Boric’s government calls for “order and prudence” to the Chilean ambassador in Spain after the publication of controversial photographs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, led by Socialist Chancellor Antonia Urrejola, called on Tuesday for “order and prudence” the Chilean ambassador to Spain, Javier Velasco, a 36-year-old lawyer, after the publication of a photograph that it shows him in the back seat of a car caressing the bare feet of a reclining woman. He is not the only image of the ambassador that has caused controversy. In another recent photograph, the lawyer – a friend of President Gabriel Boric and a member of his same party, Social Convergence – is shown in a restaurant eating something similar to a lobster, a dish that generally has a high price that does not match the image. of sobriety that this Government seeks to project or with the current economic situation that Chile is going through (the highest inflation of the last three decades).

“The chancellor has already communicated with the ambassador calling for order and prudence, especially in the use of social networks, at the request of the President of the Republic,” La Moneda spokeswoman, Minister Camila Vallejo, said this afternoon. “We have to be responsible when we hold positions that are public,” she added Vallejo.

Spain has always been a strategic place for Chile and especially for the current government, which has had historical ties with Spanish political sectors, such as Podemos. Already in 2016, when he was a deputy, Boric recounted to EL PAÍS the similarities that, in his opinion, the political processes of both countries had: “Bipartisanship, neoliberal consensus, little generational change, demobilization of society, progressive privatization of basic services and social rights”. With Pablo Iglesias they spoke at that time about “the experience of Podemos and the emergence, still embryonic, of new leftist alternatives in Chile.”

It was Iglesias himself – who will participate in a forum in Chile on the media and political conflict on Friday – who today came out in his defense through social networks. In a text that accompanies a photograph of Augusto Pinochet kissing his wife Lucía Hiriart, the former vice president of Spain wrote: “Here you have the disgusting dictator Pinochet making a face for his disgusting wife, but the Chilean media right and their dogs on the networks they skin the ambassador in Spain and his partner for having a tender gesture. The hypocrites are disgusting in Spain, in Chile and ovunque”.

When he assumed the presidency last March, President Boric did not appoint a career ambassador, but instead made use of his right to nominate a representative of his political trust. He named Velasco, who studied at the University of Chile Law School –the same as Boric, both 36 years old–, did a master’s degree at the University of Berkeley and later was an advisor to parliamentarians from the Broad Front. Velasco, like Boric himself, was one of the founders of this group of movements that aspired to replace the traditional parties of the left, especially those that led the democratic transition since 1990.

Velasco has had a controversial management in these few months in office. A few days ago, at a forum held in Madrid by the New Economy Forum organization, the ambassador accused the governments of the transition of having created the conditions for the social outbreak of October 2019. “An outbreak of these dimensions is not a question trivial. For us to get there, it took 30 years of policies that deepened inequality, 30 years of a country perceiving that on a daily basis,” said Velasco, who was presented by Iglesias.

Velasco’s words caused immediate controversy in Chile, because today those center-left parties are part of Boric’s government and, in fact, militants from these sectors lead the Interior and Treasury portfolios. Heraldo Muñoz, who was chancellor in the first government of Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010), assured that “Velasco has to realize that he and other ambassadors who represent the State, the country as a whole, and that if he wants to enter the debate politician should have run for parliament and not ambassador.”

Ricardo Lagos himself, who presided over Chile between 2000 and 2006, referred to the matter this Monday. Velasco “does not know the socioeconomic numbers” of that stage, assured the socialist upon arriving in the Spanish capital, where he participates in a meeting of the Club of Madrid, made up of 68 former presidents. Lagos referred to the Gini index, ironically: “We hope that this man (Velasco) knows what the Gini index is,” he said, referring to the differential that exists in income distribution. “I challenge the ambassador to deny me: the Gini index with the fastest drop took place in the six years that I was president of Chile and that, please, be well informed.” Lagos asked the ambassador “not to repeat slogans.”

This controversy did not please President Boric. Last week, when Velasco’s words about his 30 years became known, the Chilean president was on tour in New York, at the United Nations General Assembly. Consulted by the Chilean press, Boric counter asked the journalist and came out in defense of his diplomatic representative: “What specific phrase from the Spanish ambassador bothered you?” Said the president, visibly upset. “I am aware and I have the transcript of what the ambassador said,” added Boric, who delved into the context in which Velasco had referred to this matter.

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