The president of Chile condemned the figure of the former dictator, whom he also defined as “corrupt and a thief.” The ruling party presented a bill to punish “denialism.”
The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, rejected this Wednesday the figure of the late dictator Augusto Pinochet, after the constitutional adviser of the Republican Party, Luis Silva, expressed “admiration” towards the management of the military government (1973-1990).
The president stated from his Twitter account that “Pinochet was a dictator, essentially anti-democratic, whose government killed, tortured, exiled and made disappear to those who thought differently.
Augusto Pinochet was a dictator, essentially anti-democratic, whose government killed, tortured, exiled, and made those who thought differently disappear. He was also corrupt and a thief. A coward to the end, he did everything in his power to evade justice. He statesman ever.
—Gabriel Boric Font (@GabrielBoric) May 31, 2023
Boric also defined the deceased soldier as “corrupt and thief”, “never a statesman”. And he added: “Cowardly to the end, he did everything in his power to evade justice.”
“A Statesman”
On Sunday, in statements to ICARE TV, Silva praised Pinochet: “There are a hint of admiration for the fact that he was a statesman (…) He was a man who knew how to lead the State, who knew how to rearm a State that was in shreds”.
Boric’s response also comes after a survey was released in which Pinochet’s influence on the citizenry is growing.
The private survey, published on Tuesday, warns that a 36% of the citizenry He believes that the Armed Forces “were right to carry out the coup d’etat” of September 11, 1973, against former President Salvador Allende.
The opinion study carried out by the polling company MORI (Market & Opinion Research International) in Chile, warns that “the shadow of Pinochet 50 years after the coup rises like a ghost who seems to have no peace.”
The analysis highlights that the measurement yielded very different results from the 2006 survey, when the dictator died. For this moment, 68% of Chileans considered that the coup against Allende had destroyed democracy and only 19% said that military action had freed the country from Marxism.
For its part, the National Human Rights Institute of Chile (INDH) expressed its “concern” over the results, and stated in a statement that they should be taken “as a lesson.”
“It makes us aware that we may be failing to convey the appropriate message to those who reside in the country, especially to those who did not experience the violence and violations that became common elements of the dictatorship on a daily basis,” said the government body. .
Punishment for denialism
At the same time, a group of legislators from the Communist Party presented a bill that defines and penalizes the denial of human rights violations, even with prison sentences of up to 61 days.
The initiative proposes to apply penalties to those who “approve, justify or deny” the crimes committed by the Pinochet dictatorship.
We present a bill that classifies the denial of human rights violations committed in Chile between 1973-1990 as a crime that affects the human condition itself, since it affects the dignity and honor of the victims, survivors and all people. pic.twitter.com/mCpqC3ltTe
— Carmen Hertz Deputy (@carmen_hertz) May 31, 2023
Deputy Carmen Hertz, one of the authors of the project, pointed out from her social networks that denialism must be considered “a crime that affects the human condition itself, since it affects the dignity and honor of the victims, the survivors and all the people”.
Source: RT
