After more than a decade of legal back and forth, the case involving the embezzlement during the construction of the Azahar hotel and spa in San Pedro finally enters its decisive phase. The justice system has closed the evidentiary stage and set a date for the oral trial against Alberto Raúl Antoliche and Miguel Ángel González, who are accused of fraudulent administration. This scheme drained resources from a private project and exposed a web of mismanagement, complicity, and the use of stolen public goods. The case does not just reconstruct a corporate fraud. According to expert testimonies, witness accounts, and documentation incorporated into the file, part of these materials was used in public works in the San Pedro district. This fact shifts the case from the realm of private fraud to that of state responsibility. It also puts a spotlight on a chain of decisions—and omissions—that allowed materials stolen from a private project to end up being used in public works in the district, without effective controls or subsequent institutional explanations. Jorge Oscar Santiago was also implicated in the case, accused of being a participant in the investigated schemes. The result is an unfinished project, harmed investors, and a judicial process that took over a decade to reach this stage.
Summary Trial: An Admission That Raises Concerns
While Antoliche and González will face the oral trial, the case has added a key fact that reinforces the accusation. Regardless of the amount of the penalty, the request implies the recognition of their criminal responsibility in the investigated fraud and solidifies the hypothesis that the draining of the project was not administrative negligence, but a deliberate maneuver.
A Diversion That Compromises the State
The most sensitive aspect of the case is the fate of the materials stolen from the hotel. This can also become an instance in which a form of public management marked by the lack of controls, the normalization of irregular practices, and the absence of accountability is exposed. In San Pedro, the work advances slowly but steadily. Juan Ramón Villalba, another of the accused, requested to be subject to a summary trial and agreed to the prosecution's charges. Through his official defender, Villalba accepted the legal qualification of the facts and agreed to a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence, conditionally suspended. His death extinguished the criminal action against him, but his name appears repeatedly in testimonies, proceedings, and documentation incorporated into the file, which reinforces the hypothesis of an organized and sustained scheme over time.
A Trial with an Unusual Volume of Evidence
The oral hearing will be held over four consecutive days, from March 17 to 20, at the Correctional Court No. 1 in San Nicolás. A huge body of evidence will be analyzed: accounting and architecture expert reports, technical reports, notarial acts, municipal documentation, accounting books, and more than 90 testimonial statements from suppliers, workers, professionals, and officials. The investigation describes a repeated pattern of material diversion, irregular billing, and the use of project resources for purposes other than the original. The use of illicitly sourced materials in public projects not only evidences the absence of controls but also a degree of institutional tolerance that allowed the embezzlement to transcend the scope of the accused and project itself onto the municipal state. For years, the lack of official explanations, the non-existence of administrative investigations, and political silence in the face of journalistic complaints contributed to consolidating a scenario of impunity that is only now beginning to be reviewed in the judicial arena.
A Trial That Can Uncover Broader Responsibilities
With the elevation to a firm trial, the admission of guilt by one of the accused, and a file that documents more than a decade of schemes, the case enters a key phase.
