Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza said on Friday that the Government of Chile lacks moral authority to refer to human rights issues in any other country.
The remark was made after statements delivered by Chilean Foreign Minister Andrés Allamand regarding the oral update on the situation of Human Rights in Venezuela by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.
On his Twitter account @jaarreaza, the Venezuelan diplomat addressed his Chilean counterpart: “Your government has no power or moral authority to talk about Human Rights in any other country, especially you, given your political background” in reference to the Chilean foreign minister’s ties with Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.
In 2016, 10 years after the Chilean dictator’s death, then Senator Allamand told the press that though he was “never” part of the military government, he thought it “did a good job,” in reference to the Chilean history’s darkest period, when violations of human rights resulted in more than 31 deaths, tortures, executions and disappearances according to reports by the National Commission for Truth, the National Corporation for Reparations and Reconciliation, and the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture.
In recent statements, the Chilean diplomat also made an irresponsible reference to Venezuela’s forthcoming parliamentary election on December 6, when the Venezuelan people will elect deputies to the National Assembly, by claiming this election lacks “conditions of legitimacy.”
In this regard, Foreign Minister Arreaza highlighted that “Venezuela has a Constitution, an enviable electoral system. We will hold the 35th election in 20 years” as an example of its participative, protagonist democracy established when the Bolivarian Revolution, led by Commander Hugo Chávez, came to power.
Recently, the Chilean foreign minister also participated in the report written by an international mission’s alleged “experts” against Venezuela. In this regard, Foreign Minister Arreaza pointed out that while the Chilean Government violates the human rights of protesters, Allamand “has the nerve of attacking Venezuela with a fraudulent report written by his family’s lawyer.”