The former president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, 74, died this Tuesday when the helicopter he was piloting fell into a lake in the south of the country, as confirmed by the office of the conservative politician in a statement.
The accident took place a few minutes before three in the afternoon (local time), when for unknown reasons the device fell into the waters of Lake Ranco, very close to the shore. Three of the passengers managed to unbuckle their seat belts and swim to shore. However, Piñera did not succeed, he was trapped and sank along with the aircraft.
Piñera spent the southern summer holidays at his home in Bahía Coique, on the shores of Lake Ranco, about 900 kilometers south of Santiago. The former president, accompanied by three of his relatives, had gone to eat at the nearby house of a businessman friend and was upon returning, after taking off and flying for a few minutes, when Piñera lost control of the device and fell into the water, in the municipal area. by Futrono.
Just a few minutes after the former president’s office confirmed his death, the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, appeared at the La Moneda palace to announce that the Navy had recovered Piñera’s body from the bottom of the lake. Tohá confirmed that the other three passengers “were able to reach the shore on their own” and were “out of danger.”
Shortly after, leftist president Gabriel Boric delivered an institutional message in La Moneda, declaring a three-day national mourning and announcing a state funeral. Boric, who took over from Piñera in 2022 after being one of his main critics – he even asked for a criminal investigation against him for the actions of the police in the social outbreak of 2019 – praised the figure of the former president. “He contributed from his vision to building great agreements for the good of the country,” said Boric.
A multimillionaire businessman – he was the owner of the Latam airline, the Chilevisión channel and the Colo-Colo football club –, Piñera presided over Chile on two occasions (2010-2014 and 2018-2022). A historic militant of the post-Pinochestista National Renewal party, his first term was marked by the reconstruction of the country after the 2010 tsunami and by the successful rescue, that same year, of the 33 miners buried in a mine in the Atacama Desert. On the other hand, the second period will be remembered for the repression of the violent social outbreak and the management of the pandemic.
After the death was confirmed, leaders from across the Chilean political spectrum, as well as presidents and former leaders from Latin America and the rest of the world, of different stripes, expressed their condolences.
