Chile was a regional role model. Now voters want change
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[November 18, 2021]
By Natalia A. Ramos Miranda
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile, stretching
along the copper-rich Andean mountains down South America's Pacific
coast, has something of a reputation among its neighbors: steady and
almost staid in a region embroiled in regular political upheaval and
economic crises.
That identity is now at stake as the country heads for a polarized
election on Sunday with candidates on the far-right and hard-left
leading in the polls, driven by voters who have been demanding change
since widespread protests two years ago and could now force Chile's
sharpest political shift in decades.
In the last 30 years, since returning to democracy after the military
dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, moderate political parties on the
right and left have overseen Chile's fast growth and pushed the country
to become a regional role model.
Now, the favorites to be Chile's next president are Jose Antonio Kast,
an ultra-right lawyer often compared to Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro,
and leftist lawmaker and former protest leader Gabriel Boric, who has
allied with the Communist Party.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Nov/18/images/ads/current/Applegate_exc_daily_sda_030314.png)
"It represents the most significant shift in the political paradigm
since 1990," said Nicholas Watson, Latin America analyst for consultancy
Teneo. Pollsters expect Kast and Boric will compete in a second-round
run-off in December.
Both candidates represent a new political generation outside the
mainstream, pulling away from what is known as the Concertacion
coalition of center-left parties who steered Chile for decades and the
current moderate coalition on the center-right.
Boric wants to "bury" Chile's neoliberal model while Kast, who has
praised Pinochet's economic legacy and once joked the former dictator
would vote for him if still alive, wants to reduce the size of the state
and lower taxes.
"There is a rupture going on," said political analyst Cristobal Bellolio,
adding that it stemmed from the months of angry social protests that
broke out in 2019 and sparked off a process of redrafting Chile's
Pinochet-era Constitution.
"This is challenging the official story of progress that Chile told
itself and told to the rest of the world."
'URGENT CHANGE'
In Latin America, Chile stands out.
World Bank indicators of rule of law, regulation, governance and
political stability, show Chile far outstripping its big regional
neighbors in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Peru. It's one of the
region's few OECD members and an icon of free trade.
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![](../images/111821PIX/news_w43.jpg)
Chilean Presidential candidate Gabriel Boric from left-wing 'Apruebo
Dignidad' (I Approve Dignity) coalition takes part in a live
televised debate, in Santiago, Chile, November 15, 2021. Esteban
Felix /Pool via REUTERS/File Photo/File Photo
![](../images/ads/current/centraldirect_lda_SPONSOR_2021.png)
Its economic model, rooted in the neoliberal
market-friendly policies of the so-called 'Chicago Boys' economists
under Pinochet in the 1970s-80s has been copied by others, hoping to
emulate its rapid and stable economic growth story.
Critics of its model, however, say that the growth was not evenly
distributed, creating a small wealthy business elite towering above
normal Chileans who faced high costs of privatized healthcare and
education and meager pensions.
"Chile urgently needs change today," said Luz Vergara, 37, an
assistant at an engineering company in Santiago who plans to vote
for Kast. "While no candidate represents me 100%, Kast gives me some
security."
More mainstream candidates, such as Yasna Provoste on the
center-left and Sebastian Sichel on the moderate right have been
squeezed out by voters looking for more radical answers.
The challenges won't be easy: lowering inequality, calming protests
in capital Santiago and clashes with indigenous groups in the
country's south, contentious pension withdrawals and overseeing the
process of agreeing on a new Constitution.
That document - as well as the political shifts - could radically
alter how Chile is perceived, analysts say, with investors watching
what happens with private property laws, the autonomy of the central
bank and fiscal policy.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Nov/18/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png)
Romina Aliaga, a 28-year-old environmental engineer said that she
was voting for leftist Boric because the country needed major social
change to move beyond its conservative past.
"His program is aligned with the improvements we need as a country,
to be able to move forward and not go backwards on issues such as
environmental policies, gender equality, and abortion," she said.
"These are issues that interest me a lot."
(Reporting by Natalia Ramos; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Alistair
Bell)
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