On Friday morning, the building at Morandé 440 in Santiago opened as usual. But the man who had run its Property, Commerce and Water Registry for almost thirty years was not supposed to be inside it any more. Carlos Miranda, who is sixty years old and the registrar of Mortgages and Encumbrances, arrived early with one worry: that he would find Luis Maldonado Croquevielle at his desk, working as if nothing had changed. Maldonado had worked a full day on Thursday and left in the afternoon without saying anything. Miranda had already warned the judicial prosecutors’ office of the Santiago Court of Appeals, so two prosecutors, Javiera González and Jorge Norambuena, came to the building that Friday. They met Miranda and then went from floor to floor, calling out names and asking the staff for their identity cards. At about half past ten, Maldonado walked in. He went around the ground floor and greeted the people who had been his employees until the evening before. Then he met the prosecutors. When he passed Miranda, people inside the registry say, the two men did not greet each other.
Maldonado was eighty-one years old, and his job had officially ended at 23:59 the night before, because of Law 21,772.
That law changed Chile’s system of notaries and registries. It came into force on 2 April 2026 and ended something the country had discussed for decades. These posts are no longer for life, and there is now a maximum age of seventy-five for notaries, registrars and archivists. New holders will be chosen through public competitions run by the National Civil Service Directorate.
Maldonado began his career in Santa Cruz in 1979 and moved to Rancagua in 1983. In 1997, the registrar of Santiago died and the most desired post in the country became free. At that time, candidates were interviewed by judges of the Santiago Court of Appeals, and the President then chose from a short list. Maldonado never hid how he got it: in 2001 he said he had lobbied every judge of the court. President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle telephoned to tell him he had been chosen, and he was sworn in on 16 December 1997. His declaration of assets lists twenty-nine properties.
The registry brought him around one hundred and fifty million pesos a month. The main criticism, however, was not about money but about who worked for him. In recent months he hired his grandson, an architect named Agustín Palacios Maldonado. Journalists found sons, nephews, a daughter-in-law, a godson and friends working in the Santiago registry. In 2022, reports counted at least fifteen relatives or friends of Maldonado employed there.
The new law forbids notaries, archivists and registrars to employ their close relatives in their offices.
Maldonado fought his removal in the courts, but nothing changed the date. In his last attempt, on 19 March, he gave the Court of Appeals a list of three lawyers as possible replacements. The court answered that his list would not be considered, and that a temporary holder must be proposed by the judicial prosecutor. That is why Carlos Miranda was the man arriving early on Friday.
Maldonado was not the only one. The same Friday, thirty-five notaries, registrars and archivists over seventy-five had to leave their posts. Their average age was eighty-one, and the oldest was Alfonso Barrientos, registrar and archivist of Los Andes, who is ninety-six. Their offices stay open with temporary holders.
In a message to the staff, Miranda invited them to keep working calmly and promised mutual respect and trust. He is now the only titleholder left, so he will receive the earnings of three registries until the competitions to replace the others are opened.