Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
The first lady of Chile has compered the country’s protests and violence in the street to an “alien invasion” and suggested cutting off “food and water” supplies as a strategy to deal with them.
According to local media, the wife of Chilean president Sebastian Pinera, Cecilia Morela said in a private voice message which has now been leaked: “The strategy is breaking all the food and water supply networks even pharmacies.
“They tried to burn a hospital and they tried to take the hospital […] It is like a foreign, alien invasion, I do not know how to put it, and we do not have the resources to fight against it.”
The Chilean Government speaker Cecilia Perez defended the first lady saying she had only expressed “the anxiety, frustration and desperation” that all Chileans were feeling.
Morel commented on the message in a Twitter post writing: “For a moment I felt overwhelmed by the circumstances, I sent a private audio that was leaked. I made a personal state of mind seem like a general state of the government. Sorry for the mistake.”
The first lady also commented: “Today we are not for more divisions, but for uniting, listening, dialogue and seeking solutions. What we are living through is very deep and all actors in society must work to reduce inequality, be more humble and improve opportunities for all.”
Protests burst out in Chile last week after the government decided to increase the underground ticket price for the fourth time in a short period of a few months.
The violence in the street caused by the protests forced president Pinero declared the state of emergency and impose a curfew in the capital of the country Santiago. Eighteen people have been reported dead.
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