Interior Undersecretary Máximo Pavez responded this Tuesday to criticism of his posts on X during the weather front affecting the Metropolitan Region, according to T13. He said that "the worst thing is to seek political gains" from an emergency.
The exchange began with Deputy Constanza Schonhaut of the Broad Front (FA). The lawmaker shared screenshots of several messages from Pavez that, in her view, provided contradictory information about the alert.
At 13:38, the undersecretary wrote that the red alert for mass movements in the region had been canceled. At 16:54, he posted another message. In it, he explained that the red alert issued by the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred) reflected the unusual occurrence of hail due to low temperatures, in line with the Chilean Meteorological Directorate.
In that same message, Pavez clarified that mass movements remained under a moderate alert, pending further monitoring.
Schonhaut described the government's lack of risk communication as serious. She argued that the undersecretary, as the official responsible for the emergency, should provide clear measures and instructions instead of reposting generic information. "We have flooded streets, closed Metro stations and power outages," she added, describing official communication as "erratic and confusing".
Pavez shared the deputy's remarks and responded that all his tweets were based on declarations from the technical agencies of the National Disaster Prevention and Response System (Sinapred). He ended his message with a terse "Regards."
The lawmaker responded again on X. She wrote that the undersecretary should use that time to communicate measures to the public so they could get home safely. "Retweeting is not communicating," she posted.
The discussion comes as the capital is under a Senapred red alert due to heavy rain. The day brought hail, flooding and power outages to various parts of Santiago. The source does not detail what specific measures the government announced during the afternoon, or whether there will be a new official update after the pending monitoring of mass movements.
