Chilean president handed $3,500 pleasing for canopy-much less selfie with stranger on shoreline

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chilean President Sebastian Pinera used to be slapped with a $3,500 pleasing on Friday after posing for a selfie on the shoreline with a bystander without carrying a disguise as required all around the coronavirus pandemic, health authorities mentioned.

Chile has strict ideas on disguise carrying in all public areas and violations are punishable with sanctions that consist of fines and even penal advanced terms.

Pinera apologized then turned himself in quickly after the selfie surfaced on social media in early December.

The president explained he had been strolling by myself along the shoreline come his home within the luxury Chilean seaside city of Cachagua when a girl acknowledged him and asked for a divulge collectively.

The selfie exhibits the president and the girl standing very come to 1 one more on a sunny day, neither carrying masks.

The gaffe-inclined Pinera used to be beforehand photographed at a pizza gather collectively on the evening protests over inequality broke out in Santiago final year. He used to be later considered posing for pictures on the square that had been the hub of the demonstrations after the pandemic forced protesters to prevent at home.

The virus peaked in Chile in Would possibly maybe well presumably and June, all around the southern hemisphere iciness, then subsided thru November. Situations are on the upward thrust over again, alternatively, prompting unique restrictions and quarantines.

Chile has reported 581,135 cases of the virus for the reason that outbreak started in March, and 16,051 deaths from the disease.