Former Interior Minister Carolina Tohá warned President José Antonio Kast that pardoning convicted members of law enforcement would cause "a rupture, very great harm". She made the remarks on the podcast Discrepemos, just days before another anniversary of the social unrest of October 18, 2019.
According to BioBioChile, the warning comes amid pressure on the president to grant the presidential pardons he promised during his campaign. Tohá served as a minister in the governments of Gabriel Boric and Michelle Bachelet.
The former minister argued that pardons, in their original spirit, involve decisions based on the president's personal convictions. However, she said that rationale had changed. "The same thing happened with the pardons related to the unrest; we are talking about the political grounds for the pardons", she said.
Tohá recalled the complicated outcome of the pardons Boric granted to people convicted of acts related to the unrest. In her analysis, the existence of opposing camps taints these decisions. "First, the protesters' camp. Now it is the law enforcement camp. I think this is a bad path," she said.
She also acknowledged that the pool of potential beneficiaries "is not a very large number". Even so, she insisted that she did not consider the measure a good idea. The potential pardons could cover people convicted of human rights violations or crimes linked to the unrest.
The precedent weighs heavily. Boric's pardons prompted a strong reaction from the opposition at the time and a crisis in his government. Today, the situation is reversed: sectors of the governing coalition are pushing to pardon convicted uniformed personnel.
For Tohá, the underlying cost is institutional. "The way the pardon power is used today has done enormous harm and greatly undermines legitimacy," she said.
The former minister concluded with a warning about public trust. "A democracy with such low levels of trust is extremely fragile", she said. The government has yet to announce a decision as October 18, the seventh anniversary of the unrest, approaches.
