Pepper was shaken this Tuesday by the complaint for allegations sexual harassment and distribution of intimate photographic material this involves the president Gabriel Boric. The investigation began following a complaint filed by a woman regarding events that occurred ten years ago. The president’s defense denied the facts and assured that The person being harassed was Boric himself.
The information broke Monday evening in the Chilean media and was confirmed at dawn after lawyer Jonatan Valenzuela clarified that the complaint had been filed in September by a former colleague of Boric during his internship in his hometown from Punta Arenas in 2014.
According to Valenzuela, the complainant is a former colleague of Boric during his internship in his hometown of Punta Arenas in 2014, and the president had handed over 25 emails to the prosecutor’s office of the southern region of Magallanes in which it was possible to verify that The harassment was suffered by Boric himself.
“Since June 2013 and until 2014 my client was a victim of sending emails constituting systematic harassment against them. This now has as a new episode the presentation of a complaint to the Magallanes Regional Prosecutor’s Office on September 6, 2024,” said the lawyer.
“I would like to be very categorical and very clear in stating that these are emails sent, 25 emails of which I am not going to comment on the content in detail, but I can tell you that in one of them , explicit images were sent, not requested and not consented by the president,” Valenzuela emphasized, before insisting that since then and until now there has been no type of contact between. both.
After Valenzuela’s statement, the local press published the partial contents of some of the emails leaked to her that suggested the woman admired her colleague, then president of the Chilean Federation of Students (FECH), who was experiencing love for him and that she hoped to establish a romantic relationship with him.
Over the months, The tone of the woman’s messages shifted from frustration to insult and anger.notably after she allegedly sent him seven intimate photographs, which she demanded that he not share them with anyone, according to the messages leaked and broadcast by the press, which assured that the president had not responded to several of them. between them only by question marks and surprises.
The government denies the facts
A few hours after the lawyer’s statement, the spokesperson for the Chilean government, Camila Vallejo, assured that the complaint against Boric for alleged sexual harassment and distribution of private images “This has no basis.”
“We are faced with an unfounded complaint regarding events that never happened. “The president has not yet been summoned or requested by the prosecution.”Vallejo said in an official statement from the presidential palace in La Moneda.
Vallejo also denounced that the president was the victim of a “dynamic of harassment” and clarified that the images with sexual content were sent “without the request or consent of the recipient.”
“Since 2014, there has been no communication between the two and there has never been a close, friendly or emotional relationship (…) It is common for people publicly exposed to suffer types of harassment through social networks and emails and this is not always the case reported,” emphasized Vallejo, who also denied that Boric transmitted the images.
The spokesperson also explained that Boric was informed of the complaint filed against him on September 24, handed over the emails to the prosecutor’s office on October 22 and that the investigation was made public on Monday, two months later, “upon recommendation of the lawyer”.
“What we need, as a government and as a country, is for the facts to be clarified quickly and for the investigation to move forward,” Vallejo added.
Criticism for alleged rape
The controversy surrounding the complaint comes at the height of strong criticism against government for alleged violation perpetrated by former Interior Undersecretary Manuel Monsalve, who was one of the country’s most popular politicians and has been in preventive detention for two weeks for allegedly assaulting a woman on his team.
The opposition criticized the fact that the president did not act the same day the complaint became known and demanded Monsalve’s resignation on October 17, 48 hours later.
