The Foreign Ministry accuses the Brazilian president of giving false information after attacks on Boric

First modification: 08/30/2022 – 00:05

In the middle of two crucial electoral campaigns for the political future of both countries, this Monday the bilateral relations between Chile and Brazil suffered a setback after the Brazilian president accused the Chilean president on Sunday night of being one of the precursors of the burning of the Metro in Santiago, the capital, in the context of the social protests at the end of 2019.

The Foreign Ministry of the southern country, led by its head, Antonia Urrejola, offered a press conference in front of the media to denounce the seriousness of Bolsonaro’s statements:

“As a government, we think that these statements are very serious. Obviously they are absolutely false and we regret that in an electoral context bilateral relations are taken advantage of and polarized through disinformation and false news”, exhorted the Foreign Minister.

Likewise, Urrejola stressed that “disinformation erodes democracy and in this case it erodes the bilateral relationship. We are convinced that this is not the way to do politics and it is also not the way to do politics when it comes to two democratically elected heads of state”.

Parallel to the statements to the press, the same Foreign Ministry published a statement classifying Bolsonaro’s words as “unacceptable” and “are not consistent with the respectful treatment that heads of state owe each other or with the fraternal relations between two Latin American countries.” .

Bolsonaro criticized the relations of his opponent Lula with regional leftist leaders

On Sunday, during the first presidential debate in the framework of the general elections on October 2 in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro, who is running for re-election and is currently second in the demographic polls, wanted to make his main contender, former union leader and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his relations with other regional leftist leaders who have supported him.

In addition, he referred to Lula as the “ex-prisoner” for his past behind bars for alleged corruption, an extreme that was put on hold after there were irregularities in the procedural case against him and the Justice had to order his release.

“The former prisoner supported Chávez, he supported Maduro. And look how Venezuela is,” Bolsonaro exclaimed during the debate. He also criticized his friendly relations with his Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernández and had unkind words for the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, of whom he said in an ironic tone that he “wants to release drugs”; and for his Nicaraguan counterpart Daniel Ortega, of whom he pointed out “who arrests priests and persecutes nuns.”

Of Boric, he said that “he set fire to the Metro” and “this is how Chile is going”, in relation to his past as a student leader and active participant during the social outbreak. However, Boric has never faced a legal charge for these facts and there is no record against him to make such an accusation.

In fact, three years after that, the judicial authorities still do not have the authors of the burning of 25 Metro stations in Santiago de Chile during the height of the protests.

For his part, Bolsonaro, who became president in January 2019, before the social outbreak in the Southern Cone country, was one of the few regional leaders who did not attend Boric’s inauguration this past March.

Chile summoned the Brazilian ambassador to send him “a note of protest”

In her appearance, Foreign Minister Urrejola reported that on Monday afternoon they had summoned the Brazilian ambassador to the country, Paulo Pacheco, to send him a “protest note” about what had happened, although without contemplating the rupture of bilateral relations .

“We have summoned the Brazilian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry today in the afternoon from the general secretary of foreign policy, where we will send him a note of protest,” said Urrejola, who added that “obviously these statements do not facilitate the relations, but there is a historical relationship, we have a common history and a common future and we are going to continue working on that bilateral relationship”.

“This is not the way to do politics,” explained the minister, who also requested “transversal statements” within the country after Bolsonaro’s words.

Chile and Brazil are currently in two electoral processes: on September 4, Chileans will decide whether to approve or reject the new Constitution, endorsed by Gabriel Boric; For their part, on October 2, more than 150 million Brazilians have in their hands the election of the new President of the Republic in the most polarized elections of recent decades.

With EFE and local media