The elected president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, appointed this Friday at the Foreign Ministry the lawyer Antonia Urrejola, former president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and former rapporteur for Nicaragua, a position he will assume on March 11.
The Chilean lawyer has a strong bond with the people of Nicaragua, after her work visit in May 2018 and for maintaining her close vigilance with the country’s human rights crisis. For his work, Urrejola earned the respect of many Nicaraguans who have turned to the IACHR, seeking support against the repression of the Daniel Ortega dictatorship.
She was unable to attend the formalization of Boric’s cabinet, held at the Natural History Museum in the Parque Quinta Normal in Santiago de Chile. In this regard, the president-elect said: “I would like to briefly break the script, Antonia is not with us today, she is with her family on the southern highway, we told her to stay there, important, we are very interested in the ministers being able to enjoy their families, if not even she should not be seeing us because there are many places where we still do not have connectivity but to the south I send you a big hug Antonia”.
I appreciate the trust placed in me by the President-elect @gabrielboric to take on the @Minrel_Chile. It is an honor. Let’s go x more multilateralism, cooperation and dialogue, with emphasis on foreign policy based on #Democracy #HR, #Feminism Y #Turquoise
– Antonia Urrejola (@totonia68) January 21, 2022
His affection for Nicaragua
After being proposed by the representation of Chile in the Organization of American States (OAS), Urrejola was not reelected as president and commissioner of the IACHR last November. But his work left a mark among Nicaraguan human rights defenders.
“I really want, in personal terms, to thank you for the trust and affection you have given me, to thank you for your resilience. If I have spoken, if I have raised my voice, it is precisely because of the work of independent journalists, the work of those who are arbitrarily deprived of liberty today, the work of human rights defenders Nicaraguans, in people like Doña Vilma Núñez who I cannot not mention her, because I think she represents what it means to be a human rights defender under all circumstances, her entire life story”, were some of Urrejola’s words during the last hearing on Nicaragua that he led on December 14.
The jurist arrived in the country in May 2018 with the IACHR mission that she led Paul Abrao, former executive secretary of the IACHR, during the social unrest and the beginning of the deep sociopolitical crisis, due to the murders caused by the Daniel Ortega regime in that year.
Marked by a dictatorship
Urrejola’s family history has also been marked by a dictatorship. His father, Carlos Urrejola, was imprisoned after the coup of Augusto Pinochet in Chile in 1973 and when he was released, she and her family had to go into exile in England.
That episode marked her interest in the defense of human rights, which later led her to occupy important positions, such as advisor to the Chilean presidency on Human Rights, and in organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank and even the presidency of the IACHR.
“I have no doubt that this personal experience is the same mark, for me at least it was very marker, not only because of the experience of my father, who was a victim of political imprisonment and torture, although he never spoke about it, never spoke about what it happened to him while he was detained; but also exile, that although I was small and at that age what you like is being with your parents, I do remember a lot of the repeated conversations of my parents about when they could return to Chile, “he told CONFIDENTIAL Urrejola.
Cabinet with a majority of women
This is the first cabinet in Chilean history with more women than men, with an average age of 42 years, with the presence of independents and with the inclusion of other parties outside the Approve Dignity coalition with which Boric won the elections on 19 December, made up of the Broad Front and the Communist Party.
“We have formed this work team with prepared people, with knowledge and experience, committed to the change agenda that the country needs and with the ability to add views, different perspectives and new visions,” said Boric.
At 36 years old, Boric will become the youngest president in the history of Chile on March 11 and the first to arrive at La Moneda (seat of government) who is not part of the traditional blocs that have led the country since the return. to democracy in 1990, the Concertación (centre left) and the Alianza (centre right).
With a view to having governability and unity in a highly fragmented Parliament without majorities, the future ruler included in his cabinet the parties of the former Concertación that did not support him in the first round, such as the Socialist Party (PS), the Party for Democracy (PPD), the Liberal Party and the Radical Party (PR).
This is the case of Maya Fernández, granddaughter of the ousted Salvador Allende and future Minister of National Defense; the socialist senator Carlos Montes (Housing and Urban Planning); from the “pepedé” Jeanette del Rosario Vega (Social Development and Family); the liberal Juan Carlos García (Public Works); and the radical Marcela Hernando (Mining).
Although they have no affiliation and are independent, the appointments of Urrejola and the future finance minister to the current president of the Central Bank, Mario Marcel, are also interpreted as a nod to the former Concertación, since they are close to socialism.
“Today a new chapter in our democratic history begins to be written. We did not start from scratch, we know that there is a story that elevates and inspires us,” said the former student leader.
With information from EFE
