Political Fact Checking XXIII: Kast’s Sayings on Teillier, Boric, and the Demonstrations and Republicans’ Turn on the Convention

“To ask all the political parties, particularly the CP, that this week the president of the CP, who said something quite regrettable, who said, I cannot tell them to demonstrate peacefully, because that could be read as not doing violence. And I believe that this is a vital contradiction ”.

Those were the words that the senator of Evópoli, Felipe Kast, gave in the National State program, regarding the statements that, a week before, the president of the Communist Party, Guillermo Teillier, had given in an interview with La Tercera.

However, the senator’s reference is false. In the conversation with this medium, asked if he would make a call for there to be no violence in the demonstrations near the plebiscite, the communist helmsman said that “this can be taken as a double standard. Because if the government and repressive forces such as the Carabineros consider that the protesters are violent, then if I say that there should be no violence, it means that I say that they should not come out to demonstrate and I will not say that ”. In fact, in the same statements, the deputy added “what he could say is that they try by all means to do so peacefully.”

Also, after other guests on the TVN program reproached Kast for having been “inaccurate” with respect to Teillier’s statements, the parliamentarian once again insisted on his point. In that sense, the senator read the words of the communist and questioned the other panelists. “Simply specify a couple of issues, first they said that I had said something false, a mistake about what the president of the PC said, I want to tell him verbatim (…) forgive me for telling you, but clearer than water.”

During the broadcast of the Estado Nacional program, on October 19 of this year, Congressman Gabriel Boric, referring to the statements of Guillermo Teillier, indicated that the president of the Communist Party “explicitly said that he called for the demonstrations to be peaceful. What I was not willing, and what I share, is calling not to demonstrate (…) “

However, deputy Gabriel Boric on October 14 of this year, five days before this statement, had declared for Tele13 Radio regarding a second October 18 that it could happen that “the pandemic is not a joke (… ) there are no conditions for a concentration of people. “

The former presidential candidate since the constitutional debate was opened has emphasized his position for the rejection. His party has become one of the main pillars of this option, however, they did not present an official position before the body that they prefer to write the new Constitution in the event that the approved option is imposed.

The party’s general secretary, Antonio Barchesi, in talks with La Tercera in February said that “the two types of constitutional assemblies that are proposed are bad for Chile.” The same position is presented by Gonzalo de la Carrera, a Republican militant and close to Kast, who a few weeks ago mentioned on CNN “I call for a null vote in the second vote because neither of the two options satisfies the people who are for rejection.”

For his part, the former presidential candidate in March this year published a critical message against the constitutional option on his social networks. “Don’t be fooled: the Constituent Assembly – (Constitutional Convention) – proposed by the Government and Congress will be made up of the same politicians as always. Current parliamentarians, former deputies, senators and mayors. The same people who legislate for them today and not thinking about the people. Enough of the lies! ”, Sentenced Kast.

He also replicated a similar message after the acts of violence that occurred on October 18: “Enough of ambiguity and naivety. Voting Approve is validating a Constituent Assembly that is going to destroy the country. Vote Rejection and let’s save Chile ”.

However, in an interview with La Tercera on September 11, he mentioned his first approach with the constituent body by mentioning that “I vote Rejection and constituent. If we lose, I want the best Republicans to be in the constituent assembly, putting all the points on the table and we are going to be there. I prefer the Constituent Assembly than the Mixed ”.

Finally, on Wednesday October 21, four days before the plebiscite, he ended up making his inclination for the constitutional convention official in a conversation with Radio Duna. The president of the republican collective said “I personally am going to vote constituent, because I believe that if it gets to win the approval, we need new faces that say things by name in what can be a constituent assembly.”

The Republican Party ruled out a change of opinion on this matter. “From the beginning freedom of action was given to vote null or either of the two conventions,” they asserted from the store. In the case of José Antonio Kast, they argued, “although he has affirmed that the same old politicians will participate in the conventions, he prefers the Constituent Assembly over the mixed one to exclude the parliamentarians.”

* This note was updated at 4:10 p.m.