Chile: Manuel Monsalve, former official under Boric, arrested after being accused of rape

Chilean authorities arrested Manuel Monsalve, former undersecretary of the Interior Ministry in Gabriel Boric's government, a month after a female subordinate accused him of rape and sexual abuse.

The arrest took place at his residence located in Viña del Mar, a town located 80 miles from Santiago.

Monsalve will be prosecuted for crimes of sexual abuse and rape, and the charges could expand to include infraction of the Intelligence Law, due to the fact that the day in which the incident allegedly occurred he ordered the review of the cameras of the place in which he was with the complainant and to undertake diligences to know if she had the intention of filing the lawsuit.

A Chilean court will issue preventive imprisonment for the former official.

The events occurred on Sept. 22, when Monsalve and the alleged victim met at a hotel where they had dinner and spent the night. After that, they saw each other two other times, for work purposes. In one of those encounters, the complainant told the former official that he had sexual relations with her without her consent, due to the amount of alcohol they drank. She filed the complaint on Oct. 18.

Monsalve alleges that he was drugged that night.