The official’s resignation took place after a wave of opposition criticism that accused him last week of “abandonment of duties” in the midst of the migration crisis and after appearing photographed in Spain with that country’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares.
The reason for that trip was apparently related to the recent appointment of Allamand to succeed the Costa Rican Rebeca Grynspan, who has already expired her mandate, as head of the Ibero-American General Secretariat. Allamand’s removal was announced shortly after the outgoing official returned to the country and held a videoconference with President Sebastián Piñera; the Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Delgado, and Valdivia.
critics
Allamand’s trip raised criticism in Chile for his absence amid protests by residents of the cities of Iquique and Arica (north) against the massive presence of undocumented immigrants, mostly Venezuelans, who cross through clandestine steps from Bolivia and Peru circumventing the scarce border control. Some protesters attacked immigrant camps whom they accused of the increase in crime in those areas{ The UN described these protests as “acts of discrimination and xenophobia.”
“I consider the absence of the Foreign Minister to address the migration crisis to be extraordinarily serious,” said opposition deputy Jaime Naranjo.
“How is it possible that a Minister of Foreign Affairs, whose main duty is to look after the interests of the State, is working in Madrid in an international organization?” Congressman Iván Flores said on social networks.
Last Thursday, the UN condemned the “acts of discrimination and xenophobia” committed days before against mostly Venezuelan immigrants in the northern cities of Iquique and Arica during protests over the increase in crime that tend to generate constant police abuse.
At the same time, the Foreign Ministry announced that it would set up a “work table” with the Bolivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to find solutions to the prolonged conflict derived from the constant irregular entry of immigrants across the border with that country.
The resignation “marks the definitive end of my long life in national politics,” said the new ex-chancellor at a press conference at the La Moneda presidential palace, in which he argued that the opposition has “distorted the activities” he carried out in the abroad and underlined that he traveled during his legal vacation period.
Race
A 65-year-old lawyer, Allamand was part of the leaders who in 1987 founded Renovación Nacional (RN), Piñera’s center-right party, of which he was president between 1990 and 1996.
In addition, he was a deputy (1994-98), senator (2006-11 and 2014-20) and defense minister in 2011-12, during Piñera’s first term. He was in charge of Chilean diplomacy since July 2020 and last November he was appointed as the next Ibero-American Secretary General.
Source: Ambito
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