In the midst of a controversy generated by a recent trip to Spain, related to an international position for which he is already appointed, while the country is going through a crisis due to the migratory situation on the northern border, the Foreign Minister of Chile, Andrés Allamand, was relieved of his position. The departure of Allamand and his replacement “in subrogation” by the until now Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Carolina Valdivia, was reported this morning by the government in a statement reproduced by the newspaper El Mercurio, among other media. The official’s reported resignation came after a wave of criticism that accused him last week of “abandonment of duties” in the midst of the migration crisis and after being photographed in Spain with the foreign minister of that country, José Manuel Albares.
The reason for that trip was apparently related to the recent appointment of Allamand to succeed Costa Rican Rebeca Grynspan, who already has her term expired, as head of the General Secretariat Iberoamericana.La removal of Allamand was announced shortly after the outgoing official returned to the country and held a videoconference with President Sebastián Piñera and the Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Delgado.On the last week, the United Nations condemned the “acts of discrimination and xenophobia” committed days earlier against mostly Venezuelan immigrants in the northern cities of Iquique and Arica during protests over the increase in crime. At the same time, the Foreign Ministry announced that it would set up a “working table” with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bolivia in order to seek solutions to the prolonged conflict derived from the constant irregular entry of immigrants through the border maintained with that country.
The departure of Allamand “marks the definitive closure of my long life in national politics,” said the new former foreign minister at a press conference from the presidential palace of La Moneda.Lawyer, 65, Allamand was part of the leaders who in 1987 founded National Renewal (RN), the center-right party of Piñera, of which he was president between 1990 and 1996.In addition, he was a deputy (1994-98), senator (2006-11 and 2014-20) and Minister of Defense in 2011-12, during Piñera’s first term.
