The most voted constitutional adviser in Chile, Republican Luis Silva, acknowledged his "admiration" for the facet of "statesman" of dictator Augusto Pinochet. President Gabriel Boric has responded to the controversial statements by saying that Pinochet was a "corrupt and thief" dictator.

Silva, a constitutional lawyer, is the face of the triumph of the Republican Party in the elections that defined the 50 members who will draft a proposal to bury the Constitution inherited from the dictatorship. The number of victims of political imprisonment and torture during the Pinochet dictatorship is around 30,000.