Chilean President Deplores Bolsonaro’s Words on Bachelet’s Father

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, said in a statement on Wednesday, September 4th, he does not concur with President Jair Bolsonaro’s remarks about the father of Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former president of Chile.

Piñera, one of Bolsonaro’s main regional allies, said that “everyone has the right to have his or her own historical judgment on the governments of the 1970s and 1980s, but these views must be expressed respectfully”.

“I do not at all endorse the reference made by President Bolsonaro out of respect for a former Chilean president and, in particular, on a subject as painful as the death of her father”.

Piñera further stressed that his commitment has always been to democracy, freedom and human rights “at all times, places and circumstances”.

On Wednesday, President Jair Bolsonaro lashed out at Michelle Bachelet’s father, Alberto Bachelet, who was tortured and killed under Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship.

The attack came after Bachelet had said in an interview that Brazil is experiencing a “reduction in the breadth of democracy,” particularly with attacks on nature and human rights advocates.

“Michelle Bachelet, in line with [French President Emmanuel] Macron in meddling in internal affairs and Brazilian sovereignty, is attacking Brazil on its human rights agenda, attacking our brave civil and state police,” he wrote on social media.

Alberto Bachelet, Michelle’s father, was an Air Force Brigadier General and opposed Augusto Pinochet’s military coup in September 1973. He was arrested and tortured by the regime and died in custody in February 1974.

The former Chilean president was also arrested and tortured by Pinochet’s agents in 1975.

Mario Dujisin, who was head of Chile’s International Department and Foreign Press until the 1973 military coup, rejected the statements stating that “to say that the military saved Chile from a Cuban dictatorship is a falsehood and a shows tremendous ignorance about who was Salvador Allende”.

“But of course, that would be asking too much of the poor captain president’s mind. His specialties are lies and insults, particularly directed at women, like Mrs. Macron or Mrs. Bachelet. This wonderful Brazil deserves much better,” Dujisi told Folha.

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