Senator Campillai Exposes Double Standards of President Kast: Dismisses Employee Battling Cancer While Upholding Pardons for Ideological Reasons

Original article: Campillai deja en evidencia doble estándar de Kast: despide a funcionaria con cáncer y mantiene indultos por “gustito ideológico”

«How does the president expect citizens to trust and support him if he himself cannot be consistent with his beliefs? If he wants to change the pardon system, he should do it now, eliminate the power,» stated Senator Campillai.

Senator Fabiola Campillai (Ind.) highlighted the double standards of José Antonio Kast, as he dismissed the national director of the National Service for Women and Gender Equity (SernamEG), Priscilla Carrasco, during her cancer treatment, while affirming his intent to use presidential pardons to benefit police and military personnel convicted of crimes during the social uprising.

In a conversation with the Association of Broadcasters of Chile (Archi), the far-right president confirmed he would employ the power as it currently stands, subsequently pushing for a structural change that, in his own words, would replace the unilateral decision by the President with a «collegiate body.»

«Yes, I will use it, and then we will generate a modification,» he affirmed.

Kast faced questions regarding whether his administration is studying cases involving fourteen police and military officials linked to crimes committed during the 2019 protests, specifically if the name of former police captain Patricio Maturana, convicted to 12 years for shooting a tear gas canister at Campillai, leaving her blind, without smell, and taste, was included. The president limited his response to stating they will «study all the cases requesting a pardon in the proper formal way.»

In a video shared on her social media, the parliamentarian for District 7 (RM) reacted to the far-right leader’s statements, asserting that «without a doubt, this government increasingly reaffirms that it comes with a pro-crime agenda.»

«It is no surprise that President Kast defends and supports the actions of human rights violators. He did it before with (Miguel) Krassnoff, and now he repeats it by confirming he wants to pardon crimes against humanity,» she stated.

Campillai: «This is a government that doesn’t understand itself»

She referred to Kast’s «contradictory» actions, noting that while he speaks of humanity, in less than 24 hours he «fires a high-ranking public official amid her cancer treatment while also confirming they will release criminals.»

«This is a government that doesn’t understand itself; one day it says one thing and the next, it dismisses it, lowering corporate tax one day and raising gasoline the next, cutting the security budget only for the minister to say they won’t reduce it,» Campillai asserted.

The senator questioned how the president can claim to believe in pardons as an institution while stating he will first release criminals of humanity and then modify the power.

«How does the president expect citizens to trust and support him if he himself cannot be consistent with his beliefs? If he wants to modify the pardon system, he should do it now, eliminate the power, because all he is doing is indulging himself ideologically,» she emphasized.

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