The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, defined Sebastián Piñera as a “democrat from the first hour” and said that the former president who died this Tuesday in a helicopter accident “contributed, from his vision, to building great agreements for the good of the homeland”.
“He genuinely sought what he believed was best for the country,” said the president, who decreed three days of national mourning.
Among the achievements achieved during his two non-consecutive terms (2010-2014 and 2018-2022), Boric highlighted “the reconstruction of the country after the earthquake of February 2010 or when he took a gamble, with great determination and audacity, to rescue the 33 miners from the San José mine”.
The president also highlighted “the management of the pandemic in times of global uncertainty.”
Born in Santiago in 1949, Piñera was traveling this Tuesday, along with three people who managed to save themselves, aboard a private helicopter that fell into Lake Ranco, a tourist resort located 780 kilometers south of Santiago.
According to local media, the former president was piloting the ship and sank when he could not unfasten his seat belt.
Minutes earlier, the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, reported that the Navy had already managed to recover the body of the former ruler, a successful businessman, whose fortune is one of the largest in Latin America.
“This fact moves us and mourns us as a country in especially difficult circumstances due to the tragedy of the fires that have hit many of our compatriots just these days,” admitted Boric, in reference to the deadly wave of fires recorded in the central region. of Valparaíso and which so far leaves 131 dead and a hundred missing.
The president announced that Piñera “will be fired with a state funeral with honors” and said that he contacted the rest of the living former Chilean presidents, “who will do everything possible to participate.”
Boric, who was very critical of Piñera during the social outbreak of 2019, ended his public statement quoting one of the phrases that his predecessor intoned when he won the Presidency in March 2018: “We are all Chile, and we must dream it, draw it and build it together. all”.
Leaders and former presidents from around the world, such as the Argentine Javier Milei or the Spanish Pedro Sánchez, reacted to Piñera’s death and sent their condolences to his family.