A hand-to-hand fight between a far-right and a center-left deputy in the middle of Congress has increased the tension that Chile is experiencing, on the brink of decide in a plebiscite if it approves or rejects the draft of the new Constitution, an election that could redefine the course of Gabriel Boric’s government.
Gonzalo de la Carrera, an independent far-right legislator, punched the vice president of the Chamber of Deputies, Alexis Sepúlveda, of the center-left Radical Party, in the right eye.
The accident occurred in the middle of the strong discussions inside the Congress venue, in ValparaÃso, according to AFP and Sputnik news agencies.
“I saw a colleague who was being attacked (verbally by De la Carrera), I found that this did not match and I asked this deputy not to be so aggressive, to which he reacted violently,” Sepúlveda said.
The vice president of the lower house detailed the reporters he received “a punch and some kicks.”
“He grabbed me with his chest, I defended myself,” said De la Carrera, who admitted to having attacked Sepúlveda anyway.
Before the incident with Sepúlveda, De la Carrera had conducted a heated discussion with the Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches, inside the meeting room.
De la Carrera, a recognized opponent of the new draft Constitution, was repudiated by his colleagues for the attack, was denounced before the Ethics Commission of Deputies and expelled from the caucus of the Republican Party, a force to which he had organically ceased to belong. year.
This Sunday Chile votes Approve or Reject the text of the New Constitution proposed by the Constitutional Convention
Stones and whips in Santiago
The congressional incident came after they taped this weekend clashes with stones and whips between supporters and opponents of the new Constitution, in the center of Santiago.
On Sunday a group of “huasos” (gauchos), dressed in the traditional costume of the Chilean countryside, supporters of the “Refusal” attacked a group of cyclists in the center of the capital who were marching in favor of a text that, if approved, will replace the Magna Carta written by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and which has been partially modified in democracy.
According to witnesses reported to the Efe agency, both marches coincided in a street in the historic center and it was the “huasos” “the first to resort to violence” after small groups of both sides started insulting each other.
“At one point, one of them pulled out the typical whips they carry and started hitting the ground and the cyclists” who scolded him, explained MarÃa, who runs a grocery store in the area.
Subsequently, and as can be seen in the videos that circulated on social networks, one of the proponents of the refusal made horse and cart gallop and threw himself against a group of cyclists, They had to get out of the way to get run over.
In response, some of the cyclists threw stones. The clashes are gone minor injuries.
The incident occurred on Saturday after members of an LGBTI + group sparked a scandal in an act in favor of the new constitution by pretending to remove the Chilean flag from the tail of one of them in front of hundreds of children and adolescents. .
This Sunday, over 15 million voters will decide whether to approve or reject the new Constitution. This new text was the result of the 2019 uprising, when millions of Chileans took to the streets to demand a series of social and political reforms.
The Boric government supports the “Approve” campaign, but polls predict a “Reject” victory for the new text.
With information from agencies
CB
Source: Clarin
