His name framed in a red box on the screen of the Hemicycle gave an account of his return. Just seven months after the Supreme Court confirmed his violation, on Thursday, August 12, the RN deputy for Coyhaique, Aracely Leuquén, he returned to vote in the Lower House and the screens of the Chamber thus showed his rejection of the constitutional accusation against the Minister of Education, Raúl Figueroa.
A week before, justice had decreed his definitive dismissal of the cause that had kept her away from Congress, as a result of an altercation that she starred in November 2019 in a bar in the Las Condes commune, in Santiago, where she insulted a waitress.
The controversy not only meant a complaint for insults and slander, but also put it in the center of a wave of rumors that spoke of problems with alcohol and depression. She made a public apology and he has repeatedly said that he regrets and is ashamed of what happened.
Leuquén’s passage through Congress has undoubtedly been controversial. But it is coming to an end. In the midst of the intense negotiations of the parties to refine their parliamentary staff, the parliamentarian announced a few days ago that she will not go to re-election.
He chose Radio Genial de Coyhaique to say it. There she also addressed the difficult personal moment she is going through after being diagnosed with cancer last year.
“One has to understand with the lessons of life what the real priorities are. Without a doubt, I am passionate about politics, I love social service, because I am a social worker by profession. But something that cancer has taught me is to relieve the love of the family, “he said on the regional station.
In September 2020, during a stay in a field in Patagonia, Aracely Leuquén had the first sign that something was wrong. A burning in the chest was the indication that two weeks later the existence of a 5 centimeter tumor.
While he waited for them to confirm what he had in his heart as certainty, traveled to Santiago to meet with various ministers and try to advance on different topics of interest to your region. But, he also wanted to have several photos with his long hair, because he knew he was going to lose it.
The diagnosis that the parliamentarian heard at the end of 2020 was lapidary: a triple negative breast cancer that could spread to the bones and other parts of the body.
He was able to ask for different medical opinions. But he chose to stay with what Aysén’s oncologist had recommended and started his chemotherapy process in Coyhaique.
On May 14, she underwent surgery to remove the tumor, but asked the doctor in charge of the operation not to remove the entire breast. So it was, but less than a month later, in Santiago, she had to be operated on urgently for a mastectomy, which would allow the removal of three new tumors. He cried for a week.
The slowdown that the disease meant in his life hurt him. So much so that a depression diagnosed in 2016, worsened again. He stopped eating and drinking water for three days and, weighing 38 kilos, lost consciousness.
Her mother found her on the verge of death, for which she was rushed to the hospital and spent 15 days in a coma. Waking up, helpless, unable to stand up or do anything on her own, she thought about what was happening. I can’t do this to my mom, he told himself, and made up his mind to live again.
Throughout this process, Leuquén has had psychological support, because “when someone has cancer, they need a lot of emotional resistance,” he stresses, and recalls that precisely Mental health issues were part of his priorities in Congress, a concern he shared with Gabriel Boric (Social Convergence) and Jaime Bellolio (UDI).
This is how the Segegob minister remembers it these days: “She approached me, because several times I had mentioned in speeches and draft resolutions the key to mental health. Hence, he asked me to have a meeting with Minsal, and we met with Undersecretary Paula Daza. And then the national table ‘SaludableMente’ was held ”.
After the coup that faced cancer, Leuquén took up the first issue that she wanted to install when she took office as a deputy, in 2018: the urgent need for a cancer center in Aysén.
In her return to the Chamber, the legislator reiterated the call, recalling what it means to live this disease “in one’s own flesh.”
With his meter and 50 centimeters, 44 kilos of weight and a hair that begins to grow, he said: “I had a mother with cancer, I have had friends with cancer. Who of us has not had a family member, a close one who has had to live this complicated situation? And it is much more complicated even in extreme isolated areas, with characteristics of rurality, such as the Aysén Region. I want to ask for help, and that is why I am grateful for the very transversal support of members of the Health Commission, who are supporting me in what it means to fulfill a presidential commitment, an announcement that was made in 2019 and that has to do with implementation of an oncology center for Aysén, within the framework of the National Cancer Law”.
“In places like Aysén,” he continued, “patients can only carry out their chemotherapy processes, but not radiotherapy and not many surgeries either. For this reason, we need this commitment to be fulfilled, because we need conditions for the tremendous human oncological team that exists in the Regional Hospital of Coyhaique ”.
In this crusade, the parliamentarians of the region – they say – are united, and recognize that it is a cross-cutting objective, so that, without political distinction, everyone is at stake to make it happen. In fact, the senators of the area, David Sandoval (UDI) and Ximena Órdenes (Ind.) They had met on Tuesday of last week with the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, to address the issue, an opportunity in which the Secretary of State promised to review the delay in the construction of the facilities.
Last week, the deputy began a process of radiotherapy and oral chemotherapy, which she will seek to reconcile with her work in Congress, while preparing her plans for the future.
By announcing that he will not repost Congress, he did not close the door to politics. According to his close friends in RN, in their plans would be to assume a candidacy in the municipal elections of 2024.
“It is a leadership that is important to remain linked to politics; She is a good leadership, a woman for whom I have personal affection, who stood out as a grassroots leader, as a regional director and who, in addition, is very passionate about everything that has to do with her Aysén and her Patagonia ”, she says. the former flag bearer RN Mario Desbordes.
Despite being a committed Renovación militant, her approach to politics came as the inheritance of a Christian Democrat father, who gave up 45 years of militancy due to the questions he suffered when his daughter decided to join the center-right community.
At the age of 18, Aracely joined the military in the store and supported the then deputy RN Pablo Galilea and both with him and with his wife, Marcia Raphael, they maintain a close relationship until today, so the deputy strongly supports that she be the one who replaces her to maintain the parliamentary quota.
It was Councilor for Coyhaique in two terms (2008-2012 and 2012-2016), presidenta regional de RN Y came to Parliament in 2018, a year after what he describes as “the saddest moment of my life”: the death of his father, his reference in politics, the man who instilled in him a love for public service and “the politics of yesteryear.” Aurelio Leuquén Andrade she took her own life and, for her daughter, the feeling of “abandonment” and “desolation” was very difficult to overcome, although today she says that “cancer helped me understand it”.
Cancer also helped her to rethink her priorities, to want to give herself more time to be with her family and partner, and to try to fulfill her dreams. Going to study journalism next year, although politics will undoubtedly remain on his radar.
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