Through a Twitter thread, the former minister and former presidential candidate of the Radical Party, Carlos Maldonadoshared the hard moment he lived with his wife and youngest daughter, last Sunday, September 4, when they returned to their home in the eastern sector of Santiago, after an activity around the exit plebiscite that took place at the Hotel Almacruz , in San Antonio street, Santiago.
The events took place around 9:00 p.m. when the minister and his family were traveling east along Andrés Bello, near Plaza Italia.
“We saw a mass of people demonstrating. Traffic was not cut off, but there were police officers who told us to move forward. At one point more than five stones hit our car and one of these fell at the height of the back seat where my daughter was. If the glass does not withstand the impact, it could be a tragedy,” Maldonado said.
The events caused an inflammation in the young woman’s eardrum, which currently has her on anti-inflammatories and visits to the ear doctor to stop the ringing that she feels in her ear.
Although the former minister decided not to file complaints for the incidents, he did make a strong criticism regarding the acts of violence that have been generated in recent days and the role of the government in the face of them.
“The problem when violence is legitimized as a form of demonstration is that this begins and does not know when or how it ends. Those who legitimized the violence in the beginning are now facing the problem. When they justified violence it was for justice or oppression and thus they implied that violence was a response to these types of problems. But it turns out that the violence continues even after a constitutional process”, he stressed.
Faced with this scenario that has developed during the week and that ended with six complaints by the State against the people who caused the burning of buses this Wednesday afternoon, Maldonado emphasizes that he sees little viability in this path, especially “if these people are still free afterwards.” In this line, he maintains that one of the measures that could be taken would be the responsibility of parents or guardians.
“The government must generate a very clear offensive through the Police and the legal teams of the Ministry of the Interior to obtain the greatest number of arrests possible and the greatest number of criminal sanctions.”
Likewise, he maintained that he finds it difficult for the government to handle the situation “because the Broad Front has a hard time understanding that protest is one thing and violence another; setting buses on fire, throwing stones or stopping transportation are crimes that are sanctioned by law and that is what should be applied.”