The two candidates for the Presidency of Chile staged, this Friday (10), a tense debate, in which they exchanged accusations for a great part of the time.
The ultra-right candidate, José Antonio Kast, and the left-wing candidate, Gabriel Boric –who is supported by the Communist Party– face each other on the 19th, in the second round of elections.
Organized by the Chilean Broadcasters Association, the debate lasted more than two hours, with constant questions about the changes introduced by the two candidates in their government programs, compared to their plans presented in the first round.
During the 120 minutes of debate, the two candidates discussed, among several topics, the country’s pension system, economic growth, decentralization, climate change, health, security and immigration.
The last two agendas are the banners of Kast, who is against Chile’s current immigration policies and has repeatedly declared his admiration for the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1974-1990), one of the most severe in South America. of the Chilean general, at least 3,200 people were murdered and more than 40,000 tortured.
One of the points that generated controversy in the debate was Kast’s defense of the proposal to incarcerate people in places other than the current prisons, when there is a “state of exception”.
Asked whether these spaces could be similar to those used by the Pinochet dictatorship to deter opponents, Kast replied: “that’s how it is.” On the other hand, he made a point of stressing that it is a “change basically for states of exception when we have a serious situation in the interior of the country”, he said.
The ultra-rightist also defended his proposal to build a ditch on the country’s northern border to prevent the passage of irregular immigrants. In the region, mainly in the city of Iquique, 2,000 km from Santiago, protesters are rejecting the arrival of waves of migrants, the vast majority of Venezuelans and Haitians.
The measure elaborated by Kast was valued at US$ 10 million (R$ 56 million).
Tempers also rose when the far-right candidate accused Boric of abusing a woman when he was president of the Student Federation of the University of Chile in 2012. “Did you apologize to the woman who accused you of abuse? , there’s a woman who denounced you for abuse and you still haven’t asked for forgiveness,” he said.
Boric, for his part, rejected the accusations and said that “it seems regrettable that [Kast] use a space like this [para falar] on topics that you have absolutely no idea about.”
The case refers to the accusations of episodes that would have occurred in 2012, when Boric was accused of directing “lewd looks” and making “sexist comments”.
This year, amidst the presidential campaign, the leftist had already denied, in an interview with CNN Chile, the harassment allegations, but acknowledged that he made “sexist comments that are unacceptable” and added that “to improve it is necessary to be able to recognize “.
Toward the end of the debate, the far-right candidate apologized and said he had made a mistake. “Gabriel Boric is not accused of abuse, but of harassment. I apologize for the case. I think you should clarify this with the victim or the person who claims to have been a victim of harassment.”
This was the penultimate debate until the election. Next Monday night (13), the two candidates will meet again in a television debate organized by the National Television Association of the country.
On Wednesday (8), another topic linked to the candidates’ personal lives came to the fore. At the time, the American Associated Press news agency published a report based on a document indicating that Kast’s father was affiliated with the Nazi Party of Germany during World War II.
The Kast family’s relations with the Nazis were already speculated, but the Chilean candidate always maintained that his father had been forced to defend the Adolf Hitler regime in the conflict, like every young German at the time, and that this did not make him a supporter of the dictator – an argument that was contested by the report.
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