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 going down within the capital Santiago.
“Today, we share the shock of the tragic departure of a man, a father, husband, grandfather and public figure that was a leader 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 will 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 additionally continued protests. Boric himself was a pupil protest chief throughout Pinera’s first time period, demanding training reforms.
“These days some have remembered we were political adversaries. It’s true,” left-wing Boric stated, including that the 2 have been capable of attain compromise and even spoke the day earlier than his loss of life to debate the latest lethal wildfires that killed 131 individuals in central Chile.
‘Unify in memory’
Reporting from Santiago, Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman stated giant 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 very emotional funeral. Not only because the former president left office two years ago but also because of the way he perished in such a dramatic and unexpected way. So people are showing their respect not only for the former president but also for the man he was,” she stated.
Pinera additionally oversaw the rescue of 33 miners who have been trapped beneath the Atacama desert. The occasion turned a worldwide media sensation and was the topic of a 2014 film, The 33.
Newman stated that a number of the 33 Chilean miners who have been rescued within the audacious gamble that Pinera took, have been additionally current on the funeral.
One of the miners, Juan Carlos Aguilar, remembered the thrill after listening to the previous president once they first made contact.
“Imagine you’re hearing the president say, ‘We will search for you as if you were our children.’ I will never forget that,” Aguilar informed the Reuters information company.
During Pinera’s second time period from 2018-2022, large-scale, usually violent protests towards 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 in part because of his business dealings and due to human rights violations that took place during his term in 2019 … But today, members of the church are asking all Chileans to work together and unify in memory of the former president,” Newman stated.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/9/chile-bids-final-farewell-to-former-president-pinera-in-state-funeral?traffic_source=rss
