Member of Vietnam president‘s delegation arrested in Chile for ‘sexual assault’

By RFA Vietnamese2024.11.12

Read more on this topic in Vietnamese.

Updated Nov. 12, 2024, 08:20 a.m. ET.

A member of Vietnamese President Luong Cuong’s official delegation to Chile has been arrested on sexual assault charges, according to Chile’s foreign ministry, prompting an official apology for a scandal that has overshadowed Cuong’s first presidential visit abroad.

Police detained “a member of the security forces of the Vietnamese delegation” on Sunday after he was accused of sexual abuse by a Chilean citizen, the ministry said.

The man, who arrived as part of the president’s official delegation on Saturday, was arrested following accusations by a worker at the hotel where he was staying in the capital Santiago, La Tercera reported.

On Monday, a court ordered the man to leave the country immediately, without contacting the victim, barring him from returning to Chile for two years, the news site said. The prosecutor decided not to impose a tougher sentence because the man did not have a criminal record, it added.

Television Nacional de Chile’s 24 Horas channel, carried on YouTube, showed photographers and reporters chasing a man as he left the court wearing a mask, before cornering him in an elevator. One journalist asked the bodyguard if he spoke English, to which he replied “no, no,” before lowering his head and declining to answer further questions.

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son made a formal apology for the incident, according to Chile’s Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren.

Radio Free Asia emailed the Vietnamese Embassy in Chile to ask about the incident, but did not receive a response by time of publication.

Sources with knowledge of the situation, who didn’t want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, told RFA the arrested man is a member of the High Command of Guard Police and a medical doctor, responsible for looking after the presidential delegation’s health.

President Cuong was in Chile to strengthen political, economic and cultural relations, on the first trip to the country by a Vietnamese head of state since 2009, when then-President Nguyen Minh Triet paid an official visit.

On Monday, Cuong was received by his Chilean counterpart, Gabriel Boric, at La Moneda Palace, where the two sides signed agreements on agriculture, defense, culture and export promotion.

The meeting “reaffirms Chile’s strategic priorities to draw closer and deepen relations with Asia,” Boric said.

Vietnam is Chile’s leading trading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. Bilateral trade was valued at more than $US800 billion in the first half of this year.

Vietnamese media made no mention of the scandal involving Cuong’s bodyguard in reporting on the president’s meeting with his Chilean counterpart.

The Vietnamese president arrived in Peru on Tuesday to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, Economic Leaders’ Week.

Updated to add details of the arrested man’s job.

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.