Former Chilean presidents Frei, Lagos and Bachelet will attend the funeral of Sebastián Piñera

The chancellor of the Government of the left-wing president Gabriel Boric, Alberto Van Klaveren, reported this Thursday that the former Chilean presidents, the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei (1994-2000) and the socialists Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) and Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010) , 2014-2018), will attend the state funeral of former president Sebastián Piñera on Friday at the Santiago cathedral, who died on Tuesday in a plane accident after the helicopter he was piloting crashed in Lake Ranco.

Van Klaveren was appointed by Boric, who has decreed three days of national mourning, to coordinate the funeral of the former center-right president, who governed Chile in two periods: between 2010 and 2014, and in 2018 and 2022. The chancellor reported that, in addition, All powers of the State will be present: the Executive of Gabriel Boric;

the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, Juan Antonio Coloma and Ricardo Cifuentes, respectively, and the president of the Supreme Court, Ricardo Blanco.

More information

“He was semi-sunken and they couldn't get him out”: what was the death of Sebastián Piñera like?

One of the last public occasions on which Lagos, Bachelet and Piñera were seen together was on April 7, 2023. That time, together with Boric they attended the funeral of Carabineros corporal Daniel Palma, 33, who was murdered in a shot in the head when he was going to check a car in the center of Santiago.

It was a crime that shocked Chilean society, as it was the third murder of a police officer in 23 days.

The Chilean Foreign Minister also reported that the funeral, which will be led in the cathedral by the Archbishop of Santiago, Monsignor Fernando Chomalí, has so far confirmed its attendance by former presidents Guillermo Lasso and Mario Abdo, of Ecuador and Paraguay, respectively, in addition to the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. from Argentina.

Van Klaveren added that several delegations from different countries will also travel, including a “high-level one from Peru,” but they have not yet told him who will lead it.

Miners in the honor guard

The remains of Sebastián Piñera were transferred on Wednesday from the Los Ríos Region, in the south of the country, to Santiago.

At the airport, in Group 10 of the Air Force, the coffin was received by Boric, who there delivered condolences to Piñera's family, his widow Cecilia Morel and his children Magdalena, Cecilia, Sebastián and Cristóbal.

Piñera has been laid to rest since Wednesday afternoon in the hall of honor of the former National Congress in Santiago.

Hundreds of people have arrived there, where his family is, forming long lines, more than two blocks long, to say goodbye and approach his coffin, covered by the Chilean flag.

In addition, mayors and parliamentarians from all political sectors have attended, and former collaborators of the two governments of the former president, who was in La Moneda between 2010 and 2014 and then between 2018 and 2022. It has also been reported this Thursday that the brother of the former president will travel , the economist José Piñera.

Upon leaving the former Congress, the former first lady, Cecilia Morel, upon seeing the hundreds of attendees, said that “it has been very very exciting.

I think this has been well deserved for Sebastián.”

She also thanked President Boric.

“He received us with great affection and arranged for this state funeral.”

Cecilia Piñera Morel, one of the former president's daughters, pointed out that her father “was a great democrat his entire life.

He never doubted that, he was twice president of the Republic.

He has some reason to exist, people voted for him.

We are deeply proud of his work and we are sure that history will value it more every day.”

His sister Magdalena added: “He was a great democrat and that is what we are seeing today in the streets, in the people, in the hearts of all Chileans.

It is general gratitude.”

In the morning, four of the 33 miners who were rescued in 2011 from the San José mine in Atacama, after being trapped 720 meters underground for 69 days, made an honor guard at the coffin.

It was an event that marked Piñera's first Administration.

Alberto Espina, who was the former president's Minister of Defense, has told EL PAÍS that he was one of the former president's legacies.

"It was very difficult.

Many people told him that perhaps it would be convenient for the government to recognize that it was not possible to do it because, if it was later recognized that it could not be done, it would have a negative political effect.

But Sebastián was convinced that the miners could be alive and insisted on rescuing them.”

One of the miners, Juan Carlos Aguilar, told the Mega channel that Piñera was the leader of the rescue of the 33. “He led everything with his work team and with all the companies that were at his service to be able to carry out the drilling. to get to where we were.”

Luis Urzúa, another of the workers who went to the old National Congress, pointed out that they have “very great” respect for him.

“He never denied his faith, his hope, his love for Chile.”

Meanwhile, Richard Villarroel said: “I will always have him on an altar, because he was the one who set the stage for this great rescue, he looked for the right people and gave everything to get us out.”

Subscribe here

to the EL PAÍS Chile newsletter and receive all the key information on current events in the country.