Sergio Mattarella visits Chile and Paraguay
Visit to Chile and Paraguay for the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, arrived yesterday in Santiago de Chile for the first stage of the official visit to the two countries. Accompanied by his daughter Laura and the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Edmondo Cirielli, the Head of State was welcomed at the airport by the Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren, the head of diplomatic ceremonial Manahi Pakarati and the Italian ambassador Valeria Biagiotti.
Among the appointments, the meetings with a representation of the Italian community in Chile and with the Chilean president Gabriel Boric.
For Mattarella this is the first time in Chile and Paraguay. Furthermore, it is the first visit of an Italian Head of State to Paraguay.
The President of the Republic, accompanied by his daughter Laura, arrived in the afternoon (Italian time) at the Italian Stadium in Santiago de Chile, a cultural sports facility that was founded in 1939 by Italian immigrants in Chile. After greetings with the managers of the facility, Mattarella met with a representative of the Italian community. According to data provided by the honorary president of Stadio Italiano, Rocco Inserrato, there are 90 thousand Italians in Chile with the right to vote abroad, of which 70% live in Santiago.
“The flow from Italy began after the First World War and peaked after the Second World War. Initially, the Italian Stadium included a sports field and a bowling alley. Now - continues Inserted – occupies six hectares and has 13 tennis courts, two swimming pools, one of which is Olympic, gym and volleyball court, as well as 10 halls for sports and dance. Smooth? Yes, but above all tango”.
“Italy and Chile are two countries that are very closely linked in a number of ways – stated the head of state -. The Italian community, the Chileans of Italian origin who are very integrated in the country, are a very strong presence, also a protagonist in the development of the country, Chile and Italy are close and in harmony on a political, cultural and economic level and united by a bond of human character".
Mattarella then recalled: “The Italians who come here and the many Chileans who come to Italy”, and thanked the embassy officials for their excellent work.
“I am happy to be able to make this official visit to Chile which I have wanted to do for some time, but international activity has slowed down due to Covid. I am pleased to have been able to do it at an important moment for the international community, due to the tensions that exist, due to the need to make known, on the part of the countries that have a vocation for peace, balance and international collaboration, what is the true, more just and adequate path for the fate of the world. This place is an expression of these values because it is a connection point". Mattarella again: “I am delighted to meet you to express to you the embrace of Italy which is all the more intense the more geographically distant it is. I can only be tied to the stadium, because I was born the year it was founded. I am the same age as this stadium."
At the Italian Stadium in Santiago Mattarella met with a representative of the Italian community in Chile, then the visit to the station Eleventh Italian Fire Brigade Company of Santiago and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. In the afternoon, the laying of a wreath at the Bernardo O'Higgins Monument. The Head of State was subsequently received at the Moneda Palace by the President of the Republic of Chile Gabriel Boric. At the end of the talks, the two will release statements to the press. At the Congress Headquarters in Santiago, the Head of State will meet the president of the Senate, Juan Antonio Coloma Correa, and the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Vlado Mirosevic Verdugo.
On the morning of Wednesday 5 July Mattarella will hold a lectio magistralis at the University of Chile entitled: “Latin America and Europe: two continents united for peace, democracy and development”.
Subsequently, he will inaugurate the exhibition “Shapes and colors of pre-Roman Italy” set up at the Italian Cultural Institute and will pay homage to the Monument in honor of Lumi Videla at the Residence of the Italian Ambassador. The work commemorates the 26-year-old sociology student who was arrested by the secret police on September 21, 1974, tortured, killed and then thrown right into the garden of the Italian embassy in Santiago.
Mattarella will then move to Punta Arenas where on Thursday 6 July he will visit Fort Bulnes, the Salesiano Maggiorino Borgatello Museum, the Círculo Italiano and the Mausoleum of the Italian Brotherhood. In the late afternoon the president will leave for Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, where he will remain until July 8.
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