US diplomat Brandon Judd, in an interview, stated that “undoubtedly, the evidence points to leftist activists as those who perpetrated" the disturbances that shook Chile in 2019.
Communist Party of Chile calls out ambassador Judd
The protests that Judd refers to had more than a million people marching —initiated by students following a public transport fare hike in Chile rapidly gaining momentum.
Participants in the demonstrations, which were described as some of the largest in Chile's history, had called for the resignation of President Sebastián Piñera and his government.
The general secretary of the Communist Party of Chile, Bárbara Figueroa, reacted to the statements of the United States ambassador, who maintained that US intelligence had “evidence” of the actions of leftist groups or movements in the burning of the subway and other events in the context of the Social Uprising.
Figueroa asserted that the ambassador's statements "reveal a level of shared responsibility that is deeply concerning," and that they raise questions about the role played by US intelligence services in our country.
Likewise, Figueroa criticized the actions of the foreign minister, who summoned the ambassador to La Moneda to report on these “alleged pieces of evidence,” asking, “Are they rewarding him with breakfast? What the government should do is ask the ambassador to leave.”
“Are we being constantly spied on and persecuted by US intelligence? Because that seems to be the reality,” the general secretary stated, directly questioning the executive branch. “Is the Chilean government going to accept that the United States has control and invades our country in terms of intelligence control?”
Along the same lines, the general secretary of the Communist Party said that the interpellation of Foreign Minister PĂ©rez Mackenna "is the least that can happen," adding that "the interpellation is absolutely necessary because we have never before seen a government that submitted with such a level of complacency to the control of another country."
Figueroa also recalled the difficult time Chilean families are experiencing due to the economic figures and the government's policies. “While working families are struggling, while there is anxiety about making ends meet, while decisions are being made that run completely against the needs of the public and that actually benefit big business, in this context the government is abandoning working families submitting, kneeling, and paying homage to the United States government, which dictates what it wants to Latin America.”
Barbara Figueroa pointed out that, “every day it gets more expensive to make ends meet, it’s becoming increasingly distressing,” and the communist leader also maintained that these figures disprove the government’s theory that companies would hire more people by paying less taxes.
In that frame, Bárbara Figueroa declared that there is a current, “abandonment by the State of Chile regarding its responsibility to the territory of birth, to working families and to economic development.”
Finally, the general secretary of the Communist Party asserted that the opposition must come to the "rescue of the country." "This government is crossing all boundaries," she declared.