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((Gabriel Salazar -- Brasil de Fato photo by Fábio Nassif))

The movement for public education in Chile gains strength, urges new constitution to counter legacy of the dictatorship

[Translation of an interview from Brasil de Fato for September 23. See original here and related articles here.]

by Fábio Nassif

This was a different kind of September 11 for Chile. The same script was used again but this time in a political climate that stresses more forcefully the ideas of the government that was interrupted in 1973. The march organized by human rights groups brought out close to 5,000 people, who walked to the cemetery where the monument to the executed and the disappeared is located. The colors of the political organizations moved gradually to the immense mural where the names of those to be honored are listed. At former President Salvador Allende’s grave, flowers were placed, songs were sung and his presence was remembered. The same for the singer Víctor Jara.

At a certain moment in the activities, the police, faced with young people who were setting up barricades on the avenue leading to the cemetery, began their repression. And, as a form of physical and moral intimidation, they made an incursion into the cemetery with water cannons, horses and all their weapons. More than 20 cars made their way through the midst of the homage. (more…)

The student movement and citizen protests against exclusion, neoliberalism and the lack of democracy

[Translation of an article from SubVersiones for August 25. See original here and related articles here.]

"This is our moment and this is our position: Free, quality public education" -- SubVersiones photo by Italo Retamal

by Claudia Villagrán Muñoz

Something changed in Chile on August 4. It was no longer only students who were mobilized but an important part of Chilean society actively joined in the students’ clear and concise demands: free, quality public education for all Chilean children and youths. The march, called by high-school and university students and by the professors, who on that day defied the authorities’ orders not to hold another march along the main avenue of Santiago, was brutally repressed by the Chilean police, who are under the command of the Ministry of the Interior.

There arose immediately a widespread indignation over the prohibition against the right to assemble freely to demonstrate, indignation against the police forces being used against minors who were not causing trouble, indignation over seeing downtown Santiago in a state of siege as in the worst days of the dictatorship, indignation because a just demand was not being listened to after three months of legitimate protest. When night fell, the most humble of the population, sectors of the middle class and even the well-to-do all over the country joined together for a cacerolazo [a noisy protest involving the banging of pots and pans] organized by the citizenry in a matter of hours, a massive spontaneous protest that had not been heard since protests across the country against the Pinochet dictatorship. (more…)

[Translations of two articles from El Mostrador of Santiago, Chile, for June 2. See originals here and here and related article here.]

Piñera’s approval rating falls to historical low

According to the Adimark poll for the month of May, President Sebastián Piñera and his administration are receiving the lowest level of citizen support since the right returned to power. And this in a period marked by citizen movements in opposition to the HidroAysén mega-project, student marches and the state of the union address of May 21.

According to the poll, 36 percent approve of the president’s performance, that is, five points less than in the Adimark poll for April. Disapproval, meanwhile, stands at 56 percent, seven points higher than in the previous poll. (more…)

[Translation of an article from Brasil de Fato of São Paulo for April 13. See original here.]

by Pedro Carrano

As though in a passage from Greek mythology, Chilean activists are in a labyrinth, trying to find their way by following the scattered threads of the popular and workers’ movement, almost forty years after the coup d’état and the coming to power of General Augusto Pinochet in 1973, an event that shattered President Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity and debilitated popular organizing in the areas around Santiago de Chile. It destroyed the sense of belonging to a class. With full force, it brought in neoliberalism.

Even when the dictatorship gave way to elections and the Pinochet era came to a close in 1988, the 23 years of government by the Concertación that followed did not lead the country out of the neoliberal labyrinth. The resources and the raw materials of the earth were handed over to transnational enterprises. (more…)

An interview with economist José Manuel Flores

[Translation of an interview from Brasil de Fato for March 5. See original here.]

by Pedro Carrano

Since 1973, the Chilean economy has traced a long path, beginning with the coup headed by General Augusto Pinochet against the popular government of Salvador Allende, and today is being consolidated into an economy controlled by large domestic and foreign businesses that holds the line on exportation and keeps the internal market strangled – despite representing only one percent of the productive capacity of the country. So they control 80 percent of the internal market and provide jobs for only 20 percent of the population.

This is the analysis of Chilean economist José Manuel Flores. In a country in which neoliberalism has gained hegemony and has brought about a radical alteration in the economy, the export of copper is central, a target of control and export. “Before, copper was exported and now copper concentrate, its raw material, is being exploited. Transnationals control 76 percent of Chilean copper,” the economist calculates. In an interview with Brasil de Fato, Flores talks about the relation between natural resources and the Chilean economy, the failure of the Concertación as an alternative government after Pinochet’s departure, and now as the opposition to the government of rightist Sebastián Piñera, in office for a year. In this scenario, popular movements take on a new importance. The recent popular revolt in the province of Magallanes against an increase in the price of gas demonstrates this. (more…)

[Translation of an essay from El Mostrador of Santiago, Chile, for June 2. See also “Piñera’s election: The foreign policy that awaits us” posted here on March 12.]

By Boris Yopo H.

Contrary to what certain foreign conservative analysts expected, or some sectors of the hard right in our own country, the foreign policy pursued by the new government headed by Sebastián Piñera has shown so far an orientation that emphasizes continuity, pragmatism and coexistence in the conduct of our relations with Latin America. (more…)