MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile: Boric wants pardon for all those prosecuted for 2019 Social Outbreak

“We are trying to reach the best possible agreement,” Boric explained

Chile's President-elect Gabriel Boric has asked his country's Parliament to approve a general pardon for all those still detained or facing criminal charges for their involvement in the Social Outbreak of 2019.

Boric was hopeful the Chilean Congress will reach a decision on the matter before the end of this month. “We have talked as a team with the family members and we understand that this is a difficult situation, and we hope that it will be resolved in the current Congress, and we make a call and we have also discussed it with the senator chairing the Constitutional Committee, so that this is resolved as soon as possible,” he said.

“We are trying to reach the best possible agreement, because you know, two votes are required from right-wing senators,” Boric went on.

“I hope there is an understanding that, in order to achieve precisely the climate we need to be able to tackling all the transformations we want to make, there has to be collaboration from all sectors,” he added.

Meanwhile, Constitutional Convention Speaker María Elisa Quinteros supported Boric's request. “In the Social Outbreak there was a lot of repression and very strict laws were applied,” she said regarding the 306 complaints by the State Security Law presented by the Government against protesters.

Quinteros also addressed the cases of those who have spent months or years under preventive detention, and may later be acquitted due to lack of evidence: “There was an excessive application of the power of the State. And of course they are people who have suffered a lot and in many cases there is no evidence; they have spent two years of their lives in prison,” she said.

Boric will take office March 11.