President Gabriel Boric received some blunders during Sonami’s annual dinner, after criticizing the organization’s attitude towards a mining royalty and calling for them to participate in the tax reform debate.
President Gabriel Boric participated this Tuesday night in the annual dinner of the National Mining Society (Sonami)where he received some blunders from attendees, after talking about a royalty project and the situation of Tierra Amarilla.
The president gave a speech for about 25 minutes, which was focused on talking about how private mining should face the future tax reform and the royalty project, calling for a more proactive attitude.
In addition, Boric questioned that the Sonami will be reluctant before the royalty project, and summoning Diego Hernández, president of said organization.
“Don Diego used to say that they are opposed to reducing profits in periods of low prices and I ask him When have they been in favor of delivering part of the profits? When has Sonami said “now is the time to advance in a royalty and in a better distribution of wealth”?said the head of state amid blunders from some attendees.
“I think it is important that we can have a technically solid debate on this, where we agree on the data and where we understand that each one of those who are speaking is looking for the best for Chile (…) We are going to reach an agreement for the tax reform and the mining royalty”, he added.
Furthermore, Boric also questioned the Yellow Earth situationshowing it as an example of a commune affected by mining exploitation, but that does not receive the corresponding benefits.
“Think of Tierra Amarilla, with a population of less than 18,000 people, and around Tierra Amarilla there are two or three tailings and 3 sinkholes, including the one from a few weeks ago. You can see that wealth has been extracted from Tierra Amarilla, but there is more poverty than in the rest of Chile”, commented.
After these words, some blunders were heard from the president again, although less intense than the previous ones.
president @gabrielboric at the 2022 Annual Mining Dinner, organized by @sonami_chile https://t.co/v1vbPY7otB
– Presidency of Chile (@Presidencia_cl) August 31, 2022