Professor Stephany Griffith-Jones stated in her letter (November 25) that Gabriel Boric, the leftwing candidate running for the presidency in Chile, was far from the extreme. Well, he is running in an alliance with the Communist party, a political party which has recently supported the cruel dictatorship now being established in Nicaragua, which has been for decades in place in Cuba, and which has a long history of crimes throughout Latin America that it has never owned up to.
Boric himself supported the Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez until his death and also supported the government of Nicolás Maduro, at least until 2016. He could have been blind for all those years, but the constant human rights violations by those governments were plain to see.
Boric’s ideas on civil society, freedom of the press and individual liberty are clear in his record as a congressman and in his proposed programme for government.
Moreover, he indeed supports the use of violence in politics rhetorically and in reality: he has been supporting a bill, which if it became law would pardon the delinquents that have burnt churches and used Molotov cocktails against innocent people, museums, small businesses and policemen.
I do not know how this could be characterised as not extreme.
Fernando Claro-Valdés
Santiago, Chile
Letter: Why Boric is seen as the extremist in Chile’s election
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