2023-06-05 20:15:00
Next Wednesday, June 7, the Constitutional Convention will be installed in Chile, made up of 50 members who were elected on May 7 by popular vote that despite registering 84.87% of the population, as a result of the entry into force of the vote mandatory, at least 2.7 million votes were between white (2.1 million) and null (568 thousand).
In this election process for those who will have the task of drafting the new constitutional text that will be proposed to replace the one drafted during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, the far-right party chaired by José Antonio Kast, who had just lost in the elections, was the winner. presidential elections where Gabriel Boric obtained the victory supported by left-wing parties.
The victory of Kast, who has been a defender of the Pinochet dictatorship, to which he tries to remove its authoritarian and criminal character by pointing out that “democratic elections were held and political opponents were not locked up”, is shown as an obvious defeat for the claims of change that were generated from the social outbreak of 2019, which forced the then president Sebastián Piñera, to promote a route for the transformation of the Constitution.
“The 1980 Constitution contained the entire transition to democracy. Tell me, what dictatorship has done that?” Said this character who leads the party that will contribute the largest number of members to the Constitutional Convention that will elaborate a new Magna Carta proposal, a fact that marks a clear defeat for Boric, who later After the failure of the first Constitution proposal, he wanted to lead a new process without success.
riding on the wave
Gabriel Boric becomes president after obtaining victory on December 19, 2021 as a candidate of the “Aproveo Dignidad” coalition, obtaining 55.8% of the votes in what has been the highest participation in a presidential electoral process with the voluntary vote.
His competitor, the far-right Kast, who today stands as leader of the process of promoting a new Constitution, obtained 44.13% of the votes, a fact that seemed to indicate the desire for radical change in a Chile that despite showing itself as a booming economy with sustained growth rates, it is among the most unequal countries in the region and the world.
According to the Gini coefficient, it is the third most unequal nation in South America, while according to the Palma or Palma ratio index, which calculates “the income share ratio” between the 10% of the richest population in a country and the 40% poorer, Chile is among the countries with the greatest inequality, ranking 14th out of 91 countries evaluated.
In the midst of this panorama, a series of protests began as a rejection of the increase in the cost of transport tickets and grew to become massive concentrations that were subject to repression, leaving a balance of at least 34 deaths according to figures. officers, as well as 3,583 injured, of whom 359 people presented eye trauma as a result of shots to the eyes, the vast majority of whom were young with an average age of 29 years.
On this scenario of social discontent and demands for change, Boric’s candidacy proposal arises, who was emerging as the key figure to embody the leadership of this movement due to his record as a militant of the Chilean left since his days as a university student and protagonist of the protests of 2010 and 2011, which for the Chilean collective represented the first act of rebellion in a society that for decades was condemned to submission by the repressive force of a militaristic State and suppressor of fundamental rights.
“It is tremendously important that we change to advance the transformations for which we are fighting; Building a State that guarantees rights, that guarantees dignity and equality is the only way to have stability, because a country that is socially fractured cannot grow”.
With these promises, the then candidate Boric closed his campaign for the second round of the Chilean presidential election where he was elected as president and began office on March 12, 2022 with a speech ratifying his decision to promote the change that Chile deserved and appealing to historical memory by citing the martyred president Salvador Allende.
“As Salvador Allende predicted almost 50 years ago, we are again compatriots opening the great avenues where free men and women pass to build a better society. We continue. Long live Chile!”
From saying to doing… Militarization of the Mapuche territories, denial of pension fund withdrawals, increase in the supply of weapons for the police and making the use of lethal weapons more flexible, are some of the decisions that Boric has taken as president, actions that are in contradiction with his campaign proposals.
mapuches
In the first case, during his youth as a young militant of the Chilean left and later as a parliamentary deputy, the current president had been a staunch defender of the ancestral rights that the Mapuches possess over lands in the Araucanía Region.
“The Mapuche nation has seen its freedom affected for years in territories that have ancestrally been part of its culture. The Chilean State must dialogue and find solutions in pursuit of the harmony of all the inhabitants of these areas”, was the opinion of the then candidate Boric in 2021.
Added to this defense of Mapuche rights was criticism of the militarization of this area, pointing out that “those who try to reduce what is happening in Araucanía to a problem of public order only contribute to aggravate it.”
Contrary to these arguments already as president, Boric dictated a “state of exception” in the Araucanía Region to justify the deployment of the military in the area to dispel the protests carried out by the Mapuche communities due to the failure to fulfill their electoral promise. .
“It is evident that in recent times we have had an increase in acts of violence on the roads, we have witnessed cowardly attacks,” was the argument of his Interior Minister Izkia Siches, when announcing the implementation of this extent.
pensions
This approach was relegated when in the first instance the possibility of a new early withdrawal of interest from pension funds was denied on the grounds that sanitary conditions were no longer as serious as in the Covid-19 pandemic, and that inflation would rise.
Repression
“In January we proposed a profound reform to the Carabineros. The government cannot continue to ignore its crisis. The Carabineros must be intervened now, they cannot continue killing”, deputy Boric forcefully pointed out in March 2020, when he denounced that in just 2 days the Carabineros killed a protester, blew out a student’s eye and escorted fascists without detaining who attacked civilians.
“The Government of Chile must begin the reform of the institution now!”, he emphasized in a position that had the support of those who remained in the streets demanding the end of the Pinochetist State through a new magna carta.
Two years later with the presidential sash across his chest, this speech took a 180-degree turn when he indicated, after the events where in a clash between protesters and policemen in Puerto Montt two of these officials were surrounded by protesters who beat them up, that “here we must have a very clear signal: crimes will not be tolerated, nor attacks on our police officers.”
From “socialist” to ultranationalist
In 2015 and 2018, Boric, echoing his socialist militancy, had spoken out in favor of the protection of migrants, lashing out at right-wing politicians who pointed out the need to promote more rigorous laws of a xenophobic nature.
“What a joy the arrival of migrants in Chile. Hopefully they keep coming and we treat them with respect and affection. Welcome!”, It was the opinion that the then deputy Gabriel Boric signed in 2018 where he also assured:” Nope. I have no problems with immigrants without papers. I think we should welcome them, give them opportunities and treat them as the equals they are.”
This opinion, which denoted a great humanist character and respect for the rights of immigrants, changed its tone with his ascent to the first magistracy of the Chilean executive, from where he has been insistent on pointing out migrants as the main cause of the problems of Chile, thus emulating the discourse that has fueled ultranationalists for decades.
The main focus of his attacks has been Venezuelan and Haitian migration, who are accused from Chile of being criminals and whom Boric has said “we must fight.”
“We are going to persecute them and we are going to make life impossible for them within the rule of law”, have been the words of the Chilean president to refer to the migrants who enter the country irregularly through the north of the country, which he kept militarized after renewing the decree promoted by his predecessor Sebastián Piñera.
Expulsions, impediment to entry and internal persecution, are part of the measures applied against migrants, who are the object of growing xenophobia boosted by the accusatory discourse of the authorities that point to them as responsible for the increase in crime, unemployment and the economic crisis.
Obsessed with Venezuela? It has been from this fact that Boric has incorporated into his speech the attacks against the Venezuelan government, which he accuses of promoting migration to his country.
“Venezuela is an experience that has failed and the main demonstration is the 6 million Venezuelans in diaspora,” he said shortly before taking office, marking what would be a trend of his government that does not miss out on an international event to attack the Venezuelan state to which accused of violating human rights.
The last action of this type by the Chilean president was raised at the Summit of South American heads of state held in Brazil, where he questioned the assertion made by the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva that in Venezuela there is no dictatorship or systematic violation of human rights, rather it is a narrative construction to justify attacks against the country.
“It is not a narrative construction, it is a reality, it is serious, and I have had the opportunity to see it in the eyes and in the pain of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who are in our country today and who demand a firm and clear position regarding to the fact that human rights must always be respected and in any place”, he said, alleging that these words were said as a “leftist president”, an adjective that he insistently uses when he directs his speech against progressive governments.
“He was like a fool, he is Boboric”, was the adjective used by the first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, who accused the Chilean president of being a “puppet of imperialism” to try to sabotage the organized summit by Lula.
The term “Chilean package” has its origins in the 70s of the last century when large masses of Chileans migrated fleeing the Pinochet dictatorship. Some people of this nationality were caught practicing a type of scam that consisted of dropping a package that looked sumptuous near people, so that another would come and pick it up as if he were finding it and ask those present for anything of value they had in hand. the moment in exchange for that “promising wad”.
Taking this definition, it is that, given the position against Venezuela, that President Maduro has indicated that he is part of a campaign promoted from the United States using a “cowardly” left, added to internal decisions that, according to Chileans who opted for change, they bear the seal of “betrayal”, they open the question as to whether Boric, who was a member of the left since he was young and enthusiastically supported the revolutions in Latin America, has simply been “a Chilean package” from the right of the southern country .
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