dictatorship Pinochet (1973-1990), which began with a counter-army coup Salvador AllendeNot only has it tarnished the history of Latin America’s most cultured and developed country, it has also left, in the end, the dismal legacy of an ultra-liberal political system devoid of the equalization and equality mechanisms typical of advanced democracies. The Chilean dictatorship was inspired by extreme liberalism. Milton FriedmanMaking the country a guinea pig for his laboratory, and in 1980 Chile was the first country in the world to equip itself with a privately owned social security system, in which the prospective retiree had to finance the retirement account he opened in a retirement account. Special Manager of Pension Funds with the necessary resources to reach a capital that can meet their retirement.
The system, which was later imitated by as many as thirty countries, largely failed and plunged retirees into poverty. However, the weak point of young democracy in Chile was not only a reworking of the pension system: the authors of the 1980 Pinochet Constitution chose the minimal state, which entrusted most of its public services to the private sector and did not even integrate the state. minorities did not establish mechanisms of equality and redistribution and did not have the ability to implement cyclical policies against crises. Although Chile has the most efficient production system in Latin America, it does not have an adequate social structure to meet the needs of its citizens.
In October 2019, Santiago de Chile was rocked by the biggest street riots in its history after the 1973 barracks. On the 18th, high school students, along with workers from various branches, destroyed the capital’s metro. conservative president Sebastian Pinera He had never anticipated the avalanche before him, and at the time he was still boasting of his financial successes.
Protests escalated, before Piñera could placate the protesters, he declared a state of emergency and a curfew; Clashes between activists and police left 3,000 victims, including 34 dead. More than a million people demonstrated on the streets of Santiago on October 25th, which triggered the negotiations that led to the Social Peace Agreement and the New Constitution, in which almost all parties participated. A double referendum was held in October 2020, asking whether a new constitution should be made and which constituent body should be included in the constitution. It was decided to draft a new Magna Carta, responsible for a mixed constituent assembly with 50% new representatives and 50% other members of Congress. In May 2021, 155 ‘new’ representatives were elected, most of them foreign to traditional parties and with a strong progressive/populist component. In December 2021, Chile elected its former student leader Gabriel BoricHe is one of the supporters and signatories of the new constitution, which links his political future to the success of the charter.
On July 4, the new constitution fell into the hands of Boric, and the actual campaign began before last Sunday’s referendum. As if it were the work of young activists immersed in idealism, the Constitution is a complex and cumbersome text of 388 articles and 57 transitional provisions that stop all conceivable intricacies of radical populism and yet do not get into the major problems that affect it. citizenship and maintaining the welfare state. It is the most feminist constitution in the world, one that most carefully respects indigenous minorities and their ethnic identities, as well as gender diversity, although it declares that Chile is a multinational, intercultural, regional and ecological state, it is not. barely enters the classical declaration of rights or the organization of public services.
Boric has moved from the radical left to the centre-left through a radical change of government and has already put himself at the forefront of a new founding process that must be cross and moderate, or else it will fail again. Last chance for Chilean democracy.