A national flag scandal shakes the last week before the plebiscite in Chile

A referendum has no debates. Chilean analysts repeated it ad nauseam to assess if there is any event that could change the scenario projected by the polls: a victory of the Reject option to the new Constitution proposed by the Constitutional Convention.

For this reason, the campaign teams have focused on “minimizing” errors, so as not to undermine their electoral options.

However, the approval campaign failed in its mission and delivered one of the most embarrassing, grotesque and noisy episodes of the campaignwhen a group of transvestites, called “Las Indetectables”, introduced the Chilean flag on the stage between their buttocks, in front of a crowd in Valparaíso.

The activity had been called by the mayor of the coastal city, Jorge Sharp. While it is not run directly by the Core Option I Approve campaign team, the event was attended by various faces of the cause.

The unsightly image quickly traveled through Chilean cell phones and the matter became a noisy controversy that even led the government to speak up.

In a statement shared by the Ombudsman for Children, government spokesperson Camila Vallejo said: “We have reported the events that took place in Valparaíso to the Prosecutor’s Office. As a government we will take the measures that are within our reach for the protection of children “.

government refusal

“From our part, We reported these facts to the Prosecutor’s Office and, in the context of shared responsibility, we ask local authorities and the Public Prosecutor – to whom we will send all information – to investigate the responsibilities, and the courts to sanction such acts.

Furthermore, citizens and media who avoid sharing the video in question, since its diffusion is re-victimizing “, underline from the Agency for the Defense of Children.

It’s not all. Up to now, Gabriel Boric’s Executive is considering submitting more actions, because even in Chile the “insult to the flag” is a crime, Therefore, those responsible could be criminally prosecuted.

From the “I approve” campaign team they tried to quickly distance themselves from the incident. At midnight on Saturday, their leaders went out in coordination, through social networks, to announce his repudiation of the act and specify that they will also evaluate the legal actions against those responsible.

However, at that time Google searches explodedas reported by the platform analysis, and the fact has become the most relevant search in all so far in the campaign.

For the left-led campaign, patriotism was a sensitive issue. The opt-out option used the Chilean flag permanently and the representative of the ruling party acknowledge that “handing over the symbol was a mistake”.

For this reason, in recent weeks, both in television commercials and on social networks have tried to use the flag, the anthem and various national symbols, to counter the “refounding” idea. that some sectors of the right have installed regarding the possible new Magna Carta.

The opposition

In this context, the events of Saturday evening threw the campaign’s efforts overboard. Without going any further, the opt-out option was made this Sunday a human flag with more than 5,000 people who formed it, to capture an aerial photo.

In the midst of that event another embarrassing act took place, which revealed the social tension and electoral temperature that the referendum is generating.

This Sunday, the Chilean huasos, the simile of Argentina’s gauchos, marched through downtown Santiago to support the flag act. They came face to face with the cyclists on approval and ended up beating each other up.

Throwing stones, thrusts and, as if that were not enough, a couple of horses pulling a cart ran into cyclists, who miraculously saved themselves. Until now, it is being investigated whether the horses ran away frightened or if the fact was on purpose.

In short, the surveys – of which publication in Chile is prohibited, but are still ongoing – show an average difference of 10 points in favor of the Rejection option. A complex scenario for Gabriel Boric’s government, which burned all its cartridges trying to support the approval campaign.

The last seven days before the plebiscite are hot. The only certain thing in Chile is that whoever wins on Sunday, the next day the country will have to start a political process that seeks to narrow the gap that the last three years of social upheaval have created in the country.

PB