Chilean deputies denounce threats against a hundred parliamentarians for the new constituent process

The Parliament of Chile has denounced this Saturday that a hundred members have been receiving threats through institutional email with the aim of preventing the country’s new constituent process after the rejection of the ballot box the previous Sunday.

“Several parliamentarians have received explicit threats through electronic mail and publication of addresses of deputies and senators to inhibit the process of dialogue and search for agreements to enable a new constituent process,” said Raul Soto, president of the Chamber of Deputies, in a video posted on his Twitter account.

In this sense, Soto has asserted that these actions will not “intimidate or stop” them, since “this process is necessary for Chile and its democracy.”

Thus, he has announced that the threatened politicians would denounce to the Cybercrime Investigation Brigade of the Investigative Police (PDI) of the country to “carry forward all the legal factions that correspond so that this situation is investigated and the responsibilities of the people who are behind it are assumed”, he has warned.

Subsequently, the vice-president of the Chamber, Alexis Sepúlveda, confirmed that the complaint has already been managed before the PDI. “The complaint has already been made to the PDI through the secretary general of the Chamber”, he said.

“As a bureau, we certainly reject an action of this nature. We want to tell those who are behind this that (…) we have the conviction that we have a mandate delivered by the plebiscite of entry and that we will seek the agreements to have a new constituent process and a new Constitution in democracy”, has expressed Sepúlveda.

According to local media, the affected politicians are more than 100. It should be noted that the Lower House is composed of a total of 155 members.

On Sunday, September 4, Chile’s Electoral Service (Servel) reported that ‘rejection’ of the referendum on the draft of a new Constitution had prevailed over ‘approval’ with a wide majority: 62 percent versus 38 percent, respectively.

Among Chile’s political parties, whether left or right, there is a political consensus that a new Magna Carta must be carried out to eliminate the Constitution of former dictator Augusto Pinochet, and that it must be elected by the citizenry.