Sebastian Pinera died on Tuesday in a helicopter crash in southern Chile.
A state funeral for Chile’s former President Sebastian Pinera who died after the helicopter he was piloting crashed right into a lake, is happening within the capital Santiago.
“Right now, we share the shock of the tragic departure of a person, a father, husband, grandfather and public determine that was a frontrunner in our transition to democracy,” President Gabriel Boric stated through the ceremony on the nation’s former Congress on Friday.
Pinera, 74, died on Tuesday and state funeral providers started on Wednesday within the capital with a non-public viewing earlier than opening as much as the general public.
On Friday, a army band in pink conical hats performed as Pinera’s coffin, draped within the Chilean flag, was escorted to a cathedral in Santiago by guards on horseback for his funeral mass.
He’ll later be buried in a non-public household ceremony attended by his widow, 4 kids and grandchildren.
A conservative billionaire first elected from 2010 to 2014, Pinera oversaw occasions of sturdy financial progress, but in addition continued protests. Boric himself was a scholar protest chief throughout Pinera’s first time period, demanding schooling reforms.
“As of late some have remembered we have been political adversaries. It’s true,” left-wing Boric stated, including that the 2 have been in a position to attain compromise and even spoke the day earlier than his dying to debate the current lethal wildfires that killed 131 folks in central Chile.
‘Unify in reminiscence’
Reporting from Santiago, Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman stated massive crowds of individuals had gathered because the early hours of Friday morning to pay their final respects to the previous president.
“This has been a really emotional funeral. Not solely as a result of the previous president left workplace two years in the past but in addition due to the best way he perished in such a dramatic and sudden method. So persons are exhibiting their respect not just for the previous president but in addition for the person he was,” she stated.
Pinera additionally oversaw the rescue of 33 miners who have been trapped beneath the Atacama desert. The occasion turned a world media sensation and was the topic of a 2014 film, The 33.
Newman stated that among the 33 Chilean miners who have been rescued within the audacious gamble that Pinera took, have been additionally current on the funeral.
One of many miners, Juan Carlos Aguilar, remembered the joy after listening to the previous president after they first made contact.
“Think about you’re listening to the president say, ‘We are going to seek for you as in the event you have been our kids.’ I’ll always remember that,” Aguilar informed the Reuters information company.
Throughout Pinera’s second time period from 2018-2022, large-scale, usually violent protests in opposition to inequality erupted in 2019 and ended with guarantees to draft a brand new structure. Pinera additionally oversaw the nation’s pandemic response.
“He [Pinera] was severely criticised partly due to his enterprise dealings and as a result of human rights violations that came about throughout his time period in 2019 … However immediately, members of the church are asking all Chileans to work collectively and unify in reminiscence of the previous president,” Newman stated.
