El Ciudadano
Original article: Poduje debe renunciar: la columna de Daniel Jadue
On March 24, 2026, Iván Poduje Capdeville, serving as Minister of Housing and Urbanism, issued Ordinance No. 245, which indefinitely halted the construction of 356 homes intended for families affected by the devastating El Olivar fire. He made this decision without legal authority, failed to notify contractors, ignored established contractual and legal procedures, and threatened administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions against any SERVIU officials who defied his orders. That same day, before anyone could review the documents or processes, he publicly declared to local residents that «the houses are going to be demolished» and that he would bring in «other companies.»
The sequence of events is crucial. Technical reports from the DITEC did not recommend a halt to construction. They raised concerns about 56 of the 356 homes, assessing the quality of execution as «standard, without particularly objectionable aspects,» and indicated that these observations needed to be resolved «for the proper continuation of the project.» None of this warranted stopping all construction, blocking payments for work already completed, or ordering demolitions.
What does explain his actions is that Poduje had already made this decision prior to his appointment as minister.
Since December 22, 2025, while still part of the incoming presidential team, he met with residents of El Olivar and stated on his personal account that there was «a lot of delays and issues with the constructors.» In February, once appointed but before officially taking office, he held meetings behind contractors’ backs, referring to them as «frauds» and «deceivers,» insinuating that residents were being paid as promoters, and when confronted, he admitted, «we’re investigating, it hasn’t happened yet.» He threatened to exclude leaders who defended their contracts and dismantled the elected community representation to work with sympathetic leaders.
All of this is recorded. Transcripts accompany the complaint.
A criminal lawsuit filed in the Guarantee Court of Viña del Mar accuses Poduje, SEREMI Marcelo Ruiz Fernández, and SERVIU Director Rodrigo Muñoz Henríquez of four crimes: repeated administrative prevarication, ideological falsification of a public instrument, malicious use of a false public instrument, and fraud against the treasury. The estimated fiscal impact due to unnecessary demolitions is 2,332 UF for the first four verified homes, with projected damages significantly higher.
I want to be precise in the legal argument because it underpins my opinion.
The crime of administrative prevarication requires that an authority knowingly issues a manifestly unjust resolution. It is not enough for the resolution to be illegal or erroneous. It requires that the authority knows their resolution is unjust and issues it anyway. The complaint demonstrates that Poduje knew, as he is an architect with over thirty years of experience in the housing sector, because the very technical reports he cited as justification did not recommend what he ordered, because the ITOs from SERVIU did not share his assessment, as noted in the resolution itself, and because he threatened investigations and criminal actions against officials to silence opinions contrary to his own.
The accusation of ideological falsification is based on the reversal of procedure. Decisions were made and communicated publicly first. Then documents were created to justify them. This is the mechanism the complaint describes as «decision first, report later,» and it is precisely what distinguishes an irregular administrative act from a criminal offense.
The facts described in the complaint, if substantiated during the investigation, constitute malicious use of the ministerial position to exclude private companies from the social housing market, demolish publicly funded works without technical necessity, and harm 356 families who have been waiting over two years to regain their homes following the worst fire Viña del Mar has experienced in decades. No appointed authority can continue to operate daily with this investigation against them. If they do, and this is where the President’s responsibility comes in, the government and the President become complicit through their silence and inaction.
These families are not a secondary detail. They are the very reason for the housing program. They are the individuals that the Ministry of Housing has a constitutional duty to protect. According to the complaint, they were used as a cover to execute a political decision that had another purpose.
There is a fundamental principle of public probity that should not require debate: no ministerial position can be sustained based on accusations of this severity while the investigation is ongoing. The standard cannot vary depending on who is accused or the political affiliation of the current government. If it does, it ceases to be a principle and becomes a tool.
Poduje faces four criminal charges with extensive documentary and audiovisual backing, including videos from his own institutional account as minister. The central accusation is that he used his position to benefit interests distinct from the public interest. While this investigation proceeds, his continuation as Minister allows him to maintain influence over the very system that includes the officials and documents involved. That is not a neutral condition for any judicial process.
Resignation is not a condemnation. It is the minimum required by the position.
by Daniel Jadue
La entrada Calls for Iván Poduje to Resign Amid Criminal Charges Over Housing Project Controversy se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.
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