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The results show that it is possible to change a society with the help of protests. If it hadn’t been for the social movement that was accidentally formed a year ago when the public transport fare was raised in the capital, there would never have been a referendum. It was the protests that forced one of the richest men in the country, President Sebastián Piñera, to hold the referendum.
From the right, he came to be hated for it. Many conservative voters abandoned him and chose to support the right-wing populist José Antonio Kast, one of the leading advocates of voting no on a new constitution. In the end, he hoped that the politics of the new age, where the deterrent and the unexpected won out, would bring the victory home. When I met him this spring, he smiled when I asked him if neither side could change his low opinion figures.
– Did anyone believe in Brexit? That Trump would beat Hillary? That Bolsonaro would become president of Brazil, he said.
The oscillation did not come. The No side received only 22 percent support. That is to say, one fifth is behind the old Pinochet constitution.
Election statistics for Santiago, the capital, make it clear who voted for what. In the Las Condes district, where the rich live, most chose to keep the Pinochet constitution. They want to continue the liberal market policy that they believe has benefited them. Across the capital, in the labor district of La Pintana, 88.5 percent voted to eliminate the old constitution and replace it with a new one. Many people who consider themselves lost in a neoliberal economy live here.
In the spring, 155 people of civil society are appointed by voters in a direct election. For a year, together with the elected parliamentarians of the country, they will prepare a proposal for a new constitution. At some point in 2022, the proposal will be put forward in a new binding referendum that can either adopt or reject the proposal.
Many of those who voted against a new constitution believe that the process is risky. They fear that constitutional work takes into account temporary popular protests. Others believe that the discussions that arise are the very foundation of a democracy.
One of the demands on the yes side is to stop, or more clearly regulate, the privatization of community services such as schools, hospitals, roads and water. Another demand is that a new constitution should include a reform of the Carabinieri, the police force organized by the Chilean army. During the year of social protests, the carabineros are accused by the human rights organization Amnesty of having committed more than 8,500 abuses. Police officers suspected of deliberately targeting protesters’ eyes to blind them. The Yes side’s proposal is that the Carabinieri are no longer a militarily organized body, but rather become a regular police authority controlled by the Ministry of Justice.
If that happens, the last legacy of the Pinochet days will definitely be over.
Read more:
Overwhelming yes to the new constitution in Chile
Historic referendum on the constitution of Pinochet in Chile
