The coffin of former president Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014, 2018-2022), who died on Tuesday in a plane accident, arrived shortly after noon this Wednesday in Santiago from the Los Ríos Region, in southern Chile, after the helicopter he piloted hood on Lake Ranco. They covered him with a Chilean flag on the landing strip of Group 10 of the Air Force, where President Gabriel Boric was waiting for him, a gesture that is not in the official protocol. The president, accompanied by three of his ministers, offered his condolences to Piñera's immediate family, visibly affected. Boric hugged the former first lady, Cecilia Morel, for a long time, who has received many expressions of affection from the citizens. “Strength, Cecilia!” shouted the citizens who were waiting to say goodbye in the former National Congress, in the center of the capital.
The Ministers of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, and the spokesperson Camila Vallejo, as well as the Chancellor Alberto van Klaveren, in charge of managing the State funeral, were also on the landing strip. Air Force officials honored Piñera in Group 10 before Cecilia Morel and her four children: Magdalena, Cecilia, Sebastián and Cristóbal.
Since this afternoon, Piñera is being held in the Hall of Honor of the former Congress, its doors have been opened for two days to the public. Supposedly the coffin would arrive around 11:30 at the historic building, where friends, former authorities and hundreds of supporters were waiting in the street singing the national anthem, waving flags and even holding posters of his presidential photo. Time passed, however, and there was no news. The police themselves, lined up to receive him, had to leave their places to go and hydrate themselves and take cover from the harsh sun. Shortly after 4:15 p.m., he finally arrived with his closest family.
In the former National Congress, four ministers from Boric's Cabinet, Carolina Tohá, Camila Vallejo, as well as the heads of Justice Luis Cordero and the Treasury, Mario Marcel, were part of the honor guard. They stood on both sides of the coffin and, when they left, the attendees applauded them.
In the street, under umbrellas and with fans due to the 33 degree temperature in Santiago, people said that they did not mind not going in to say goodbye to Piñera, and that just seeing the body pass by was enough. “I think he will be remembered as a hero. His quick action in the global pandemic for vaccines saved many lives,” says Loreto Codoce, 60, an entrepreneur, who moved especially from the municipality of San Miguel to the center of the capital. As soon as the coffin arrived around 4:15 p.m., people exploded in the street after a languid and hot wait: “Piñera, friend, the people are with you!”
Piñera's former political colleagues walked around telling common stories. Gonzalo Blumel, his former Minister of the Interior, did not hesitate to describe him as the most important center-right leader of the 21st century and highlighted his most sensitive side. Mario Desbordes, who was the former president's Minister of Defense and a party partner in National Renewal, recalled that a little over a month ago he was bothering Piñera that he was going to be a presidential candidate again. He said that he laughed and repeated that the center-right had to be strengthened in the midst of populist threats. Senator Iván Moreira, of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), said: “I put my hands in the fire for Piñera and I do not burn them over his conviction for the defense of human rights and democracy.”
At first, the Hall of Honor received only those closest to the former president. They received Morel with loud applause, who greeted them from a distance, while their children hugged the coffin. The family left quickly and gave access to the patient followers of the businessman and politician who were waiting under the sun. An excited Cristián Moreno, a 55-year-old businessman, said: “It was the first right-wing government since Jorge Alessandri (1958-1964) and it made us grow more than now. “Time will prove him right.” That idea is repeated among those present: that the poor approval with which he left his second Government and the specter of the social outbreak will be relegated by his achievements, such as the reconstruction after the earthquake and tsunami of 2010 and the guaranteed universal pension (PGU).
State funerals last three days. This Wednesday the former Congress will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. receiving those who want to say goodbye before the funeral scheduled for Friday. The Prosecutor's Office confirmed this morning the cause of death of the former president: asphyxiation due to submersion. The other three companions, his sister Magdalena, businessman Ignacio Guerrero—Piñera's close friend—and his son Bautista Guerrero, jumped from the aircraft.
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