The new Minister of Justice, Luis Cordero, said this Wednesday that the 13 pardons granted by President Gabriel Boric at the end of the year (12 convicted in the context of the violence generated in parallel to the demonstrations of the social outbreak of 2019 and the ex-frontist Jorge Matulna) are “founded”, but he acknowledged that it is a presidential power that has always been “conflicting”.
“Since its application, in the 1990s until today, they have usually been conflictive,” Cordero said at a press conference after taking office and meeting with Boric.
“It is not a contingent situation, in the last 25 years there have been discussion hypotheses similar (to the current ones),” he added.
The head of Justice also maintained that the pardon decrees are “founded” and stressed that “another thing is whether or not one shares the fundamentals.”
The controversy over the pardons was opened by the election of Jorge Mateluna, a former member of the radical armed group Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), convicted of the robbery of a bank in 2013, and Luis Castillo, who had 5 convictions prior to the protests. of the social outbreak of 2019 and 26 legal cases.
The controversy led to the resignation of Marcela Ríos on Saturday, who will face a political trial promoted by the opposition coalition Chile Vamos, which groups right-wing parties.
The president, who also announced the dismissal of his chief of staff and main adviser, Matías Meza-Lopehandía, admitted “mistakes” and assured that when they occur, those responsible must accept their mistake.
In the announcement of the pardons, names had to be corrected at the last minute, when a first list had already been made public. The minister spokesperson for the Government, Camila Vallejo, further fueled the controversy on Monday by stating that the decision would have been “different” if the president, who is being demanded by the opposition to annul the pardons, “had had all the elements to sight”.
The controversy over the pardons has led to the second crisis of the Boric government since he took office in March 2022.
