The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, has pardoned this Friday twelve convicted in the framework of the social outburst that hit the country during the month of November 2019, as well as the former guerrilla of the Patriotic Front Manuel Rodriguez (FPMR) Jorge Mateluna.
According to what the Chilean government has announced in a statement, the thirteen detainees are all males between the ages of 21 and 38 years, in addition to Mateluna, 48 years old, according to the television channel T13.
The former guerrilla was sentenced in 2003 to 16 years in prison after being convicted of robbing a bank branch in the commune of Pudahuel, on the outskirts of the country’s capital, Santiago. At the time, his defense claimed that the conviction was based on false evidence.
The president’s decision has quickly led to turbulence in the political sphere, as the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) has withdrawn from the dialogue table of the next security agreement, according to the Bio Bio Chile radio station.
At first the Chilean authorities had reported that there were eleven beneficiaries of the pardon, but later the Ministry of Justice acknowledged the error and raised the total number of pardoned to thirteen.
The UDI has thus complied with its threats to suspend its participation in the negotiations if the Executive granted the pardon to those convicted of crimes during the citizen protests of 2019.
«President Boric chose the side of the criminals and not of the victims, making it clear that he is not interested in recovering security and confronting the violence that Chile suffers», have also recriminated from the Republican Party.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
