The President spoke with El País de España and analyzed the acts of violence that have occurred for three weeks in the middle of the social crisis.
“I don’t rule out anything, but as president of Chile I have to be cautious,” he said.
President Sebastian Pinera pointed out the possible responsibility of “foreign government intervention” in the acts of violence that have erupted since the protests began three weeks ago Chile.
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The President, in conversation with the Spanish newspaper El País, said that in these weeks “we have seen a wave of violence, of destruction, caused by organized criminal groups.”
When asked about the origin of these groups, Piñera said that “they are from different backgrounds. I believe that today there is something new, different from what we had a month ago, but I need evidence to be able to affirm it.”
To these groups, he said, “add traditional crime, drug trafficking, anarchists and many more. They showed a willingness to destroy everything, without respecting anything or anyone.”
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“We will identify these groups, we will take them to justice and they will answer for their crimes,” he said.
The President said that “in 15 minutes, in a coordinated and simultaneous way, they burned seven subway stations. Of 136 stations, 80 were burned, vandalized or destroyed. That is not something spontaneous or casual. It is the work of organized criminal groups, but naturally investigating this situation and bringing them to justice and punishing them corresponds to the police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary. ”
“Do you suspect agents of regimes adverse to your government?” asked El País to which Piñera replied: “I do not discard anything. I have received a lot of information, some of it of external origin, which states that there was intervention from foreign governments here. But I want to be prudent, we have delivered that information to the Prosecutor’s Office, which is the one that by mandate of the law must investigate crimes in Chile.”
“I don’t rule out anything, but as president of Chile, I have to be cautious,” he said.
Full interview linked below.
Translated by EF
