The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Boric pardons 12 convicted of crimes of the social outbreak of 2019

2022-12-31T05:11:32.251Z


The decision of the Chilean president threatens to make the transversal agreement that his Government seeks in terms of public security, the main concern of citizens, fail


The President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, during the last Cabinet Council of the year this Friday, at La Moneda Palace, in Santiago (Chile).Chilean Presidency (EFE/Chilean Presidency)

In one of his last decisions of 2022, the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, has pardoned 12 convicted of different crimes in the framework of the social outbreak of October 2019, where the legitimate peaceful protest of citizens in demand for social goods was combined of quality with unprecedented acts of violence in recent decades.

The leftist president, who has been in La Moneda for nine months and has a popularity rating of 30% with 66% rejection, according to the Cadem survey, has additionally pardoned Jorge Mateluna, who was a member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front ( FPMR), convicted of the assault on the Santander bank in 2013.

The president's decision represents a severe setback because it is being reported precisely in the midst of the government's negotiations to reach a cross-cutting agreement for public safety given the main priority of Chileans, the increase in violent crime, the greater firepower of the gangs and the feeling of insecurity.

The Minister of the Interior, the socialist Carolina Tohá, had carried out complex negotiations with the opposition, which this Friday afternoon has announced that it is withdrawing from the talks.

"The resolution adopted by the current authorities, beyond recognizing the exclusive power of the President of the Republic in this matter, is equivocal, unacceptable and inexcusable, since it is unaware that for more than a month the different political parties with parliamentary representation They are working –together with the Government– on a transversal security agreement that makes it possible to resolutely confront drug trafficking, crime, organized crime, irregular migration and terrorism.

However, and in an incomprehensible way,

ad portas

If an understanding is reached, President Boric decrees a pardon favoring and benefiting those who justly caused the destruction of our country and public space, seriously affecting Chileans and even attempting the lives of civilians and police officers." , said in a statement the deputies of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), who reported their decision to suspend "indefinitely" participation in the talks.

The same goes for Renovación Nacional, RN, another of the large opposition parties, which through its parliamentarian Andrés Longton stated this afternoon: “While the country cries out for criminals to be imprisoned, you, President, are dedicated to freeing them.

We are not going to continue talking with the government under these conditions.”

Among the crimes committed by the 12 pardoned in the framework of the social outbreak are looting, arson and the attempted murder of a police officer.

As a candidate and facing the second round, Boric assured in November 2021: "You cannot pardon a person who burned a church or an SME [a small or medium-sized company] or who looted a supermarket."

President Boric's decision comes at a delicate moment, so not only has the opposition withdrawn from the talks with strong criticism of the pardons, but even sectors of the ruling party do not understand the measure and, above all, the moment .

The Chilean government suffered a complex defeat in the plebiscite on September 4, when the constitutional proposal it defended lost 62% to 38%.

With the failure of a text that sought to profoundly change Chilean institutions, the Boric Executive had to incorporate moderate sectors of the left, such as the Socialists, into the Cabinet and leave the constitutional debate in the hands of Parliament.

The result of the plebiscite was a kind of referendum for an Administration that was just beginning and the signal from the public was resounding,

It was in this context that Minister Tohá, who joined the Government after the referendum in September, began to lead these talks between the ruling party and the opposition to reach cross-cutting agreements on public security.

La Moneda opted for this path and not for raising its own bills in Congress to control crime, which necessarily implies greater challenges regarding dialogue, consensus with the opposition and, ultimately, greater political deployment.

The president's pardons, however, threaten to derail a key political understanding for the Chilean Executive and above all for the people.

In the ruling party there is a private opinion that, if there was a deep conviction to pardon the prisoners of the revolts,

This is not the only episode where the Government shows that it does not understand the weakened position it is in and the need to reach consensus, in the midst of a new constituent attempt.

With a deep security crisis, recognized by the entire political spectrum, Chile will complete three months this weekend without a national prosecutor, because La Moneda has unsuccessfully presented two candidacies, but has not managed to balance the votes of either the opposition or the ruling party in the Senate.

President Boric has chosen not to bring positions closer and, on the contrary, has deepened the conflict with his criticism of the Upper House, whose votes he needs to govern for three more years.

Follow all the international information on

Facebook

and

Twitter

, or in

our weekly newsletter

.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-12-31

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-15T11:51:35.762Z
News/Politics 2024-02-14T17:21:13.028Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.