MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Boric leaves office defending his record and acknowledging mistakes

“I leave with my head held high and my hands clean,” Boric said in a live message from La Moneda palace on the night of March 10

In his final national address before handing the presidential sash to José Antonio Kast on Wednesday, Chilean President Gabriel Boric defended his government’s record, highlighted progress in security, pensions and healthcare, and accepted political responsibility for two of the most damaging episodes of the final stretch of his administration: the handling of the Monsalve case and the failed purchase of former President Salvador Allende’s house.

“I leave with my head held high and my hands clean,” Boric said in a live message from La Moneda palace on the night of March 10. In one of the most sensitive passages of the speech, he added: “I am thinking especially of the handling of the Monsalve case and the frustrated process to purchase the house of former President Salvador Allende. In both, I take responsibility.” He then defended the late socialist leader’s legacy, saying: “The dignity of the former president is not stained by the mistakes I may have made.”

The reference was aimed at a controversy that hit the government hard. The state’s plan to buy Allende’s home on Guardia Vieja street and turn it into a museum was abandoned after legal incompatibilities emerged, since the property’s owners included then-Defence Minister Maya Fernández, Allende’s granddaughter, and Senator Isabel Allende. Boric had already acknowledged in January that there was an “evident incompatibility” that had not been detected in time.

The speech also sought to impose political order on the closing hours of an administration that ends after weeks of friction with the president-elect’s team. Boric said there would be an “impeccable transfer of power” and stressed that both he and Kast know “Chile comes first,” signalling a degree of restraint after the clash between the outgoing and incoming governments over information shared during the transition regarding a proposed submarine cable project involving China. The dispute prompted Kast to suspend bilateral transition meetings and accuse the outgoing administration of lacking transparency.

Earlier in the day, Boric had presided over the inauguration of a police station in Maipú and again put the spotlight on security, an area that came to dominate public debate during his presidency. In parallel, he used his X account to issue one last foreign-policy rebuke from office, this time against Donald Trump, condemning a mocking remark by the U.S. president about the war with Iran. “This is the character some admire and bow to... the banality of evil,” Boric wrote.

Boric leaves office at age 40, four years after arriving at La Moneda as one of the youngest presidents in Chile’s history. His departure coincides with Kast’s arrival, with the president-elect set to take office amid high expectations on security, migration and the economy, marking a sharp political shift to the right.