Yes
in project, without program, Without alternative, there is no hope. And without hope, obscurantism triumphs. Without a horizon of social change, the popular classes succumb to redemptive discourse. With fear of losing what one does not have, a decent job, a decent salary, a decent retirement pension, quality public healthcare, an education based on democratic values, one ends up voting for the executioners. Social pain generates frustration, encouraging reactionary options. In Chile the right won due to the failure of the left. Do not look outside what is the responsibility of progressive governments that have dynamited the values of justice, social equity and the common good, in favor of the general interest, a euphemism for defending the benefits of plutocracies and their companies. The people did not vote right deceived, they did so in desperation at not being able to vote for an emancipatory project. At the polls you can hear the silent cry of those who have necessarily signed the death of Chile as a democratic society for decades, long live the chains!
Now, may the best one win! With this phrase, the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, defines his political position, referring to the second round that will decide, on December 14, the future tenant of the Palacio de la Moneda. As if it were a soccer match, and with the score at zero, Jeannette Jara, according to Boric, would keep her chances of winning intact against the candidate of the Republican Party, Jose Antonio Kast. In other words, and following the simile, a last-minute goal and a winning strategy would be enough to give victory to Jeannette Jara. To support his story, he proposes reaching agreements with right-wing voters who have been displaced by Kast. First of all, open conversations with Franco Parisi, from the People’s Party, with 19.7% of votes, and whose campaign slogan reveals it: “Chile neither facho nor comunacho.” For Boric, there he would have a niche of votes to turn the results around. That is your option. Negotiate power, and Parisi lets himself be loved. Of course he will not plan to add votes to Johannes Kaiser, with 13.9%, a staunch defender of the Pinochet regime. However, he believes he will convince some absent-minded voter of Evelyn Matthei, whose 12.5% of votes brings together the coup right born in the 80s of the last century. In this feverish version, it is assumed that the voters of Marco Enrique Ominami (1.2%) and Eduardo Artés (0.7) will vote for the Unidad por Chile candidate. This caricature of adding votes and subtracting obstacles, shows political myopia and reveals the shame of a government that abandoned its dignity in favor of building unnatural alliances, which have made it possible for the right to recover the Executive. Something that Gabriel Boric is not worried about, may the best win! If it’s Kast, he’ll be fine, no matter his ideology or totalitarian convictions. Protected democracy would be guaranteed (sic).
In Chile, the political formations into which the right has been divided have in common vindicating the 1980 constitution. I am referring to the market economy, the subsidiary conception of the State, the preeminence of private capital in the allocation of resources, financial and commercial openness, the privatization of the essential assets of the State, along with labor flexibility. However, on the institutional left, despite the declamations, the governments of the Concertación, Nueva Mayoría or Frente Amplio accept the neoliberal model implemented by the civil-military dictatorship, creating a transversal party, whose motto is: the model is not touched. Surprise? None. Some with a big mouth and others with a small one, feel comfortable with the economic-social structures that govern the social pact. All governments, from Patricio Aylwin, through Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle, Ricardo Lagos, Michelle Bachelet, Sebastián Piñera to Gabriel Boric, have maintained the foundations of the State founded by the civil-military dictatorship. Not even with a majority in both chambers, an exceptional fact that is repeated today, with the parliamentary elections of 2025, did Michelle Bachelet threaten to change the subsidiarity laws, private pension plans, educational policies, end the repression of the Mapuche people or modify the amnesty law for soldiers involved in the violation of human rights. If we remember the Pinochet case, the washing of the dictator’s image was carried out by everyone.
Only the “social explosion” (October 2019) could have been a turning point. There the Frente Amplio was born, which in 2021 arrived in La Moneda promising to be the “tomb of neoliberalism.” But disappointment was covering the actions of a timorous government, completely given over to the old political class, which it denigrated and criticized. He appointed his leaders as ministers, gave them power and whitewashed their corruption, while he fell into it. In four years, prisoners of the social outbreak remain in jail. Mapuche leaders are judged under anti-terrorist laws. Freedom of the press does not exist. The case Clarion It is proof of what was said. Boric has spoken with the government of Spain to stop the payment of the compensation agreed upon by the World Bank and CIADE. On the other hand, social inequality continues to grow. His cowardice has led him to compromise with the postulates of the right on issues of security, emigration, drug trafficking and crime, and at the international level he bows to the United States. They will say it is an excess, but it is a reality.
In conclusion, Chileans have decided to be faithful to Pinochet’s principles. Of a total of 13 million 452 thousand 724 votes, 9 million 48 thousand 936 citizens hand in the ballot to candidates who endorse the actions of the dictatorship, support its Constitution or declare themselves its admirers. We are talking about 70% of the voters. It’s something to think about. Pinochet, like the Cid Campeador, wins battles after he is dead.
