Gabriel Boric pardons 13 detainees for the social outburst of 2019 and unleashes a shower of criticism in Chile

the Chilean president, Gabriel Boricothis Friday granted a controversial pardon to 13 people convicted during the violent social protests of 2019 and to the well-known member of the armed group Patriotic Front Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) Jorge Mateluna Rojas, who fought against the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1989 ). .

Forgiveness, that is a presidential power enshrined in the Constitution and that the president exercised himself to keep one of his electoral promises, has sparked criticism from the opposition, which has even announced its intention to withdraw from the common security table.

But he received applause and celebrations from the families of the detainees, surprised by the news.

Dozens of relatives of the condemned celebrated in front of the presidential palace of La Moneda in Santiago after learning of this pardon, President Boric’s electoral promise.

“We express our joy at the signing of the first presidential pardons granted”, the National Assembly of Political Prisoners of the Revolt told the press before recalling that the goal is “to seek a political solution in collaboration with social and governmental organizations” .

“We have stood firm despite the criticisms and attacks and thanks to them we feel fully proud of the struggle we have given as relatives,” the organization added in a press release.

The pardon for the prisoners of the protests, known as a “social hotbed”, the largest since the end of the dictatorship – which left around thirty dead and hundreds injured – was “under study” since Boric’s arrival to the presidency. In recent weeks, families and groups have stepped up their requests.

According to data from the Gendarmerie (prison guard), up to March of this year About 211 people were jailed for reasons related to the riot which lasted between 18 October 2019 and 30 March 2021. Of them, 144 were in pre-trial detention and another 67 with final sentences.

Mateluna (48), sentenced to 16 years in prison after being accused of participating in an attack in 2013 on a branch of Banco Santander in the municipality of Pudahuel, in the metropolitan region of Santiago, is added to the list of those pardoned.

The sentence of Mateluna, a former member of the FPMR, is surrounded by controversygiven that the former guerrilla first reported a series of alleged irregularities during the investigation and then, in 2018, asked for his sentence to be reviewed, a request that the Supreme Court rejected.

The pardons were announced later an amnesty bill in favor of social epidemic prisoners, sponsored by Boric, did not win support advance its drafting in Congress and was rejected by the right-wing opposition.

The social uprising began with student protests over the increase in the price of the metro in Santiago which led to heavy clashes between protesters and riot police.

It was the trigger of a violent epidemic throughout the country, the largest since the days of the military dictatorship, which spread rapidly against the entire economic model.

critics

The announcement of the pardons provoked harsh criticism from the opposition and several right-wing deputies suspended their participation in the transversal table on security led by the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, indefinitely.

“It was to imagine, Gabriel Boric rewards the violent and at the same time the minister Carolina Tohá wants to close an agreement on security. Is there any ex-carabiniere or soldier pardoned? It is only part of the demands of a hostage government of the Communist Party. The criminal party has begun,” said MP Iván Moreira, from the right-wing coalition Chile Vamos.

His peer, MP Diego Schalper, stressed that the announcement “puts a very important question mark on what the real will of the government is”, and called on Boric to “make a decision: either he is on the side of the victims, of public order and safety, or is on the side of the criminals”.

“The security table is suspended from this moment”, warned, for his part, the deputy Jorge Alessandri, deputy of the ultra-conservative Independent Democratic Union (Udi).

Source: EFE and AFP

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