The former president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, died this Tuesday at the age of 74 after the helicopter in which he was traveling with three other people crashed into Lake Ranco, in the Los Ríos region, in the center of the country. Andean.

Sources close to the former president have confirmed this to the UNO Agency, while the Los Ríso Regional Prosecutor's Office has confirmed the launch of an investigation into the event, according to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera.

Previously, the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service had issued a brief statement confirming a helicopter accident on Lake Ranco with one death and three injuries.. Firefighters and police have traveled to the scene.

The incident occurred in the commune of Lago Ranco at 3 p.m. this Tuesday (19 p.m. in Spain). According to the first information, the helicopter crashed into the waters of the lake when the former president was returning from visiting a friend, businessman José Cox.. The aircraft would also have been submerged at a depth of 40 meters.

The Government of Chile, for its part, has decreed national mourning and the organization of state funerals for the former president.. “He will have all the republican honors and recognitions he deserves,” said the Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Carolina Tohá, in a brief appearance before the media from the Palacio de la Moneda, headquarters of the Presidency.

We want to “express our shock at the tragedy, extend our arm of solidarity to the family, he was democratic president of Chile on two occasions and will have all the recognition and honors he deserves.”. He also added that “President Boric instructed a state funeral, to declare national mourning and to send our solidarity and support directly to the family.”

“A friend from Spain”

The reactions to the tragedy have not been long in coming. The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, has said he is “dismayed” by the tragic death and has sent his condolences to family and friends, as well as to the Government and all the Chilean people.

Sánchez recalled that during Piñera's mandate, Spain and Chile strengthened ties. “Together we made COP-25 possible at a crucial moment for the fight against the climate emergency. Rest in peace,” he added in a message on the social network X.

The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the former president of the Government Mariano Rajoy have expressed themselves in these same terms, lamenting the death of the former president of Chile and highlighting the role he played in the democracy of the South American country.

“On behalf of the PP I want to convey our condolences for the death of the former president of Chile Sebastián Piñera. It represents the loss of a key figure in Chilean democracy, who marked a very important chapter in the history of his country,” Feijóo wrote on his account on the social network X.

In this same medium, Rajoy has lamented the “unfortunate accident” that cost Piñera his life.. “A great democrat who loved his country, Chile, has left us.”. He was a great defender and friend of Spain. I have been able to verify it. A big hug to his family,” Rajoy added.

From Latin America

The Office of the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, has been the first Government to mourn the death of Piñera and send its condolences. “The Office of the President regrets the tragic death of Sebastián Piñera,” said the Presidential Office in a brief statement published on its official profile on the social network X.

Along the same lines, the Uruguayan president, Luis Lacalle Pou, has praised Piñera's “positive attitude” towards Uruguay, exemplified in his support for the shipment of coronavirus vaccines during the pandemic.

For his part, former Colombian president Iván Duque has shared a publication on his social networks in which he remembers the figure of his “great friend and companion”, for whom he feels “the greatest pain”. “A unique leader, a complete human being,” he noted.

His predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos, has expressed his regret for the loss of “a great ally of Colombia”, who “supported and was a guarantor of the peace process” in the country and with whom the Pacific Alliance was promoted, also integrated through Peru and Mexico.

Former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe has expressed his pain at the death of Piñera, whom he considers “a great friend of Colombia” and with whom he had a “friendly” relationship for years.

Another former South American president, the Argentine Mauricio Macri, has acknowledged feeling “enormous sadness” over the death of his “dear friend.”. “Good people, committed like no one else to Chile and to the values of freedom and democracy in Latin America,” he said.

Piñera, a doctor in Economics from Harvard University, was president of the Chilean Executive between 2010 and 2014 and between 2018 and 2022.