translated from Spanish: European Union mission detects levels of repression “similar” to Pinochet’s in Chile

A “emergency mission” concluded that Chile suffers from “repression parameters similar to those exercised during the last three years of Pinochet’s dictatorship,” UnMS MEP Podemos Miguel Urbán.
During her visit to the Latin American country Urbán, together with the United MeP Podemos Idoia Villanueva, she wrote a report and letter addressed to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini.
In this missive, Mogherini is called upon to demand an end to the crackdown on social protest and to request information and explanations on the actions of the armed forces and police forces, as well as to call for a public demonstration of the ” solidarity” of the EU with the Chilean people.
It also urges the EU to enforce the democracy clause of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EAA) it maintains with Chile, which envisages the suspension of the pact if human rights are not respected or “good governance” is not exercised in one of the countries.
Urbán and Villanueva also call for the Government of Chile not to chair COP25, which is held this December in Madrid after it was decided to cancel its call in Santiago de Chile.
According to Villanueva, it is important to note that Chile “is only one more example in a global trend of criminalization of protests and persecution of human rights defenders,” a problem that is “being silenced”.
For Urbán, this silence is due to the “Chile has been the advantage of liberal policies” and Europe does not want to recognize the “exhaustion of neoliberalism”, an “unsustainable model that generates inequality”, in the words of the MEP.
Urbán said, moreover, that he would fight for the debate that will take place in the plenary in the Eurochamber on Wednesday to include a resolution on Chile.
“The European Union cannot look the other way,” said Urbán, who lamented that the other EURO groups “refuse to condemn the repression in Chile” and call for a resolutionless debate.

Original source in Spanish