Extraordinary story of Jesuit financial and sexual corruption in Chile
From 2023. The Finances of the Society of Jesus (Part 1)
Felipe Berríos's "Weight": For Years, Jesuits Awarded Million-Dollar Real Estate Projects to His Brother, a Builder
His brother, Juan Andrés Berríos, is a partner in Constructora Galco, which obtained at least 14 contracts with the congregation between 2003 and 2011. Among these construction projects, there are several for Infocap, coinciding with the time when Felipe Berríos was the chaplain and head of the "workers' university" founded by the Jesuits in the early 1980s.
It was like a cluster bomb. The news that a victim of sexual abuse by Chilean priest Juan Miguel Leturia had filed a complaint in Spain against the entire Chilean Jesuit leadership for covering up these crimes created a complex situation for the local Jesuits. It first became known through an article published by the Spanish newspaper El País in January of this year, and that same week the news was picked up by a few national media outlets, including Interferencia.
But that wasn't all. That same month, a request was filed to investigate another well-known Jesuit: Felipe Berríos del Solar. Interferencia spoke several times over the past two months with the complainant, who, as in the El País article, used the pseudonym David to protect his identity. The complainant stated that, in addition to his case of sexual abuse and cover-up, he presented information to "expose financial corruption and the cover-up of crimes" among the Chilean Jesuits. Specifically, he alleged that the relationship between the Chilean Jesuits and the Berríos family was at least suspicious, since his brother's company, Galco Construcciones, was the beneficiary of major construction projects commissioned by the congregation. According to the complainant, this arose thanks to the pressure exerted by Berríos and those close to him, including Fernando Montes, to work with that company.
Felipe Berríos has lived in seclusion for several years in La Chimba, a town in Antofagasta, and has kept away from the media and interviews, which he previously attended regularly. His withdrawal worsened last year when allegations of alleged sexual abuse committed by the Jesuit against women were revealed.
Juan Andrés Berríos del Solar is one of the main partners of Galco Construction, a company that has obtained several contracts with the congregation to which his brother, Felipe Berrós, belongs. This Thursday, March 9, the abuse accusations entered a new phase when it was announced that the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith instructed the Society of Jesus to initiate administrative criminal proceedings against the priest. Although Berríos announced his resignation from the congregation in November 2022, in concrete and administrative terms, he remains a member of the Society of Jesus, so they will be the ones to conduct the canonical investigation.
According to Interferencia, for more than a decade Felipe Berríos wielded great influence and power within the Jesuits. But the decline of that power coincided with the change of National Provincial, when Gabriel Roblero, who was not part of Berríos's inner circle, took over in September 2019.
"It pains me to tell you that I have felt mistreated by the management of the Company, which I love so much. Their ambiguous statements to the press have been damning. All of this in a media process with intentional leaks that have harmed me," Berríos stated in a letter last year, when he resigned from the Company amid the investigation against him.
The construction company, the Berríos, and Renato Poblete
Constructora Galco Spa is majority-owned by Juan Andrés Berríos del Solar, the Jesuit's brother. According to the Official Gazette, ownership of Galco comes to the Jesuit's brother through another firm; that is, Galco's current partners are corporations. Galco's main partner is Inversiones BEC SpA, a company owned by Juan Andrés Berríos del Solar and his wife, Blanca Victoria Carmen Etcheberry Court.
Another partner in Galco is Inversiones Playa Blanca SpA, owned by Luis Eduardo Rodríguez Pérez—a civil engineer from the Catholic University, along with Juan Andrés Berríos—, Manuela Paz Rodríguez Gutiérrez, María Trinidad Rodríguez Gutiérrez, Beatriz María Dolores Rodríguez Gutiérrez, Jacinta Isabel Rodríguez Gutiérrez, and Mariano Ignacio Rodríguez Gutiérrez.
The third partner in the construction company is Asesorías e Inversiones ELPIS SpA, owned by Leonel Jesús Medrano Villagra and Melany Del Carmen Hernández Venegas. The former appears on their LinkedIn profile as Galco's project manager.
Finally, the fourth partner is GOVE SpA, owned by Fernán Exequiel González Solar—who also appears on their LinkedIn profile as Galco's project manager.
Indeed, the Jesuits and the Berríos family maintain a close relationship. Not only was the construction of at least 14 buildings, including entire buildings and expansions, carried out by Galco, but also through the networks they cultivated within the national economic elite, which is linked to the Jesuits through their schools and the practice of the more traditional Catholic faith.
Juan Andrés Berríos is married to Blanca Victoria Carmen Etcheberry Court, author of the book "A Bridge Between Two Worlds," a biography of Renato Poblete published in 2005, which details the close relationship between Poblete and the Chilean elite during the dictatorship and the early years of democracy. She is also the daughter of Alfredo Etcheberry, a well-known Chilean criminal lawyer close to the Christian Democrats, who defended the Jesuits in sexual abuse cases and offered financial compensation years ago to the victim who filed a complaint in Spain in exchange for not punishing those involved, which the victim refused. Etcheberry, a well-known lawyer in the area, has also participated in the defense of Salesian priests accused of sexual crimes.
“Berríos boasted that he had everyone's number. That he could call anyone, presidents, ministers, businessmen, right-wing, left-wing, everyone,” said a former Jesuit.
Blanca Etcheberry is the sister of Congressman Gonzalo Winter's mother (Convergencia Social), María Elena Etcheberry, who owns a communications and lobbying agency, and of Leonor Etcheberry, former president of the Bar Association and former member of the Supreme Court.
Furthermore, Constructora Galco is linked to Felipe Berríos's past. He and his brother Juan Andrés Berríos studied Civil Construction at the Catholic University's San Joaquín campus. Felipe Berríos left his studies to begin his Jesuit training. But he would put his construction skills to good use in the future when he founded 'Un Techo Para Chile,' a foundation linked to elite schools, many of them Jesuit, which began with young people building shacks for poor families.
"Felipe Berríos initially competed a bit with Poblete, because the donors to Techo and Hogar de Cristo overlapped, and they clashed over money. But over time, they began to coexist, also because they both had a lot of charisma and strong personalities," a former Jesuit who knew both priests told Interferencia.
Berríos has publicly expressed his admiration for Poblete, a priest who had strong differences with Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, who ordained Berríos a priest and whom Berríos admired. In some ways, they represented opposing sides of the internal politics of the Church and the Jesuits: Silva Henríquex was influenced by liberation theology and linked to the defense of human rights during the dictatorship, which brought him closer to the Chilean political left, while Poblete, although he never hinted at his political preference, had weekly dinners with members of unions and business leaders and was instrumental in the release of Cristián Edwards when he was kidnapped by the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (1991-1992).
In the 2000s, Felipe Berríos became a blend of both "charismas." His contacts spanned the public and private spheres.
"Berríos boasted that he had everyone's number. That he could call anyone: presidents, ministers, businessmen, right-wingers, left-wingers, everyone," another former Jesuit told Interferencia by phone.
“I've always understood that donations aren't for me or to buy my silence or my conscience; it's because they're interested in continuing what's being done. And that's why I have no qualms about anyone wanting to help, whether they're right-wing or left-wing, millionaires, poor, whatever,” Berríos said in an interview with TVN's Sin Parche in September 2019.
“He never held important positions within the company, but Berríos had a lot of influence, to the point that few questioned him,” says another former priest.
Galco Constructions
Galco is a mid-sized construction company. According to specialized sites, this Ñuñoa-based firm has an annual turnover of almost $90 million. However, this information could not be verified. The company's website has been down for almost two months.
In January, when his website was still visible, it didn't include something that had appeared in previous versions. In 2019, for example, it listed the works built for the Society of Jesus between 2003 and 2011, which coincide with Felipe Berríos's most influential years within the Jesuits, with many close associates holding important positions.
In 2019, Galco's website reported that he had built for the Chilean Jesuits:
-The Colegio San Javier in Puerto Montt, between April 2008 and March 2010.
- Remodeling of the San Ignacio El Bosque School Library, between January 2009 and March 2009.
- Installation of classrooms, cafeteria, and offices at Alberto Hurtado University in Santiago, between January 2009 and July 2010.
- Completion of classrooms and workshops at Infocap in Concepción, between October 2009 and January 2010.
- Construction of the San José Theology House, between September 2007 and April 2008.
- Construction of the four-story and underground Infocap building in Santiago, between September 2006 and April 2007.
- Construction of new computer labs at San Ignacio El Bosque School, between December 2006 and March 2007.
- Construction of Las Brisas House in Santo Domingo, between September 2006 and December 2008. 2006.
-Construction of a new 1,200 m2 classroom building at the San Ignacio El Bosque School, between December 2004 and March 2005.
-A three-story building with 870 m2 classrooms for the Infocap Training Institute, between January 2003 and November 2003.
-Installation of new classrooms at the Alberto Hurtado University, between December 2006 and April 2007.
-Installation of new classrooms at the Alberto Hurtado University, between December 2007 and April 2008.
-A four-story building for Infocap in Concepción, between September 2008 and January 2009.
-Completion of the second floor of Infocap in Concepción, between October 2009 and January 2010.
According to data from a A brief biography published in Ciper states that Felipe Berríos was a member of the board of directors of the Ciper Foundation, "between 1997 and 2010, he was a chaplain and founder of NGOs such as Infocap (Universidad de los Trabajadores)." This confirms that the construction work that Galco, Juan Andrés Berríos' company, carried out for Infocap took place while his brother was running the institution.
According to La Tercera, Berríos already had an office at Infocap in Santiago in 2004, the location where several of the alleged "sexually suggestive" actions allegedly occurred.
The Jesuit Brotherhood
A key figure in this plot is Fernando Montes, former rector of Alberto Hurtado University between 1998 and 2016, and also former provincial treasurer from the late 1990s until 2010. Montes was in charge of the Jesuits' national finances during those years. During his term as rector, he hired Galco to build university halls and spaces three times, between 2006 and 2010, out of the 14 constructions Galco carried out for the Jesuits, as far as this media outlet was able to find out.
Montes and Felipe Berríos are very close. They lived for years in the same house next to Infocap (near Departamental Street), with the priest Andrés Soto. Montes was one of his greatest defenders, even when Berríos was criticized in 2014 for speaking about the privileges of the Church and the universities of the "cota mil." “I wouldn't say it that way, but objectively, he's saying something that's true,” Montes said at the time.
“Among the Jesuits, there's a very common style of mentoring, of having someone guide and mentor you, and that's what Montes did with Berríos. He's like a father to him; they're very close,” says a former Jesuit.
The same former priest affirms that among Berríos's most trusted people were Guillermo Baranda—former provincial of the Jesuits and brother of Benito Baranda, who worked at the Hogar de Cristo between 1991 and 2011 and was part of the constitutional convention between 2021 and 2022—Juan Ochagavía—former provincial, who testified in the case against Poblete for having received the complaint years before it was made public—and Christian Brahm, also a former provincial. In other words, in their final years as national Jesuit leaders, they were close friends of Berríos.
The costs of Galco's construction were not an issue that went unnoticed within the company. Four former Jesuit priests agreed, telling Interferencia that "it was known" and that it was "hallway talk" that Berríos's brother's construction company was the one constructing the company's most important buildings at the time, and that the costs were high.
It should be noted that when contacted by this media outlet, the Society of Jesus stated: "Galco provided services to the Society of Jesus between 2006 and 2010, in infrastructure improvements, space rehabilitation, and repairs to some of its projects. Regarding those projects carried out by the Society of Jesus, we must point out that Galco had no involvement in the San Francisco Javier school in Puerto Montt."
However, Galco's website, at least until 2019, indicated that they had participated in the construction.
The Society of Jesus added in its response to this media outlet: "Regarding the other institutions you mention, it should be noted that each project is independent when it comes to contracting services, according to its needs."
"Galco is one of the many companies with which the Society of Jesus has worked, due to its high standards in construction, meeting the requirements and needs of the time," they added.
INTERFERENCIA was able to access records in which they expressed concern about the cost of construction of San Javier and that this information had not yet been forwarded to Europe. When a provincial is appointed, he creates a team with other priests he trusts, something like a cabinet, where they advise each other and make the most important decisions. At one of those "consultation" meetings, according to the minutes of July 2008, the Jesuits discussed the most expensive construction project in recent years: the Colegio San Javier de Puerto Montt. This school includes tennis courts, a soccer field, and a basketball court, hundreds of square meters of classrooms, and even an astronomical observatory. In total, the building is 27,000 square meters, built on a 90,000 square meter lot.
“This report provides information on the status of the construction of the new building for the San Francisco Javier School of Puerto Montt. The estimated cost is around $32 million. The bank appraisal of the saleable land covers half of that amount. The entire amount could be covered if a real estate transaction were to be completed, for which the school would have to be already relocated,” the document states. The minutes go on to make it clear that construction began without “permits from Rome to invest the necessary amount.”
"The Provincial Father has realized that the necessary investment permits have not been requested from Rome, and he is not sure that the required amount can be guaranteed. There are a series of questions about financing, the magnitude of the project, the pace of construction, etc. The Provincial Father will meet this afternoon with the Provincial Treasurer to discuss the possibilities of supporting the project given this new information. One of the fundamental errors was that no maximum amount was set, but rather the decision was made to prepare a project and then determine its cost," the minutes state, which express concern and the lack of information the Provincial had about the construction. The person who apparently had the best grasp of this information was Fernando Montes, the Jesuit treasurer.
At the end of the minutes, it is clarified that the San Javier School project was promoted by former Provincial Guillermo Baranda and Father Gonzalo Silva.
There are no exact calculations regarding the total costs of these 14 projects, which Galco reported on his website, but it is known that the most expensive was the San Javier School in Puerto Montt, a project worth $32 million, and that the rest range in value from tens of millions of pesos to millions of dollars.
The relationship between Berríos, his brother's company, and the Jesuits borders on the organization's internal codes, at least those published by the Jesuits in Spain, the country where the organization was founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. In the Code of Conduct available on their website, there are some points that could serve as arguments to support David's accusations against the Jesuits and Berríos. The clearest relates to suppliers, purchases, and services.
“The selection of suppliers of goods and services will be governed by criteria of objectivity and transparency, reconciling the institution's interest in obtaining the best supply conditions with the desirability of maintaining stable relationships with ethical and responsible suppliers. Under no circumstances will personal relationships or interests influence the awarding of a contract,” the document states.
Berríos continued to build relationships between his projects and Galco Construction Company. Since 2013, he founded the Recrea Foundation in La Chimba, a town in Antofagasta, where he works on training, courses, and supporting the poorest families arriving in that area, mostly migrants. On the foundation's website, in the "Who Collaborates With Us" section, Galco appears as a donor.
To understand the amount of donations the foundation receives, as well as its income and expenses, Interferencia requested the Recrea Foundation's financial statements and balance sheets from 2013 to 2022 from the Ministry of Justice under the Transparency Law. By law, all foundations must provide a copy of their financial statements and balance sheets to the Ministry, which oversees compliance with the foundation law. The Ministry responded to us on March 1, informing this media outlet that, following our request, they searched for the Berríos Foundation's financial statements and reports, and found that these documents had never been submitted to the Ministry of Justice, thus violating current law.
We also attached a copy of a letter sent by the foundation on February 10, 2023, requesting that the Recrea Foundation's financial statements and reports be sent to the Ministry of Justice within a maximum of 30 business days. This request was signed by Milton Espinoza, acting head of the Department of Legal Entities. As of the publication of this report, INTERFERENCIA had not yet received these documents.
Berríos' Networks
Felipe Berríos learned very well from Renato Poblete how to handle the Chilean elite, where he also comes from, for the benefit of his charitable works. He studied at the Colegio San Ignacio El Bosque and later at the Catholic University, where he continued to associate with the country's most privileged until 1977, when he joined the Society of Jesus.
He is close to dozens of personalities from politics and even entertainment. He participated in the marriage ceremony of television presenter Francisco Saavedra; he is a friend of the former director of the Chilean national soccer team, Marcelo Bielsa; and he was close to the priest Cristián Precht, one of the vicars of the Vicariate of Solidarity, who investigated cases of human rights violations during the dictatorship and was expelled from the priesthood for sexual abuse of minors.
He is a friend of Juan Pedro Pinochet, CEO of Gestión Social SA, and businessman Roberto Fantuzzi. He is also a friend of historian Lucía Santa Cruz, a member of the Libertad y Desarrollo council, a member of Chilena Consolidada, and the mother of Piñera's former Minister of the Presidency of the Presidency, Juan José Ossa Santa Cruz.
He is also a friend of businessman Pedro Pablo Díaz and his daughter Magdalena Díaz, Piñera's former chief of staff and the person in charge of making the call that attempted to censor La Red channel.
"Another name close to Berríos is Felipe Lamarca Claro and his wife, the former director of Radio Zero and former president of TVN, Anita Holuigue Barros, who participated in Un Techo and has been a longtime collaborator of the Jesuits," detailed an article in El Mercurio last year.
Berríos also has ties with journalists and communicators. He is close to Patricia Bazán and Andrea Dell'Orto, both executives at Mega, and to Dell'Orto's husband, Pablo Egenau, director of the Paréntesis Foundation. He is also close to journalists Andrea Vial and Paula Escobar.
He also maintains some childhood friends, such as former Interior Minister Jorge Burgos (DC), former president of the CDE (Democratic Democratic Party), Carlos Mackenney, and Carlos Montes (PS), currently Boric's Minister of Housing. He was also close to former Senator Jovino Novoa (UDI), who died in 2021.
Perhaps because of his strong ties to politics, although he was very critical of the role of the Church, he showed a little more compassion toward politicians, a world in which he wove many networks.
"Anyone who has issued a ballot is treated like a thief, and I don't agree. Even some politicians linked to ballots are honest people. We have to be careful not to throw everyone under the bus," he asserted in 2015 in an interview with El Mercurio.
A former priest contacted by Interferencia recalled how, more than ten years ago, the Church asked the country's dioceses, especially those in the Antofagasta region, to refrain from receiving donations from Barrick Gold, which was in charge of the Pascualama mining project, which put the area's glaciers at risk. After refusing to accept donations from the company, Berríos did accept them for projects like TECHO, a fact he was reminded of in a 2010 column published in El Mostrador by environmental activist Flavia Liberona.
All the former Jesuits interviewed for this article agree that Berríos is a "temperamental" person and, at times, even "violent" in his manner of speaking.
"If he doesn't like something, he gets angry, gesticulates, and can be very annoying. Also if he doesn't like you. I remember an anecdote from a meeting outside Santiago. He was going to have to sleep in the same room with another priest who didn't get along with him. He decided to take his things out and made his bed outside, on the floor, so he wouldn't be in the same place as the other Jesuit," says a former priest.
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