After days of silence, today, the deputy María Luisa Cordero reappeared in the morning Contigo en la Mañana to refer to the controversy generated by her indolent statements about the blindness of Senator Fabiola Campillai. Cordero accused, in a radio program, that the senator would be lying about her blindness, which, as is widely known, was caused after a tear gas fired by police officers in the middle of a social outbreak hit her head.
The statements were widely repudiated in the Senate and in Congress. From the Communist Party to the Republican Party. President Gabriel Boric even delivered a few words in this regard, in the middle of a mirror activity in which the Senator was present: “The denial of human rights violations committed by deputy María Luisa Cordero, housed in a bench of the right today, it seems to me that it is unacceptable”.
“Denialism” said the President and other authorities after hearing the harsh phrase of Congresswoman Cordero who said on the program Sentido Común on El Conquistador radio: “She has a good eye, she is not totally blind.” The Upper House of Congress was the first to cross-reject Cordero’s statements and attitude.
Not even the transversal rejection of her statements made her realize her words and offer an apology. The deputy and psychiatrist Cordero, in the morning of Chilevisión, tried to explain herself: “How am I going to apologize for a diagnosis?” She also added that her comment came from her “knowledge and interest in others.”
The panelists tried to get the ball down and be direct: “Do you apologize for what you said? What is the self-criticism that you face with that?” said the panelist. At that time, the independent deputy with a RN quota dedicated herself to alleging against the journalists, in particular, whom she asked.
First of all, I want to ask you not to be so hateful, because remember that you are from the left and the left brushes its teeth with sorority, which is equivalent to solidarity between women,” said Cordero. In addition, he focused on a detail to criticize the driver: “The other thing was a Spanish correction. Apologies are not requested, Mrs. Monserrat, because when one is supposed to have attacked or insulted someone, they are not going to ask for generosity. Apologies are offered.”
Among the debate there were more phrases that made it clear that María Luisa Cordero was reluctant to assume that her statements were unacceptable. “That they come to ask me for the standard of behavior in the Chamber if it is a horror!” She said in the middle of the debate; She later warned that her words sought to give her “the joy that she hopes to be able to recover her eye.” To that, she added “and give him vitamins, because you know that vision can be improved by taking vitamins.”
The only one who took a less drastic position against Cordero was his chief of staff Frank Sauerbaum (RN). The deputy highlighted Cordero as “an efficient and hard-working deputy”, but he did not agree with what the legislator said. In this context, he announced that he will meet with her to find out the background and context of her statements.
Within the RN community, Senator Paulina Núñez did not back down from the event and pointed to the party leadership. “So far all we’ve heard is complicit silence,” she said. In addition, she added that the board “must decide what is going to happen with it, with its political space, the quota and the representation it has.” This, because, according to Núñez, “Reparation will be impossible if we continue with denialist, painful, and violent attitudes.”
The parliamentarian not only stood out for the lack of sensitivity and empathy with which she used her comments, but also points to the opposite direction to what the justice system pointed out when condemning the former captain of the Carabineros Patricio Javier Maturana Ojeda as the perpetrator of the consummated crime of illegitimate coercion with of very serious serious injuries in the case of the current senator Campillai.
The verdict of the sentence, to 12 years and 182 days in prison, explains that Maturana “exposed the victim in his actions to serious injuries and physical sequelae, destroying his life project (…) neglecting the circular on the use of force, the protocols for maintaining public order and the operations manual” contrary to the principles of necessity and proportionality.
Senator Campillai announced legal actions against Congresswoman Cordero and declared: “I am going to go as far as I have to go, because it cannot be that denialism still exists in Chile. We are going to do everything possible to promote a project of law that is in the Senate”.
