Chilean President Accuses Foreign Governments, Institutions of Influencing Protests

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Chilean President Sebastian Piñera insists that foreign intervention has influenced the Chilean social explosion, which erupted on October 18th calling for better social services, such as health and education.

In an interview with CNN in Spanish, the president said that “the misinformation campaign, the fake news, the setting up to generate a sense of disorder and a total crisis was gigantic (…), and there was undoubtedly involvement of foreign governments and institutions”.

Invited to give an example, the president pointed out videos related to human rights violations “widely disseminated in the Chilean and also foreign media”, but which, according to him, “do not reflect reality”. “Many of them are fake, are filmed outside Chile or are misrepresented,” he added.

Piñera’s statements to the US Channel have generated wide repercussions in Chile. Part of the interview had already been broadcast on December 15th, but the full interview was not aired until the past December 22nd. Critics understood that the head of state was relativizing human rights violations during protests, which were reported by several international organizations.

Meanwhile, Prosecutor General Jorge Abott reported on Thursday that the Prosecutor’s Office, when analyzing the images, did not find situations like those reported by the president about videos recorded outside Chile.

Karla Rubilar, the president’s s spokesperson, addressed reporters in the afternoon to explain Piñera’s words: “We have some images and videos from countries like Bolivia and Colombia of confrontations with the police there that anyone can recognize by their uniforms, and which have been denied by the Carabineros [Chilean police] themselves,” she said.

However, Rubilar said the president “acknowledges the abuses, the excesses, the crimes and violations that unfortunately have occurred during these months, which hurt us, and we hope that they will be effectively investigated as they should be”.

The pressure was such that on Thursday night the president himself, through a video on Twitter, explained his speech: “By referring to certain fake news in an interview with CNN, I did not express myself accurately enough, leading to interpretations that do not represent my thoughts”, said Piñera. “Human rights violations should always be condemned, by all and under all circumstances, without ever tolerating impunity”.

The police excesses in Chile during protests have been denounced by several international organizations, such as the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which issued reports pointing to “serious violations” of human rights during protests.

Over the past ten weeks, the National Human Rights Institute (INDH) has reported 3,557 injured – 359 with eye injuries – and 943 legal actions brought before the courts for crimes such as torture, ill-treatment, and sexual violence.

According to official data, 3,157 state agents suffered injuries, and 21,111 people were arrested (excluding those carried out for non-compliance with curfews), of whom 1,615 are under pre-trial detention.

In the midst of the greatest crisis in Chile in recent decades, the president’s interventions have further complicated his government’s political situation. Shortly after the protests began, for instance, he said Chile was “at war” against a powerful enemy willing to use unlimited violence.

In November, in an interview with EL PAÍS, Piñera referred to alleged foreign interference in the social outburst and the action of agents of regimes opposed to his government. “I don’t rule anything out,” Piñera said, who now has 11 percent approval and 82 percent rejection rates, according to the latest CADEM survey.

On Thursday, when Piñera was monitoring the fight against the fires that affected the city in Valparaíso, citizens gathered in front of the regional government headquarters to protest his presence.

Source: El País

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