Gabriel Boric, president of Chile, faces a complaint for alleged sexual harassment: he denies it

A complaint for alleged sexual abuse and dissemination of intimate photographic material shook Chile by implicating the President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric
who through his lawyer denied the events, which occurred a decade ago, and assured that the harassed person was the president himself.

The news broke around midnight on Monday, November 25, 2024 in the local media, which cited a statement from the Presidency that did not appear on any of the official channels.

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Complaint against Gabriel Boric

Only until dawn did the lawyer, Jonatan Valenzuela, clarify that The complaint was filed in September, which had been made by a former colleague of Boric during her internship in her hometown of Punta Arenas in 2014. and that the president had delivered 25 emails to the prosecutor’s office in the southern region of Magallanes in which it could be proven that the harassment was suffered by Boric himself.

“From June 2013 to 2014, my client was the victim of emails that constituted systematic harassment against him. This has now had as a new episode the presentation of a complaint to the Magallanes Regional Prosecutor’s Office on September 6, 2024.“said the lawyer.

“I would like to be very emphatic and very clear in maintaining that these are emails sent, 25 emails whose content I am not going to comment on in detail, but I can tell you that In one of them, explicit images were sent to him, unsolicited and not consented to by the president.“Valenzuela stressed, before insisting that since then and to date there has been no type of contact between the two.

After Valenzuela’s statement, the local press published the partial content of some of them that had been leaked to him and which suggested that The woman admired her partner, then president of the Chilean Federation of Students (FECH), who felt love for him and hoped to establish a romantic relationship with him.

As the months progress, the tone of the woman’s messages They went from frustration to insult and anger, in particular after she allegedly sent him seven intimate photographswhich demanded that he not share it with anyone, according to the messages leaked and disseminated by the press, who assured that the president only answered several of them with question marks and surprise.

Government of Chile denies accusations of harassment against Boric

Hours after the lawyer’s statement, the spokesperson for the Chilean Government, Camila Vallejo stated that the complaint against President Gabriel Boric for alleged sexual harassment and dissemination of private images “has no basis.”

“We are facing an unsubstantiated complaint about events that never occurred. The president has not yet been summoned or requested by the Prosecutor’s Office“said Vallejo in an official statement from the La Moneda presidential palace.

Vallejo also denounced thatThe president was the victim of a “dynamic of harassment” and specified that the images of sexual content were sent “without the request or consent of the recipient.”

RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP

“Since 2014 there has been no communication between the two and there has never been any close, friendly or emotional relationship. (…) It is common for publicly exposed people to experience types of harassment through social networks and emails and they are not always reported,” stressed Vallejo, who also denied that Boric forwarded the images.

The spokesperson also explained that Boric was informed of the complaint against him on September 24, he delivered the emails to the Prosecutor’s Office on October 22 and that the investigation was made public on Monday, two months later, “on the recommendation of the lawyer.”

“What we need, as a Government and as a country, is for the facts to be clarified quickly and for the investigation to move forward,” Vallejo added.

The controversy surrounding the complaint occurs in the midst of strong criticism against the Government for ato alleged rape perpetrated by former Undersecretary of the Interior Manuel Monsalvewho was one of the most highly evaluated politicians in the country and has been in preventive detention for two weeks for allegedly attacking a woman on his team.

The opposition criticized that the president did not act on the same day that the complaint became known and that he asked for Monsalve’s resignation on October 17, 48 hours later.

The Chilean Prosecutor’s Office announced this Tuesday, November 26, 2024, the opening of a criminal investigation for possible “illegal” or “improper” access to the background of a case involving President Gabriel Boric.

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