In his first speech after assuming the presidency of Chile, Gabriel Boric called before a crowd to “close the wounds left by the social outbreak” of 2018, announcing that on Thursday the 139 complaints that were initiated under the Security Law of the Condition.
“Trial to (Sebastián) Piñera”, shouted a large part of the colorful crowd gathered in the Plaza de la Constitución when Boric announced that the lawsuits were withdrawn, but the message of the youngest president in the history of Chile focused on not attacking people but to pending problems.
“This government is not exhausted in its adherents,” he said, and claimed that “we come from the mobilizations, today we are here, but we do not forget where we come from,” speaking from the balcony of the Palacio de La Moneda. “We are going slowly because we are going far, but we are not going alone,” he added.
Boric also took time in his speech to vindicate all the democratic presidents of Chile of the last 50 years.
“The voices of those who fought for human rights are also heard here”
He asked “all Chilean men and women” to “accompany each other in this task, to walk the path of hope together and build a country that is worthy and just…dignity, what a beautiful word,” he added and raised a once again the applause of the plaza, where Chilean, Mapuche, communist and southern Magallanes region flags waved.
There were also individual banners, among which stood out one in the form of a book that said “New Constitution for a new Chile” and a small one, in the hands of a gray-haired woman, which simply summarized in black on white the feeling of a good part of the attendees : “Gabriel Boric, hope”.
“We will pay special attention to the effects of the pandemic on health workers, who have put so much effort” and “we will also continue the successful vaccination strategy of the previous government,” Boric said.
“We are going to deal specifically with education, where there is a giant gap,” he said, alluding to one of Chile’s central problems, triggering the historic protests that marked the birth of a new group of leaders, of which he is the main emerging
“We are going to implement the consolidation of our economy. A growth that is sustainable, that never again has sacrifice zones,” he promised.
The new Chilean president also promised to promote policies that lead to decent employment, and associated labor instability and social degradation with crime levels, “because we recognize that millions of Chilean men and women live in fear.”
“We are going to face the problem of crime and also that of social inequality, which is its origin”, but also with a reform of the security forces” strongly questioned by the cruelty with which they repressed the mobilizations during the social outbreak that put in suspense to Chile since October 2018.
Below, the attendees revived a chant that has been in vogue in recent years: “he who does not jump is a paco,” which is how popular Chilean jargon identifies the carabineros.
“We will pay special attention to the effects of the pandemic on health workers, who have put so much effort” and “we will also continue the successful vaccination strategy of the previous government”
Boric also spoke of the pending problems “in the north and in the south” of the country.
“In the north with the migratory crisis, for which we are going to work with our brother countries, because we are profoundly Latin American,” he said. And he asked that “let’s not forget that they are human beings, please”.
“In the south we also have a problem. Before there was talk of the pacification of Araucanía, what an unfair term,” he lamented. “There was talk of a Mapuche conflict” when “it is a conflict between the Chilean state and the demands of a people who have rights,” he said. “The path will be dialogue, peace and empathy with all the victims,” she assured, emphasizing the word “all.”
“In this first year we have also decided to enthusiastically accompany the constituent process,” because “we need a Constitution that unites us, that we feel as our own, one that is different from the one that was imposed by blood and fire by the dictatorship, a Constitution that be born in democracy, that it be for everyone and not for a few,” he harangued.
In this sense, he invited all political and social sectors “to listen to each other in good faith, without caricatures. Without caricatures from all sides, so do we, and for the first time we can have a democratic, equal Constitution, with the participation of all our town”.
Below, in the Plaza de la Constitución, where the statues of all the presidents are, the people responded once again with the song of the mythical musical group Quilapayún, which has become a slogan of Latin American struggles: “The people united will never be defeated.” .
Boric spoke from the classic balcony that is over the main entrance of La Moneda, the one that an iconic photo of the 1973 coup d’état, led by Augusto Pinochet, showed set on fire by the bombs dropped by military planes.
“The voices of those who fought for human rights are also heard here” and the feminist demands and the marches for education, but also “from where we are speaking yesterday rockets entered, and that can never be repeated in our history”, he said in reference to that civic-military coup, perpetrated many years before Boric was born, but which was one of the recurring themes in his speech when it came to vindicating the struggles for human rights.
In fact, when the president arrived at the Palacio de La Moneda, he broke protocol several times to greet those present, but also to pay a brief tribute in front of the statue of Allende, that socialist president who resisted the coup with a weapon in his hand. against democracy and who lost his life in the attempt.
Perhaps for this reason, because 50 years have passed since a left-wing president entered La Moneda with the presidential sash, Boric turned to a former socialist president to close his first speech.
“Today it was necessary to talk, tomorrow all together to work. As Allende predicted almost 50 years ago, we are once again opening the great avenues through which free men and free women pass, to build a new society. Viva chi
