MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Boric condemns presidential hopeful's remarks regarding Pinochet's regime

Matthei said the coup was necessary to keep Chile from becoming th next Cuba

Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font strongly condemned opposition leader Evelyn Matthei’s justification of the 1973 coup d’état that overthrew Salvador Allende. Boric insisted that Augusto Pinochet Ugarte's military dictatorship (1973-1990) was “criminal and illegitimate” and noted that nothing justified the murders, disappearances, tortures, and exiles that ensued

“The coup d'état in Chile is not justifiable. The dictatorship was criminal and illegitimate from September 11, 1973, to March 11, 1990. Nothing justifies the murders, the disappeared, the tortures, the exile. Neither 73, 74, 83, 85, nor any other year. Democracy always,” Boric posted on X.

Matthei, a presidential pre-candidate for the right-wing Chile Vamos coalition, claimed in a radio interview that the coup was “necessary” to prevent Chile from becoming a new Cuba, arguing it was inevitable due to the political climate. However, she later acknowledged that the human rights violations were unjustifiable.

Facing widespread criticism from Boric, ruling party figures, and the Socialist Party, Matthei clarified that all political sectors, including the left, shared responsibility for the democratic breakdown, and she denied justifying human rights abuses.

Her comments, linked to her father’s role in the Pinochet regime, sparked backlash and discomfort within her coalition, highlighting tensions in Chile’s ongoing debate over the dictatorship’s legacy.

Matthei insisted that by 1973, the military uprising “was quite inevitable [and] that there would be deaths,” but claimed that it should not have been the case in later years when the country was already under control. Without the coup, “we would go straight to Cuba; there was no other alternative,” insisted the former mayor of Providencia, and daughter of Fernando Matthei, who was a member of the Military Junta, who served as Health Minister and commander-in-chief of the Air Force during the Pinochet years.

She also contended that the human rights violations were in response to “people who did a lot of damage, crazy people who took charge and nobody stopped them in time.” Pinochet's dictatorship resulted in the deaths of at least 3,200 opponents, including 1,469 who were forcibly disappeared. Decades of efforts have led to the identification of 307 victims' remains, while 1,162 remain unaccounted for.

“All political sectors were responsible for the breakdown of democracy,” Matthei insisted. “The coup was, unfortunately, the result of a collective failure, the inability of politics to find a democratic way to solve disagreements,” she went on. The left had “weakened the institutions and the rule of law, with the intention of taking Chile to a totalitarian government, a project that the majority of citizens rejected,” she further explained.

“Today, the left, which is in government with the Communist Party, which justifies what is happening in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, grossly distorts my words. I say it loud and clear: I have never justified nor will I ever justify human rights violations,” she stressed.

“It is unacceptable that a public figure, with aspirations to the presidency of the country, seeks to justify assassinations, forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary imprisonment, and the existence of real concentration camps,” Allende's Socialist Party said in a comunniqué.

Matthei is one of next year's leading right-wing presidential candidates, alongside José Antonio Kast (Republican) and Johannes Kaiser (Libertarian).