Local prosecutors are investigating far-left President of Chile Gabriel Boric over a criminal sexual harassment complaint by a woman who claims it occurred between 2013 and 2014, his lawyer Jonatan Valenzuela confirmed on Monday.
Valenzuela, on behalf of Boric, denied the allegations, which he described as baseless, and instead asserted that it was Boric who was the victim of a harassment campaign by the accusing woman over 10 years ago.
The complaint against Boric, revealed in an official presidential statement late Monday evening, was filed by an unidentified woman in early September in the southern region of Magallanes, where the 38-year-old president was born.
The lawyer explained that the complaint accuses Boric of allegedly disseminating private images and engaging in sexual harassment against the woman in incidents that allegedly occurred over ten years ago, at a time when Boric was 27 and had finished his law studies.
Valenzuela asserted the woman was the predator in the situation and allegedly sent a series of emails to Boric when he was practicing law in the city of Punta Arenas, including some messages with “explicit content.”
“I want to be very emphatic and clear that this is a case that must be approached globally. The president is the victim of a situation of systematic harassment through the sending of emails that has as an event, this year, the filing of this complaint,” Valenzuela said.
Chilean prosecutor Cristián Crisosto confirmed the existence of the complaint – which, at press time, is in a preliminary phase and has not yet been formalized. The prosecutor pointed out that the investigations will continue in the coming weeks under strict confidentiality measures.
“Regarding the statement published by the lawyer Jonatan Valenzuela Saldías, the Regional Prosecutor’s Office of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica can say that there is indeed a criminal case related to the facts indicated,” Crisosto said. “We are working with a team specialized in the same and, by the way, the case is of a reserved nature.”
Valenzuela held a press conference in the early morning hours of Tuesday in which he once again dismissed the accusations against Boric, which he described as “unfounded.” Valenzuela reiterated his assertions from Monday and accused the unidentified woman of harassing Boric via email by sending him up to 25 emails from different addresses at the time of the incidents.
“My client never had an emotional or friendly relationship with her and they have not had any communication since July 2014,” Valenzuela said, stressing that Boric “categorically rejects and denies the accusation, and this will be demonstrated in the corresponding instances.”
The lawyer stated that copies of the email address allegedly sent by the woman to Boric were submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office on October 22. Chilean outlets published copies of the email addresses on Tuesday morning.
The Chilean news network BioBioChile reported on Tuesday morning that, according to unnamed sources, the woman allegedly sent Boric photos of a sexual nature while they were both students. She also reportedly sent him email messages in which she “assured him that she was in love with him and that she wanted to have a relationship.”
The complaint against Boric comes at a time when the Chilean government faces a major scandal following the arrest of the now-former Undersecretary of the Interior Manuel Monsalve on charges of rape. Monsalve, 59, stands accused of raping a 32-year-old female staffer in September at a hotel in Santiago. The former government official, who denied all accusations, resigned from his position in October.
Unnamed sources from the La Moneda presidential palace told the Chilean newspaper La Tercera that the Chilean government’s decision to come forward with the existence of the complaint and make it public was because the situation was already beginning to escalate in the midst of the ongoing Monsalve scandal.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.