.

With all the above, the case could well constitute a new aspect of the Hermosilla affair. It seems that, sooner or later, all roads may gradually lead in that direction. Time will tell.

El Ciudadano