Both the president of the instance, Alfonso De Urresti, and representatives of the LGBTI organizations questioned the absence of the spokesperson Jaime Bellolio from the commission held this past Friday at noon. The minister - who explained in the morning that the government still does not have a position on this initiative - excused himself, arguing that at that time he had been summoned to speak to the mixed budget subcommittee.

This Friday, the Senate Constitution committee began the discussion in particular of the equal marriage project. As stated in the regulation, the instance approved all those articles that were not the object of indications.

The president of the instance, Alfonso de Urresti, explained that in future sessions, those aspects that have indications will vote to dispatch the initiative as soon as possible. “We have the will and commitment to implement a law that we owe to thousands of Chileans. Prejudices cannot continue to anchor us to visions of the past ”, commented the legislator.

From civil society organizations, the executive president of Fundación Iguales, Alessia Injoque, and its director, Juan Enrique Pi ; the person in charge of Human Rights of the Movilh, Ramón Gómez and the lawyer of said organization, Mónica Arias . Pi reported after the session that “there was an important advance, approving about 70% of the articles of the project to which no indications were presented. We hope this pace will continue . "

It should be remembered that in November of last year, the initiative was approved in general in this commission and then, in January, endorsed by the majority of the Senate chamber. After this, the parliamentarians introduced 25 indications to the project, which will be analyzed in the next.

Questions to the absence of Bellolio

Shortly before this session began, at a press point, the government spokesman, Jaime Bellolio, explained that he could not attend the instance where he was invited because at the same time he had to speak in the mixed budget subcommittee. Regarding the project, he replied that "this is a matter on which the government has not yet taken a position but it will be able to do so in the future."

The absence of the spokesperson was questioned by Senator De Urresti. "We regret that it is not present," said the legislature, questioning the Executive.