Deputy Juan Marcelo Valenzuela of the People's Party (PDG) described former Minister Carolina Tohá's proposal concerning convicts dying in prison as "among the most sensible". According to La Tercera, he made the remarks this Thursday in an interview with Radio Duna.
Tohá, a former interior minister, said Juan Aliste Vega should have spent his final hours at home. She added that the same should apply to people convicted of human rights violations who are dying.
Valenzuela supported the idea, but with a qualification. In his view, these cases should be resolved in court rather than through a presidential pardon. "The least controversial approach, even for the victims, involves a humanitarian rationale that applies across the board and goes through the courts," he said.
His argument centers on the possibility of correcting a decision. He explained that if a pardon is granted in an extreme case and the person turns out not to be terminally ill, the pardon cannot be reversed. A court ruling, by contrast, could be reviewed.
The deputy also challenged the criticism Tohá received from the Communist Party and the Socialist Party. He described her as "an authoritative voice given her father's history". Her father, José Tohá, was a minister under President Salvador Allende and died in custody during the dictatorship, a detail that La Tercera's report does not provide.
"Showing a degree of humanity that those people at some point did not show is, I think, also a powerful signal from the state," Valenzuela added. He clarified that the discussion concerns the final days, weeks or hours of the convicts' lives.
In the same interview, the lawmaker addressed a possible new withdrawal of pension funds. He said some deputies in his parliamentary group had commissioned an internal study based on requests from their districts.
According to those figures, around 440,000 people were estimated to be unemployed. Of those, some 270,000 were estimated to have been out of work for more than six months and to have funds in their AFP (Pension Fund Administrator) accounts. Valenzuela estimated that the impact on inflation would be 0.02 points of GDP.
Despite those figures, the deputy clarified that he belongs to the wing of the PDG that takes a dim view of the measure because of the effect previous withdrawals had on inflation. For now, he said, the proposal remains under evaluation within the party.
