The government’s statements arising from the discussion about revoking grace pensions for people with criminal records generated annoyance in the opposition. This after the Government spokesperson, Camila Vallejo, called on the opposition to “permanently stop looking at the straw in other people’s eyes”, arguing that “her own former president, Sebastián Piñera, gave grace pensions due to social outbreak to people with serious crimes.”

One of those who came out quickest to question the minister’s statements was the deputy for Ñuble, Frank Sauerbaum, who is also head of the bench of deputies of National Renewal (RN). “The government’s response is shameful, which basically says we gave a pension to a person with a history of drug possession, theft and conviction for child pornography, who did not prove injuries and the Public Ministry decided not to continue with the case… and we did it because we could”.

He specified that “in the case of the pensions delivered by President Piñera, all of them required medical records, they were reviewed by the INDH, they were generally the most serious causes. The indication that gave rise to this was forced by the left, they did it in the budget law and they said that just questioning the constitutionality was already a violation of human rights. The government’s problem is that it was a ‘campaign promise’ to pardon and pension the front line, and the PC threatens to go to the IACHR, hence it doesn’t care if they meet the requirements or not.”

Sauerbaum added that “in addition, when this government arrived, it reviewed the grace pensions provided by the previous government and increased the amount of the pensions significantly. It seems clever that they now disengage themselves from their responsibility. On the other hand, it is not just a criminal record issue. If not, they delivered pensions without meeting the health requirement and even worse without meeting the requirement of having been a victim of ‘police abuse or similar.'”