translated from Spanish: Chancellor Allamand claims carabinieri violated rights in the outburst but without official planning

Mobilizations against socio-economic inequality were massive in the first months of October last year, while there were acts of extreme violence with fires, destruction of furniture and looting, leaving thirty dead and thousands injured.
In an interview with EFE in Madrid, Chancellor Andrés Allamand reviewed how the protests gave rise to last October 25 referendum, when more than 78% of Chileans voted to develop a new Constitution and leave behind that of 1980, approved during the dictatorship of General Pinochet and reformed more than 40 times.
Allamand, contrary to the drafting of a new constitutional text, had been appointed Head of Foreign Affairs by President Sebastián Piñera just a few months earlier, on 29 July.
Question (P): Why so much anticipation about chile’s constituent process?
Response (R): Chile has always had some political, ideological importance… Just remember the impact of Salvador Allende’s government; subsequently, the transition (since the dictatorship) was a highly observed and praised process.
The last 30 years are objectively progress, the country was able to reduce, perhaps like none, poverty; we have achieved a huge expansion of our middle class, Chile’s human development rate is the first in the region. Consequently, that trajectory of success is somehow appreciated, and the social outburst generated reasonable attention.
There comes a first apprenticeship, countries with a track record of progress are not immune from social unrest or protest.
And today, what generates attention is how Chileans approach the process, how a social outburst, which could have resulted in a very deep institutional crisis, has been channeled through a participatory, democratic and institutional process.
Q: But you positioned yourself against the constituent process.
A: I always favored constitutional reforms through the procedures that the Constitution itself established. But in October there was a very categorical reaffirmation as to what defeat the country should follow, and as chancellor it is up to me to explain and defend that process and work to ensure that it has a good outcome.
Q: What threats does the process have? Could social protests be escalated because of covid-19?
A: The institutional path that Chile has reached, and which has enormous citizen support, leaves aside the path of violence. In Chile, two very different types of demonstrations coexisted in 2019: massive and peaceful demonstrations and, at the same time, acts of absolutely unusual violence.
The fundamental axis that has generated this constituent process is the rejection of violence and the acceptance of a democratic and institutional path. The challenges are, no more or less, the complexity of drafting a new Constitution.
Q: How?
A: Through a body, a 155-member constitutional convention, elected next April by citizens; it’s an unknown what the representation of traditional parties in it and people from outside the political world is going to be.
We don’t know who’s going to integrate it, we do know they’re going to be people with unquestioned democratic legitimacy.
She will be a parity among men and women and has nine months to develop a new Constitution, with a single possible extension of three more months; will be subjected to a plebiscite of ratification.
Chileans want a new constitutional order that, without abandoning factors that have generated progress, incorporates new elements of inclusion and social cohesion.
Q: Chile has chosen to marginalize violence. However, the police force was accused by the UN, Amnesty International or Human Right Watch of excessive use of force and committing serious human rights violations at demonstrations.
A: The Government hosted all the missions of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, and several organizations.
The process, where violations or transgressions of human rights by police forces were effectively committed, was widely and openly counted to internal and international (human rights) organizations.
These committees, groups and organizations delivered recommendations, which have become part of the in-depth process of reforming the police and police organizations, which is well advanced.
Q: Was there pol debuggingWere you going?
A: There has been no room for impunity: every time it has been shown that there has been a transgression, administrative sanctions have been immediately adopted and legal proceedings have been opened to punish the culprits with the rigour of the law. That was the government’s reaction.
I would like to point out in a very categorical way that, although these transgressions have existed on people’s rights, under no circumstances has this been a kind of institutional policy.
Have there been transgressions? Yes, they have been approached in the manner I have pointed out, but there has never been a kind of organized planning on the part of the State or the Government or the police forces.

Original source in Spanish

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