Chileans Criticize Piñera for Joining Interference in Venezuela

Santiago, Chile, Feb 19 (PL) The travel announced for next Friday by President Sebastian Piñera to Colombia to deliver ''humanitarian aid'' for Venezuela has raised strong criticisms on social networks and by Chilean parties, political leaders and personalities.

On Monday, Piñera said on Twitter that he will travel to Cucuta, Colombia, on Friday to deliver, along with President Ivan Duque, 'humanitarian aid' for Venezuela.

In his announcement, the Chilean president used his government's traditional rhetoric on the Bolivarian nation by saying that 'Venezuela and its people need international support to recover their freedom and democracy.'

Immediately, the Communist Party of Chile (CP) issued a declaration noting that with his trip to the Colombian-Venezuelan border, the president plans to play a key role 'in an interventionist political operation against the Venezuelan people and their constitutional government.'

The PC added that 'with his trip and interference in Venezuela, from Colombian territory, President Piñera commits Chile, which is playing a role that attempts against international law and the sovereignty of a Latin American nation', an action that violates the United Nations Charter, which Chile signed in 1945.

The declaration recalled that both the United Nations and the International Red Cross questioned and expressed doubts about the 'humanitarian aid' plan sponsored by US President Donald Trump and his allies in the continent.

For its part, the Christian Democratic Party (CD) strongly criticized Sebastian Piñera's trip to Cucuta, and its vice president, Rodrigo Albornoz, described the decision and argument as regrettable, and noted that as the regions of Nuble, Biobio, La Araucania and Aysen are affected by fires, 'prioritizing or focusing on an international agenda does not seem good'.

He called Piñera to 'focus on the catastrophe that is affecting thousands of compatriots. We would not want a repetition of the delay to act by the Government like in the north. We sympathize with the Chileans affected by the fires and call on the Government not to lower the profile of the social and environmental conditions that are causing these emergencies'.

Independent Senator Alejandro Guillier, from Antofagasta, warned that in northern Chile the catastrophe is still latent, in the center and south, the fires are still active, and in the southern zone of Torres del Paine a red alert was issued due to the overflowing of rivers. He called on Piñera to worry about Chileans, and considered that the trip to Cucuta 'is not prudent'.

Biobio Senator Alejandro Navarro said that it is ironic and humiliating that the alleged humanitarian aid will be delivered by Cucuta, one of the poorest cities in Colombia and where labor precarization exceeds 70 percent. He defined Sebastian Piñera's presence there as 'an unlimited media show'.

For his part, Marcela Fernandez, an anthropologist from the University of Chile, warned that the president is using the country's public funds to make that trip, while Chile is burning in the south and is flooded in the north. She demanded that the National Congress make a statement in that regard.

On his Twitter account, the sociologist Juan Claudio Reyes described the situation as unusual, because as the mayor of Cochrane, in the region of Aysen, Patricio Ulloa, is asking for international aid due to the Government's abandonment, to contain the uncontrollable fires in that community, Piñera announces a trip to Cucuta to deliver 'humanitarian aid' for Venezuela.