The Chilean Chamber of Deputies will vote Wednesday on if to continue a constitutional accusation process initiated by Chilean conservative lawmakers against the nation’s Education Minister, Marco Antonio Ávila.
The accusation process is similar to impeachment and may end with his removal from office.
Ávila stands accused of inserting radical sexual and gender ideology content in the nation’s school curricula, violating the rights of parents over their children’s education. The minister also faces charges of negligence due to the continued decline of Chile’s education system which has seen a rise in school violence, absenteeism, and desertion rates, as well as the worst measured academic test performances in over a decade.
The government of far-left Chilean President Gabriel Boric defended Ávila, arguing that the process against the minister is “based on homophobia and discrimination.”
Chilean law defines a constitutional accusation as an exclusive power of the nation’s Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, that grants lawmakers a check on executive agencies. A constitutional accusation can be initiated by a group of between ten to 20 lawmakers and can be used against the president, ministers, magistrates of the superior courts of justice, the comptroller general, generals, admirals, intendants, and regional governors. If an accusation is deemed admissible by the rest of the deputies, the procedure then goes to the Senate, which will act as a jury against the accused.
If the process concludes with Ávila’s removal from office, the minister will be barred from holding any public office for a period of five years.
The seven-point accusation against Ávila alleges that the minister infringed the preferential right of parents to their children’s education through the implementation of “Non-Sexist Education Days” and “Guidelines for the protection of the welfare of students with diverse gender identities and sex-affective orientations in the Chilean educational system.” Other policies identified as offensive include infringing the Chilean General Education Law by excluding students with disabilities from the Ministry’s “Inclusive Education” policies.
Lawmakers also accused Ávila of inserting contents pertaining to “non-sexist education” in the notebooks given to public school students, usurping the oversight role of Chile’s National Board of School Aid and Scholarships.
The minister is also accused of non-compliance with the oversight role of the nation’s Board of School Aid and Scholarships in the nation’s school food programs and negligence due to the decline of Chile’s education sector.
Top Chilean official Camila Vallejo, an avowed communist, defended Minister Ávila in statements issued on Monday, asserting that the constitutional accusation is “based on homophobia and discrimination,” as Ávila is openly gay.
“From what we have seen and analyzed of the constitutional accusation against Minister Ávila, there is no political-legal argument to support it. This is a constitutional accusation that has been inspired by homophobia and discrimination,” Vallejo said. “There is no line of this constitutional accusation that has political and legal support.”
“We hope that in the analysis of the merits of this constitutional accusation there is no majority to endorse such a high act of discrimination and homophobia against a Minister of State,” she continued.
Boric issued a similar defense of his Education Minister through his Twitter account on Monday.
“Constitutional accusations are legitimate tools for the control of deputies,” Boric said. “Unfortunately, the accusation against Minister Ávila is marked by homophobia, which is clearly evident here. And this should not be acceptable in our society.”
Las acusaciones constitucionales son legítimas herramientas de fiscalización de los diputados. Desgraciadamente la acusación al Ministro Ávila está marcada por la homofobia, que que aquí queda claramente en evidencia. Y esto no debiera ser aceptable en nuestra sociedad. https://t.co/IqNdYzVcEF
— Gabriel Boric Font (@GabrielBoric) July 10, 2023
Boric and Vallejo base their “homophobia” claims on statements issued by Chilean political activist Marcela Aranda, director of the Christian Legislative Observatory. Aranda, during a hearing that took place on Monday as part of the constitutional accusation process against Ávila, claimed that the minister must give explanations if “his condition, whatever it is, impedes or affects in any way the execution of his position and violates the rights of others, or violates the laws or the Constitution.”
“It is not something directly that has to do with the questioning of his orientation … he and his LGBTIQ+ activism, his condition, has exceeded the limit of what is private,” Aranda said during the hearing. “He [Ávila] has crossed the limit of violating the right of parents, children, educational communities, taking this position to exercise this activism.”
In addition to Aranda’s statements, lawmaker María Luisa Cordero of the National Renovation party described Ávila as a “pervert” during a radio interview with Radio El Conquistador on Tuesday.
“The famous Ávila, if he were not Minister of Education, I would have already asked him to be imprisoned for incitement to precocity and child sexual perversity,” Cordero stated. “They [children] don’t know how to read or know the vowels in fourth grade and they are giving classes to learn how to masturbate and know the clitoris of little girls. A bunch of perverts with this decadent discourse.”
Chile’s Congress Law states that the defense may raise a “preliminary question” recourse that allows the defendant to claim that the accusation does not comply with the requirements set forth in the Constitution. If the defense’s preliminary question is approved by a majority of deputies, the accusation shall be deemed not to have been filed — otherwise, discussion on the inadmissibility of the accusation may not be renewed and no one may insist on it, allowing the process to continue.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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