Chile’s Proposed New Constitution: Reproductive Rights, Migration, and Controversial Articles

2023-10-31 04:12:00
A person holds a book with the proposal for a new Constitution at an event in Santiago (REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado)

The Constitutional Council of Chile approved this Monday by a wide margin its proposal for a new Constitution, which includes articles on reproductive rights and migration and which will be submitted to a plebiscite on December 17.

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The text, made up of 17 chapters and 216 articles, had votes in favor of the Republican Party (22) and the Chile Vamos coalition (11), and votes once morest from the 17 councilors of the ruling left.

The body, elected at the polls last May, will officially deliver on November 7 to President Gabrie Boric the Magna Carta proposal, which has a high probability of being rejected in the referendum, according to all surveys.

“We have prepared a text that has the potential to become a fundamental tool to lead the country out of stagnation, insecurity and political and social instability,” said the president of the Council, Beatriz Hevia, in her last intervention.

Defenders of the text argue that it guarantees “freedom” and “security” and gives “economic and legal certainty” to the country, while its critics call it “partisan” and say that it perpetuates the neoliberal model that installed the current Constitution, in force since the dictatorship (1973-1990) and reformed dozens of times into democracy.

Constitutional advisors participate in a final vote on constitutional reforms, at the former headquarters of the National Congress in Santiago (AP Photo/Esteban Félix)

“The conditions were in place to achieve the objective of building a great agreement. It is regrettable to see that this will was not on the part of some,” said Edmundo Eluchans, of the conservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI).

The socialist Alejandro Köhler also regretted the “lack of agreements” but blamed the right for “imposing an exclusive, dogmatic, retrograde and polarizing text (…) that only favors businessmen and the powerful, the always privileged” .

Among the most controversial articles are “the right to life of the unborn” – a norm that the ruling party fears will collide with the application of the law that allows abortion on three grounds -, the immediate expulsion of migrants who enter for non-authorized steps or the tax exemption for the first home, which benefits people with higher incomes.

Another article establishes that those sentenced to custodial sentences may request the competent court to replace the sentence “with house confinement” in cases of terminal illness. The Chilean left affirms that the article will favor those imprisoned for human rights violations during the dictatorship from 1973 to 1990.

Regarding indigenous peoples, which the current constitution does not mention, the new one recognizes them as part of the Chilean nation and adds that the State will promote their individual and collective rights.

“The Constitution that we are proposing is better than the current one, much better, because it takes care of the challenges of a Chile very different from that of 1980,” said Republican Luis Silva, one of the most media-friendly advisors.

The left is also not satisfied with how the social rule of law has remained, one of its historical aspirations, and denounces that there are articles that perpetuate the current subsidiary State and constitutionally enshrine the private health system or the criticized individually funded pension model.

Gabriel Boric, president of Chile (EFE/ Daniel Piris)

“They built a Constitution without guaranteed social rights, with a social State of paper law,” added communist advisor Fernando Viveros.

This is the second constitutional process that Chile is experiencing, following the one that concluded in September 2022 with a resounding rejection by the electorate of a project written by a leftist convention.

If this new text is finally rejected in December, the current Constitution will remain in force and the Government of President Gabriel Boric has already announced that it will not promote a third process.

(With information from EFE and AP)

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