Members of the ruling National Renovation Party in Chile demanded that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet resign on Wednesday after Bachelet endorsed the Communist Party-backed candidate in the nation’s presidential election.
Bachelet served as president of Chile under the banner of a socialist party prior to taking on the role of human rights chief at the U.N. The candidate she endorsed, Gabriel Boric of the “Broad Front” coalition, is a far-left former student protester whose campaign has been marked by a serious of violent mob assaults on supporters of his opponent, conservative candidate José Antonio Kast. Bachelet, currently in Chile during a U.N. recess, did not address the violence in her video endorsing Boric.
The “Broad Front” is an alliance of multiple political groups that includes the Communist Party of Chile. Kast is running under a coalition of conservative and center-right parties known as the Christian Social Front.
In a video posted to social media this week, Bachelet encouraged Chileans to vote in general, but asserted that she was voting for Boric because she was invested in Chile continuing on a “path to progress for all.”
“Choosing a president that will ensure that our country truly continues on the path to progress for all, a path of greater freedom, equality, respect for human rights, a sustainable environment,” Bachelet said, “and of course the opportunity of a new constitution. It does matter for what candidate you vote for; that is why I am voting for Gabriel Boric.”
Chileans voted to throw away their constitution and draft a new one this year after months of far-left radical violence in defense of a new constitution. The referendum victory for the left prompted another wave of leftist riots and looting.
Bachelet reportedly met with Boric, but not Kast, before offering her endorsement. Her endorsement did not mention any concern for human rights violations of Kast supporters at the hands of violent Boric supporters and no reports indicated that she discussed the issue with Boric himself.
Members of National Rejuvenation, the party of outgoing President Sebastián Piñera and part of the Christian Social Front, responded to Bachelet’s endorsement by calling it inappropriate and urging her to resign from her position at the United Nations.
“She as a citizen of our country has all the right to exercise her vote, what I do ask myself is if she should continue being High Commissioner for Human Rights at the U.N.,” lawmaker Jorge Rathgeb said. “I think former President Bachelet made a mistake, she has to rectify her situation, she has to put her role at the disposition of the United Nations [resign].”
“She is putting in doubt any future reports that the U.N. may have on human rights, independent of who will be the next president of Chile,” Rathgeb said.
The secretary-general of National Rejuvenation, lawmaker Diego Schalper, similarly said of Bachelet, “her role requires objectivity and I think that at this time her objectivity regarding the future government of Chile has ended.”
Schalper elsewhere accused Bachelet of violating “international standards of conduct” and described the endorsement as “improper” for a high-ranking U.N. official, but dismissed the idea that Chilean voters would be swayed by her appeal.
Others urged Bachelet to at least meet with Kast to restore any image of fairness she may have previously enjoyed in the country.
“The global authority on human rights still has time to receive José Antonio Kast,” Jorge Alessandri, a lawmaker with the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), told reporters, “[that is] the correct thing for her not to have to leave her position, is for her to accept that she is a global authority and she has to receive both presidential candidates.”
The U.N. refused to comment on the matter when approached by Chilean journalists.
Kast himself lamented Bachelet’s move, describing it as “interventionism,” but refused to join calls for her to resign.
“Right now the principal thing is that people get to know the proposals of the candidates, that we not have this interference from other leaders,” Kast said on Wednesday.
Kast won the first round of the Chilean presidential race in November, featuring a large number of candidates. When a candidate does not win by at least 50 percent of the vote, however, the top two candidates go on to a run-off election. Boric came in second and is currently leading by a small margin in most established polls.
Kast has largely campaigned on the promise of fighting leftist mob violence and curbing crime. Chile has seen a dramatic escalation in leftist violence after riots erupted in 2019 over a proposed increase in the Santiago subway fare. Piñera’s administration long ago abandoned the fare hike, but leftists continued looting and burning down churches and historical sites, demanding the overthrow of the Chilean constitution. When Piñera organized a referendum in which drafting a new constitution won, leftists continued rioting.
That energy on the left has translated into violent attacks against Kast supporters, most recently a mob attack on a peaceful, family-friendly Kast rally in broad daylight in Santiago this weekend. Mobs have also surrounded Kast campaign events and assaulted the candidate’s staffers.
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