Former Delegate Toro Apologizes and Clarifies Statement on Links Between Businessmen and Radical Groups in Arauco

Former presidential delegate of the province of Arauco, Humberto Toro, acknowledged that his statements regarding links between right-wing businessmen and radical groups in the aforementioned province may have been misinterpreted, and apologized for it.

In a statement sent to Radio Bío Bío, the former authority clarified what he raised on the program El Tablón de Canal 9, statements that, he maintains, “may have generated a different interpretation than intended.”

Regarding the mention of businessmen, Toro emphasized that since his first public complaint made in 2014, “as governor I pointed out timber theft as the scourge that was generating acts of violence, and which I called ‘the illicit businessmen,’ whose actions distorted the legitimate Mapuche cause and under which criminal groups took cover.”

Former Delegate Toro Apologizes and Clarifies Statement on Links Between Businessmen and Radical Groups in Arauco

“In the context of the debate on the program, the deep meaning of my intervention, and the actors we were debating with, I pointed out the presence of these illicit businessmen,” he detailed.

In his words, given the presence of right-wing parliamentarians, “I stated that ‘there are those who are right-wing and vote right-wing.’ Perhaps the phrase came across as generalized, but the central purpose within my analysis was to highlight the permeability that all our institutions face regarding organized crime.”

The general context of his intervention, he continued, was given by a “present State and politics, making decisions in line with those challenges, including in my intervention a concept: the need for a Government of national unity to face a common purpose in this matter.”

“Regarding what was said about the attack on the Grollmus mill, I acknowledge a mistake since I was referring to the attack in Los Ríos where I also arrived at the scene,” Humberto Toro specified.

In that investigation, he continued, those involved were determined and “the presence of an illicit businessman as a financier, a topic widely reported in the press and from information emanating from the investigation.”

Toro stressed that there are other similar cases reported in the press, involving “illicit businessmen in other areas.”

“In our territories we know each other well, and when those involved in some crime are known, we also know where they are. That knowledge allows us to act within our circles to separate them wherever they are,” he added.

Finally, in his statement, Toro expressed his respect for the business and political worlds. “My way of seeing and relating to both; the breadth of how I act in my daily life and my respect for differences, is known to all,” he added.

“That is why if my phrase seemed generalized, I apologize to both actors and, also, consistent with the seriousness of my analyses, express the high risks of permeability we have in institutions and politics for everyone,” he concluded.

Source:BiobioChile