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Piñera's coffin in front of the former National Congress
Photo: Dragomir Yankovic / Aton Chile / IMAGO
Chile's former president Sebastián Piñera, who died in a helicopter crash, has been given a state funeral. "He was a man who always put Chile first and was not guided by fanaticism and anger," said President Gabriel Boric at the memorial service about his predecessor, with whom he had had heated arguments during his lifetime. “All of us in politics should take these virtues to heart.”
Former President Michelle Bachelet praised Piñera as a true liberal who knew how to tolerate political differences. Former President Eduardo Frei called Piñera a model democrat.
Thousands of Chileans had previously marched past the coffin of the former head of state in the former congress in the Chilean capital and paid him their last respects. After a mass in the cathedral and a funeral service in the government headquarters of La Moneda, Piñera was buried in a cemetery in northern Santiago de Chile.
The 74-year-old died in a helicopter crash in the south of the country on Tuesday. He had piloted the helicopter himself and crashed into a lake. Piñera drowned, the public prosecutor's office said. Three other people on board survived the accident.
The conservative was president of the South American country from 2010 to 2014 and from 2018 to 2022. During the former head of state's term of office, dramatic events occurred such as the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in 2010 and a mining accident in which 33 miners were buried in the San José mine in the Atacama Desert. During social protests against the government's neoliberal policies at the end of 2019, more than 30 people were killed in clashes with emergency services.
kfr/dpa