The statements of President Gabriel Boric, when recognizing that when he was an opponent of the Government of Sebastián Piñera “The complaints and recriminations went beyond what was fair”, they created space for the opposition to advance its chips and propose its strategy that attacks from two sides.
The UDI – in its usual press release at the beginning of the week – asked President Boric to withdraw the complaints against former President Piñera and his close collaborators. It should be noted that the spokesperson minister Camila Vallejo stated that “When the President talks about complaints it has to do with nuisances, and it is extremely clear” and called for “not to overreact, not to overinterpret.” Vallejo added that “the Government does not have any judicial complaint against former President Sebastián Piñera.”
Even though the claim does not coincide with reality, this strategy still opens up two sides. On the one hand, observers believe, the aim is to strain the Government’s relationship with the Communist Party and on the other, to maintain a trench of dispute with the Government after President Boric, with this mea culpa, called on the opposition to generate agreements.
The General Secretary of the UDI, María José Hoffman, began her speech by warning that the death of former President Piñera “obliges us, all Chileans, to have a different attitude, an attitude that allows us to find ourselves and in that, of course, we value the call what President Boric has done.”
However, Hoffman warned that “to make flesh of his (President Boric’s) words, so that they do not remain just words that sometimes get blown away by the wind, we also have the ability to have concrete actions, for example, the withdrawal of the criminal complaints against former President Piñera.”
He added that it would seem “a reasonable gesture” that “for example, from someone so close to President Boric, such as Minister Javiera Toro of Social Development, who is also part of these causes.” From the Ministry of Social Development they confirmed The counter that the minister was indeed a plaintiff, but withdrew her sponsorship before taking office as minister.
Senator Iván Moreira was the other spokesperson in said instance, and during the last time he has marked a closer speech with President Boric than his coalition and has explicitly marked his distance from the Republican Party. At the UDI headquarters, where the press conference was held, he defended Boric’s statements and distanced him from the Communist Party: “President Boric has had a tone, an attitude, a genuine courage from the first day he took office. “he knew the tragedy.”
“The President is not a communist, the President is from a progressive left, or whatever they call him,” Moreira said. He maintained this based on the fact that the President, for Moreira, “has had one thing that I have always valued at times: coherence in matters of human rights.” The senator argued that the President has been critical of all dictatorships, unlike, he maintained, the PC that suffers from “a double standard,” he accused.
Furthermore, the historic union member revealed that they are aware that this request is complex for the Government: “Obviously there is blackmail from the PC and the radical left that obviously, if the President came to something of that nature, we would have a left, to a PC in rebellion.”
The UDI deputy Juan Antonio Coloma, warned that the line of this request is about the fact that “we believe that the only logical step is that the Government, after the MEA culpa of the President, withdraw the complaints at least against the Ministers of State.” Now, if they do not do so, “we would have to understand that the President’s words were empty,” said the parliamentarian.
The deputy and head of the Christian Democracy caucus, Eric Aedo, maintains that “no one should try to take political advantage of the death of former President Sebastián Piñera.” Along these lines, he maintains that the right “is making a mistake” with the request to withdraw complaints from President Boric, since he “did not present them.” Aedo believes that behind this request “there is abuse.”
For the parliamentarian “President Boric has acted with high vision, with generosity, with a reflective and genuine spirit.” That is why Aedo believes that unionism’s response “is not the way,” particularly by “making demands that are absolutely excessive.”
UDI opportunism
Ehe political analyst and academic at the School of Government of the Central University, Marco Moreno, reads the situation through two aspects. The first is that “the death of the former president opened a window of opportunity in the opposition to insist again with the withdrawal of complaints due to the social outbreak.”
Regarding this, he indicates that “it appears, on the part of the UDI, as an opportunistic bet because it takes advantage of the climate of public opinion marked by the surprising death of the former President to replenish a demand that does not have citizen support.”
The other aspect that he warns is that, with this request, an attempt is made to “deepen the difference that this issue generates in the ruling party.” For Moreno, the UDI “is betting that the negotiation for the reforms promoted by the Government involves incorporating the withdrawal of complaints, which is clearly a strategy with a high component of political opportunism.”
Robert Funk, a political analyst and academic at the University of Chile, has a reading similar to that of Moreno: “It gives the impression that the UDI is taking advantage of Boric’s speech – which occurs at a republican moment and of national mourning – to claim political and even criminal positions that are convenient for them.”
The academic agrees with the line of Minister Camila Vallejo in the sense that “Boric’s recognition referred rather to the tone of the discussion at that time and the loss of civic friendship. In no case did she suggest that the abuses that may have occurred by individual agents of the State, whether these Carabineros or others, should be forgotten, historically or criminally.
Tense official meeting
Tension and differences marked this Monday’s usual meeting between the ruling parties at the PS headquarters, where the point that practically stole the show was the communists’ criticism of President Gabriel Boric, for his MEA culpa at the funeral of former president Sebastián Piñera, where he expressed that – as an opposition – during the social outbreak the political complaints and recriminations “went beyond what was fair and reasonable.”
The main friction of the meeting occurred at the beginning and occurred between the representative of the PC, Juan Andrés Lagos, and the president of the PS, Senator Paulina Vodanovic.
Sitting next to Lagos, Senator Vodanovic told him that the tone of the most violent questions to Boric always came from Approve Dignity, which seemed to go beyond political criticism and were an obstacle to the unity that the ruling party needs to face the Government reforms and the upcoming elections.
Attendees at the meeting also add that the socialist leader’s words were supported by the president of the PR, Leonardo Cubillos, and the vice president of the PPD, Cristóbal Barría.
“We do not interpret the President’s words as denialism. He alluded to the ethical-political standard that corresponded to a head of state, therefore this judgment of denialism, I believe, has been wrongly installed by some sectors. What’s more, the President has always kept in mind the human rights situation that has occurred under the Piñera government, but he, of course, rescues his role as former President.” With these words, Leonardo Cubillos pointed out his divergence from Lagos in Monday’s meeting.
“That is what the Radical Party pointed out. I have pointed it out before and in the PS as well. And how did Lagos react? Ask him, because I noticed that he reacted well,” said the president of the radicals to The counter.
“If the President believes that they went too far, he has every right to say so. Now, recognizing this does not imply that there are no founded reasons to maintain that as of October 18 there were multiple human rights violations, as the United Nations has ratified. The positions of the PPD were expressed at the meeting, but not as direct criticism,” complements the vice president of the PPD, Cristóbal Barra.
“The PC questions Boric because it thinks he abandoned his hard core”
His PPD counterpart, Natalia Piergentili, went one step further. “I do not consider that Boric has been a denialist. The criticism from some PC deputies seems to me to have confused a genuine approach by the President with (what is) a forgetfulness of the human rights violations that did occur.”
In Democratic Socialism, the criticisms of the PC have not been taken well. In this bloc they consider that the PC’s questions to Boric aim to make a gesture to its militants, representing a certain discontent. For the PS, PPD, and PR it is interpreted that for the communists Boric abandoned his hard core, and that “this turn towards moderation by the social democrats” to negotiate with the right has been a mistake.
“The message that is sent to the Apruebo Dignidad militancy is that the PC is not going to abandon that hard core, and that it is 25% of the support that the Government has. This points to the electorate where they have a 15% vote which indicates that the Government opted for sensationalism. That’s why Camila Vallejo didn’t go to the funeral, and she got sick. And it is possible that this tension with the PC and a sector of the Frente Amplio will continue until October at least,” says an authority of Democratic Socialism.
After the meeting, some of those present considered that Juan Andrés Lagos considered the impasse. In fact, this is what the PC representative expressed at the end of the meeting. But others insist on criticism.
“What happened is that there was a reaction to a phrase that the Government has clarified has no relation to relativizing the issues of human rights violations. The right has done that and let me say that the right has been doing it since the 90s (…) It does not surprise me that the right is pushing and now abusing such a regrettable situation, as we have seen, the death of a former president in the dramatic way that it was, to try again to restore impunity,” he added.
“There is a complex disaffection in the sayings of our President”
However, in the ranks of the PC and in a sector of the Frente Amplio The debate on “denialism” and “disaffection” continues and adds new protagonists.
“I share the criticism (about denialism). We have pointed it out without nuances, there is a complex disaffection due to the statements of our President during Piñera’s state funeral,” said PC deputy Nathalie Castillo to The counter.
And he added: “When it comes to human rights violations and judicial pending, such as those that are part of the popular revolt during Piñera’s mandate, there are no nuances or half measures. We have been categorical that there is no room to relativize what happened or make any type of denialism. And pointing this out should not be a surprise to anyone, since our party has historically fought for memory, truth, justice and the unrestricted defense of human rights; Therefore, I believe that this position does not contravene the government alliance at all.”
The parliamentarian also highlighted the relevance of the statements of the president of the PC, Lautaro Carmona, expressed this Sunday in a public statement, where he regretted the death of the former president and gave his condolences to the Piñera family and warned, in turn, clearly the line of the community.
“Regarding situations of human rights violations, and the massive protests (….) within the framework of the outbreak and popular rebellion, there were very serious violations of human rights in Chile. It was concluded by all human rights organizations recognized by the UN. President Piñera had an undeniable responsibility in that situation. Both because of the specific measures he ordered, and because he declared that there was ‘a war’ in Chile.. These violations of human rights cannot, nor should they, go unpunished,” said Carmona.
“It was a gesture from the President towards the opposition”
The Commons deputy, Claudia Mix, spoke along this same line. Although not all the FA shares this line.
In his opinion, the UDI’s intention to withdraw all the complaints in which Sebastián Piñera Piñera was involved, in addition to being a denialist act, constitutes an attack on human rights.
“It is different that because of his death the courts are obliged to dismiss (…) However, those who were his direct collaborators and are still alive, such as his Ministers of the Interior (Andrés) Chadwick and (Gonzalo) Blumel and the undersecretaries (Rodrigo) ) Ubilla and (Juan Francisco) Galli, have to account for their eventual responsibility in the crimes (…) Maintaining respect for the death of a person does not mean remaining silent in the face of image whitening, nor can we forget their political responsibility as former president of Chile,” Mix said.
A different opinion is maintained by the lawyer and former member of the RD quota, Fernando Atria, who does not believe that there was “denialism” in Boric’s words.
“I believe that it was a gesture by the President towards the opposition, and that it remains to be seen if the opposition is going to value the President’s gesture, as a way to build a political relationship that today is totally rarified. In other words, I think that after what the President said, the initiative remains with the opposition so that they can demonstrate with their reaction to that if they are willing to have a policy that is not just obstructionism,” Atria tells The counter.
And he specifies: “There is room to object to the silence or irrelevance that today seems to be given to the accusations of human rights violations during the outbreak. But I don’t think that constitutes any case of denialism. The discussion before the presidential intervention was whether or not there had been systematic violations of human rights. And it was claimed that they were not systematic. (…) It seemed to be irrelevant that there had been violations of human rights if they were not systematic.”
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