SANTIAGO — The Chilean prosecutor’s office confirmed on Tuesday the existence of a preliminary investigation into a complaint of sexual harassment against President Gabriel Boric after the president’s own lawyer revealed the content of the accusation for events that supposedly occurred more than a decade ago.
“Regarding the statement published by lawyer Jonatan Valenzuela Saldías, the regional prosecutor’s office of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica can say that there is indeed a criminal case related to the facts indicated,” said prosecutor Cristián Crisosto.
The confirmation comes shortly after Valenzuela Saldías, Boric’s lawyer, issued a statement in which he stated that the 38-year-old president was “a victim of systematic harassment via email” from a woman, who had sent dozens of emails that included, in addition to personal messages, several “unsolicited and unconsensual images of an explicit nature.”
The events would have occurred between July 2013 and July 2014 when Boric was doing his professional internship in the southern city of Punta Arenas, near Chilean Patagonia, and was already a well-known figure in national politics thanks to his role in the student protests. two years earlier, as well as for his campaign for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, a position he held between 2014 and 2022.
“Ten years later, the sender of the emails filed a baseless complaint against the already president Gabriel Boric on September 6, 2024,” added the lawyer, who assured that the president “never had an emotional or friendly relationship” and both “have not had communication since July 2014.”
The Magallanes prosecutor confirmed that his office is investigating, through a specialized team, a “criminal case linked to President Gabriel Boric” and that the case has “various pending proceedings.” He added that so far there has been no formal accusation nor charges have been filed against any of the parties, so the investigations are being carried out confidentially.
“The prosecution is investigating a case that began in September for the crime of improper dissemination of intimate images,” Crisosto said in a video sent to journalists.
In statements to the press on Tuesday, the lawyer of the Chilean head of state emphasized that “the president is the victim of a situation of systematic harassment through the sending of emails that has as an event, this year, the presentation of this complaint” and that they are “sure that the truth of the case will be perfectly established in the corresponding instance.”
Boric “categorically rejects and denies the content of this complaint,” he added.
Valenzuela Saldías also reported that, after learning of the complaint, his team handed over all the emails and communications between the president and the woman that, in his opinion, “allow us to perfectly clarify the president’s status as a victim.”
“From the beginning, the president has been completely available for the most absolute clarification of these events,” he said.
According to documents leaked by the local press, the emails indicate that the conversations between Boric and the complainant began cordially until the woman began to share private and sentimental information to finally say she was in love and send explicit images and texts, to which The now president answered with question marks until he stopped responding completely.
The government spokesperson, Camila Vallejos, detailed in a press conference that the complainant had sent a total of 25 emails from different accounts “in a clear dynamic of harassment” and described the complaint as “false” and “baseless.”
“It is common for publicly exposed people to experience types of harassment through social networks, email or other forms of harassment. Not all of them are always reported but they are recurring,” he said.
The spokesperson emphasized that, so far, Boric has not been notified, summoned or requested regarding this complaint, which he became aware of thanks to the reviews that are carried out periodically by system from the Palacio de La Moneda.
“Obviously we are interested in justice doing its job and being able to clarify the facts as soon as possible,” he remarked.