tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/chile-5237/articlesChile – The Conversation2024-02-21T13:04:40Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2239142024-02-21T13:04:40Z2024-02-21T13:04:40ZThe Settlers flips the western genre to explore cinema’s role in colonial crimes<p>How can filmmakers depict genocidal violence in ways that audiences can both comprehend and bear to watch? Bar the extensive and still-growing number of films about the Holocaust (with recent releases including <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-one-life-gets-wrong-about-nicholas-winton-and-the-kindertransport-story-220965">One Life</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-zone-of-interest-new-holocaust-film-powerfully-lays-bare-the-mechanisms-of-genocide-222017">The Zone of Interest</a> and Occupied City), mainstream cinema has found this challenge daunting. </p>
<p>The challenge only becomes more urgent as contemporary awareness of the enormity of the murderous ethnic cleansing that underpinned European colonialism grows. Such <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674929777">“unmasterable pasts”</a> remain charged and contested political terrain within national mythologies of origin and nation building. </p>
<p>As director Felipe Gálvez Haberle’s ambitious and disturbing debut film, The Settlers, reminds us, movies have themselves often played a crucial role in helping establish and disseminate such mythologies. </p>
<p>The early 1970s cycle of “Vietnam westerns” such as Little Big Man (1970) and Soldier Blue (1970), challenged these mythologies and inverted the frontier narratives of the classic Hollywood western. These movies placed Native Americans, the principal victims of <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/the-early-republic/age-of-jackson/a/manifest-destiny#:%7E:text=Manifest%20Destiny%20was%20the%20idea,or%20destroy%20the%20native%20population.">“manifest destiny”</a> (the idea that white Americans had a divine right to settle the continent), at their centre and presented US cavalrymen as mass murderers. For counterculture youth audiences, the analogy between historical settler violence and contemporary US aggression overseas was unmistakable. </p>
<h2>The Settlers</h2>
<p>There are echoes of the western in The Settlers. The film depicts, with unremitting grimness, the genocide of the indigenous <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/03/chile-indigenous-selknam-not-extinct-constitution">Selk’nam people</a> of Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, at the turn of the 20th century. The Spanish landowning elite commissioned the violence, with the collusion of the nascent Chilean state. They saw the native population merely as a hindrance to their sheep-rearing empires. </p>
<p>Spectacular shots of the three horsemen dispatched on this bloody mission, led by Scottish ex-army man and self-styled “Lieutenant” McClellan (Mark Stanley), call to mind countless cinematic odysseys as they travel across the prairies and peaks of the American west. Simone d’Arcangelo’s impressive cinematography avoids pictorialism, rendering the archipelago’s awesome, savagely beautiful grasslands and mountains in muted, sombre hues.</p>
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<p>The characters traversing Monument Valley in Wagonmaster (1950) or The Searchers (1955) were themselves raised to epic stature by their sublime surroundings. Whereas the protagonists of The Settlers seem to contaminate their pristine environment with their moral squalor. This is underlined by including the veteran “Indian fighter” Bill (Benjamin Westfall) in the party. His unrelenting, vicious white supremacy borders on caricature. </p>
<p>McClennan’s <a href="http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/%7Ethinred/collection/lg2.htm">“thin red line”</a> trooper’s tunic signposts another revision of the western genre. It recalls the upstanding imperialist chaps of old-school cinematic colonial fantasies, like Stanley Baker in Zulu (1964) or Michael Caine in The Man Who Would Be King (1975). Unlike them, however, the corrupt, ruthless McClennan is as debased and degraded as his uniform is tattered and stained. He is as murderous and brutal as his local, anything but fond, nickname “The Red Pig” suggests. </p>
<p>A surreal, violent encounter with another ragged British cast-off, the deranged Colonel Martin (Sam Spruell), only confirms the film’s depiction of the entire imperialist “mission” as irredeemably depraved.</p>
<h2>Horror and complicity</h2>
<p>Felipe Gálvez Haberle already has a challenge on his hands, persuading audiences to endure his film’s unbroken succession of killings accompanied by, in one almost unwatchable sequence, sexual violence. But it’s exacerbated further by the perhaps questionable decision to place the dramatic focus almost entirely on the perpetrators, rather than the victims.</p>
<p>Bar a single cutaway shot revealing a group immediately before their slaughter and a small, though significant, female speaking part, the indigenous Salk’nam are barely seen other than as bloodied corpses. The closest to an empathic character is the increasingly appalled, yet inescapably complicit, mestizo sharp-shooter Segundo (Camilo Arancibia), who completes the roving trio.</p>
<p>It becomes clear how crucial Segundo’s spectatorship is to the film in the daring and unexpected final act. Here the film leaps forward seven years. It moves straight from the primal, violent scenes on the pampas to the hushed refinement of a palatial townhouse. A tense meeting ensues between a semi-retired and eminent rancher named Menéndez (Alfredo Castro) and an urbane Chilean government official (Marcelo Alonso). The official is ostensibly investigating the now embarrassing bloody excesses of the recent past.</p>
<p>The trail leads him back to Segundo, the expedition’s sole survivor, nursing his traumatic memories and guilt in an isolated hut at the ocean’s edge.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the government’s real agenda is to whitewash, rather than redress, Menendez’s scandalous but hugely profitable crimes and to reincorporate indigenous trauma into the national narrative. This is symbolically accomplished in the film’s unsettling final moments. Segundo and his Selk’nam wife Kiepja (Mishell Guaňa) are made to dress in European costumes and drink tea, for the benefit of the official’s movie crew. </p>
<p>Kiepja’s gazes resistantly back at the camera. Her expression shows her refusal to consent to the charade of a happy Europeanised nation, challenging the crew’s attempt to create propaganda. But it also invites our own reflection on the role movies, images and ideology have played, and continue to play, in framing and repressing traumatic memory.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Langford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As The Settlers reminds us, films have often played a crucial role in helping establish and disseminate colonial mythologies.Barry Langford, Professor of Film Studies, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2230342024-02-08T16:38:14Z2024-02-08T16:38:14ZIn Chile, huge wildfires have killed at least 131 people – but one village was almost untouched<p>Chile has experienced one of the worst fire-related disasters in its history. A series of huge forest fires burned from February 1 to 5, leaving at least <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/06/chile-wildfires-death-toll-rises-valparaiso-vina-del-mar">131 people dead</a> – and this number will probably increase as charred bodies are collected and severely injured people die.</p>
<p>But even this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are people with burns, post-traumatic stress and other mental health disorders. Existing diseases have been exacerbated by service interruptions, and people have lost their homes and livelihoods. Also, the long-term effects from smoke inhalation are yet to be seen.</p>
<p>This is not really a “climate disaster”, nor even a “natural disaster”. It is a disaster mainly caused by our decisions and lack of preparation to deal with a more extreme climate hazard. As an <a href="https://www.ypalmeiro.org/">academic public health researcher</a> from Chile, I think there are lessons we can learn from these fires.</p>
<p>So, why did things become so deadly? </p>
<h2>Fire-prone conditions</h2>
<p>The weather, of course, played a role. Meteorological conditions have made Chile <a href="https://gwis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/apps/gwis_current_situation/index.html">very prone to fires</a> this summer, especially in this long-and-thin country’s central region, where it is warm enough for fires yet wet enough for there to be vegetation to burn.</p>
<p>Temperatures were high, above 35°C for more than three days before and during the fires in some places. Conditions were dry on top of a longer-term mega-drought, and relative humidity was low. It was also very windy. </p>
<p>It is very likely that these conditions have been <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-52481-x">influenced by El Niño</a>, on top of human-induced climate change. However, even when fire danger is extremely high, fires can still be prevented from happening, expanding, or being deadly. But to achieve this, other factors are needed in this formula: social factors.</p>
<h2>Formula for a (not natural) perfect disaster</h2>
<p>My colleague Ilan Kelman has <a href="https://theconversation.com/pakistans-floods-are-a-disaster-but-they-didnt-have-to-be-190027">defined disasters</a> as “where the ability of people to cope with a hazard or its impacts by using their own resources is exceeded”. This is exactly what happened in Chile: a deadly combination of an extreme climate hazard and inadequate social preparation. </p>
<p>In addition, regional authorities and the national government have suggested that some fires were ignited <a href="https://www.latercera.com/nacional/noticia/confirman-hipotesis-de-intencionalidad-en-incendios-en-la-region-de-valparaiso-peritajes-clave-arrojan-presencia-de-acelerantes/SHN2LVBMWBFBPB4OWS4HEP7DPA/">intentionally</a>, as there were four simultaneous outbreaks and a state prosecutor claims that fire accelerants paraffin and benzine have been discovered. No arrests have been made.</p>
<p>The most devastating fires occurred in urbanising areas with significant land-use change, and where urban planning regulation has always been <a href="https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/dpublog/2020/05/11/chile-protect-the-campamentos/">inadequate</a> – leading to houses with no building regulation, and narrow streets with limited access to emergency services when needed.</p>
<p>There was also limited preparation for the expected hot season, either in the form of seasonal public campaigns for heatwaves and fires, or evacuation routes and plans. </p>
<p>Chile’s national early warning system, which sends a mass alert via text, audio and vibration to everyone who uses a compatible mobile device, also faced challenges. Several antennas were affected by the fires and not properly working, so many people did not receive the message on time. And those messages that were sent only said “evacuate”, so many people did not know where to go. This led to traffic jams and bottlenecks, some of which became engulfed in the middle of the fires.</p>
<h2>Climate-related hazards shouldn’t turn disastrous</h2>
<p>Climate change means it is likely that Chile will be <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/factsheets/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Regional_Fact_Sheet_Central_and_South_America.pdf">even more prone</a> to huge fires in future. However, the human health risks this poses can be reduced by adequate preparedness and response plans.</p>
<p>Villa Botania, near the city of Quilpué in central Chile, emerged from these fires as an interesting example to learn from. This little village was surrounded by flames but was <a href="https://twitter.com/carcubillos/status/1753998166825783530">almost unaffected</a>. </p>
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<p>That’s because residents were prepared. A <a href="https://juntosprevenimos.cl/">community-led project</a> had managed waste and controlled vegetation and weeds, to ensure there was less flammable material when a fire passed by. Villa Botania demonstrated that a climate-related hazard does not always end in a massive human disaster, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-rarely-hear-about-the-disasters-that-were-avoided-but-theres-a-lot-we-can-learn-from-them-217850">lessons can be learned</a> from this.</p>
<p>Chile recently created a <a href="https://www.bcn.cl/leychile/navegar?idNorma=1157003">national policy on disaster risk reduction</a>, but it still needs to factor disaster risk and climate change into its planning regulations. This can save lives, as shown by the success since the 1970s of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10518-017-0302-8">anti-seismic building regulations</a> in this earthquake-prone country.</p>
<p>In a changing climate, we need to prepare the systems that prevent a disaster from occurring in the first place. This is sometimes forgotten, as most resources go to the response phase once it has occurred. However, Chile’s recent fires have again demonstrated that the twin threat of changing climate and inadequate social preparedness poses a <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)01859-7/fulltext">serious danger to the health and wellbeing of many people</a>.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yasna Palmeiro Silva does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This was no ‘natural disaster’. There are lessons to learn from areas that survived the fires.Yasna Palmeiro Silva, Research Fellow, Institute for Global Health, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197902024-01-11T21:37:33Z2024-01-11T21:37:33ZHalf a century later, the military junta still haunts Chile<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/half-a-century-later-the-military-junta-still-haunts-chile" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Chileans recently voted to reject a proposed new constitution which critics said was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/16/why-chiles-draft-constitution-reads-like-us-conservative-wish-list/">even more authoritarian and conservative</a> than the 1980 dictatorship-era constitution it sought to replace. </p>
<p>Most notably, the rejected changes sought to strengthen property rights and uphold free-market principles. Roughly 56 per cent of voters rejected the new constitution while around 44 per cent were in favour. Debates about the constitution highlight the political challenges that have plagued Chile since the violent days of the military junta. </p>
<p>Hosted in Santiago, <a href="https://www.panamsports.org/en/news-sport/the-santiago-2023-pan-american-games-left-the-name-of-chile-at-the-highest-level/">the 2023 Pan and Parapan American Games</a>, were seen as an opportunity to signal a new Chile. For Toronto-born Olympian <a href="https://olympic.ca/team-canada/melissa-humana-paredes/">Melissa Humaña-Paredes</a>, daughter of Chilean political refugees, entering the Estadio Nacional (National Stadium) as a <a href="https://olympic.ca/2023/10/20/humana-paredes-wilkerson-to-be-team-canadas-opening-ceremony-flag-bearers-at-santiago-2023/">flag-bearer</a> for the Canadian team, conjured up simultaneous feelings of pride, and the images of the atrocities from 50 years ago. </p>
<p>Under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet which ruled Chile from 1970 to 1990, many sport stadiums, especially the Estadio Nacional, were used as open-air prisons, where many Chileans were tortured and killed.</p>
<h2>Athlete activism in 1970s Chile</h2>
<p>On Sept. 11, 1973, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/10/1193755188/chile-coup-50-years-pinochet-kissinger-human-rights-allende">a coup backed by the United States overthrew the democratically-elected government of Chilean President Salvador Allende</a>. Allende was the first Marxist president in Latin America and leader of the Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) coalition. He earned a <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20130911-1973-chile-1973-coup-defining-moment-france-left-communist-socialist-party">“mythical status”</a> among leftist political groups globally as a renowned socialist elected in the midst of the Cold War.</p>
<p>The defeat of Chilean democracy had devastating effects on the Chilean people. The violence of Pinochet’s reign was documented by the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture. In 2011, the Commission presented a <a href="https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/collections/truth_commissions/Chile90-Report/Chile90-Report.pdf">final report</a> recognizing a total of <a href="https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2023/09/12/exvicepresidenta-de-comision-valech-acusa-a-diputado-bobadilla-udi-de-ofender-a-las-victimas/">40,018 victims, 3,065 of them dead or missing</a>.</p>
<p>Melissa’s father, sport sociologist and professor, Hernán Humaña, a co-author of this article, recounts his own experiences as a Chilean national volleyball player during that time in his book <em>Playing Under the Gun: An Athlete’s Tale of Survival in 1970s Chile.</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Standing in line on the [volleyball] court, looking at the flag, and singing the anthem had turned into a painful routine for me. I felt the pain viscerally — not just in my heart. Observing spectators in the stands, also struggling during the anthem, made for an interesting study of people’s political alliances. Those supporting the military sang their lungs out, whereas those opposed either didn’t sing at all or selected only one part of the anthem, the one about “granting asylum to those persecuted.” What irony! Standing there singing, in full view of everyone, I was always aware that any departure from the norm could be dangerous for me, as the military and their supporters were humourless and would punish and persecute for such unpatriotic conduct.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.londres38.cl/1937/w3-article-97937.html">Sergio Tormen Méndez</a> and <a href="https://www.londres38.cl/1937/w3-article-97894.html">Luis Guajardo Zamorano</a> were two athletes, less fortunate in the military junta, forcibly disappeared 10-months after the coup d'etat.</p>
<p>Méndez and Zamorano were two elite cyclists and friends committed to fighting the military dictatorship. On the morning of July 20, 1974, DINA, the feared secret police, kidnapped the two men along with national cycling coach, Andres Moraga, and 14-year-old Peter, Méndez’s younger brother. In subsequent days, Moraga and Peter were released with a message: Sergio and Luis are in big trouble. Numerous survivors recount seeing the two in various torture centres, yet, the details of their disappearance remains a dark secret, and their bodies have yet to be found.</p>
<p>The tireless efforts of many groups, principally the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared (<em>Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos</em>), have attempted to break pacts of silence amongst those responsible for human rights violations, and authorities, especially members of the armed forces, have consistently impeded efforts to pursue justice. </p>
<p>Efforts are further complicated by a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/09/chile-amnesty-law-keeps-pinochet-s-legacy-alive/">1978 amnesty law</a> that pardoned perpetrators and accomplices of all offenses committed between Sept. 11, 1973 and March 10, 1978.</p>
<p>Since the return to democracy in 1990, only 307 previously missing victims have been identified, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/30/chile-announces-much-anticipated-plan-to-search-for-pinochet-victims">Chilean courts have since processed 584 kidnapping cases, 169 murders, and 85 illegal burials under the dictatorship</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, in August 2023, president Gabriel Boric’s government <a href="https://elpais.com/chile/2023-08-30/chile-buscara-a-mas-de-mil-desparecidos-de-la-dictadura-la-mayor-apuesta-de-boric-a-50-anos-del-golpe-militar.html">initiated a plan</a> to determine the circumstances of forced disappearances and offer reparations and assurances to the families of victims.</p>
<h2>Mythical miracles</h2>
<p>The history of brutal violence <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/myths-about-pinochets-chile-persist-brazil-today/">counters the sanitized myths</a> about a Chilean miracle popularized by people like economist Milton Friedman, who called it Latin America’s “<a href="https://www.druglibrary.org/special/friedman/socialist.htm">best economic success story</a>.”</p>
<p>In 2019, the attempted framing of the “miracle of Chile” could no longer be maintained. Two years after Chile was announced as host of the 2023 Pan/Parapan American Games, civic unrest erupted after the government announced an increase in transit fares. <a href="https://ciudadaniai.org/en/chile.html">Mass demonstrations were led by students</a> who jumped turnstiles and held open gates for people to avoid fares.</p>
<p>With some of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50123494">highest levels of inequality</a> among 30 of the wealthiest nations in the world, and <a href="https://corruption-tracker.org/case/chiles-milicogate-scandal#:%7E:text=Summary%20of%20Corruption%20Allegations&text=Three%20Chilean%20Armed%20Forces%20(CAF,were%20indicted%20or%20tax%20fraud">public officials marred by corruption scandals</a>, Chileans were reacting to 30 years of free-market neoliberal failure. </p>
<p>More than a million people, from the poorest to those from upper middle-class neighbourhoods, took to the streets. Militarized police and armed forces brutally repressed demonstrations, as protesters chanted <a href="https://jacobin.com/2019/10/chile-protests-pinera-repression">“It’s not about 30 pesos, it’s about 30 years.”</a></p>
<p>In a matter of weeks, at least <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/13/chile-un-prosecution-police-army-protests">26 people were killed, 113 people were tortured, and 24 cases of sexual violence were committed</a> by the police and army.</p>
<p>In response to protests, the political establishment agreed to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/how-chile-is-rewriting-its-pinochet-era-constitution-2021-05-14/">redraft the 1980 constitution</a>, ratified amid the bloodshed of Pinochet, and Boric <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-59694056">was elected in December 2021</a> with a progressive agenda. </p>
<p>His minority government has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chile-constitution-kast-boric-2c0c228d4608a55faf75ad6a318865a0">struggled to implement significant changes</a>. The first attempt to pass a progressive constitution — which included a host of rights and guarantees — was rejected in 2022.</p>
<p>Roughly 80 per cent of <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1294731/distribution-wealth-by-percentile-chile/">Chile’s wealth</a> remains concentrated within the top 10 per cent, and almost 50 per cent of the total national wealth belongs to the top one per cent.</p>
<p>The entrance of the Estadio Nacional reads “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/national-stadium-santiago-pan-american-games-788a048385aa169950ffd0b5915d3edd">A people without memory is a people without future</a>” and serves as a stark reminder that memories, especially those bearing the weight of state repression in stadiums celebrated now, remain living.</p>
<p>The Pan and Parapan American Games and constitutional debates, while ostensibly thought to represent a new Chile, temporarily obscured histories, still repeating.</p>
<p><em>This article was also co-authored by Chilean filmmaker Hernán Morris, and Melissa Humaña-Paredes, a 2020 Tokyo Olympian.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219790/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite hosting the 2023 Pan American Games and electing a president with a progressive agenda, Chile continues to grapple with entrenched economic inequality.Hernan Humana, Associate Lecturer, School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, CanadaAmanda De Lisio, Assistant Professor, School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197812023-12-19T19:33:29Z2023-12-19T19:33:29ZJoel Roberts Poinsett: Namesake of the poinsettia, enslaver, secret agent and perpetrator of the ‘Trail of Tears’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566077/original/file-20231215-25-a398jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1023%2C80%2C4967%2C3907&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Joel Roberts Poinsett is given credit for bringing the popular red and green plant to the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-poinsettia-flower-royalty-free-image/1188012230?phrase=poinsettia&adppopup=true">Constantine Johnny/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If people know the name Joel Roberts Poinsett today, it is likely because of the <a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/features/poinsettias-christmas-classic-south-carolina-history/article_47939016-8dfb-11ee-9a7f-0b56456cf49b.html">red and green poinsettia</a> plant.</p>
<p>In the late 1820s, while serving as the first ambassador from the U.S. to Mexico, Poinsett clipped samples of the plant known in Spanish as the “flor de nochebuena,” or flower of Christmas Eve, from the Mexican state of Guerrero. He then <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/12/23/conspiracy-fueled-origin-christmas-poinsettia/">introduced it</a> to the U.S. on a trip home from Mexico.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2021/12/poinsettia-how-a-u-s-diplomat-made-a-mexican-flower-an-international-favorite/">plant has been named poinsettia</a> ever since. </p>
<p>But much like the history of the U.S., Poinsett had a complex and troubling past. </p>
<p>An ambitious politician, financial investor and enslaver, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joel-R-Poinsett">Poinsett was a secret agent</a> for the U.S. government in South America who fought for the Chilean army against Spain during Chile’s War for Independence in the early 1800s. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A white man is wearing a cloak on his shoulders as he poses for a black-and-white portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joel Roberts Poinsett served as U.S. secretary of war from 1837 to 1841.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/poinsett-secretary-of-war-news-photo/1371420766?adppopup=true">HUM Images/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A confidant of President Andrew Jackson, Poinsett also served as U.S. secretary of war under President Martin Van Buren and oversaw the ignominy of the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1567.html">Trail of Tears</a>, the forced relocation and deadly march of Cherokee people from the South to reservations in the West during the 1830s.</p>
<p>And yet Poinsett, an avid botanist who brought scores of other plants to the U.S., also helped found an organization that led to the creation of the <a href="https://www.si.edu/about">Smithsonian Institution</a>.</p>
<h2>A privileged life</h2>
<p>I came across his history almost by accident. I am a historian of capitalism in early America, and while I was on a research fellowship for my first book, “<a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12030/manufacturing-advantage">Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry</a>,” another researcher suggested I go to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to check out the papers of a few War Department officials. Poinsett was one of those officials. </p>
<p>There, I found a large collection of his letters and other personal papers that spanned five decades of his life. I became so fascinated with his life that I decided to write a book about him. <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo206811148.html">I detail</a> his complicated life in another book, “Flowers, Guns, and Money: Joel Roberts Poinsett and the Paradoxes of American Patriotism.”</p>
<p>Born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 2, 1779, Poinsett was the son of a wealthy doctor and lived a life of privilege. He traveled throughout Europe and Russia in his early 20s before starting a military career.</p>
<p>In the 1810s, Poinsett traveled around South America as a secret agent of the U.S. State Department. His intelligence reports led in part to the drafting of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Monroe-Doctrine">Monroe Doctrine</a>. </p>
<p>That doctrine, written by Secretary of State <a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/monroe-doctrine-1823">John Adams</a> and buried in <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/monroe-doctrine#:%7E:text=President%20James%20Monroe's%201823%20annual,nations%20of%20the%20Western%20Hemisphere.">President James Monroe’s address</a> to Congress on Dec. 2, 1823, sought to prevent European colonization in South America and, in essence, claimed the entire Western Hemisphere for the U.S. </p>
<p>The doctrine also set the stage for two centuries of rocky relations between the U.S and Latin America.</p>
<p>In 1825, the Monroe administration appointed Poinsett as the <a href="https://diplomacy.state.gov/events-listing/minister-poinsett/">nation’s first ambassador</a> to Mexico. He arrived there in the spring of that year and almost immediately instigated a general distrust of American interference. He used his connections to secure favorable plots of land for himself and his friends and established <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3338598">a U.S.-based mining company</a> to exploit Mexican resources for his own benefit.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An America soldier stands behind a fence with his thumb on his nose as two soldiers try to climb over the obstacle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1902 caricature of England and Germany trying to overcome the Monroe Doctrine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/caricature-of-england-and-germany-responding-to-the-news-photo/3305759?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was on a trip to assess the profitability of some mines, in fact, that Poinsett admired the red and green plant and cut clippings to send to horticulturalists in the U.S. Exactly where and how these clippings were made and sent is not quite clear, but he remarked on the beauty of the plants he saw, which Franciscan friars in Mexico had been displaying at Christmas since the 1600s. </p>
<p>Several prominent horticulturalists in the United States later reported that <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/12/13/poinsettia-flower-christmas-holiday-sales-history">Poinsett sent them plant samples</a>. By the mid-1830s, agricultural reports described a plant with brilliant scarlet foliage, “lately referred to as the poinsettia,” as having been introduced by Poinsett in 1828. </p>
<h2>Poinsett’s Latin America meddling</h2>
<p>That same year, Poinsett also supported a coup in Mexico City. </p>
<p>During the Mexican presidential campaign in 1829, Poinsett supported <a href="https://www.mexconnect.com/articles/268-vicente-guerrero-a-study-in-triumph-and-tragedy-1782-1831/">Vicente Guerrero</a>, whom he saw as more amenable to his and U.S. financial interests. When Guerrero lost to moderate <a href="https://www.caller.com/story/news/columnists/2017/07/31/presidents-mexican-texas-1824-1836/526986001/">Manuel Gómez Pedraza</a>, Guerrero staged a coup with Poinsett’s approval that forced Gómez Pedraza to flee Mexico.</p>
<p>Because of Poinsett’s poor conduct during the election, the Mexican government requested Poinsett’s removal from his post. President Andrew Jackson instead <a href="https://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2018/10/1829-andrew-jackson-recalling-joel.html">allowed Poinsett</a> to resign.</p>
<p>Poinsett left Mexico and went back home to South Carolina.</p>
<p>On Oct. 24, 1833, at 54 years old, Poinsett married a 52-year-old, wealthy widow from South Carolina who owned a rice plantation and almost 100 enslaved people. </p>
<p>Though he wrote that he enjoyed married plantation life, he was not done with politics or the military. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A gray-haired white man sits in a chair with his right hand underneath his dark jacket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1047&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1047&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1047&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A portrait of Andrew Jackson in 1830.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/andrew-jackson-the-8th-president-of-the-united-states-news-photo/3087913?adppopup=true">MPI/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1837, Poinsett was named U.S. secretary of war and oversaw the execution of Jackson’s <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/indian-treaties">1830 Indian Removal Act</a> that the Cherokee people referred to as the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/trailoftears.htm#:%7E:text=Guided%20by%20policies%20favored%20by,Southeast%20in%20the%20early%201800s.">Trail of Tears</a>. That act saw the violent displacement of members of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations from their homelands in the South to reservations in the West.</p>
<h2>The creation of the Smithsonian</h2>
<p>Based on his travels and experiences around the world, Poinsett believed that the U.S. should have a national museum to conduct scientific research and display the expanding government collections, including plant specimens. </p>
<p>In his retirement, Poinsett <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/a-smithsonian-holiday-story-joel-poinsett-and-the-poinsettia-3081111/">helped found</a> in 1840 and became president of the <a href="https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_217217">National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts</a>.</p>
<p>That organization <a href="https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_469">later became part of</a> the Smithsonian Institution, whose gardens now showcase thousands of poinsettias during the Christmas season. </p>
<p>Poinsett died on Dec. 12, 1851.</p>
<p>It remains unclear how long the plant that bears his name will remain known as the poinsettia. After years of controversy, the American Ornithological Society announced that it was going to remove all human names from as many as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dozens-of-north-american-bird-species-are-getting-new-names-every-name-tells-a-story-217886">152 bird species</a>, including those linked to people with racist histories or people who have done violence to Indigenous communities. </p>
<p>Though no attempts as yet have emerged to rename plants, it’s my belief that Poinsett’s poinsettia may be the first.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lindsay Schakenbach Regele receives funding from Miami University and the Kluge Center.</span></em></p>Much like the history of the US, Joel Roberts Poinsett, after whom the poinsettia is named, had a complicated and troubling history.Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, Assistant Professor of History, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189822023-12-06T13:28:36Z2023-12-06T13:28:36ZKissinger’s obsession with Chile enabled a murderous dictatorship that still haunts the country<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563455/original/file-20231204-25-6iv62u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C75%2C5064%2C3684&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet greets U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1976.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chilean-president-augusto-pinochet-greets-secretary-of-news-photo/515114332?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Noticing my nonappearance at the start of a black-tie dinner at the Johannesburg home of <a href="https://theconversation.com/harry-oppenheimer-biography-shows-the-south-african-mining-magnates-hand-in-economic-policies-205494">Harry Oppenheimer</a>, a mining magnate and Africa’s richest man, the host assumed I was boycotting the event on principle. It was a reasonable assumption: I was the Chilean ambassador to South Africa, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tortured-and-deadly-legacy-kissinger-and-realpolitik-in-us-foreign-policy-192977">Henry Kissinger</a> was the chief guest.</p>
<p>By then, a quarter century had passed since the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/10/1193755188/chile-coup-50-years-pinochet-kissinger-human-rights-allende">military coup that toppled</a> the democratically elected Chilean President Salvador Allende – an event that gave rise to Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s brutal 17-year-long military dictatorship – but the issue still lingered. Many Chileans bitterly remembered the role of the U.S. government, and of Kissinger in particular, in the breakdown of Chilean democracy.</p>
<p>It was something Kissinger himself acknowledged during that dinner – which I did attend, just late due to encountering a hailstorm. Kissinger explained that he always declined invitations to visit my home country out of fear over what “Allende Chileans” would do to him.</p>
<p>Plenty of Chileans still despise Kissinger. On news of his death at the age of 100 on Nov. 29, 2023, <a href="https://twitter.com/jg_valdes/status/1730066974116323584">Juan Gabriel Valdes, Chile’s ambassador to the U.S.</a>, summed up that sentiment when he posted in Spanish on X, the platform previously known as Twitter: “A man has died whose historical brilliance never managed to conceal his profound moral misery.” </p>
<p>It’s hard to overestimate the role Kissinger played in Chile. As <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/29/us/henry-kissinger-dead.html">national security adviser and secretary of state</a> during the Nixon and Ford administrations, he oversaw policies that helped install and then prop up a dictator.</p>
<h2>Chile’s 1973 coup</h2>
<p>Upon <a href="https://networks.h-net.org/node/28443/discussions/6399554/allende-wins-50-years-later-declassified-documents-show-reactions">Allende’s election on Sept. 4, 1970</a>, Kissinger became obsessed with blocking his inauguration. The measures approved by Kissinger included a botched kidnapping attempt of <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-10-22/cia-chile-anatomy-assassination">Chilean Army Chief René Schneider</a>, engineered by the Central Intelligence Agency, that ended with the general’s assassination.</p>
<p>Kissinger insisted on a hard line with the Allende administration. He did everything possible to make the “Chilean road to socialism” fail, among other things, by “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-latin-american-studies/article/abs/make-the-economy-scream-economic-ideological-and-social-determinants-of-support-for-salvador-allende-in-chile-19703/47F57E51ED3046DD69EFB93F221A4497">making the economy scream</a>,” as President Richard Nixon put it.</p>
<p>After a meeting with Kissinger in November 1970, a <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm">CIA cable to its station in Santiago stated</a> that “it is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown in a coup.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve16/ch5">CIA’s covert financing of Chilean opposition parties</a>, funding of the country’s <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2017-04-25/agustin-edwards-declassified-obituary">right-wing media</a> and <a href="https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v21/d311">support for the 1972 truckers strike</a> that snarled the nation’s freight and commerce for months were <a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94chile.pdf">amply documented by a U.S. Senate committee</a> a few years after the coup.</p>
<p>Not content with having helped to topple Allende, Kissinger then wholeheartedly supported Pinochet’s regime.</p>
<p>When the U.S. ambassador to Chile relayed his efforts to persuade the military to act less brutally against political prisoners, Kissinger wrote on the margins of the cable, “<a href="https://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/kissinger-chile.shtml">… cut out the political science lectures</a>.” At a 1976 Organization of American States meeting in Santiago, far from urging Pinochet to tone down his regime’s repression, as some of Kissinger’s staff had recommended he do, he told the general, “<a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB437/">we want to help, not undermine you</a>.”</p>
<h2>Operation Condor</h2>
<p>Kissinger’s support for repressive military dictatorships extended beyond Chile’s borders.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563515/original/file-20231205-22-whmx65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men in military uniforms chat in a black and white photo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563515/original/file-20231205-22-whmx65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563515/original/file-20231205-22-whmx65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563515/original/file-20231205-22-whmx65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563515/original/file-20231205-22-whmx65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563515/original/file-20231205-22-whmx65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1051&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563515/original/file-20231205-22-whmx65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1051&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563515/original/file-20231205-22-whmx65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1051&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Argentina’s dictator Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla, right, confers with Chile’s Gen. Augusto Pinochet, in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1978.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ObitArgentinaVidela/5da45b83d8f74a63bee16d422fc13b9f/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=484&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia</a></span>
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<p>He supported <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/03/operation-condor-the-illegal-state-network-that-terrorised-south-america">Operation Condor</a>, an international undertaking that coordinated intelligence and operations among many of South America’s right-wing military regimes – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay – from 1975 to 1983. The operations contributed to the widespread <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/research/research-impact/operation-condor">detention, torture and murder</a> of many left-wing opposition activists across three continents.</p>
<p>By September 1976, the excesses of Operation Condor were clear, and the U.S. State Department prepared an important diplomatic message, <a href="https://fam.state.gov/fam/07fam/07fam0030.html">known as a demarche</a>, strongly objecting to the repressive policies. Amazingly, <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/21757-document-04">Kissinger stopped it</a> in its tracks. It was never delivered to those foreign ministries – and the timing was ominous.</p>
<p>Five days later, on Sept. 21, 1976, <a href="https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/car-bomb">Orlando Letelier, an exiled Chilean diplomat</a> who had served as Allende’s ambassador to the U.S. and in his cabinet in three different roles, was assassinated in Washington, D.C. He died after a bomb blew up the car he was driving – fatally injuring him and a colleague, <a href="https://ips-dc.org/remembering_ronni/">Ronni Karpen Moffitt</a>. Letelier was giving her and her husband, <a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/05/13/Michael-Moffitt-who-survived-a-car-bomb-that-killed/4177358574400/">Michael Moffitt</a>, a ride to work. Michael was thrown from the vehicle but survived.</p>
<p>Preceding 9/11 by 25 years, the Letelier assassination was the first foreign-sponsored terrorist act on U.S. soil. Years of investigations revealed that Chile’s secret police planned and executed the plot to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2016/09/20/this-was-not-an-accident-this-was-a-bomb/">get rid of a prominent political figure</a> with influential contacts in Washington, D.C.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563516/original/file-20231205-27-jt2woa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a brown suit crouches down to touch a plaque strewn with flowers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563516/original/file-20231205-27-jt2woa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563516/original/file-20231205-27-jt2woa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563516/original/file-20231205-27-jt2woa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563516/original/file-20231205-27-jt2woa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563516/original/file-20231205-27-jt2woa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563516/original/file-20231205-27-jt2woa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563516/original/file-20231205-27-jt2woa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Chilean President Gabriel Boric touches a memorial to Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt at Sheridan Circle in Washington, D.C., in 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ChileCoupAnniversary/cc733873aac14518b4e88a0196bf6d4f/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=484&currentItemNo=12">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span>
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<h2>Breaking the mold</h2>
<p>Mocking Chile’s supposed lack of strategic significance, <a href="https://eltecolote.org/content/en/kissinger-the-last-condor-an-obituary-by-one-of-his-victims/">Kissinger once dismissed</a> the long and narrow country as “a dagger pointing straight at the heart of Antarctica.” Yet, he devoted full chapters to Chile in each of the <a href="https://www.librarything.com/nseries/25589/Kissingers-Memoirs">first two volumes of his memoirs</a>.</p>
<p>What made <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB437/">Kissinger take such deadly aim at Allende</a> was his new political model, a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0329">peaceful road to socialism</a>.”</p>
<p>It represented something else entirely from the revolutionary movements that were coming to the fore in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In Chile, an established and stable democracy had elected a Socialist president with an ambitious program of <a href="https://portside.org/2023-09-03/defending-allende">social and economic reforms</a>.</p>
<p>Allende’s Popular Unity coalition, which brought together an array of leftist and left-of-center political parties, could easily be replicated in Europe, in countries like France and Italy, leading to anti-U.S. governments – Washington’s worst nightmare. In this, Kissinger was not wrong. <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312129088/francoismitterrand">French Socialist leader Francois Mitterrand</a> visited Chile in 1971, met with Allende, recreated such a coalition in France and repeatedly won presidential elections.</p>
<p>Successful democratic socialist countries did not fit Kissinger’s long-held design for the world, inspired by his realist perspective, to create a balance of power between the United States, Europe, the Soviet Union, China and Japan.</p>
<p>This view <a href="https://classicsofstrategy.com/2016/02/05/henry-kissinger-a-world-restored-1957/">sprang from his studies</a> of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400844746-004">Europe’s long peace</a> in the 19th century, which was anchored in a balance of power between Great Britain, France, Prussia, Russia and Austria-Hungary.</p>
<p>To Kissinger, what in the 1970s was called the Third World, and today is known as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-global-south-is-on-the-rise-but-what-exactly-is-the-global-south-207959">Global South</a>, played no role in this grand design – to him, nothing important could come from the South. History was shaped by the great powers, such as the U.S., China and the Soviet Union. </p>
<h2>Big body count</h2>
<p>It is estimated that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/17/chile-families-search-disappeared-pinochet">more than 3,000 people were killed</a> by Chile’s military dictatorship, at least 1,000 of whom are still “disappeared” – meaning their bodies were never found.</p>
<p>These numbers pale in comparison to the estimated <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/argentina-death-flight-plane-dictatorship-returned-home-florida/">30,000 deaths in Argentina</a> under its junta; the <a href="https://theconversation.com/henry-kissingers-bombing-campaign-likely-killed-hundreds-othousands-of-cambodians-and-set-path-for-the-ravages-of-the-khmer-rouge-209353">hundreds of thousands of deaths in Cambodia</a> caused by the U.S. bombings directed by Kissinger; the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/01/bangladesh-kissinger-henry-genocide-pakistan-east-legacy/">millions who died in Bangladesh</a> in their 1971 war of independence against a U.S.-backed Pakistan; and the estimated 200,000 killed by the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/12/06/indonesia.timor.us/">Indonesian armed forces in East Timor in 1975</a> with Kissinger’s explicit approval.</p>
<p>They were casualties of the misguided geopolitical obsessions of a man blinded by a 19th century European view of world affairs. That perspective casts all developing nations as mere pawns in the games played by the great powers.</p>
<p>To this day, Chile lives under the shadow of Pinochet’s 1980 constitution, which <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/120/823/43/115914/Chile-s-Constitutional-Moment">greatly expanded presidential powers</a> and enshrined the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691208626/the-chile-project">neoliberal economic model</a> he imposed on the country. On Dec. 17, 2023, Chileans will vote for a second time in two years on a referendum that could <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chile-constitution-boric-pinochet-hevia-e752d1656e7f3c648fb771ab786a3b48">replace Pinochet’s constitution</a> with a new one.</p>
<p>That referendum may or may not turn a page in Chilean history. Regardless of the outcome, the scars will remain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218982/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span> I am a member of Diplomats Without Borders (DWB), of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and of the International Studies Association (ISA). I am also affiliated with the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), and I am a member of the Party for Democracy, a Chilean political party.</span></em></p>It’s hard to overestimate the role Henry Kissinger played in Chile. A former Chilean diplomat describes the mark that the powerful statesman made in his country and elsewhere in the Global South.Jorge Heine, Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2116422023-09-13T15:39:31Z2023-09-13T15:39:31ZPatricio Guzmán: fierce filmmaker who chronicled 50 years of Chile’s history after Pinochet coup<p>This week marks half a century since the beginning of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/dec/11/chile.pinochet4">Augusto Pinochet’s</a>
brutal 17-year dictatorship – a dark and devastating period of Chile’s history that continues to leave scars on the South American country.</p>
<p>On September 11 1973, Pinochet led a <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2011/9/11/september-11-and-story-behind-coup">right-wing military coup</a>, ending the democratically-elected socialist Popular Unity coalition of President <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-09-09/salvador-allende-according-to-biographer-mario-amoros-an-elegant-freemason-far-from-the-typical-image-of-a-socialist-revolutionary.html">Salvador Allende</a>.</p>
<p>Anyone wanting to understand Chile’s turbulent political and social recent history should turn to the films of <a href="https://mubi.com/en/cast/patricio-guzman">Patricio Guzmán</a>, the country’s most important documentary filmmaker, who has just been honoured with <a href="https://www.cinematropical.com/cinema-tropical/patricio-guzmn-is-the-2023-recipient-of-chiles-national-arts-prize">Chile’s National Arts Prize</a> for his work.</p>
<p>His significance as a filmmaker is being marked with a <a href="https://www.cinematropical.com/new-events/patricio-guzmn-dreaming-of-utopia-50-years-of-revolutionary-hope-and-memory">retrospective of his work</a> in a collaboration with Cinema Tropical and Icarus Films in New York this month. The week-long event, Dreaming of Utopia: 50 Years of Revolutionary Hope and Memory, features cinema screenings of Guzmán’s films including new restorations of the previously unreleased <a href="https://icarusfilms.com/if-firsty">The First Year</a> (1972) and his classic film <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CinemaTropical/videos/1360863011134450">The Battle of Chile</a> (1975).</p>
<p>This is welcome recognition. Despite being an important <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0350099/awards/?ref_=nm_ql_2">award-winning filmmaker</a> with an international reputation, Guzmán’s work deserves to be more widely known.</p>
<h2>In exile under Pinochet</h2>
<p>Like so many Chileans under Pinochet’s dictatorship, Guzmán was forced into exile in 1973 following a period in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/general-pinochets-long-shadow-still-hangs-over-chiles-national-stadium-70305">notorious Estadio Nacional</a> (National Stadium), where many thousands of political prisoners were tortured and murdered. After some time in Cuba and Spain, the director made his home in France. </p>
<p>As someone directly affected by the dictatorship, his films combine the personal with the political. A fiercely partisan defender of Salvador Allende, there is no neutral point of view in Guzmán’s films. They celebrate popular protest and struggles for democracy and equality. They reserve their ire for Pinochet and his legacy, including the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/chile/Patrick-01.htm">atrocities</a> committed by the <a href="https://irp.fas.org/world/chile/dina.htm">military police</a> under his command. </p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.patricioguzman.com/libros">interview with Jorge Ruffinelli</a> in his book on the director, Guzmán describes the role of documentary film as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The critical conscience of a society. It represents the historical, ecological, artistic and political analysis of a society. A country without documentary cinema is like a family without a photograph album.</p>
</blockquote>
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<h2>Battling for Chile</h2>
<p>The Battle of Chile regularly features in lists of best political films and documentaries. It is a three-part, four-and-a-half-hour epic that captures Chile’s complex political landscape and the deep divisions that led to Pinochet’s coup in 1973.</p>
<p>The personal cost of the film is apparent in its opening dedication to the memory of Jorge Müller Silva, the film’s cameraman who was <a href="https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC08folder/ChileMurders.html">tortured and “disappeared”</a> by the military police.</p>
<p>One of its most famous scenes illustrates a shocking clash between a peaceful camera shot and a violent gun shot through the footage of Argentinean cameraman Leonardo Hendrickson, who <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-mn-patricio-guzman-chile-films-20151004-story.html">records his own death</a>, as the camera is left running after he is fired on by a solider. The film was described by Guardian journalist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/sep/14/books.featuresreviews">Andy Beckett</a> as “the sacred text of the general’s opponents at home and abroad”.</p>
<p>Its legacy at home is the subject of Guzmán’s <a href="https://icarusfilms.com/if-chile">Chile, Obstinate Memory</a> (1998), a film about the screening of The Battle of Chile on his return to the country in 1996. Banned during the dictatorship, the film is shown, to emotional effect, to young people with little knowledge of the nation’s recent history other than that sanctioned by the military regime, as well as to veterans and survivors of the dictatorship.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-disappearance-became-a-global-weapon-of-psychological-control-50-years-on-from-chiles-us-backed-coup-213014">How disappearance became a global weapon of psychological control, 50 years on from Chile's US-backed coup</a>
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<p>The two protagonists of this Chilean history and all that they represent have marked Guzmán’s work. His film <a href="https://icarusfilms.com/if-sal">Salvador Allende</a> was released in 2004, followed by <a href="https://icarusfilms.com/if-pino">The Pinochet Case</a> in 2006, which is an exploration of the international and national attempts to bring the dictator to trial.</p>
<p>More important films follow in a remarkable career, including his trilogy <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1556190/">Nostalgia for the Light</a> (2010), <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4377864/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_3_dr">The Pearl Button</a> (2015) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9567718/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_2_dr">The Cordillera of Dreams</a> (2019), all of which, the films’ distributor Icarus Films explains, <a href="https://icarusfilms.com/if-cord#:%7E:text=Winner%20of%20the%20Best%20Documentary,his%20native%20country%20of%20Chile">investigate</a> “the relationship between historical memory, political trauma and geography in his native country of Chile”. </p>
<h2>The feminist revolution</h2>
<p>The roots of the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/chile">recent Chilean mass protests</a> known as the <em>estallido social</em> (social explosion) are explored in Guzmán’s remarkable film, <a href="https://icarusfilms.com/if-imagin">My Imaginary Country</a> (2022). As he says in his documentary, the director wanted to discover how “a whole people had woken up 47 years after Pinochet’s coup in a so-called social outburst, a major rebellion or even a revolution”. </p>
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<p>In contrast to The Battle for Chile, a film in which men dominate the public space, the answer lies with the women activists who feature, and who make up all of the interviewees. My Imaginary Country reveals a Chile riven by deep structural inequality and subjugated by a militarised police force (<em>carabineros</em>) <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/chile">seemingly at war with its own population</a>.</p>
<p>Yet the film shows Chilean women fighting for a peaceful future. One image shows a protestor’s powerful slogan: <em>La Revolución será feminista o no será</em> – the Revolution will be feminist or it will not happen at all. </p>
<p>This message permeates the film and is encapsulated by the central role of the <a href="https://artistsatriskconnection.org/story/lastesis">feminist theatre collective LasTesis</a>. As my co-author Deborah Martin and I pointed out in our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/blar.13215">research paper</a> on LasTesis, their street performance of the song A Rapist in Your Path, which calls out state-sanctioned rape culture, went viral globally in 2019, the year of the <em>estallido</em>. </p>
<p>In December 2021 the new president-elect Gabriel Boric <a href="https://www.pressenza.com/2021/12/gabriel-boric-speech-as-president-elect/#:%7E:text=Today%20is%20a%20day%20of,governing%20with%20all%20the%20people.">thanked the women of Chile</a> after beating the far-right Catholic candidate José Antonio Kast. Boric promised to defend the rights they had “worked so hard to achieve”.</p>
<p>Memory is central to the films of Patricio Guzmán, but a key point in My Imaginary Country is that if Chile wants to escape from the cycle of violence and repression his films have chronicled, the future has to be led by women’s movements. Ever the documentarian, no doubt he will be watching how his country responds with interest.</p>
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deborah Shaw does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As a passionate and partisan defender of Allende’s socialism, Guzmán’s films celebrate popular protest and struggles for democracy and equality in Chile.Deborah Shaw, Professor of Film and Screen Studies, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2130142023-09-10T19:21:13Z2023-09-10T19:21:13ZHow disappearance became a global weapon of psychological control, 50 years on from Chile’s US-backed coup<p>For the few remaining <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/11/long-search-remains-pinochet-victims-chile-coup">women of Calama</a> in Chile’s Atacama desert, September 11 holds a terrifying meaning. They understand the pain of watching forensic investigators meticulously scour through particles of dust, seeking to retrieve the tiniest fragments of lives brutally taken from the world. They know what it means to face devastating absence, knowing the bodies of loved ones will never be returned.</p>
<p>But their loss has nothing to do with the attack on New York’s twin towers.</p>
<p>Fifty years ago, in the early morning of September 11 1973, a US-backed coup led by General Augusto Pinochet began with Chile’s military taking control of strategic locations in the capital city Santiago, including the main radio and television networks. At 8.30am, a declaration was broadcast that the military was now in control of the country.</p>
<p>While the elected president, Salvador Allende, refused to concede power in what turned out to be his farewell address, Pinochet’s undemocratic forces surrounded the presidential palace. A few hours later, the centre of Chilean democracy was bombed by a fighter jet and set ablaze. Allende <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Salvador_Allende">died from gunshot wounds</a> the same day.</p>
<p>Chile under Pinochet would become the experimenting ground for an economic project that inspired both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher and went by the name of <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/neoliberalism-was-born-in-chile-now-it-will-die-there/">neoliberalism</a>. But it was also an experimenting laboratory for the torture and enforced disappearance of human beings.</p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/how-disappearance-became-a-global-weapon-of-psychological-control-50-years-on-from-chiles-us-backed-coup-213014&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>During the 16 years of Pinochet’s reign, 1,100 people were officially registered as “forcibly disappeared”. Only 104 bodies were ever found, although local communities put this figure much higher. Some were abducted due to their political associations and beliefs, others for sexual abuse. And some were just randomly selected to send the message that nobody was immune to the threat of vanishment.</p>
<p>Since 2017, I have co-directed the <a href="https://www.historiesofviolence.com/stateofdisappearance">State of Disappearance project</a>, which researches and promotes better understanding of this form of violence that haunts many societies when they seek a transition to peace. The 50th anniversary of Chile’s day of terror is a key date in the annals of human suffering, in part because Pinochet’s rise to power marked the start of the modern era of disappearance as a political and organised crime technique.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Brad Evans discusses the State of Disappearance project with co-director Chantal Meza.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Techniques honed in the US</h2>
<p>The strategy of disappearance is so shocking and difficult to comprehend because the violence is rationalised, professionalised and calculated. It is never random, even if its targets appear to have been arbitrarily selected. Its currency is emotional fear that infects the population like a virus, creating a climate of suspicion and betrayal.</p>
<p>While the modern era of state-led policies of disappearance developed through the countries of South and Central America, the techniques were honed at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperation">School of the Americas</a> (now renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), a US Defense Department training facility at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia.</p>
<p>For 21 years, South American countries were subject to a covert campaign of political repression and state terrorism coordinated by the CIA and characterised by frequent coups and assassinations. During the darker chapters of this <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor">Operation Condor</a>, policies of violence against the US’s ideological leftwing enemies spread throughout the continent’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cone">southern cone</a> like wildfire. Military generals and officers from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and later Brazil all trained at the infamous US facility, learning the most effective strategies to destroy opposition and govern their people by instilling a culture of everyday fear.</p>
<p>Some <a href="https://bennorton.com/victims-of-operation-condor-by-country/">estimates</a> put the number of enforced disappearances directly linked to this operation at around 80,000, including a staggering 30,000 bodies <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/inside-story-america/2013/3/6/tracing-the-shadows-of-operation-condor">taken from the streets of Argentina</a>. While these included known activists and prominent spokespersons demanding social justice and reform, others who only had a very tentative opposition to the military junta and its neoliberal aspirations were among the victims.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The story of Operation Condor (Al Jazeera English)</span></figcaption>
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<p>Indeed, the terms “disappeared” and “disappearance” first entered the political lexicon during Argentina’s dictatorship of the mid-1970s, when the state – backed by the US in its so-called “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Dirty-War">dirty war</a>” – kidnapped and killed those it perceived to be a threat to its operations and ideological foundations, literally disappearing their bodies.</p>
<p>Beyond the official remit of Condor, the same ideologically driven violence extended throughout the Americas, leaving no country untouched. In Colombia, the government’s <a href="https://www.unidadvictimas.gov.co/en/unit/units-review/28230">victims’ unit</a> has registered more than 45,000 victims dating back to the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665910722000330">1970s</a>, although another <a href="https://www.abcolombia.org.uk/enforced-disappearances-in-colombia-still-an-ongoing-issue/">government database</a> puts the number of missing above 110,000. While, as in Argentina, many victims were disappeared by the Colombian state and associated right-wing paramilitary organisations, this was compounded by use of similar tactics by leftist guerrilla organisations and narcotrafficking cartels.</p>
<p>Operation Condor was thus at the heart of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/18/us-military-usa">wider security project</a> through which the violence of disappearance became a normalised practice. While not part of the official programme, more Colombian military officials trained at the School of the Americas than any other nation.</p>
<p>In many cases, the disappeared would vanish without any witnesses to their abduction. People were swiftly taken from the streets and thrown into cars – in Argentina, Ford Falcons became a <a href="https://medium.com/history-on-wheels/the-curse-of-the-ford-falcon-36cda9a8f97f#:%7E:text=The%20Ford%20factory%20in%20General,tortured%20there%20by%20the%20military.">symbol of terror</a> – or stolen from their beds in the solitude of the night.</p>
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<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
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<p>Often, this would be followed by blanket denials, even that a person had actually disappeared, by those in power. But as events in Colombia and (more recently) Mexico have shown, there is sometimes a need to return a mutilated body to “remind” people of the likely horror. In the infamous case of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/world/americas/Ayotzinapa-mexico-students-anniversary.html">43 student teachers</a> who went missing in the Mexican state of Guerrero in 2017, the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/12/americas/julio-cesar-mondragon-fontes-missing-students-mexico/index.html">brutally tortured body</a> of another student teacher, Julio César Mondragón Fontes, was discovered the next day. The whereabouts of his fellow students are still unknown.</p>
<p>As I have <a href="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/remembering-43/">written elsewhere</a>, what especially marks out this violence is the way the fight for truth and memorialisation for the missing has become a key battleground. Yet even leftist leaders such as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/14/mexico-president-continues-attacks-on-opposition-despite-order">Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador</a>, Mexico’s president since 2018, show limits to what the state is willing to concede, as noted by his recent <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/27/amlo-defends-mexicos-military-after-report-on-missing-students-case">exoneration of the military</a> which, according to the victims’ families, had played an integral role in this forced abduction.</p>
<p>Beyond the spectacle of violence, there is a deeper reason why disappearance is so effective as a political and psychological strategy. Psychologically, it plays into the most primal of human fears: to vanish without a trace. It induces what the academic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/31/obituaries/jean-franco-dead.html">Jean Franco</a> <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/cruel-modernity">called</a> a “triple deprivation – of body, of mourning, of burial”.</p>
<p>In the act of disappearing life, not only is there a denial of justice that requires the reappearance of victims’ bodies for a crime to be proven. There is also a denial of the political process that demands negotiation with past tragedies so the future can be steered in a better direction. </p>
<p>This is what makes disappearance a true crime against humanity: it is a form of violence that makes it hard to restore something of the human condition. Not only does it deny a person the most basic right to belong to the world, it creates an economy of terror that lives on in the minds of relatives and friends – a form of “future violence”.</p>
<h2>Trained in psychological warfare</h2>
<p>Since the early 1990s in zones of conflict and crisis, the lines between state and non-state actors, along with regulated versus illicit economies, have become almost impossible to separate.</p>
<p>Organisations such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-a-reintegration-camp-for-colombias-ex-guerrilla-fighters-words-of-reconciliation-are-our-only-weapons-now-184074">the Farc in Colombia</a> illustrate the difficulties of distinguishing between ideological groups and mere criminal organisations. In Mexico, <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/worse-than-any-horror-film-inside-a-los-zetas-cartel-kitchen-1.4225436">Los Zetas</a> – acknowledged to be the most violent of all the world’s drug cartels – reveal an even more fraught, state-sponsored past. This group’s origins can be dated to the early 1990s, when a group of commandos from the <a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuerpo_de_Fuerzas_Especiales_de_M%C3%A9xico">Cuerpo de Fuerzas Especiales</a> (Mexican special forces) broke away from the state and used their knowledge and training to devastating effect.</p>
<p>Originally set up to provide a rapid security response during the 1986 World Cup held in the country, this special forces unit would soon be attacking the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/feb/17/mexico-zapatistas-rebels-24-years-mountain-strongholds">Zapatistas</a>, an Indigenous movement in the southern state of Chiapas that itself became committed to non-violence. Los Zetas’ deployment into the remote jungle regions quickly resulted in a horrifying slaughter of 30 captured Indigenous “rebels”, who were found by the side of a river with their ears and noses cut off.</p>
<p>Later, the same unit – a number of whom were trained in the US School of the Americas – became a key element of Mexico’s <a href="https://www.elmundo.es/america/2013/07/16/mexico/1373982845.html">war on drugs</a>, triggering a notable acceleration in disappearances. What made Los Zetas especially notorious was the brutality and scale of the violence, including attempted mass killings such as the grenade attacks on <a href="https://www.jornada.com.mx/2008/09/27/index.php?section=politica&article=003n1pol">Independence Day in Morena</a> in 2008, which injured more than 100. Another favoured tactic was to hang bodies from bridges and leave beheaded and dismembered bodies in discoverable locations.</p>
<p>That members of Los Zetas, like previous graduates from the School of the Americas, were trained in psychological warfare is not incidental. It is not enough to simply eliminate opposition. Fear works by having persons change their behaviour before they have even considered acting in a particular way. The threat of more violence stops agency and freedom dead in their tracks.</p>
<p>Today, this strategy appears largely immune to political change. While the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/18/silence-us-backed-coup-evo-morales-bolivia-american-states">US-supported ousting</a> of the democratically elected Evo Morales in Bolivia in 2019 showed it was still business as usual in the geopolitical displacement of Latin American populist leaders, in Mexico, despite a much-vaunted <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/democratizing-mexican-politics-1982-2012">process of democratisation</a>, cases of disappearance have increased exponentially.</p>
<p>Since 2006, the number of enforced disappearances in Mexico reported by Human Rights Watch <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/mexico.">exceeds 100,000</a>. Over the same period, more than <a href="https://adondevanlosdesaparecidos.org/2021/10/08/mexico-rebasa-las-4-mil-fosas-clandestinas-40-se-encontraron-en-este-sexenio/#:%7E:text=Compartir%3A,una%20tercera%20parte%20de%20esta">4,000 unmarked graves</a> have been discovered around the country. A significant number of these victims are young women and people from other vulnerable groups including children and migrants. But the disappearance of nearly 150 journalists highlights the policy of silencing that goes with it. Today, Mexico is <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/mexico#:%7E:text=Mexico%20is%20one%20of%20the%20most%20dangerous%20countries%20in%20the,Many%20journalists%20self%2Dcensor.">one of the most dangerous places in the world</a> to try to report the truth.</p>
<p>Journalists such as <a href="https://courier.unesco.org/en/articles/lydia-cacho-ribeiro-international-visibility-shield-threatened-journalists">Lydia Cacho</a> and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/anabel-h%C3%A9rnandez-condemns-murder-of-journalist-mar%C3%ADa-elena-ferral-in-veracruz/a-52972126">Anabel Hernandez</a> continue to risk their lives to expose the role that corruption plays in the organisation of disappearances. In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/nyregion/garcia-luna-trial-mexico-court.html">February 2023</a>, Mexico’s secretary of public security, Genaro García Luna – once the highest-ranking law officer in the fight against the country’s drug gangs – was convicted for being on the payroll of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinaloa_Cartel">Sinaloa cartel</a>. More recently, this cartel has brought its violence to the state of Zacatecas, making it the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/13/mexico-city-fresnillo-cartel-kidnappings-violence">global epicentre for disappearance</a>, with one person vanishing every day there in 2023.</p>
<h2>The impact of disappearance on loved ones</h2>
<p>Throughout history, state-sponsored disappearance has proved extremely effective in quietening resistance and governing through fear. But the organisation of disappearance takes a great deal of political and financial investment – requiring considerable organisation, planning and the provision of alibis. It also takes significant effort to prevent bodies from being found, especially in a digital age when details of such crimes can be more easily shared.</p>
<p>However, digital technology also presents a significant challenge for the families searching for their loved ones, and those trying to deal with the legacies of disappearance.</p>
<p>While groups working on behalf of the disappeared use the internet and social media to disseminate information and maintain visibility, our interviews reveal strong suspicion of communication devices and the growing “surveillance state”. The digital revolution has given more power to those who master the technology. Disappearance has taken new forms, enabled by <a href="https://english.elpais.com/usa/2022-02-01/drones-the-latest-weapon-of-mexicos-cartels.html">tracking systems</a> such as drones that can be subsequently erased. </p>
<p>Despite these dangers, we monitor many courageous attempts by communities who continue to demand answers to what happened to their disappeared. In Mexico alone, there are some 130 “<a href="https://www.reforma.com/fallan-busquedas-arman-colectivos/ar2084682">search collectives</a>” tasked with trying to recover the remains of the missing. As one family member told us: “The whole country is a clandestine grave.”</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-06-04/the-seeking-mothers-of-latin-america-without-fear-and-with-memory.html">Ceci Flores</a>, leader of the <a href="https://www.laprensalatina.com/human-remains-found-by-searching-mother-in-mexico-do-not-belong-to-missing-son/#:%7E:text=Currently%2C%20the%20searching%20mothers%20of,found%20dead%20in%20clandestine%20graves.">searching mothers of Sonora</a> in northern Mexico:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have the idea that we know where they pick up [kidnap] our children, but we do not know where they are going to leave them. So, if we have to tour the entire Mexican republic, we are going to do it. And if I don’t find my son, maybe I will find another mother’s son.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Theirs is a labour of care which, in the act of searching, refuses to accept the absence. But this work is laborious and financially burdening, not to mention emotionally exhausting. The collectives depend on tip-offs, though often they simply search abandoned places, disused wells, jungled forests and open fields.</p>
<p>There are certain clues they look for, including traces of the lime that is frequently used to cover bodies and accelerate their decomposition. Their tools are rudimentary – they often rely on the harrowing insertion of a thin metal pole, a <em>varilla</em>, into the ground to release the potential stench of death. Many testimonies from these searching collectives speak of how the decomposing remains of a person gives off its own unique odour.</p>
<p>Aside from the fact that those searching for the disappeared often end up being violently threatened and even disappearing themselves, the psychological impact demands a more expansive appreciation of the suffering they endure. <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/state-of-disappearance-products-9780228018964.php?page_id=46&*">Our research</a> has repeatedly found that living with disappearance can be truly unbearable, for the violence it passes on to others offers no kind of resolution and no prospect of recovery. The memory of loss places a perverse kind of guilt on the shoulders of family members.</p>
<p>Psychological studies of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7408511/">families dealing with missing persons</a> have spoken of a “vortex of grief”. Dealing with what the International Red Cross identifies as “<a href="https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/irrc_99_905_4.pdf">ambiguous loss</a>” demands new therapeutic responses that appreciate the lasting effects of this absence. Close relatives are often deeply traumatised and <a href="https://www.interventionjournal.org/article.asp?issn=1571-8883;year=2020;volume=18;issue=2;spage=139;epage=149;aulast=Smid">haunted by “intrusive memories”</a>. Studies of those living in the aftermath of the Holocaust have shown how trauma can also be <a href="https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(15)00652-6/fulltext">transmitted across generations</a>.</p>
<p>Yet despite all this evidence, not enough attention is paid to the lasting psychological and social impacts on communities living with disappearance. Part of the problem is that many of these communities are desperately poor and already disenfranchised. In life they are often forgotten, so is it any wonder that in death they are denied?</p>
<h2>The struggle for justice</h2>
<p>Arguably, the most challenging obstacle to overcome when dealing with the crime of disappearance is the pervading culture of impunity that exists in many countries. As the <a href="https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=2531&Lang=en">UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance noted</a> in Mexico in 2022, where as few as 2% of all criminal cases result in a prosecution:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Impunity in Mexico is a structural feature that favours the reproduction and cover-up of enforced disappearances. It creates threats and anxiety to the victims, those defending and promoting their rights, public servants searching for the disappeared and investigating their cases, and society as a whole.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are, however, notable exceptions. In Argentina, as a result of a campaign by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_of_the_Plaza_de_Mayo">Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo</a> (the first major group to organise against the 1970s military regime’s human rights violations), the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-convention-protection-all-persons-enforced">International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance</a> was established in 2010. Since then, some of those involved in the organisation and enactment of the country’s notorious “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/argentina-death-flight-plane-dictatorship-returned-home-florida/#:%7E:text=Human%20rights%20groups%20estimate%2030%2C000,took%20place%20at%20least%20weekly.">death flights</a>” have been brought to justice. So has <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-10-fg-priest10-story.html">Christian von Wernich</a>, a former chaplain in Buenos Aires who supplied details of the confessions he took to the authorities, who then used the information to target new victims.</p>
<p>But perhaps the most high-profile example of justice achieved was the (initial) conviction of Guatemala’s former dictator, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/02/gen-efrain-rios-montt-obituary">Efraín Ríos Montt</a>, for genocide and crimes against humanity in 2013. Montt was yet another graduate of the School of the Americas, alongside the likes of Salvadorian death squad leader <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_D%27Aubuisson">Roberto D’Aubuisson</a> and Argentine junta leader <a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopoldo_Galtieri">Leopoldo Galtieri</a>.</p>
<p>Montt came to power following another US-backed coup in 1982, and would oversee the disappearance of an estimated 40,000 Guatemalans, largely from the nation’s Indigenous Maya population. Roddy Brett from the University of Bristol was a director of the team that prepared the legal investigation against Guatemala’s former dictator. Commenting on his conviction, Brett explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Montt’s imprisonment in 2013 was the first time a domestic court of law in Latin America had convicted a former head of state for genocide. Through their successful search for justice, Indigenous survivors of Guatemala’s genocide obliterated the military’s wall of denial and wrote themselves into history. However, opposition to the verdict and its subsequent reversal ten days later was a major, if not unexpected, set-back for those seeking legal recourse for the disappeared.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The power of art to represent loss</h2>
<p>In June 2023, Argentina <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/5/the-proof-we-were-missing-death-flight-returns-toargentina">repatriated a plane from the US</a> that had been used in the campaign of death flights, in which victims were thrown from the air while still conscious. The extent of this strategy was only properly understood when <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/06/05/argentinian-death-flight-plane-to-be-displayed-at-buenos-aires-museum_6029141_4.html#:%7E:text=On%20December%2014%2C%201977%2C%20at,bodies%20of%2012%20political%20opponents.">bodies started washing up</a> on the shores of the Rio de la Plata in December 1977 as a result of a freak weather pattern. </p>
<p>The repatriated plane will soon go on display at the former navy and mechanics school in Buenos Aires (now the <a href="https://www.argentina.gob.ar/derechoshumanos/museo-sitio-de-memoria-esma/en">ESMA Museum and Site of Memory</a>), a clandestine detention facility in which many of the disappeared were held before their disposal.</p>
<p>The re-emergence of such items, which also includes a fleet of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/argentina-dictatorship-falcon-idUSL2E8QR0OQ20120327">Ford Falcons</a> used by the death squads, highlights the importance of material objects that give at least some visible form to the violence of absence. In the same way, it is understandable why we see so many families and campaigners harnessing the power of art to represent their loss.</p>
<p>There can be no peace at a macro level if individuals and communities remain traumatised by wounds that cannot heal because of a gaping absence. Josefina Echavarria Alvarez, director of the <a href="https://peaceaccords.nd.edu/">Peace Accords Matrix</a> at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, offered this perspective in relation to the work of the <a href="https://www.abcolombia.org.uk/truth-commission-of-colombia-executive-summary/">Colombia Truth Commission</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What I have seen in my work as peace educator over decades in various post-war contexts has been the importance of art-based responses … Arts-based practices are central – not peripheral – to peace building, to rebuilding relationships after war and changing the dynamics of human interaction, especially with those who have been historically separated from us.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Art reveals better than anything the spirit of freedom. It is no coincidence that the Nazis put the so-called “<a href="https://heni.com/talks/degenerate-art">degenerate artists</a>” on trial, nor that the Pinochet regime disappeared the musician <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200812-vctor-jara-the-folk-singer-murdered-for-his-music">Víctor Jara</a>, whose tortured and bullet-ridden body was <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/ABC_Univision/murdered-chilean-singers-family-seeks-justice-us/story?id=20202252">discovered</a> days after his abduction.</p>
<p>Jara’s creative sensibility marked him as a prime enemy of the Chilean state. There is nothing an authoritarian personality despises more than free expression and creation, for it is the essence of resistance. Moreover, through art, difficult conversations become possible. A door is opened that may allow something of the human to be recovered.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Notable here is Chilean film director Patricio Guzmán’s documentary <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jul/12/nostalgia-for-the-light-review">Nostalgia for the Light</a> (2010), which brings us back to the barren emptiness of the Atacama plains and the <a href="https://returnatacama.hemi.press/chapter/labours-made-visible-the-women-of-calama-and-everyone-has-fallen-except-us-fallen/">women of Calama</a>. What begins as an astronomical mediation on the telescoping search of distant galaxies and stars, slowly turns the lens on to the uninhabitable desert and the appearance of distant figures: the women still searching amongst the dust for the remains for their husbands.</p>
<p>Decades of searching mean they can easily tell the difference between white stones and human fragments. Theirs is a story of defiance in a place where rains have refused to fall for more than a millennia. But it is also a story revealing the chasm of power that reaches across time. “I wish telescopes didn’t just look at the sky, but could go through the earth to be able to locate [the bodies],” one of the women laments as she goes through the impossible motions of another day.</p>
<p>The first stage of our <a href="https://www.historiesofviolence.com/artistaswitness">State of Disappearance project</a> culminates with an exhibition by the Mexican abstract artist <a href="https://www.chantal-meza.com/biography">Chantal Meza</a>. Our project, which she co-directs, began as a result of the artistic demand to respond to the horrors of enforced disappearance in Meza’s country, and has since instigated a series of international collaborations.</p>
<p>Bringing together many respected academics, dancers, musicians and advocacy groups, the challenge we all confronted was largely the same: what can art, politics and society do when the body of the human is denied? The project doesn’t claim to resolve this, nor has it sought to impose any political doctrine, but tries to open up new conversations on what disappearance means, the forms it takes, and how to better imagine our response.</p>
<p>Meza confronts these questions in 75 works that explore themes of obscurity, mental anguish, ghosting, the fragmentation of life, and the voiding of existence. The heart of this work, she explains, is making visible what has been forgotten so that we might rethink what humanity means:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Disappearance constitutes a form of violence that rips open a wound in time. It weaponises the visual, as the terror it induces becomes prey to what is no longer seen. Part of the demand for justice, then, has to concern memory. This means to humbly consider the role of visual testimony, which the arts can help with.</p>
<p>As artists, we can only venture to wonder the meaning of disappearance – whether in brushstrokes, dancing movements, musical compositions or the written word. But our lost worlds and the limits of our straight answers can be fiercely poured into those creations. Maybe through our encounters with artists and other collaborations, we find it easier to appear and disappear – to be never found, but just to leave a trace.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em><a href="https://www.historiesofviolence.com/stateofdisappearance">The State of Disappearance exhibition</a>, featuring the works of Chantal Meza, is at Bristol’s Centrespace art gallery from October 28 to November 8 2023</em></p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/my-home-city-was-destroyed-by-war-but-i-will-not-lose-hope-how-modern-warfare-turns-neighbourhoods-into-battlefields-211627?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">‘My home city was destroyed by war but I will not lose hope’ – how modern warfare turns neighbourhoods into battlefields</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/womens-secret-war-the-inside-story-of-how-the-us-military-sent-female-soldiers-on-covert-combat-missions-to-afghanistan-205669?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Women’s secret war: the inside story of how the US military sent female soldiers on covert combat missions to Afghanistan
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-a-reintegration-camp-for-colombias-ex-guerrilla-fighters-words-of-reconciliation-are-our-only-weapons-now-184074?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Inside a reintegration camp for Colombia’s ex-guerrilla fighters: ‘Words of reconciliation are our only weapons now’
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brad Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>State-sponsored disappearance plays into the most primal of human fears – to vanish without a trace. The modern era started with Chile’s US-backed coup on September 11 1973Brad Evans, Professor in Political Violence, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2110622023-08-04T15:12:17Z2023-08-04T15:12:17ZOne of 2023’s most extreme heatwaves is happening in the middle of winter<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541249/original/file-20230804-21-fsmt9k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C2592%2C1446&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Temperature anomaly on Wednesday August 2 2023. Red areas of Chile and northern Argentina are much hotter than the long-term average for this time of year.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/t2_daily/">ClimateReanalyzer.org</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Temperatures in parts of Chile and northern Argentina have soared to <a href="https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1686485331539820545">10°C-20°C above average</a> over the last few days. Towns in the Andes mountains have reached <a href="https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1686535219350806528">38°C or more</a>, while Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, saw temperatures <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/a-scorching-winter-argentina-s-capital-breaks-record-for-hottest-start-to-august-in-117-years-1.6503065">above 30°C</a> – breaking its previous August record by more than 5°C. Temperatures peaked at 39°C in the town of <a href="https://twitter.com/SMN_Argentina/status/1687079796692398080">Rivadavia</a>. </p>
<p>Bear in mind it’s mid-winter in this part of the world. And it’s far south enough that seasonal variations have a substantial impact on temperatures. Buenos Aires, for instance, is as far south as Japan, Tibet or Tennessee are north. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1686485331539820545"}"></div></p>
<p>In terms of deviation from temperatures you might expect at a certain place and time of year, this heatwave is comparable to, if not greater than, the recent heatwaves in <a href="https://theconversation.com/european-heatwave-whats-causing-it-and-is-climate-change-to-blame-209653">southern Europe</a>, the US and China. In Vicuña, one of the towns in the Chilean Andes that recently reached 38°C, a typical August day might be <a href="https://weatherspark.com/y/26539/Average-Weather-in-Vicu%C3%B1a-Chile-Year-Round">18°C or so</a> – just imagine it being a whole 20°C warmer than normal wherever you are now.</p>
<p>No wonder some climate scientists have already suggested this could be <a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateDann/status/1687032987135725569">one of the most extreme heatwaves on record</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s causing the extreme heat?</h2>
<p>Over the past six days, a persistent area of high pressure, or anticyclone, has lingered to the east of the Andes. Also known as a “blocking high”, this appears to be the key driver of the intense heat. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541258/original/file-20230804-25-f3znn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Annotated map of South America" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541258/original/file-20230804-25-f3znn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541258/original/file-20230804-25-f3znn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541258/original/file-20230804-25-f3znn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541258/original/file-20230804-25-f3znn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541258/original/file-20230804-25-f3znn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541258/original/file-20230804-25-f3znn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541258/original/file-20230804-25-f3znn9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The blocking anticyclone driving the Chile-Argentina heatwave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GFS analysis data</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Blocking anticyclones can drive heatwaves in three main ways. Firstly, they pull warmer air from closer to the equator towards them. The system also compresses and traps the air, heating it up, as was the case for the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36289-3">2021 heatwave in the Pacific Northwest</a>, which shattered the Canadian temperature record by nearly 5°C. Finally, the high pressure means there is little ascending air and hence little cloud cover. This allows the sun to heat the land continuously during the day, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169809515001738?via%3Dihub">building up heat</a>.</p>
<p>However, scientists need to analyse the meteorology of this unprecedented event in more detail to gain a more complete understanding.</p>
<h2>El Niño made this more likely</h2>
<p>The Chile-Argentina heatwave may have been made more likely by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-el-nino-means-for-the-worlds-perilous-climate-tipping-points-209083">developing El Niño</a> in the Pacific Ocean. El Niño events, which typically occur every four years or so, are characterised by warm sea surface temperatures in the central-to-eastern tropical Pacific. Temperatures in the central Pacific are currently <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/seasonal-to-decadal/gpc-outlooks/el-nino-la-nina">about 1°C above average</a> for the time of year.</p>
<p>These warmer ocean temperatures make air more buoyant over the central Pacific, causing the air to rise. This drives changes to atmospheric circulation patterns further afield. El Niño-induced changes to atmospheric circulation typically mean higher pressure and warmer winter temperatures for <a href="https://adgeo.copernicus.org/articles/22/3/2009/adgeo-22-3-2009.pdf">this part of South America</a>.</p>
<h2>Climate change made it worse</h2>
<p>The blocking system driving the extreme heat would probably have led to warm temperatures even in the absence of anthropogenic climate change. However, the rapid warming of climate change allowed the heatwave to become truly unprecedented.</p>
<p>Climate scientists expect to see <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abm6860">temperature records broken</a> as our planet continues to heat up. This is because the distribution of possible temperatures is shifting higher and higher.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541251/original/file-20230804-29-96u3yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Annotated graph" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541251/original/file-20230804-29-96u3yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541251/original/file-20230804-29-96u3yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541251/original/file-20230804-29-96u3yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541251/original/file-20230804-29-96u3yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541251/original/file-20230804-29-96u3yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541251/original/file-20230804-29-96u3yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541251/original/file-20230804-29-96u3yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An increase in averages means an increase in extremes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australia Climate Commission/IPCC</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Chile has already experienced the effects of climate change recently through a severe heatwave in February – late summer – resulting in several deaths from <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-latin-america-caribbean-climate-and-environment-fires-f1eaf0919c9b9b9d1f88d60be2191d78">wildfires</a>, as well as a decade-long <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/01/chiles-water-crisis-megadrought-reaching-breaking-point">mega-drought</a>. The country recently <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/09/05/gigantic-missed-opportunity-chile-rejects-green-constitution-faces-uncertainty/">rejected</a> a rewrite of the constitution which would have mandated its government to take action against the nature and climate crises.</p>
<h2>The longer-term impact of a winter heatwave</h2>
<p>The hottest temperatures now appear to have largely subsided in the Andes. However, temperatures are still well above average for northern Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, and will remain so for the next five days or so.</p>
<p>The impacts of winter heatwaves are less well understood than summer heatwaves. For Chile, the most likely impact is on <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/climate-change-chile-argentina-face-scorching-heat-wave-in-middle-of-winter-621920">snowpack in the mountains</a>, which provides water for <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150100/snow-blanket-for-the-andes">drinking, agriculture and power generation</a>. Any melting of the snowpack will probably also affect the diverse flora and fauna found in the Andes.</p>
<p>Overall, this heatwave is a startling reminder of how humans are changing Earth’s climate. We will continue to see such unprecedented extremes until we stop burning fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Patterson receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council.</span></em></p>Parts of Argentina and the Chilean Andes experienced some of their highest temperatures on record.Matthew Patterson, Postdoctoral Research Assistant in in Atmospheric Physics, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2085612023-07-05T12:24:00Z2023-07-05T12:24:00Z‘Global China’ is a big part of Latin America’s renewable energy boom, but homegrown industries and ‘frugal innovation’ are key<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534468/original/file-20230627-30373-rvj0lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C51%2C8549%2C5691&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lithium, essential for EV batteries, could be South America's white gold.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ChileLithium/64ba9a1bc61144b6ae28b5668dd6d07a/photo">AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The story of renewable energy’s rapid rise in Latin America often focuses on Chinese influence, and for good reason. China’s government, banks and companies have propelled the continent’s energy transition, with about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z58qGx2rP4">90% of all wind and solar technologies</a> installed there produced by Chinese companies. China’s <a href="https://www.weforum.org/organizations/state-grid-corporation-of-china">State Grid</a> now controls <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/its-electric-chinas-power-play-latin-america">over half of Chile’s</a> regulated energy distribution, enough to raise concerns in the Chilean government. </p>
<p>China has also become a major investor in Latin America’s critical minerals sector, a treasure trove of <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/glep/article/23/1/20/111308/The-Security-Sustainability-Nexus-Lithium">lithium</a>, <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/04/11/how-indonesia-used-chinese-industrial-investments-to-turn-nickel-into-new-gold-pub-89500">nickel</a>, <a href="https://eba.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/DDB_2016_9_Malm_webb.pdf">cobalt</a> and <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501714597/rare-earth-frontiers/#bookTabs=1">rare earth elements</a> that are crucial for developing electric vehicles, wind turbines and defense technologies.</p>
<p>In 2018, the Chinese company Tianqi Lithium purchased a <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-critical-minerals-in-clean-energy-transitions">23% share</a> in one of Chile’s largest lithium producers, Sociedad Química y Minera. More recently, in 2022, Ganfeng Lithium bought a major evaporative lithium project in Argentina for <a href="https://www.bu.edu/gdp/2023/04/20/china-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-economic-bulletin-2023-edition/">US$962 million</a>. In April 2023, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed around 20 agreements to <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/what-the-lula-xi-partnership-means-for-the-world/">strengthen their countries’ already close relationship</a>, including in the areas of trade, climate change and the energy transition.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Juan Carlos Jobet and Carolina Schmidt, wearing matching fleece jackets, walk on either side Xie Zhenhua, who is wearing in a suit and tie, along a row of solar panels." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534909/original/file-20230629-25-zguqfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534909/original/file-20230629-25-zguqfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534909/original/file-20230629-25-zguqfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534909/original/file-20230629-25-zguqfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534909/original/file-20230629-25-zguqfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534909/original/file-20230629-25-zguqfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534909/original/file-20230629-25-zguqfv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">China’s interest in South America’s energy resources has been growing for years. In 2019, China’s special representative for climate change, Xie Zhenhua, met with Chile’s then-ministers of energy and environment, Juan Carlos Jobet and Carolina Schmidt, in Chile.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chilean-energy-minister-juan-carlos-jobet-chinas-special-news-photo/1162986090?adppopup=true">Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>China’s growing influence over global clean energy supply chains and its leverage over countries’ energy systems have <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-influence-latin-america-argentina-brazil-venezuela-security-energy-bri">raised international concerns</a>. But the relationship between China and Latin America is also increasingly complicated as Latin American countries try to secure their resources and their own clean energy futures.</p>
<p>Alongside international investments, Latin American countries are fostering energy innovation cultures that are homegrown, dynamic, creative, often grassroots and frequently overlooked. These range from sophisticated innovations with high-tech materials to a phenomenon known as “frugal innovation.” </p>
<h2>Chile looks to the future</h2>
<p>Chile is an example of how Latin America is embracing renewable energy while trying to plan a more self-reliant future.</p>
<p>New geothermal, solar and <a href="https://www.evwind.es/2023/02/13/repsol-and-ibereolica-renovables-start-producing-electricity-at-the-atacama-wind-farm-chile/90178">wind power</a> projects – some built with Chinese backing, <a href="https://www.eulaif.eu/en/news/first-concentrated-solar-power-plant-latin-america-built-support-eu-laif-kfw-and-corfo">but not all</a> – have pushed Chile far past its 2025 renewable energy goal. <a href="https://www.iea.org/countries/chile">About one-third</a> of the country is now powered by clean energy.</p>
<p>But the big prize, and a large part of China’s interest, lies buried in Chile’s Atacama Desert, home to the world’s <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/all-eyes-chile-amid-global-scramble-lithium">largest lithium reserves</a>. Lithium, a silvery-white metal, is essential for producing lithium ion batteries that power most electric vehicles and utility-scale energy storage. Countries around the world have been scrambling to secure lithium sources, and the Chilean government is determined to keep control over its reserves, currently about <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2021/mcs2021-lithium.pdf">one-half of the planet’s known supply</a> .</p>
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<img alt="A worker carries a large hose along the edge of a turquoise lithium pond. The worker is wearing a facemask against the dust and reflective gear." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534465/original/file-20230627-25-yw2py4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534465/original/file-20230627-25-yw2py4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534465/original/file-20230627-25-yw2py4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534465/original/file-20230627-25-yw2py4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534465/original/file-20230627-25-yw2py4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534465/original/file-20230627-25-yw2py4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534465/original/file-20230627-25-yw2py4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Brine slowly turns into lithium at the Albemarle lithium mine in Chile’s Atacama Desert.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ChileLithium/7ec3d5fa4a5c4a98a60138eda15146d9/photo">AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd</a></span>
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<p>In April 2023, Chile’s president announced a <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/chiles-national-lithium-strategy-new-beginning">national lithium strategy</a> to ensure that the state holds partial ownership of some future lithium developments. The move, which has yet to be approved, has <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/05/26/chile-lithium-batteries-mining-environment-climate-energy-transition/">drawn complaints</a> that it could slow production. </p>
<p>However, the government aims to <a href="https://www.investchile.gob.cl/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/brochure-litio-.pdf">increase profits from lithium production</a> while strengthening environmental safeguards and sharing more wealth with the country’s citizens, including local communities impacted by lithium projects. Latin America has seen its resources <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2017/10/05/NA100517-Missed-Opportunities-The-Economic-History-of-Latin-America">sold out from under it</a> before, and Chile doesn’t intend to lose out on its natural value this time.</p>
<h2>Learning from foreign investors</h2>
<p>Developing its own renewable energy industry has been a priority in Chile for well over a decade, but it’s been a rough road at times.</p>
<p>In 2009, the government began establishing national and international centers of excellence – <a href="https://anid.cl/centros-e-investigacion-asociativa/centros-de-excelencia-internacional/">Centros de Excelencia Internacional</a> – for research in strategic fields such as solar energy, geothermal energy and climate resilience. It invited and co-financed foreign research institutes, such as Europe’s influential <a href="https://www.fraunhofer.de/en.html">Fraunhofer institute</a> and France’s <a href="https://www.engie.com/en/innovation-transition-energetique/centres-de-recherche/crigen">ENGIELab</a>, to establish branches in Chile and conduct applied research. The latest is a <a href="https://www.oecd.org/dev/Corfo-Session_7_Chilean-Clean_Technologies_Institute.pdf">center for the production of lithium using solar energy</a>.</p>
<p>The government expected that the centers would work with local businesses and research centers, transferring knowledge to feed a local innovation ecosystem. However, reality hasn’t yet matched the expectations. The foreign institutions brought their own trained personnel. And except for the recently established institute for lithium, officials tell us that low financing has been a major problem.</p>
<h2>Chile’s startup incubator and frugal innovation</h2>
<p>While big projects get the headlines, more is going on under the radar.</p>
<p>Chile is home to one of the largest public incubators and seed accelerators in Latin America, <a href="https://startupchile.org/">StartUp Chile</a>. It has helped several local startups that offer important innovations in food, energy, social media, biotech and other sectors.</p>
<p>Often in South America, this kind of innovation is born and developed in a resource-scarce context and under technological, financial and material constraints. This “frugal innovation” emphasizes sustainability with substantially lower costs.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Reborn Electric Motors converts old fossil fuel buses into fully electric versions. They are used in urban areas and also by the mining industry.</span></figcaption>
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<p>For example, the independent Chilean startup <a href="https://rebornelectric.cl/">Reborn Electric Motors</a> has developed a business converting old diesel bus fleets into fully electric buses. Reborn was founded in 2016 when the national electromobility market in Chile was in its early stages, before China’s BYD ramped up electric bus use in local cities. </p>
<p>Reborn’s retrofitted buses are both technologically advanced and significantly cheaper than their Chinese counterparts. While BYD’s new electric bus costs roughly US$320,000, a retrofitted equivalent from Reborn costs roughly half, around $170,000. The company has also secured funding to develop a prototype for <a href="https://rebornelectric.cl/hydra-consortium-of-which-reborn-electric-motors-is-a-part-begins-testing-of-the-green-hydrogen-prototype-for-mining-vehicles/">running mining vehicles on green hydrogen</a>.</p>
<p>Bolivia’s “tiny supercheap EV” developed by homegrown startup <a href="https://tuquantum.com/">Industrias Quantum Motors</a> is another example of frugal innovation in the electric vehicles space. The startup aspires to bring electric mobility widely to the Latin American population. It offers the tiniest EV car possible, one that can be plugged into a standard wall socket. The car costs around $6,000 and has a range of approximately 34 miles (55 kilometers) per charge.</p>
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<img alt="A tiny car big enough for one person, with no passenger seats, drives down a street of brick buildings. Quantum Motors, its maker, is based in Bolivia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534466/original/file-20230627-34413-fbnmsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534466/original/file-20230627-34413-fbnmsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534466/original/file-20230627-34413-fbnmsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534466/original/file-20230627-34413-fbnmsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534466/original/file-20230627-34413-fbnmsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534466/original/file-20230627-34413-fbnmsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534466/original/file-20230627-34413-fbnmsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Quantum Motors, a startup in Bolivia, launched its affordable mini-vehicles in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BoliviaElectricCars/27f7b88da1d147408aca8fca231b4599/photo">AP Photo/Juan Karita</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.phineal.com/en/home_en/">Phineal</a> is another promising Chilean company that offers clean energy solutions, focusing on solar energy projects. Its projects include solar systems installation, electromobility technology and technology using blockchain to improve renewable energy management in Latin America. Many of these are highly sophisticated and technologically advanced projects that have found markets overseas, including in Germany.</p>
<h2>Looking ahead to green hydrogen</h2>
<p>Chile is also diving into another cutting-edge area of clean energy. Using its abundant solar and wind power to <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2022/12/country-case-chile-bet-on-green-hydrogen-Bartlett">produce green hydrogen</a> for export as a fossil fuel replacement has become a government priority.</p>
<p>The government is developing a <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/how-chile-is-becoming-a-leader-in-renewable-energy/">public-private partnership</a> of an unprecedented scale in Chile for hydrogen production and has committed to cover 30% of an expected <a href="https://energia.gob.cl/sites/default/files/national_green_hydrogen_strategy_-_chile.pdf">$193 million public and private investment</a>, funded in part by its lithium and copper production. Some questions surround the partnership, including Chile’s lack of experience administering such a large project and concerns about the <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2022/12/country-case-chile-bet-on-green-hydrogen-Bartlett">environmental impact</a>. The government claims Chile’s green energy production could <a href="https://energia.gob.cl/sites/default/files/national_green_hydrogen_strategy_-_chile.pdf">eventually rival its mining industry</a>.</p>
<p>With plentiful hydropower and sunshine, Latin America already meets a <a href="https://www.mapfreglobalrisks.com/gerencia-riesgos-seguros/articulos/energias-renovables-tendencias-en-latinoamerica/">quarter of its energy demand</a> with renewables – nearly twice the global average. Chile and its neighbors envision those numbers only rising.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208561/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zdenka Myslikova is affiliated with the Climate Policy Lab in The Fletcher School at Tufts University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathaniel Dolton-Thornton is affiliated with the Climate Policy Lab in The Fletcher School at Tufts University.</span></em></p>China is a major investor in Latin America’s renewable energy and critical minerals like lithium, but countries like Chile are also taking steps to secure their own clean energy future.Zdenka Myslikova, Postdoctoral Scholar in Clean Energy Innovation, Tufts UniversityNathaniel Dolton-Thornton, Assistant Researcher in Climate Policy, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2074592023-06-26T13:03:56Z2023-06-26T13:03:56ZFifty years after the Uruguay coup, why so few people have been brought to justice for dictatorship crimes<p>Uruguay marks 50 years from the beginning of its <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3338122">coup</a> on June 27. On this day in 1973, President <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/19/juan-maria-bordaberry-obituary">Juan Maria Bordaberry</a> and the armed forces shut down parliament and inaugurated 12 years of state terror (1973-1985). </p>
<p>This anniversary offers an opportunity to reflect on why Uruguay has not brought more people to trial for <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=drBFEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=uruguay+human+rights+violations&ots=C_qHgKFp33&sig=0bZVwwvPb-Uslbjp-GpqCY7xGu8&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=uruguay%20human%20rights%20violations&f=false">human rights violations</a> committed during this dictatorship. </p>
<p>For decades, Uruguay was known as “the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1662-6370.2008.tb00110.x">Switzerland of Latin America</a>”, given its longstanding stability and democratic traditions, and its welfare state. In 1973, little attention was initially paid to Uruguay’s regime, perhaps owing to the country’s reputation, and its geopolitical location – overshadowed by two bigger neighbours, Argentina and Brazil. That year most international attention focused on the spectacular coup against the Chilean president, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Salvador-Allende">Salvador Allende</a>. </p>
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<h2>Imprisonment, interrogation and torture</h2>
<p>However, Uruguay’s regime was equally violent and repressive. Within a short time, Uruguay earned a new nickname: the “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064227708532645">torture chamber of Latin America</a>”. By early 1976, Uruguay had the highest per capita concentration of <a href="https://sarahbsnyder.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Ending-our-support-for-the-dictators-Ed-Koch-Uruguay-and-human-rights.pdf">political prisoners in the world</a>.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/amr520131979en.pdf">Amnesty International</a>, one in every 500 citizens was in prison for political reasons and “one in every 50 citizens had been through a period of imprisonment, which for many included interrogation and torture”. Besides the thousands of people imprisoned and tortured, the dictatorship left behind a legacy of <a href="https://www.gub.uy/secretaria-derechos-humanos-pasado-reciente/comunicacion/publicaciones/listado-personas-detenidas-desaparecidas-responsabilidad-yo-aquiescencia">197 state-sponsored enforced disappearances</a> and <a href="https://www.gub.uy/secretaria-derechos-humanos-pasado-reciente/comunicacion/publicaciones/listados-asesinadas-asesinados-politicos-fallecidos-responsabilidad-yo">202 extrajudicial executions</a> between 1968 and 1985. </p>
<p>Repression was brutal not only within Uruguay’s borders but also beyond. My <a href="https://yalebooks.co.uk/page/detail/the-condor-trials/?k=9780300254099">book</a> on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/03/operation-condor-the-illegal-state-network-that-terrorised-south-america">Operation Condor</a> – a repressive campaign waged by South American dictatorships, and backed by the US, to silence opponents in exile – illustrates how Uruguayans represent the largest number of victims (<a href="https://plancondor.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/20230411-informe-ingles.pdf">48% of the total</a>) persecuted beyond borders between 1969 and 1981.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/operation-condor-why-victims-of-the-oppression-that-swept-1970s-south-america-are-still-fighting-for-justice-186789">Operation Condor: why victims of the oppression that swept 1970s South America are still fighting for justice</a>
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<h2>Justice or impunity?</h2>
<p>Uruguay <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3338320.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A6d4c727a5812dc33920cb58f7fa72974&ab_segments=&origin=&initiator=">returned to democracy</a> on March 1 1985, with the inauguration of President <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sanguinetti-julio-maria-1936">Juan Maria Sanguinetti</a>. Prospects for justice were restricted from the start. Uruguay’s generals and representatives of three political parties <a href="https://www.bandaoriental.com.uy/libro/el-uruguay-en-transicion-1981-1985/">had negotiated the transition</a> through the <a href="https://web.s.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzU3NDk1OV9fQU41?sid=91e4cf6e-d742-4bfa-9739-3fe29ba006b0@redis&vid=0&format=EB&lpid=lp_31&rid=0">Navy Club Pact</a>. </p>
<p>Among other things, the latter established a timetable for the return of democracy, restored the political system that pre-existed the dictatorship, including the constitution of 1967, and called for national elections in November 1984. Elections did take place, but with some politicians banned. </p>
<p>In December 1986, the democratic parliament then sanctioned Law 15.848 on the expiry of the punitive claims of the state. This “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/amnesty-in-the-age-of-human-rights-accountability/barriers-to-justice/0EA038B67B9DC9E15C500565D8F73B77">impunity law</a>” effectively shielded police and military officers from accountability for dictatorship-era atrocities, ensuring executive control and oversight over justice. It was introduced at a time of increasing opposition by the armed forces to emerging <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/human-rights-and-democratization-in-latin-america-9780198280385?cc=gb&lang=en&">judicial investigations</a> into past crimes.</p>
<p>The expiry law successfully ensured that the state-sponsored policy of impunity, where crimes are not punished, would remain in place for 25 years, until 2011. I have analysed elsewhere the ups and downs of <a href="https://link.springer.com/series/14807/books?page=2">Uruguay’s relationship</a> with accountability. </p>
<p>Fast forwarding to the present time, Uruguay has a reputation as a regional leader in some human rights issues (for example, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Abortion-and-Democracy-Contentious-Body-Politics-in-Argentina-Chile-and/Sutton-Vacarezza/p/book/9780367529413">reproductive rights</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/02/uruguay-marriage-equality-approved">equal marriage</a>). But it has only achieved very limited justice for dictatorship-era atrocities.</p>
<h2>Comparing Uruguay with Argentina</h2>
<p>As of June 2023, Uruguayan courts have delivered sentences in just 20 criminal cases and condemned 28 defendants in total, some of whom were involved in multiple cases, (from figures compiled from data by myself and NGO <a href="https://www.observatorioluzibarburu.org/">Observatorio Luz Ibarburu</a>).</p>
<p>As a point of comparison, Argentinian tribunals have handed down <a href="https://www.fiscales.gob.ar/lesa-humanidad/desde-2006-fueron-dictadas-301-sentencias-por-crimenes-de-lesa-humanidad-en-argentina/">301 verdicts</a> since 2006, with 1,136 individuals sentenced for the crimes of the dictatorship (1976-1983). </p>
<p>Similarly, as of December 31 2022, 606 final verdicts have been handed down in trials for dictatorship-era crimes in Chile, 487 in criminal and civil cases (heard together), and 119 only civil cases, according to data from the <a href="https://derechoshumanos.udp.cl/observatorio-de-justicia-transicional/">Transitional Justice Observatory</a> at Diego Portales University.</p>
<p>Alongside colleagues at the University of Oxford, we developed an <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24518345.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Aeed94c9538aadcddc5001fd1b128a209&ab_segments=&origin=&initiator=">approach</a> to account for why some countries hold perpetrators of past human rights violations accountable, while others do not.</p>
<p>It is based on <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ijtj/article/8/1/75/758926#13322005">four factors</a>: civil society demand; the absence of veto players (such as politicians who oppose accountability for, or investigation into, past human rights violations); domestic judicial leadership; and international pressure. This basic approach helps understand Uruguay’s enduring struggles. Although all four factors are at play in the country, they clash with each other and favour impunity overall.</p>
<p>Uruguay has seen significant levels of international pressure, including the famous “<a href="https://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_221_ing.pdf">Gelman</a>” verdict in 2011 from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that was instrumental in <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2011/10/uruguay-congress-adopts-landmark-law-tackle-impunity/">repealing</a> the expiry law in 2011. Simultaneously, there has been relentless civil society demand for justice, from the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/762359">landmark 1989 referendum</a> to overturn the expiry law to, most recently, calls to modify the 2006 <a href="https://ladiaria.com.uy/justicia/articulo/2023/5/crysol-propuso-una-peticion-ante-la-cidh-para-revocar-incompatibilidad-entre-el-cobro-de-la-pension-reparatoria-y-la-jubilacion-y-pensiones/">reparations law</a> for political prisoners.</p>
<p>Undoubtedly, most progress in justice, truth and reparations has been achieved in Uruguay thanks to the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ijtj/article-abstract/7/2/306/72299">tireless efforts by activists and NGOs</a>, including the central trade union, which has spurred authorities to investigate. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, Uruguay has never committed to the investigation of past atrocities as a <a href="https://www.penguinlibros.com/ar/tematicas/160681-ebook-justicia-o-impunidad-9789974732445">state policy</a> as Argentina has done. A set of powerful players, which includes the armed forces, various politicians and high court judges, have ensured that the wall of impunity remained in place with few exceptions.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-latin-american-studies/article/wavering-courts-from-impunity-to-accountability-in-uruguay/0461670D7469DB908BCCD006476C66B7">lack of judicial independence</a> and the sanctioning of a few courageous judges who attempted to defy impunity in the 1990s and 2000s – most recently <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/2/22/uruguays-culture-of-impunity-continues-to-rear-its-head">Mariana Mota</a> – has obstructed progress too. </p>
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<p>Another factor is the significant number of judgements <a href="https://www.wola.org/analysis/new-ruling-uruguays-supreme-court-justice-jeopardizes-search-truth-justice-dictatorship-era-crimes/">in the supreme court</a> which downplayed the severity of the crimes committed during the dictatorship.</p>
<p>Positive change might be on the horizon though. A new <a href="http://www.impo.com.uy/bases/codigo-proceso-penal-2017/19293-2014">criminal procedure code</a> introduced in 2017 means that dictatorship-era allegations (filed since then) are investigated more quickly. And the creation in 2018 of a <a href="https://www.gub.uy/fiscalia-general-nacion/politicas-y-gestion/especializada-crimenes-lesa-humanidad">specialised prosecutor</a> for crimes against humanity – a long standing demand by human rights activists – has resulted in more investigations coming to trial and at a faster pace. </p>
<p>As Uruguayan poet <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/20/obituary-mario-benedetti">Mario Benedetti</a> famously said about memory and oblivion, when truth finally sweeps around the world: “<em>esa verdad será que no hay olvido</em>” – “that truth will be that there is no forgetting”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francesca Lessa’s project on Operation Condor received funding from the University of Oxford John Fell Fund, The British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, the University of Oxford ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, the European Commission under Horizon 2020, and the Open Society Foundations. She is the Honorary President of the Observatorio Luz Ibarburu, a network of human rights NGOs in Uruguay.</span></em></p>Argentina has convicted more people for its dictatorship-era crimes than Uruguay has.Francesca Lessa, Lecturer in Latin American Studies and Development, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2070782023-06-16T12:36:59Z2023-06-16T12:36:59ZThe Global South is forging a new foreign policy in the face of war in Ukraine, China-US tensions: Active nonalignment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532264/original/file-20230615-16608-dw7p4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=365%2C455%2C3502%2C2143&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lula and Modi walking a new diplomatic path.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vietnams-prime-minister-pham-minh-chinh-japans-prime-news-photo/1256611319?adppopup=true">Takashi Aoyama/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What does the Ukraine war have to do with Brazil? On the face of it, perhaps not much.</p>
<p>Yet, in his <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/01/1146518711/leftist-lula-brazil-sworn-in-president">first six months in office</a>, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – now in his third nonconsecutive term – has expended much effort <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/24/americas/brazil-lula-ukraine-peace-coalition-intl-latam/index.html">trying to bring peace</a> to the conflict in Eastern Europe. This has included <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/02/10/joint-statement-following-the-meeting-between-president-biden-and-president-lula/">conversations with U.S. President Joe Biden</a> in Washington, <a href="https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202304/t20230414_11059515.html">Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing</a> and in a teleconference call with <a href="https://www.gov.br/planalto/en/latest-news/lula-speaks-via-videoconference-with-the-president-of-ukraine-volodymyr-zelensky">Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy</a>. It has also seen “shuttle diplomacy” by Lula’s chief foreign policy adviser – and former foreign minister – Celso Amorim, who has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/brazil-envoy-met-putin-push-ukraine-peace-talks-cnn-brasil-2023-04-03/">visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/18/brazil-russia-ukraine-kirby-blowback-00092485">welcomed his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov</a>, in Brasília.</p>
<p>One reason Brazil has been in a position to meet with such an array of parties involved in the conflict is because the nation <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/brazil-wont-take-sides-over-russias-invasion-ukraine-foreign-minister-2022-03-08/">has made a point of not taking sides</a> in the war. In so doing, Brazil is engaging in what my colleagues <a href="https://www.ids.ac.uk/people/carlos-fortin/">Carlos Fortin</a> and <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/columnist/carlos-ominami">Carlos Ominami</a> <a href="https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/profile/jorge-heine/">and I</a> have called “<a href="https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/2022/08/15/heine-outlines-the-doctrine-of-active-non-alignment/">active nonalignment</a>.” By this we mean a foreign policy approach in which countries from the Global South – Africa, Asia and Latin America – refuse to take sides in conflicts between the great powers and focus strictly on their own interests. It is an approach that The Economist has <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2023/04/11/how-to-survive-a-superpower-split">characterized as</a> “how to survive a superpower split.”</p>
<p>The difference between this new “nonalignment” and a similar approach <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-non-aligned-movement-in-the-21st-century-66057">adopted by nations in decades past</a> is that it is happening in an era in which developing nations are in a much stronger position than they once were, with rising powers emerging among them. For example, the gross domestic product in regard to purchasing power of the five BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – has <a href="https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2023/03/27/the-brics-has-overtaken-the-g7-in-global-gdp/">overtaken that of the G7</a> group of advanced economic nations. This growing economic power gives active nonaligned nations more international clout, allowing them to forge new initiatives and diplomatic coalition-building in a manner that would have been unthinkable before. Would, for example, João Goulart, who served as <a href="https://library.brown.edu/create/fivecenturiesofchange/chapters/chapter-6/presidents/joao-goulart/">Brazil’s president from 1961 to 1964</a>, have attempted to mediate in the Vietnam War, in the same way that Lula is doing with Ukraine? I believe to ask the question is to answer it.</p>
<h2>Neither neutral nor disinterested</h2>
<p>The growth of active nonalignment has been fueled by the increased competition and what I see as a <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/09/16/u.s.-china-trade-war-has-become-cold-war-pub-85352">budding second Cold War</a> between the United States and China. For many countries in the Global South, maintaining good relations with both Washington and Beijing has been crucial for economic development, as well as trade and investment flows.</p>
<p>It is simply not in their interest to take sides in this growing conflict. At the same time, active nonalignment is not to be confused with neutrality – <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/law8_final.pdf">a legal position under international law</a> that entails certain duties and obligations. Being neutral means not taking a stance, which is not the case in active nonalignment.</p>
<p>Nor is active nonalignment about remaining equidistant, politically, from the great powers. On some issues – say, on democracy and human rights – it is perfectly possible for an active nonaligned policy to take a position closer to the United States. While on others – say, international trade – the country may side more with China.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Men in suits stand by the coast." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532269/original/file-20230615-15503-3rtdan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532269/original/file-20230615-15503-3rtdan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532269/original/file-20230615-15503-3rtdan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532269/original/file-20230615-15503-3rtdan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532269/original/file-20230615-15503-3rtdan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532269/original/file-20230615-15503-3rtdan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532269/original/file-20230615-15503-3rtdan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Yugoslavian President Marshal Tito at the Non-Aligned Movement conference in 1956.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/from-left-to-right-egyptian-president-gamal-abdel-nasser-news-photo/1365178535?adppopup=true">Archive Photos/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>This form of nonalignment requires a highly fine-tuned diplomacy, one that examines each issue on its merits and makes choices steeped in statecraft. </p>
<h2>Opting out across the world</h2>
<p>As far as the war in Ukraine is concerned, it means not supporting either Russia or NATO. And Brazil isn’t the only country in the Global South taking that position, although it was the first to attempt to broker a peace agreement. </p>
<p>Across <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/05/05/western-allies-pressure-african-countries-to-condemn-russia/">Africa</a>, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/indonesia-jokowi-walks-tightrope-balancing-ties-with-russia-west/a-62396110">Asia</a> and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/fc8d51c8-5202-4862-a653-87d1603deded">Latin America</a>, several key countries have <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-two-elephants-fight-how-the-global-south-uses-non-alignment-to-avoid-great-power-rivalries-199418">refused to side with NATO</a>. Most prominent among them has been India, which despite its closer ties with the United States in recent years and its joining the <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/defining-diamond-past-present-and-future-quadrilateral-security-dialogue">Quadrilateral Security Dialogue</a> – or the “Quad,” a group sometimes described as an “Asian NATO” – with the U.S., Japan and Australia, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/2023/03/16/explainer-why-india-walks-a-tightrope-between-us-and-russia/8bbe579c-c3fa-11ed-82a7-6a87555c1878_story.html">refused to condemn Russia’s invasion</a> of Ukraine and has significantly <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-16/india-now-buying-33-times-more-russian-oil-than-a-year-earlier">increased its imports of Russian oil</a>.</p>
<p>India’s nonalignment will presumably be on the agenda during <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-modi-india-state-visit-white-house-c969d6e4e9770c105ca7affe7c190714">Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talks with Biden</a> in his upcoming visit to Washington.</p>
<p>Indeed, the position of India, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-12557384">world’s largest democracy</a>, shows how the war in Ukraine, far from reflecting that the main geopolitical cleavage in the world today is between democracy and autocracy, <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/democracy-vs-autocracy-biden-s-inflection-point">as Biden has argued</a>, reveals that the real divide is between the Global North and the Global South.</p>
<p>Some of the most populous democracies in the world in addition to India – countries like <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/indonesia-jokowi-walks-tightrope-balancing-ties-with-russia-west/a-62396110">Indonesia</a>, <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/pakistan-plays-on-both-sides-of-ukraine-war/articleshow/98496174.cms?from=mdr">Pakistan</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/6/2/a-russian-love-affair-why-south-africa-stays-neutral-on-war">South Africa</a>, Brazil, <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/collection/blog-mexico-and-war-ukraine">Mexico</a> and <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/03/24/argentina-fernandez-russia-ukraine-war-brazil-lula-nonalignment/">Argentina</a> – have refused to side with NATO. Almost no country in Africa, Asia and Latin America has supported <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/countries-have-sanctioned-russia">the diplomatic and economic sanctions</a> against Russia. </p>
<p>Although many of these nations have voted to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the United Nations General Assembly, where <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/13/un-condemns-russias-annexations-in-ukraine-how-countries-voted">140-plus member states have repeatedly done so</a>, none wants to make what they consider to be a European war into a global one.</p>
<h2>How the ‘great powers’ are reacting</h2>
<p>Washington has seemingly been <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/09/10/nonalignment-superpowers-developing-world-us-west-russia-china-india-geopolitics-ukraine-war-sanctions/">caught by surprise</a> by this reaction, having portrayed the war in Ukraine as a choice between good and evil – one where the future of the “rules-based international order” is at stake. Similarly, during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/08/27/taking-nonalignment-seriously/">referred to nonalignment as “immoral</a>.”</p>
<p>Russia has seen the new nonaligned movement as an opening to bolster its own position, with Foreign Minister Lavrov <a href="https://jamestown.org/program/lavrov-returns-to-africa/">crisscrossing Africa, Asia and Latin America</a> to buttress Moscow’s opposition to sanctions. China, in turn, has ramped up its campaign to enhance the <a href="https://theconversation.com/war-in-ukraine-might-give-the-chinese-yuan-the-boost-it-needs-to-become-a-major-global-currency-and-be-a-serious-contender-against-the-us-dollar-205519">international role of the yuan</a>, arguing that the weaponization of the U.S. dollar against Russia only confirms the dangers of relying on it as the main world currency.</p>
<p>But I would argue that active nonalignment depends as much on regional multilateralism and cooperation as it does on these high-profile meetings. A recent <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/south-americas-presidents-meet-in-brazil-for-the-first-regional-summit-in-9-years">South American diplomatic summit</a> in Brasília called by Lula – the first such meeting held in 10 years – reflects Brazil’s awareness of the need to work with neighbors to deploy its international initiatives. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three men sit at a bench the one in the center has a plaque saying 'Brazil' on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532266/original/file-20230615-17-62b2q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532266/original/file-20230615-17-62b2q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532266/original/file-20230615-17-62b2q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532266/original/file-20230615-17-62b2q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532266/original/file-20230615-17-62b2q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532266/original/file-20230615-17-62b2q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532266/original/file-20230615-17-62b2q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks during a meeting with fellow South American leaders on May 30, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/brazils-president-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva-speaks-during-a-news-photo/1258293847?adppopup=true">Mateus Bonomi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Think local, act global</h2>
<p>This need to act jointly is also driven by the <a href="https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/latin-america-crisis-economy-castillo-peru-lula-brazil-chile-boric/">region’s economic crisis</a>. In 2020, Latin America was hit by its worst economic downturn in 120 years, with regional GDP <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---americas/---ro-lima/---sro-port_of_spain/documents/genericdocument/wcms_819029.pdf">falling by an average of 6.6%</a>. The region also suffered the highest COVID-19 death rate anywhere in the world, accounting <a href="https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/47923/1/S2200158_en.pdf">for close to 30% of global fatalities</a> from the pandemic despite comprising just over 8% of the world’s population. In this context, to be caught in the middle of a great power battle is unappealing, and active nonalignment has resonated.</p>
<p>Beyond the incipient U.S.-China Cold War and the war in Ukraine, the resurrection of nonalignment in its new “active” incarnation reflects a widespread disenchantment in the Global South with what has been <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/09/liberal-international-order-free-world-trump-authoritarianism/569881/">known as the “Liberal International Order”</a> in existence since World War II. </p>
<p>This order is seen as increasingly frayed and unresponsive to the needs of developing countries on issues ranging from <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/international-debt-time-global-restructuring-framework">international indebtedness</a> and <a href="https://time.com/6246278/david-beasley-global-hunger-interview/">food security</a> to <a href="https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/migration-myths-and-the-global-south/">migration</a> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/5/11/climate-change-is-devastating-the-global-south">and climate change</a>. To many nations in the Global South, calls to uphold the “rules-based order” appear to serve only the foreign policy interests of the great powers, rather than the global public good. In such a context, it is perhaps not surprising that so many nations are actively refusing to be caught in an “us versus them” dynamic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jorge Heine is a Wilson Center Global Fellow and a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for China and Globalization and a former Chilean ambassador to China, to India and to South Africa.</span></em></p>Brazil and India are among the countries pointedly not taking sides over the war in Ukraine. But this is not the nonaligned movement of yesteryear.Jorge Heine, Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2077972023-06-15T17:37:26Z2023-06-15T17:37:26ZCrowdsourcing new constitutions: How 2 Latin American countries increased participation and empowered groups excluded from politics – podcast<p>Over the past few decades, countries across Latin America have witnessed a surge in demands by its people for increased political participation and representation. Colombia and Chile stand out as notable examples of countries responding to these calls with constitutional reform. </p>
<p>Colombia’s 1991 constitution emerged from <a href="http://ips-project.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/The-1991-Colombian-National-Constituent-Assembly.pdf">a backdrop of armed conflict and social unrest</a>. It represented a turning point in the country’s history by acknowledging the multicultural fabric of Colombian society, including Indigenous communities and Afro-Colombian populations.</p>
<p>Likewise in Chile, the government has embarked on a journey of constitutional reform in response to the widespread discontent and social unrest that erupted in 2019. The protests reflected grievances related to inequality, education, health care and pension systems, and a desire to replace the constitution imposed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. </p>
<p>Under the new government of progressive president Gabriel Boric, <a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-progressive-new-constitution-rejected-by-voters-after-campaign-marred-by-misinformation-190371">a draft constitution was presented to the people</a>. The draft included progressive elements such as gender parity, Indigenous rights and a restructuring of the parliamentary system to distribute power more evenly. </p>
<p>The draft was ultimately rejected in a referendum in September 2022, although some commentators argue that the process remains a victory for democracy.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-progressive-new-constitution-rejected-by-voters-after-campaign-marred-by-misinformation-190371">Chile's progressive new constitution rejected by voters after campaign marred by misinformation</a>
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<p>In this week’s episode of <em>The Conversation Weekly</em>, we speak with two researchers about Latin America’s ongoing democratic transition, with a particular focus on the involvement of populations in democratic processes in Colombia and Chile. </p>
<p>We examine how countries are looking to empower their populations through crowdsourcing participation, what the implications of these reforms for marginalized communities are and how Chile’s rejection of a progressive constitution remains a significant step for empowering citizens.</p>
<iframe src="https://embed.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/648b152cc6f9af0011f94bb1" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="190px"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-561" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/561/4fbbd099d631750693d02bac632430b71b37cd5f/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Crowdsourcing the constitution</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/carlos-bernal-1447440">Carlos Bernal</a> is a professor of law at the University of Dayton in the United States and commissioner of the America Human Rights Commission. As part of his research, he focuses on what he calls “constitutional crowdsourcing,” a process by which governments gather the opinions, views and demands of their populations in the making of a constitution. </p>
<p>The basic idea is that in a democracy, everyone should have the chance to participate and define the institutions that preside over them. Bernal says, as societies change, so do the social and political values of that society — and this change can be a challenge to a constitution. “If a constitution becomes a stagnant in the past, that constitution is not able, is not relevant anymore.”</p>
<p>To reflect those shifts, countries can either enact legislation to supplement the constitution, or they can specify the meaning of the constitution without changing the wording. But in certain instances, simple amendments of a constitution might not be enough to reflect those social shifts. </p>
<p>“And when there is a big gap between the constitution text and the constitutional reality,” Bernal adds, “the constitution must be replaced to create a new institutional framework that is able to regulate your society.”</p>
<h2>Political inclusion</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jennifer-m-piscopo-378304">Jennifer Piscopo</a> is an associate professor of politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles, in the United States. Her work focuses on representation, gender quotas and legislative institutions in Latin America, and how countries involve underrepresented groups in political processes. </p>
<p>She says that during Latin America’s democratic transition in the 1980s, “women were very active in the human rights movements that criticized the abuses under authoritarian governments. They were very active in the peace movements that really urged for an end to the conflict in Central America.”</p>
<p>But she says when democratic systems began replacing authoritarian governments, there was a gap between women’s roles as activists and in the democratic transition, versus the kinds of opportunities they had in politics. So when, in September 2022, <a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-progressive-new-constitution-rejected-by-voters-after-campaign-marred-by-misinformation-190371">the new draft constitution was rejected</a>, many observers were perplexed. Some analysis argued the government’s radically democratic process had been too ambitious.</p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chile-starts-second-attempt-draft-new-constitution-2023-03-06/">the government initiated a second, more institutional process for drafting a new constitution</a>, which removed certain representational quotas for Indigenous people and women that had characterized the first constitutional process.</p>
<p>But according to Piscopo, although the first draft was rejected, “there is still an appetite for processes that are more open and more democratic. The challenge is, electorates are fickle and how do you hold someone’s attention and someone’s preferences in a stable way as everyday politics is pushing them around?”</p>
<p>Listen to the full episode of <em>The Conversation Weekly</em> to learn more about Latin America’s democratic transition, crowdsourcing constitutional processes, and what their impact means for marginalized groups. </p>
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<p>This episode was written and produced by Mend Mariwany, who is also the executive producer of The Conversation Weekly. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. </p>
<p>Listen to <em>The Conversation Weekly</em> via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207797/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Piscopo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article. She is a Senior Advisor to the Gender Equity Policy Institute in Los Angeles, United States.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlos Bernal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article. He is commissioner of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.</span></em></p>People across Latin America are demanding greater political participation. Some countries, including Colombia and Chile, have responded by involving citizens in the making of their constitutions.Mend Mariwany, Producer, The Conversation Weekly, The Conversation Weekly PodcastNehal El-Hadi, Science + Technology Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1980542023-01-29T14:27:15Z2023-01-29T14:27:15ZMigrants don’t cause crime rates to increase — but false perceptions endure anyway<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506635/original/file-20230126-27856-ra28za.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3956%2C1812&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Venezuelan migrant child cries after the police told his family to break up a camp they had set up on the seashore in El Morro, a neighbourhood of Iquique, Chile, in December 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Immigration is a critical topic in contemporary political and academic debates. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfx039">Politicians</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2021.1925321">the general population alike</a> in countries around the world have often shown hostility towards immigrants.</p>
<p>A typical argument made by those who oppose immigration is that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108626286">it increases crime</a>. If people believe immigrants cause crime rates to climb, it’s not hard to understand a backlash. But what if immigration doesn’t actually increase crime, but affects perceptions about crime anyway?</p>
<p>Although most <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1542-4774.2012.01085.x">research shows immigration has either no impact or a minimal impact on crime</a>, many people seem to believe the connection exists. It seems hostility against immigrants isn’t crime itself but false perceptions about crime.</p>
<h2>The scene in Chile</h2>
<p>My fellow researchers and I have explored this hypothesis in the case of Chile, a country recently exposed to a massive influx of immigrants. <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/chile-immigrants-rising-numbers">From 2002 to 2012, the proportion of migrants grew from one per cent to two per cent of the population.</a> </p>
<p>In 2017, the same indicator represented close to five per cent and surpassed <a href="https://serviciomigraciones.cl/estadisticasmigratorias/estimacionesdeextranjeros/">6.5 per cent the following year</a>. </p>
<p>Not only did the magnitude change, but also the composition of immigrants changed strongly in recent years, with the <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211002-disappointed-haitians-hopeful-venezuelans-caught-up-at-chile-border">arrival of people from Venezuela and Haiti,</a> similar to what happened in other Latin American countries. </p>
<p>A change of this magnitude raises a series of concerns, both regarding its impact on Chilean society as well as the country’s ability to accommodate diverse groups. </p>
<p>For example, a <a href="https://espaciopublico.cl/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Informe-Ipsos-Espacio-Publico-2018_cap2.pdf">nationally representative survey</a> on urban perceptions found that the main concern of Chileans about migration was citizen security (59 per cent), with economic concerns ranking third (46 per cent).</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, politicians often refer to the effect of migrants on specific aspects of the lives of Chileans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a mask among other people in masks holds up a sign that reads 'close the border now' in spanish" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506633/original/file-20230126-24317-6xvcd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3482%2C2272&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506633/original/file-20230126-24317-6xvcd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506633/original/file-20230126-24317-6xvcd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506633/original/file-20230126-24317-6xvcd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506633/original/file-20230126-24317-6xvcd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506633/original/file-20230126-24317-6xvcd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506633/original/file-20230126-24317-6xvcd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A demonstrator holds a sign that reads in Spanish ‘close the border now!!!’ as people take part in a march against illegal migration, in Iquique, Chile, in January 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ignacio Munoz)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not likely to be crime victims</h2>
<p>In recent work with Chilean academics Patricio Dominguez and Raimundo Undurraga to be published soon in the <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20210156&&from=f"><em>American Economic Journal</em></a>, we evaluate the impact of this wave of migration on the main concern of Chileans: crime. </p>
<p>We first document an interesting disparity: immigration has significantly impacted people’s perceptions of crime but has no effect on actual crime. </p>
<p>People more exposed to immigration inflows are more likely to rank crime as their first or second biggest concern. They’re more likely to believe that crime is affecting their quality of life, and more likely to believe that they will be a victim of a crime soon. </p>
<p>However, those citizens weren’t any more likely to have been victims of any type of crime in the previous months. Nor did the number of homicides grow disproportionately in the municipalities where they live.</p>
<p>In other words, misconceptions about crime increase when immigrants arrive in large numbers in a city. We also show that not only do people become scared, but they also take action, such as installing more alarms or paying for private security.</p>
<p>We then explore potential mechanisms underlying these main effects, testing different hypotheses. </p>
<p>A plausible explanation could be plain discrimination against certain types of immigrants. Specifically, we assess the role of ethnic-related inter-group threats. Those belonging to marginalized “out-groups” (people viewed as different) could be perceived as threatening to the extent that interactions with them foster anxiety and concerns for physical safety.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man sits with his head bowed on a beach as police offers surround him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506634/original/file-20230126-14416-dvfdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506634/original/file-20230126-14416-dvfdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506634/original/file-20230126-14416-dvfdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506634/original/file-20230126-14416-dvfdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506634/original/file-20230126-14416-dvfdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506634/original/file-20230126-14416-dvfdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506634/original/file-20230126-14416-dvfdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chilean police protect a Venezuelan migrant who was attacked by a demonstrator opposed to migration at a beach in Iquique, Chile, in January 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ignacio Munoz)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The role of the origin region</h2>
<p>Using a measure of bilateral ethnic distance <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jae.2633">widely used in economics</a>, we demonstrate that our results don’t vary based on the immigrants’ level of ethnic distance to Chile. </p>
<p>In other words, immigrants coming from ethnically similar or different countries than Chile elicit, on average, the same fear. Interestingly, we find that the effects on crime-related concerns are mainly driven by immigrants that do not have ethnically European origins. This result suggests that immigrants with European origins enjoy different status compared to other immigrant groups.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Children smile and laugh as they ride an amusement park ride." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506644/original/file-20230126-35203-o6u60a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506644/original/file-20230126-35203-o6u60a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506644/original/file-20230126-35203-o6u60a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506644/original/file-20230126-35203-o6u60a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506644/original/file-20230126-35203-o6u60a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506644/original/file-20230126-35203-o6u60a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506644/original/file-20230126-35203-o6u60a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ukrainian refugee children and their helpers ride a chain carousel in Frankfurt, Germany, in April 2022 after about 180 children were invited by the fun fair for free rides.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Michael Probst)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Additionally, we investigate the extent to which certain specific characteristics of the immigrant group may influence our results. </p>
<p>We show that the arrival of immigrants with lower levels of educational attainment may drive false perceptions of crime, even though the null effect on crime rates is the same for educated and lesser educated groups. Nonetheless, the impact on citizens in terms of behavioural reactions, such as installing alarms, appear to be more pronounced when immigrants are less educated.</p>
<p>Finally, we explore whether local media influences crime perceptions by measuring local radio stations per capita in municipalities.</p>
<p>Independent of whether they have a high or low number of local radio stations per capita, our findings suggest the effect of immigration on crime is minimal in all municipalities. But the effects on both crime-related fears and behavioural reactions are only significant in municipalities with a relatively large number of local radio stations.</p>
<h2>Fears unfounded</h2>
<p>Our findings hold significant implications for policy. </p>
<p>As Latin America is currently grappling with a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/14/americas/migration-latin-america-violence-intl-latam/index.html">severe migration crisis</a>, our research demonstrates that the concerns of citizens and governments over the potential relationship between immigration and crime in Chile appear to be unfounded. </p>
<p>This is a noteworthy conclusion, particularly as crime is frequently cited in anti-immigration narratives <a href="https://www.latercera.com/noticia/pinera-muchas-las-bandas-delincuentes-chile-extranjeros/">by politicians</a> and <a href="https://www.dw.com/es/la-marcha-antiinmigrantes-que-mostr%C3%B3-el-lado-m%C3%A1s-inhumano-de-chile/a-59331923">extremist groups</a>. </p>
<p>Our results provide formal documentation for what has already been suggested by anecdotal and survey evidence — increasing fears about crime in the region can be attributed to the recent influx of immigrants, but those fears aren’t based in reality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicolas Ajzenman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Increasing fears about crime in Chile can be attributed to the recent influx of immigrants, but research shows those concerns aren’t based in reality.Nicolas Ajzenman, Assistant Professor of Economics, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1906412022-10-05T15:55:29Z2022-10-05T15:55:29ZOn the brink: Global crises ranging from climate to economic meltdown demand radical change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486904/original/file-20220927-24-wjzum5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C135%2C8235%2C5387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Buildings sit in the water along the shore following Hurricane Fiona in Rose Blanche-Harbour Le Cou, Nfld. Fiona left a trail of destruction across much of Atlantic Canada.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We have damaged our planet through destructive exploitation of fossil fuels and the insatiable demand for things we don’t need. We are cooking ourselves to death and <a href="https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20220910-un-chief-says-world-paying-horrific-price-for-fossil-fuels-folly">it may already be too late to do anything about it</a>.</p>
<p>Multiple and intersecting crises — the pandemic, a changing climate, wars in Ukraine and elsewhere and associated economic sanctions — have produced real hardship for millions of people. The effects include food shortages, hunger, inflation, recessions and soaring energy costs that undermine climate action as coal-fired generation resumes. </p>
<p>Economically, wealth inequality is unprecedented. <a href="https://wir2022.wid.world/executive-summary/">The poorest half of the global population hardly owns any wealth</a>, just two per cent of the total. The richest 10 per cent of the global population own 76 per cent. </p>
<p>Yet we continue to believe that the marketplace, left mainly to self-regulate, will naturally stabilize economies. That belief has led to <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3847753?ln=en">unlimited growth and minimal intervention by governments to resolve staggering inequity</a> or even to manage the economy at all.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A blonde woman shouts to the crowd. A sign above her reads 'where are we supposed to go?'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486917/original/file-20220927-26-s7fkmh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486917/original/file-20220927-26-s7fkmh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486917/original/file-20220927-26-s7fkmh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486917/original/file-20220927-26-s7fkmh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486917/original/file-20220927-26-s7fkmh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486917/original/file-20220927-26-s7fkmh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486917/original/file-20220927-26-s7fkmh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman addresses the crowd during a protest against Vancouver’s removal of a homeless encampment in August 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Existential crises</h2>
<p>These are genuine existential crises. Climate change could end human life on Earth. Wars and conflicts, as bad as they already are, could swiftly escalate.</p>
<p>Any of these crises could trigger a horrible spill of dominoes. For example, war accelerates climate change, which pulls down the economy and potentially accelerates the death of democracy. I explore such possibilities in my new book <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/escaping-dystopia"><em>Escaping Dystopia</em></a>.</p>
<p>Few have confidence that existing political leaders and institutions will find solutions. There is enormous and often unarticulated dissatisfaction with how things are going and who is making decisions. </p>
<p>Voting and participation in politics are down. <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-records-lowest-voter-turnout-in-election-history-1.5931440">The 2022 election in Ontario</a>, for example, saw just 18 per cent of eligible voters electing a two-thirds majority government. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1532863966275178497"}"></div></p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en/populist-and-nativist-views-still-prevail">an Ipsos survey</a> covering 27 countries, more than 70 per cent of respondents said they believed their economies were controlled by the wealthy and more than 50 per cent said their own countries were broken. </p>
<p>Often considered the world’s most stable democracy, the United States is teetering badly, up to its neck in lies, manipulation, hypocrisy and greed. Its institutions are paralyzed by toxic partisanship, the streets are awash with combat weapons and racism has again reached levels so poisonous that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123419000590">some feel emboldened to express abhorrent views openly</a>.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canada-should-be-preparing-for-the-end-of-american-democracy-176930">Canada should be preparing for the end of American democracy</a>
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<p>Equally troubling is that in the neoliberal era, many decisions are taken out of politics and moved into the realm of agencies that are at arm’s length from governments or embedded in remote international organizations like <a href="https://jacobin.com/2022/05/eu-perry-anderson-ever-closer-union-book-review">the European Union</a>, or in trade treaties.</p>
<p>What’s left for governments to manage is not unimportant, but it’s a minor part of what they should be dealing with in democratic societies.</p>
<h2>Glimmers of hope</h2>
<p>All this points to a lack of representation and accountability, as well as the need for radical changes to our institutions and politics. </p>
<p>Avoiding catastrophe must involve devising new institutional structures that can achieve the goals of representation and accountability in new and effective ways based on the roles people play in society — whether they’re workers, farmers, business owners or caregivers, for example — and on their lived experiences.</p>
<p>But can the resistance of the privileged be overcome?</p>
<p>Before you start building an off-grid home in the woods, there are some causes for hope.</p>
<p>Consider the last century or so. As we look back, it’s clear that change is constant. Sometimes, it’s incremental. Other times it’s dramatic and radical. Although there are no guarantees about what direction change will take, things can change for the better, even when they seem lost. </p>
<p>Examples include the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Western-colonialism/Decolonization-from-1945">post-Second World War process of decolonizing European empires</a>, achieving <a href="https://socialprotection.org/discover/publications/universal-social-protection-country-cases">universal social programs in many countries</a> and important <a href="https://crossculturalsolidarity.com/the-global-context-of-the-civil-rights-movement/">gains in civil rights</a>.</p>
<p>People potentially have more power than they might realize. Expressions of specific discontent could expand into demands for more comprehensive change.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Police spray water at protesters. They are barely visible amid the jet sprays of water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486908/original/file-20220927-24-2rcud8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486908/original/file-20220927-24-2rcud8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486908/original/file-20220927-24-2rcud8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486908/original/file-20220927-24-2rcud8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486908/original/file-20220927-24-2rcud8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486908/original/file-20220927-24-2rcud8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486908/original/file-20220927-24-2rcud8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anti-government protesters are jet-sprayed by a police water cannon during clashes in Santiago, Chile, in March 2020 that began over an increase in subway fares and led to wider uprisings about inequality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Esteban Felix)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Chile, for example, a popular protest <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/world/americas/chile-protests.html">against higher subway fares led to demands for an entirely new constitution</a>. Although the draft of a new constitution was defeated in a referendum, constitutional change remains on the agenda. The process continues. </p>
<p>And while the final result of the Brazilian presidential election remains to be determined, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/02/1126461515/lula-bolsonaro-runoff-election-brazil">the first round victory of the left candidate shows a strong desire for change</a>.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/another-stress-test-for-democracy-the-imminent-election-crisis-in-brazil-191492">Another stress test for democracy: The imminent election crisis in Brazil</a>
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<h2>Returning to ‘normal’ not an option</h2>
<p>What should change look like? The desire to return to pre-pandemic “normal” is powerful, but “normal” is what got us where we are today.</p>
<p>Various reforms have been proposed, such as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/11/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-ed-markey">Green New Deal</a>, modelled on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1930s reforms that helped to end the Great Depression. Then, circumstances were sufficiently desperate to make reform possible.</p>
<p>Others argue that more radical reforms based on planning and a rejuvenated public domain are needed today.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/7-lessons-canada-should-use-from-ww2-to-fight-the-climate-emergency-145211">7 lessons Canada should use from WW2 to fight the climate emergency</a>
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<p>Are we there yet? Will climate and other crises be enough to prompt action? Have geopolitical and economic crises reached the stage where radical change is inevitable? We’ll see.</p>
<p>But getting back to normal and trusting existing institutions and markets to solve our problems is not a viable option.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190641/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen McBride receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canada Research Chairs program.</span></em></p>Amid a number of major crises, the world clearly needs radical change. But what will it look like? The desire to return to pre-pandemic ‘normal’ is powerful, but ‘normal’ is what got us where we are today.Stephen McBride, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Globalization, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1903712022-09-13T09:46:47Z2022-09-13T09:46:47ZChile’s progressive new constitution rejected by voters after campaign marred by misinformation<p>Despite recently electing Chile’s most progressive president in the shape of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-59694056">former student protest leader Gabriel Boric</a>, voters in the country have now rejected his most important reform. A plebiscite held on September 4 to replace the constitution imposed during the dictatorship of <a href="https://constitutionnet.org/country/constitutional-history-chile">Augusto Pinochet</a> with a progressive new one led to a solid no vote. This has effectively halted Boric’s agenda for reform.</p>
<p>The final ballot stood at 62% rejecting (<em>Rechazo</em>) the proposed document and just 38% approving (<em>Apruebo</em>). It was a result that directly contradicted the initial <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/25/world/americas/chile-constitution-plebiscite.html">plebiscite held in 2020</a> when 78% of voters backed the idea of a new constitution, after which Eliza Loncon, an indigenous left-wing academic <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-election-of-progressive-indigenous-academic-to-oversee-constitutional-reform-is-a-blow-to-right-wing-establishment-164088">was elected</a> to oversee a constitutional convention to write the document.</p>
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<p>The decision to rewrite the constitution came after months of political upheaval in 2019-20 caused by a crisis of inequality. Protests over metro fares in the capital, Santiago, developed into a mass social movement encompassing feminists, environmentalists, indigenous groups and anti-neoliberal activists calling for progressive socioeconomic change.</p>
<p>The new document was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/whats-chiles-proposed-new-constitution-2022-07-29/">certainly radical</a>, with a range of political and social reforms guaranteeing a range of social rights including housing, social security, health, work and access to food. There was also a range of proposed environmental reforms making fighting climate change a state duty and requiring the state to protect biodiversity, native species and natural spaces.</p>
<p>Political reforms included an element of direct democracy, gender parity, indigenous rights and a restructuring of the bicameral parliamentary system to give the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house) more power at the expense of the Senate.</p>
<p>Conceding defeat, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/23784a2e-7ed7-4f37-8921-eb5112683c33">Boric said</a>: “I’m sure all this effort won’t have been in vain, because this is how countries advance best, learning from experience and, when necessary, turning back on their tracks to find a new route forward.”</p>
<p>The “no” vote has not only halted the implementation of a new constitution, it has also forced a cabinet reshuffle. Boric has removed some of his more progressive ministers, including former interior minister <a href="https://www.weforum.org/people/izkia-siches">Izkia Siches</a>, a doctor of indigenous descent who helped shape Chile’s pandemic response. </p>
<p>In place he has brought in figures from Chile’s traditional political class such as <a href="https://chiletoday.cl/post-referendum-cabinet-changes-izkia-siches-and-others-out/">Carolina Toha</a>, a minister in former president Michelle Bachelet’s first administration. This hints at a shift toward centrist politics. </p>
<p>As such, the newly elected president seems increasingly fragile and politically isolated, with a much-reduced mandate.</p>
<p>Many commentators have been baffled by the referendum result, wondering how citizens that had galvanised across the nation for political change, have settled for a constitution enacted by one of Latin America’s most brutal dictators.</p>
<h2>Fearmongering and misinformation</h2>
<p>Fake news became a defining feature of the “<em>rechazo</em>” campaign which, in turn, the mainstream Chilean media was more than happy to amplify for clicks and views. One such story, propagated by far-right politician Felipe Kast who Boric defeated in the 2021 election, claimed that abortions would be legalised for up to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/31/chile-new-constitution-vote-misinformation">nine months into pregnancy</a>.</p>
<p>Kast also claimed, before retracting the story, that Venezuelan president Nicola Maduro had supported the draft constitution. Kast circulated on his Twitter feed a video <a href="https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2022/05/17/senador-felipe-kast-se-retracta-tras-difundir-falso-video-de-maduro-apoyando-el-borrador-de-la-nueva-constitucion-el-registro-es-de-2020/">purporting to back this claim</a>. He subsequently withdrew the claim and apologised. </p>
<p>Other “half-truths” circulating on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter were that private property would be expropriated, insurance funds could not be inherited, and that uniformed police would be abolished. An early 2022 survey found that <a href="https://www.adnradio.cl/los-21-plenos/2022/04/10/58-de-los-chilenos-afirman-conocer-informacion-falsa-sobre-convencion-constitucional.html">58% of Chileans</a> had been exposed to some form of misinformation.</p>
<p>Another line of attack focused on the people involved in writing the new constitution, who some critics argued were not representative of the whole of Chilean society but had a majority from the left. One critic, <a href="https://time.com/6193719/chile-constitution-reform-boric/">Kenneth Bunker</a>, said the quota system to ensure that indigenous groups were properly represented on the drafting body, also didn’t represent the conservative side of Chilean politics.</p>
<p>Ciper, an investigative media outlet, <a href="https://www.ciperchile.cl/2022/09/07/120-residentes-de-12-comunas-populares-de-la-region-metropolitana-explican-por-que-votaron-rechazo/">found</a> that most of those who voted against the new constitution did so because of false information. </p>
<p>Ciper surveyed 120 people across 12 districts of Santiago and found that the main reasons for rejecting the new constitution were people’s fear of having their property expropriated, scare campaigns about unrestricted abortions and the spectre of indigenous people having more rights than the rest of the nation. None of these are accurate reflections of the proposed reforms.</p>
<p>It’s a devastating blow for progressive politics in Chile. As the 50th anniversary of the military coup that ended the last progressive government in 1973 draws closer, it seems the country is no closer to shaking off Pinochet’s social and economic legacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190371/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carole Concha Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Voters have rejected radical proposals to overhaul the constitution established under the Pinochet dictatorship.Carole Concha Bell, PhD Candidate, Department of Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1893892022-08-30T06:04:32Z2022-08-30T06:04:32Z‘One of the most progressive and environmentally conscious legal texts on the planet’: Chile’s proposed constitution and its lessons for Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481707/original/file-20220830-8728-ot2pey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C4000%2C2634&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Olga Stalska/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Chile may soon be the second country in the world to grant constitutional rights to nature, under astoundingly progressive reforms proposed by the government. If approved in the national referendum on 4 September, <a href="https://www.chileconvencion.cl/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Texto-Definitivo-CPR-2022-Tapas.pdf">the new constitution</a> would deliver profound changes to the country. </p>
<p>It’s no surprise that 50 of the 387 constitutional provisions concern the environment. Like Australia, Chile is facing mounting environmental pressures. This includes an escalating water crisis made significantly more challenging by the mining industry, long seen as a key pillar of the economy.</p>
<p>The proposed constitution seeks to rapidly pivot Chile toward ecological democracy, one that can transition an economy long dependent on mineral extraction toward cleaner, less resource-intensive, and more socially just forms of living – <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0094582X211009242"><em>buen vivir</em></a>.</p>
<p>While the votes aren’t yet in, there are valuable lessons in this process for Australia and other countries grappling with similar concerns.</p>
<h2>An era of change</h2>
<p>This era of constitutional change began in 2019, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03349-y">when over one million Chileans took to the streets</a> to voice their discontent over economic and social conditions in the country. </p>
<p>Initially unstructured and spontaneous, the protests were sparked by an increase in public transport costs, but <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-protests-escalate-as-widespread-dissatisfaction-shakes-foundations-of-countrys-economic-success-story-125628">quickly coalesced</a> into a widespread constitutional crisis. </p>
<p>This crisis was an outcry against the deeply entrenched socio-economic inequalities seen as rooted in and perpetuated by the country’s legal framework. This is a legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), which saw <a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-political-crisis-is-another-brutal-legacy-of-long-dead-dictator-pinochet-126305">soaring wealth inequalities</a> and power concentrated in the hands of business elites and private corporations.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-political-crisis-is-another-brutal-legacy-of-long-dead-dictator-pinochet-126305">Chile's political crisis is another brutal legacy of long-dead dictator Pinochet</a>
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<p>In the face of both social and ecological breakdown, further intensified by the arrival of COVID-19, over 80% of Chileans voted in favour of re-writing the constitution in 2020. </p>
<p>In May 2021, a constitutional convention was elected, formed by 155 representatives from across the country. Notably, 50% of them were women, and it was led by Mapuche linguist and Indigenous rights activist <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-election-of-progressive-indigenous-academic-to-oversee-constitutional-reform-is-a-blow-to-right-wing-establishment-164088">Elisa Loncón</a>.</p>
<p>In July 2022, the convention delivered the much-anticipated draft constitution, which was immediately heralded by <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02069-0">supporters as</a> an “ecological constitution”.</p>
<h2>What are the reforms?</h2>
<p>Over the last decade, both Ecuador and Bolivia have been at the global forefront of advocating for the “rights of nature” or “the rights of Mother Earth”. These rights have made it possible to bring cases <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/02/plan-to-mine-in-ecuador-forest-violate-rights-of-nature-court-rules-aoe">on behalf of ecosystems into courts</a>, and to challenge the extractive imperatives of state ministries.</p>
<p>The proposed changes to Chile’s constitution build on these experiments, but take them considerably further. </p>
<p>Not only would Chile become the second nation after Ecuador to grant nature constitutional rights, they would also create an “ombudsman for nature” tasked with monitoring and enforcing them. According to the draft text, it would be the duty of the “state and society to protect and respect these rights”.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481710/original/file-20220830-21491-owd2ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481710/original/file-20220830-21491-owd2ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481710/original/file-20220830-21491-owd2ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481710/original/file-20220830-21491-owd2ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481710/original/file-20220830-21491-owd2ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481710/original/file-20220830-21491-owd2ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481710/original/file-20220830-21491-owd2ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481710/original/file-20220830-21491-owd2ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Chile has vast reserves of lithium deposits.</span>
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<p>Citizens would also be empowered to bring environmental lawsuits, even before an environmental impact assessment has been approved. The monitoring of these rights would extend all the way down to the local level, decentralising environmental regulatory authority that has historically been concentrated in the capital of Santiago.</p>
<p>But perhaps even more significant are the proposals aiming to reverse another legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship: Chile’s decades-long privatisation of water.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/01/chiles-water-crisis-megadrought-reaching-breaking-point">Chile is in an unprecedented water crisis</a>, with over half of its 19 million people living in areas of severe water scarcity. Communities have fought numerous legal battles against extractive companies over a water allocation system that’s <a href="https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/all-abs/285-a8-2-8/file">strongly biased toward industry</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-election-of-progressive-indigenous-academic-to-oversee-constitutional-reform-is-a-blow-to-right-wing-establishment-164088">Chile: election of progressive indigenous academic to oversee constitutional reform is a blow to right-wing establishment</a>
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<p>Articles in the proposed constitution concerning water rights, the human rights of water, and the protection of glaciers and wetlands significantly roll back these trends. They declare that water is not a commodity but, instead, incomerciable or “unsellable”.</p>
<p>Overturning this decades-long controversial <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214790X22000429">market mechanism</a> is the direct result of involving social and Indigenous movements in the constitutional process. It reflects and affirms their often-repeated recognition that <em>Agua es vida</em>, or “water is life”.</p>
<p>Beyond enshrining water protection measures, the draft constitution represents a renewed effort to bolster Chile’s natural resources governance, a move with significant impacts on the mining industry. It specifies that exploration and exploitation of mineral resources should ensure environmental protection and the interest of future generations. </p>
<p>There are also requirements to ensure sustainable management of land sites after a mine has closed, and for the promotion of value chain linkages (where mineral processing occurs in the country and benefits its people). </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-lithium-for-clean-energy-but-rio-tintos-planned-serbian-mine-reminds-us-it-shouldnt-come-at-any-cost-167902">We need lithium for clean energy, but Rio Tinto's planned Serbian mine reminds us it shouldn't come at any cost</a>
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<p>Such considerations are particularly crucial for the global transition towards renewable energy, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-27/transcript-what-a-new-chilean-constitution-would-mean-for-mining#xj4y7vzkg">which poses high demands</a> on Chile’s copper and lithium industry, minerals used for energy storage.</p>
<p>The global rush for these minerals is <a href="https://transparency.org.au/corruption-minerals-energy-transition-risk/%22%22">increasing governance challenges and putting pressure</a> on communities already under environmental and water stress. Strong legal support for a more equitable, fair and sustainable governance framework is imperative.</p>
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<h2>Lessons for the world</h2>
<p>Many questions remain about how these reforms would be put into practice. Nevertheless, they represent the culmination of dialogue between sectors that have historically been excluded from political power. </p>
<p>Australia has much to learn from this process. Most important, perhaps, is that despite the resistance of pro-market sectors, including the mining industry, sweeping and rapid transformations are indeed imaginable in the climate crisis. Other worlds are possible. <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/pluriversal-politics">Other forms</a> of democratic practices are possible.</p>
<p>Addressing climate change while ensuring a sustainable energy transition with inter-generational and inter-cultural equity means prioritising the voices of those who have been systematically excluded – particularly Indigenous communities. Australia would do well to heed this lesson.</p>
<p>And the lessons aren’t just for Australia. While many countries have reluctantly acknowledged the climate emergency that continues to engulf us, Chile is nearly alone globally in acting with the sense of urgency required. What it has already achieved is historic. </p>
<p>From an outcry in the streets to the election of an outstandingly diverse constitutional convention, Chile has crafted one of the most progressive and environmentally conscious legal texts on the planet. Chile’s experience demonstrates that bold, just, and democratic action is not only possible, but necessary.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-abolishes-its-dictatorship-era-constitution-in-groundbreaking-vote-for-a-more-inclusive-democracy-148844">Chile abolishes its dictatorship-era constitution in groundbreaking vote for a more inclusive democracy</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Estefanía Carballo is a Research and Programme Manager, Accountable Mining, Transparency International Australia. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Fitz-Henry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Like Australia, Chile is facing mounting environmental pressures, such as an escalating water crisis. If the constitution is approved in September it’ll deliver profound changes to the country.Ana Estefanía Carballo, Honorary Research Fellow in Mining and Society, School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of MelbourneErin Fitz-Henry, Deputy Coordinator - Anthropology, Development Studies & Social Theory, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1847112022-08-05T12:18:17Z2022-08-05T12:18:17ZWhat is neoliberalism? A political scientist explains the use and evolution of the term<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477260/original/file-20220802-11521-fi7yh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=101%2C39%2C2787%2C1809&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Ronald Reagan, shown here speaking in Moscow in 1980, was an early adopter of neoliberalism in the U.S. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-ronald-reagan-speaks-at-the-spaso-house-may-30-news-photo/849177?adppopup=true">Dirck Halstead/Liaison</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Neoliberalism is a complex concept that many people use – and overuse – in different and often conflicting ways. </p>
<p>So, what is it, really? </p>
<p><a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1008310">When discussing neoliberalism with my students</a> at the University of Southern California, I explain the phenomenon’s origins in political thought, its ambitious claims of promoting liberty and its problematic global track record. </p>
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<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
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<h2>‘Markets work; governments don’t’</h2>
<p><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neoliberalism/">Neoliberalism contends</a> that markets allocate scarce resources, promote efficient growth and secure individual liberty better than governments. </p>
<p>According to the progressive journalist <a href="https://prospect.org/economy/neoliberalism-political-success-economic-failure/">Robert Kuttner</a>, the “basic argument of neoliberalism can fit on a bumper sticker. Markets work; governments don’t.” </p>
<p>From such a perspective, government represents bureaucratic bloat and political imposition. Government is wasteful. The verve of capitalism, along with a limited democratic politics, is neoliberalism’s balm for all that ails humankind.</p>
<p>Completing his bumper-sticker mantra, Kuttner continues, “there are two corollaries: Markets embody human freedom. And with markets, people basically get what they deserve; to alter market outcomes is to spoil the poor and punish the productive.”</p>
<h2>Evolution of neoliberalism</h2>
<p>The moniker “neoliberalism” was coined by Austrian economists Friedrich von Hayek and Ludwig Von Mises in 1938. Each elaborated his own version of the notion in 1944 books: “<a href="https://mises.org/library/road-serfdom-0">The Road to Serfdom</a>” and “<a href="https://mises.org/library/bureaucracy">Bureaucracy</a>,” respectively. </p>
<p>Neoliberalism ran contrary to the prevailing economic strategies promoted by <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/collected-writings-of-john-maynard-keynes/oclc/971381838">John Maynard Keynes</a>, <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2014/09/basics.htm">which encourage governments to stimulate economic demand</a>. It was the opposite of big-government socialism, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socialism/">whether in its Soviet manifestation or its European Social Democratic version</a>. Neoliberalism’s proponents embraced <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neoliberalism/">classical liberal principles such as laissez-faire</a> – the policy of not intervening in markets.</p>
<p>By the 1970s, Keynesian policies were faltering. Hayek’s organization, the <a href="https://www.montpelerin.org/event/429dba23-fc64-4838-aea3-b847011022a4/summary">Mont Pelerin Society</a>, had drawn wealthy European and American benefactors to its ranks and funded <a href="https://prospect.org/economy/neoliberalism-political-success-economic-failure/">powerful think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute</a>. These groups refined neoliberalism’s message, making it a viable and attractive ideology. </p>
<p>By the 1980s, neoliberalism had gained ascendancy with <a href="https://history.jhu.edu/faculty-books/the-great-persuasion-reinventing-free-markets-since-the-depression/">Republicans such as president Ronald Reagan</a>. High-ranking officials in the Democratic presidential administrations of <a href="https://prospect.org/economy/neoliberalism-political-success-economic-failure/">Jimmy Carter</a> and, later, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/05/books/review/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-neoliberal-order-gary-gerstle.html">Bill Clinton</a> also embraced neoliberalism. </p>
<p>Neoliberalism was also championed by conservatives like British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot">international institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund</a>. </p>
<p>But deregulating free markets had some unfortunate political consequences. It promoted <a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/regulation.7729">financial and labor crises in the U.S. and U.K. </a> and exacerbated <a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/regulation.7729">poverty and political instability</a>. The crisis was felt from the Global South to the U.S. Northwest, manifesting in the anti-World Trade Organization protests often referred to as the <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/battle-seattle-20-years-later-its-time-revival/">“The Battle of Seattle.”</a> To critics like <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/whats-neoliberal-do/">Frantz Fanon</a> and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/40603">David Harvey</a>, neoliberalism is more akin to neoimperialism or neocolonialism. Basically, they contend, it achieves old ends – exploiting the global working class – through new means.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476959/original/file-20220801-33954-bmrgfx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Mural with 'neoliberalismo' written in light-gray text and 'solidaridad' written below it in bigger, red text." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476959/original/file-20220801-33954-bmrgfx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476959/original/file-20220801-33954-bmrgfx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476959/original/file-20220801-33954-bmrgfx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476959/original/file-20220801-33954-bmrgfx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476959/original/file-20220801-33954-bmrgfx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476959/original/file-20220801-33954-bmrgfx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476959/original/file-20220801-33954-bmrgfx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A mural in Havana, Cuba, promoting ‘solidarity’ over ‘neoliberalism.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">A. Kammas</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This critique fuels <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/neoliberalism-against-democracy-wendy-browns-in-the-ruins-of-neoliberalism-and-the-specter-of-fascism/">another argument</a>: that neoliberalism harbors <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/in-the-ruins-of-neoliberalism/9780231193856">anti-democratic sentiments</a>. What if citizens prefer government regulation and oversight? History demonstrates that neoliberal stalwarts would still <a href="https://jacobin.com/2021/06/neoliberalism-democracy-populist-right">push market orthodoxy over popular opinion</a>.</p>
<p>An extreme example of this was Hayek’s support of the repressive Pinochet regime in Chile. Augusto Pinochet toppled the popular socialist government of Salvador Allende in 1973. Pinochet was <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB110/index.htm">cautiously welcomed by the Nixon administration</a> and looked upon <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-01-02-me-1475-story.html">favorably by both Reagan</a> and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-oct-07-mn-19796-story.html">Thatcher</a>. In their view, Pinochet’s commitment to neoliberalism trumped his anti-democratic character.</p>
<p>This history helps explain the election last year of Gabriel Boric, Chile’s 36-year-old president. Boric <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/13/can-chiles-young-president-reimagine-the-latin-american-left">ran on an agenda for profound change</a> following a period of turmoil over Pinochet-era policies. His campaign slogan was “If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its grave.”</p>
<h2>A flawed, contradictory ideology</h2>
<p>Beginning in the 1980s and for a long time after, neoliberalism for many Americans conjured individual liberty, consumer sovereignty and corporate efficiency. Many Democrats and Republicans alike championed it to justify their policies and attract voters. </p>
<p>But, in my opinion, that was only the popular façade of a deeply flawed ideology.</p>
<p>One need only consider the consequences of U.S. bank deregulation after <a href="https://www.economist.com/special-report/2017/05/04/how-the-2007-08-crisis-unfolded">the global financial crisis of 2008</a> to see what happens <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/a-guide-to-the-financial-crisis--10-years-later/2018/09/10/114b76ba-af10-11e8-a20b-5f4f84429666_story.html">when government allows markets to run themselves</a>. Key American <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/12/13/two-recessions-two-recoveries-2/">economic indicators</a> like class inequality also tell the grim story of unchecked markets.</p>
<p>For many Americans, however, the <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/evolution-and-the-american-myth-of-the-individual/">mythology</a> of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/misconception-of-individual-liberty-letters-to-the-editor-1419984888">individual liberty</a> remains strong. U.S. politicians who hint of curtailing it – by, say, proposing more regulations or increased social expenditures – are often branded “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2012/01/22/is-president-obama-truly-a-socialist/">socialist</a>.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, neoliberalism was a child of its time. It’s a grand narrative born of the Cold War era, claiming to have the solution to society’s ills through the power of capitalist markets and government deregulation. </p>
<p>There is no shortage of articles showing that it has not delivered on its promise. Arguably, it has <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/14/is-capitalism-a-threat-to-democracy">made matters worse</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184711/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Kammas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The word ‘neoliberal’ gets thrown around a lot, often with differing and even contradictory meanings. Here, a political economist explains the origins and evolution of this complex concept.Anthony Kammas, Associate Professor (Teaching) of Political Science, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1864942022-07-11T13:45:31Z2022-07-11T13:45:31ZHow The Clash’s Joe Strummer inspired progressive politics in his fans<p><a href="https://www.joestrummer.com/about">Joe Strummer</a>, lead singer and lyricist for the seminal punk band, <a href="https://www.theclash.com/">The Clash</a>, died 20 years ago this December. Strummer, the son of a British senior civil servant and whose real name was John Graham Mellor, wrote songs that did not shy away from the politics of the Thatcher era or situations affecting society around the world.</p>
<p>The Clash had six studio albums, which featured 16 top-40 hits, including Rock the Casbah and I Fought the Law. After his death, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/dec/23/artsfeatures.clash">the Guardian noted</a> that Strummer was a “political inspiration for a generation” and “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/dec/24/arts.artsnews1">the political conscience of punk</a>”.</p>
<p>I spoke to more than 100 individuals of different ages and genders from different generations, countries and continents for my book: <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526148988/">The punk rock politics of Joe Strummer: Radicalism, resistance and rebellion</a>, I found that his music has had a profound impact on the politics of many, leading some to left-wing activism. Among their number are many union leaders in Britain today, including <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/person/matt-wrack">Matt Wrack</a> of the <a href="https://fbu.org.uk/">Fire Brigades Union</a>, who <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-s-calling-tribute-to-mark-ten-years-since-last-show-of-clash-s-joe-strummer-7792858.html">said</a>): “Firefighters are immensely proud of our links with Joe Strummer and what he stood for politically and as a musician.”</p>
<p>According to many of those I spoke to, the lyrics in the music of The Clash provided them with an effective but unconventional initial education about issues in Britain and further afield such as unemployment and sub-standard housing in Britain as well as various political causes globally, such as the struggle of the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua in the 1980s. </p>
<h2>Political lyrics</h2>
<p>Two Strummer songs stand out in particular for those that I spoke to. The first is Spanish Bombs from the band’s third album, London Calling (1979), which was primarily about the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, Strummer sings: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The freedom fighters died upon the hill<br>
They sang the red flag<br>
They wore the black one…<br>
The hillsides ring with “Free the people”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a song about the democratically elected Republican government’s struggle against Francisco Franco’s fascist military coup, it recounts how socialists, communists, republicans and anarchists fought together for freedom, liberty and equality. Spanish Bombs led many who gave me testimonials to read the likes of George Orwell’s <a href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/george-orwell-homage-to-catalonia">Homage to Catalonia</a>. </p>
<p>The song also provided a historical example of active resistance to fascism when a hard right nationalism was <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/studying/docs/racism/1970s/">on the rise in Britain</a> in the late 1970s. The fringe National Front political party ran on an extreme anti-immigrant platform in the 1970s, using racist slogans and pamphlets to attract members. This was in turn met with an increasingly vocal reaction from musicians like Strummer and the Rock Against Racism movement.</p>
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<h2>An international outlook</h2>
<p>The band’s fourth album, Sandinista!, released in 1980, embraced the cause of the Sandinista rebels against the Somoza regime in Nicaragua and attacked US attempts to underime the revolution. The Somoza family headed up a murderous and repressive dictatorship from the 1930s, which was propped up by the US and which fell in 1979 as a result of a popular armed rebellion led by the Sandinistas.</p>
<p>Strummer’s song Washington Bullets references the anti-democratic effects of American imperialism in central and south America, from the 1959 Cuban Revolution to the Nicaraguan Sandinistas of the 1980s, with mention of America’s aborted Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 and the assassination of Chile’s Salvador Allende at the hands of the Chilean military dictatorship in 1973. In it, he sings:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As every cell in Chile will tell<br>
The cries of the tortured men<br>
Remember Allende</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The song then details what happened when the US withdrew its support from the Nicaraguan Somoza regime:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When they had a revolution in Nicaragua<br>
There was no interference from America<br>
The people fought the leader<br>
And up he flew<br>
Without any Washington bullets, what else could he do?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Strummer explains that despite repression, resistance is possible – and can be successful. His anger in the song is not just directed against Washington but also against British, Chinese and Russian imperialism. Not only did some of those I spoke to join the Nicaragua Solidarity Committee but a few also went to work as volunteers in Nicaragua to support the Sandinista revolution. </p>
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<h2>Seeking knowledge</h2>
<p>Many of those I spoke to recounted to me that before the era of the internet, they went to public libraries to find out more about these issues. From there, they started to form radical worldviews and began to join campaigns such as the anti-apartheid movement and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Many also joined trade unions and left-wing political parties such as the Labour Party. And, with their interest piqued, they began to read widely.</p>
<p>Strummer was able to reach people through his music. His songs not only made people dance but through their radical messages, they were able to inspire some fans to action. Whether it be fascism and imperialism or over environmental destruction (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfK-WX2pa8c&ab_channel=theclashVEVO">London Calling</a>), fighting racism (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lt4O-EHNnw&ab_channel=theclashVEVO">Working for the Clampdown</a>) and Thatcherism (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4YtR9SsY2Q&ab_channel=Crustdisplacement">This is England</a>) he moved people. </p>
<p>Strummer was seldom explicit about what listeners should then do – his songs tended to be more informative and inspirational than instructional. But he was nevertheless always clear that activism was positive and necessary to effect change. The Clash’s first single in 1977, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvG3is7Bm1w&ab_channel=theclashVEVO">White Riot</a>, encouraged disaffected young white people to fight against political corruption and police brutality as their black brethren had. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu1EkzulHCM&ab_channel=accounthaver">Working for the Clampdown</a> from the band’s 1979 album London Calling, he issued this call to arms: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Kick over the wall, cause governments to fall.<br>
How can you refuse it?<br>
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power.<br>
Do you know that you can use it?</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregor Gall is a member of the Facebook group, Clash Fans Against The Right.</span></em></p>From songs on the Spanish revolution to others on American Imperialism, Strummer’s lyrics inspired a generation of music-lovers to action.Gregor Gall, Affiliate Research Associate, School of Political and Social Sciences, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1775622022-03-23T18:04:29Z2022-03-23T18:04:29ZBestia: Oscar-nominated film exposes how the powerful in Chile still don’t pay for human rights abuses<p><em>This article contains references to sexual assault and rape that some may find distressing.</em></p>
<p>Chilean stop-motion animation film <a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/bestia">Bestia</a>, up for an Oscar in the shorts category, has exposed wounds in a country still grappling with the demons of its past. Bestia, directed by Hugo Corruvias, tells the chilling story of <a href="https://oicanadian.com/the-nazi-beast-ingrid-olderock-the-cruel-chilean-torturer-known-as-the-woman-with-the-dogs/">Ingrid Olderock</a> a Chile-born German known as “The Dog Lady”. Olderok was an agent of the National Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA), which was created by Augusto Pinochet after overthrowing Salvador Allende in 1973.</p>
<p>Accounts by her victims alleged that she had trained her German Shephard Volodia to rape female left-wing dissidents during the Pinochet regime. The film is inspired by Journalist Nancy Guzman’s <a href="https://www.montacerdos.cl/products/ingrid-olderock-la-mujer-de-los-perros">book</a> La Mujer de los Perros (The Dog Lady). Guzman interviewed the now-deceased torturer in 1996.</p>
<p>The film exposes the depths of torture and corruption in Chile through the troubled mind and everyday thoughts of Olderok. After Pinochet fell, those who had committed the worst atrocities were let off scot-free and allowed to reintegrate into society. </p>
<p>The same happened again in 2019 after Chileans rose against continuing inequality and injustice. While the dictatorship-era constitution was abolished, politicians used it once again not to pay for their crimes. Bestia exposes how the powerful in Chile then and now can avoid punishment for such human rights abuses. </p>
<h2>The Dog Lady</h2>
<p>Ingrid Felicitas Olderock Bernhardt was raised in the German Colony of Peñaflor in central Chile where her grandparents settled shortly after the second world war. She went to a German school and she and her siblings were forbidden to speak Spanish or mix with Chileans. She told Guzman:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was a Nazi from childhood. Germany had never been stronger than under the Nazis.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In her 20s, Olderock became a policewoman, quickly ascending the chain of command thanks to her diligence and work ethic. She was Chile’s first female parachutist to jump 1,000 feet and a skilled markswoman. </p>
<p>Shortly after the 1973 coup, she presented a project to her boss: to train an anti-Marxist female commando. A year later, she was in charge of 60 trainees at the School of Santo Domingo, equipping them to shoot, follow, detain and torture left-wing female dissidents.</p>
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<p>In 1975, Olderock was asked by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/08/manuel-contreras-head-of-chiles-spy-agency-under-pinochet-dies-aged-86">the head of the secret police</a> (DINA) to participate in the interrogation of prisoners. Volodia the German Shephard dog became Olderock’s most terrifying instrument of torture. </p>
<p>In the dank basement of an ordinary house in Santiago nicknamed <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/sale-of-venda-sexy-torture-centre-highlights-chiles-struggle-for-historical-memory-regarding-sexual-violence/">“<em>La Venda Sexy</em>”</a> (sexy blindfold), she is alleged to have directed the hound to sexually abuse and maul detainees, most of whom were killed and then disposed of. It wasn’t until 1981 when an attempt was made on her life by two members of the underground resistance, that Olderock’s name and heinous deeds became known to the public.</p>
<p>How was such a sinister character allowed to live in anonymity until she died in 2001? Put simply, Pinochet’s military <a href="https://apnews.com/article/7315b8a74254491786c02fa559b05fd6">pact of silence</a> and a culture of impunity that still thrives in Chile today.</p>
<h2>Urgent Reform</h2>
<p>Neither the military nor police force has been <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/26/hrw-calls-for-urgent-police-reform-in-chile-to-address-abuses">reformed</a> since the start of Chile’s weak democracy. This period of transition began when Pinochet lost the 1988 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/10/06/chiles-pinochet-beaten-in-plebiscite-on-rule/cbc2e773-f1cc-4c37-bcb5-91b9de1e8084/">referendum</a> after which he was forced to concede power to a civilian government. </p>
<p>This transition toward democracy came with conditions attached. Pinochet demanded the silence of the survivors of torture, and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/eur450311998en.pdf">immunity</a> from prosecution for those that committed human rights abuses during the regime. This forced victims to live alongside their former abusers, like Olderock. To date, the whereabouts of around 4,000 people disappeared by the regime is still <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/14/where-are-they-families-search-for-chile-disappeared-prisoners">unknown</a>.</p>
<p>With an unreformed military whose silence and crimes are <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2013/09/chile-years-pinochet-s-coup-impunity-must-end/">protected</a> by the current constitution, a new generation of torture victims are having to live in silence. </p>
<h2>A Democracy Bathed in Blood</h2>
<p>Modern political developments in Chile have all been rooted in political agreements that guarantee immunity for the military, exclude important social actors and ensure the model implemented by the regime remains untouched. In 1985, the <a href="https://elpais.com/diario/1985/12/22/internacional/504054014_850215.html">national agreement</a> seeking a path toward democracy was signed by the Catholic Church, the regime and a small number of opposition groups. Groups affected by the repression, left-wing politicians and nongovernmental organisations were excluded.</p>
<p>In 1991, the “<a href="https://cja.org/where-we-work/chile/">Rettig Report</a>” into human rights violations was published on the condition that retaliation violence from left-wing groups was included. Large sections of print were blacked out, protecting the identity of military personnel involved in human rights aberrations. </p>
<p>In 2004 torture victims were invited to give their testimonies to the “National Commission of Political Prison and Torture”. They were paid a paltry sum and the file closed for 50 years. </p>
<p>After the social uprisings over the cost of living in late 2019 dubbed “<em>El Estallido</em>” (social outbreak), Chile’s attorney general’s Office launched <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/chile">8,581 total cases of alleged police abuses</a>. This was in response to widespread military <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2020/10/eyes-on-chile-police-violence-at-protests/">repression</a> against protesters that resulted in over 500 ocular traumas, 35 deaths and tens of thousands of accusations of torture.</p>
<p>The 2019 “<em>Acuerdo por la Paz</em>” (<a href="https://chilereports.cl/en/news/2019/12/02/agreement-for-social-peace-and-a-new-constitution">peace agreement</a>) was a timely solution for the president Sebastián Piñera and his cronies. In exchange for a new constitution, he would get himself off the hook and create a mechanism to quell the uprising. As a result, many of the cases have been closed without prosecution.</p>
<p>Once again, the agreement was made by an elite group, mistrusted by the general public and <a href="https://radio.uchile.cl/2019/11/18/un-acuerdo-excluyente-sin-paz-ni-justicia/">excluding</a> important social actors. It also <a href="https://www.laizquierdadiario.cl/El-proceso-constituyente-nacio-como-un-pacto-de-impunidad-para-los-responsables-de-las-violaciones">side-stepped</a> the many human rights violations, adding yet another layer of impunity in Chile’s <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/02/09/a-new-low-for-global-democracy">imperfect</a> democracy.</p>
<p>During the dictatorship Chileans resisted impunity through <a href="https://www.forgingmemory.org/narrative/nueva-cancion-chile">song</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23970034">murals</a> and <a href="https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/video/arpilleras-chile-marjorie-agosin">textile</a> art. In the digital age, a new generation of filmmakers and content producers continue the struggle against repression, cronyism and lingering injustices. In this context, Bestia serves as both testament and homage to Chile’s forgotten victims.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177562/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carole Concha Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A provocative short film about a woman and her dog, Bestia highlights the impunity enjoyed by Chile’s military and politiciansCarole Concha Bell, PhD Candidate, Department of Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1699812021-11-29T13:28:49Z2021-11-29T13:28:49ZMillions of Americans struggle to pay their water bills – here’s how a national water aid program could work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433239/original/file-20211122-23-1fjipii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C15%2C5122%2C3420&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Water: an increasingly expensive necessity.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sink-water-royalty-free-image/1026241802">iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Running water and indoor plumbing are so central to modern life that most Americans take them from granted. But these services aren’t free, and millions struggle to afford them. A 2019 survey found that U.S. households in the bottom fifth of the economy spent <a href="https://mannyteodoro.com/wp-content/uploads/TeodoroSwaywitz-JAWWA-2020-Affordability-Snapshot.pdf">12.4% of their disposable income</a> on water and sewer services. News reports suggest that for low-income households, this burden has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/10/01/power-water-gas-bills/">increased during the pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>Since 1981, the federal government has helped low-income households with their energy costs through the <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/low-income-home-energy-assistance-program-liheap">Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program</a>. But there had not been a national water aid program until Congress created a temporary <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/programs/lihwap">Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program</a> as part of the COVID-19 response. Now the House-passed <a href="https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/Section_by_Section_BBB_RCP117-18__.pdf">Build Back Better Act</a> includes US$225 million for grants to states and tribes to help reduce the cost of water services for low-income households. </p>
<p>As an economist specializing in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Mm5zty4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">environmental and natural resource issues</a>, I’m encouraged to see this idea gaining support. But I also know from analyzing <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2016-04/documents/dw-ww_utilities_cap_combined_508-front2.pdf">efforts at the local level</a> that these programs may be ineffective if they aren’t well designed. I believe the U.S. can learn lessons from Chile, which has run an effective national water assistance program for 30 years.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y92ppqfu82w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Much U.S. water infrastructure is aging and needs expensive repairs, which drives up water rates.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Flaws in US local aid programs</h2>
<p>I have studied water and sewer customer assistance programs around the world and developed a <a href="https://waterassistanceprograms.org/">database</a> of examples run by U.S. utilities in cities including <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/utilities/your-services/discounts-and-incentives/utility-discount-program">Seattle</a>, <a href="https://water.phila.gov/drops/assistance/">Philadelphia</a> and <a href="https://www.circleofblue.org/2019/world/baltimore-council-approves-income-based-water-bills/">Baltimore</a>. Although there are hundreds of these programs, three major problems undercut their effectiveness.</p>
<p>First, because utilities have to fund their assistance programs from their own budgets, they typically charge “non-poor” customers higher rates and use those payments to subsidize low-income customers. State regulations <a href="https://efc.sog.unc.edu/resource/navigating-legal-pathways-rate-funded-customer-assistance-programs-guide-water-and/">often forbid this</a>, forcing utilities in those states to rely on voluntary donation programs to fund assistance. </p>
<p>Second, in areas with high poverty, too many customers need help and there are not enough non-poor customers to foot the bill.</p>
<p>Third, smaller and less well-funded utilities often do not have administrative capacity or expertise to design and implement their own customer assistance programs.<br>
These challenges have spurred <a href="https://bluntrochester.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2721">politicians</a> and <a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/families-need-more-help-keep-lights-and-water-running-during-pandemic">policy experts</a> to call for a federal program – a step that the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-09/documents/recommendations-of-the-ndwac-to-us-epa-on-its-nssa-criteria.pdf">recommended back in 2003</a>. </p>
<p><iframe id="YB1G3" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/YB1G3/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Learning from Chile’s experience</h2>
<p>Agencies such as the <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/32277">World Bank</a> often cite <a href="https://iwaponline.com/wp/article/20/6/1208/64207/Revisiting-the-distributional-impacts-of-water">Chile’s water aid program as a model</a>. Here’s how it works:</p>
<p>The program aims to ensure that households don’t pay more than 3% of their income for receiving a quantity of water to meet their essential needs. There is no consensus among experts on what this “lifeline” quantity of water should be, but Chile sets it at 15 cubic meters per month – about 4,000 gallons. </p>
<p>Eligible customers apply to their city government every three years. Once enrolled, they immediately see reductions in their bills, based on their poverty levels, for that first 15 cubic meters of water use. Each month, the water utility bills the city for subsidies it has provided to poor customers.</p>
<p>If households use more than 15 cubic meters of water per month, they pay unsubsidized prices for whatever they use above that level. This gives everyone an incentive to fix leaky pipes and appliances and conserve water. Regulators who set water prices are not involved in running the subsidy system or determining subsidy levels.</p>
<p>In the late 1990s, Chile launched a major expansion of its sewage treatment plants. Water utilities <a href="https://iwaponline.com/wp/article/20/6/1208/64207/Revisiting-the-distributional-impacts-of-water">raised their rates by 34% to 142%</a> between 1998 and 2015 to pay for this initiative. Because these rate increases outpaced growth in income, subsidies grew by 54% over the same time period. The takeaway: Chile found a way to pay for water and sewer investment while still protecting the poor.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1453120892918239234"}"></div></p>
<h2>How a US water aid program might work</h2>
<p>If the U.S. creates a national water aid program, key questions will include who is eligible and how much water is an “essential” quantity for households. The EPA estimates that an average U.S. household uses <a href="https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water">approximately 9,000 gallons per month</a>, but one-third of this is for gardens and lawns. Reliable national data on U.S. household water usage is nearly nonexistent, and there is no estimate of how much water low-income households use.</p>
<p>Program managers would need to collect information on utility water and sewer pricing structures, put it in a database and couple it with census data to estimate the number of eligible households in each state.</p>
<p>To estimate what a program like Chile’s might cost here, my team at Washington State University compiled a <a href="https://waterassistanceprograms.org/">database of water and sewer rates</a> as of December 2019. We included all U.S. cities with populations over 100,000, at least two cities per state, and made assumptions about rates for smaller cities and towns. </p>
<p>We estimate that a program covering the full cost of 4,500 gallons of water per month for households at or below the poverty line would cost approximately $11.2 billion annually if 70% of eligible households participate. In total, we estimate that 11.8 million households would receive an average subsidy of $67 per month. </p>
<p>Our project website includes a <a href="https://waterassistanceprograms.org/estimation">calculator tool</a> to estimate the annual federal cost based on different assumptions about eligibility, participation, the “essential” water quantity and the percentage discount on water bills.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Another approach: Add money to SNAP payments</h2>
<p>Public policy scholar <a href="https://lafollette.wisc.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/manny-teodoro">Manny Teodoro</a> has suggested <a href="https://mannyteodoro.com/?p=2747">another way to deliver water aid</a>: topping up support that people receive to buy healthy food through the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a>, or SNAP. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433266/original/file-20211122-15-7ngb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Louisiana Purchase card, issued by the state the SNAP recipients." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433266/original/file-20211122-15-7ngb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433266/original/file-20211122-15-7ngb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433266/original/file-20211122-15-7ngb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433266/original/file-20211122-15-7ngb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433266/original/file-20211122-15-7ngb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433266/original/file-20211122-15-7ngb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433266/original/file-20211122-15-7ngb8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Providing water aid through SNAP would enable people to pay their water bills with state-issued electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.dcfs.louisiana.gov/page/electronic-benefits-transfer-ebt">Louisiana DCFS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This idea builds on a well-known program with a long track record. Low-income households would not have to file new paperwork to receive benefits. Delivering water aid this way could help renters, whose water costs often are rolled into their rent, and rural residents who use well water and have to pay for water treatment and maintenance costs out of pocket. </p>
<p>It would place less of an administrative burden on the <a href="https://mannyteodoro.com/?p=2774">large number of small U.S. water systems serving fewer than 500 people</a>. And it could be quickly implemented by adding water providers as approved vendors for electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card payments. </p>
<p>Eligibility for SNAP is set at 138% of the poverty line, and an estimated <a href="https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/resource-files/Reaching2017-1.pdf">84% of eligible households</a> participate. With these parameters, we estimate that a program covering 100% of the cost of 4,500 gallons of water per month would cost $17 billion annually. The main weakness of this approach is that water and sewer rates vary across the country, so it risks providing too much or too little assistance to low-income households depending on where they live.</p>
<h2>Getting water prices right for everyone</h2>
<p>Access to a safe and affordable water supply and sewer services is codified in the U.N.’s <a href="https://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/human_right_to_water.shtml">Human Right to Water and Sanitation</a>. The U.S. is a wealthy country, and my research group’s estimates show that the cost of a targeted program to help the poor pay their bills is reasonable. </p>
<p>Without federal funding, poor and marginalized households will continue to fall behind on their bills and experience the indignity and health risks of having their water turned off. </p>
<p>At the same time, the U.S. needs to make <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/drinking-water/">major investments in its water and sewer infrastructure</a> and manage the effects of drought and climate change. Economists broadly agree that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/business/economy/the-price-of-water-is-too-low.html">water should be more expensive in many places</a> to give local governments and ratepayers incentive to conserve and plan for a water-scarce future. I believe Chile’s experience shows how a national program can preserve this signal while directing most of its water sector subsidies toward protecting the poor. </p>
<p><em>Research Assistant <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-kraabel-bbabaa155/">Nick Kraabel</a> assisted in estimating the nationwide costs discussed in this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169981/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Cook has received funding to support research on customer affordability programs from the US Millennium Challenge Corporation. The opinions in this article do not represent views of MCC.</span></em></p>Should the U.S. help low-income households afford water service, as it does with heating and groceries? Chile does. An economist explains how it works there and how it could work here.Joseph Cook, Associate Professor of Economic Sciences, Washington State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1724622021-11-25T16:26:52Z2021-11-25T16:26:52ZChile: voter apathy could hand the presidency to far-right inheritor of the Pinochet legacy<p>Far-right politician, José Antonio Kast, has come away from the first round of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/22/jose-antonio-kast-chile-right-wing-presidential-election">Chilean presidential elections</a> as the candidate with the highest percentage of votes. He will face former student protest leader Gabriel Boric in a fiercely contested run-off vote on December 19.</p>
<p>Kast obtained 27.9% of the votes cast on November 21 compared with Boric’s 25.8%. But the turnout was only 46%, reflecting a degree of voter apathy that surprised many observers. The election came only a few months after progressive intellectual, Elisa Loncón, was elected to oversee the <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-election-of-progressive-indigenous-academic-to-oversee-constitutional-reform-is-a-blow-to-right-wing-establishment-164088">writing of a new constitution</a> for Chile. This in turn had followed massive street protests in 2019 – dubbed <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/burning-metro-chile-election-divides-voters-between-protest-order-2021-11-20/"><em>estallido social</em></a> (the social explosion) – which led to a referendum over sweeping reforms.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-election-of-progressive-indigenous-academic-to-oversee-constitutional-reform-is-a-blow-to-right-wing-establishment-164088">Chile: election of progressive indigenous academic to oversee constitutional reform is a blow to right-wing establishment</a>
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<p>But the strength of public feeling appears not to have translated into votes for Boric, who ran as the reform candidate. Speaking to the Chilean press once the votes were counted, Boric was <a href="https://www.elciudadano.com/chile/gabriel-boric-sobre-segunda-vuelta-nuestra-cruzada-es-que-la-esperanza-le-gane-al-miedo/11/21/">defiant</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s in these difficult moments that true leadership is tested … The challenge that begins today is a challenge against something. I didn’t occupy this space to speak ill of other candidates. We come here to be the voice of hope, of dialogue and unity. Our crusade is that hope overcomes fear.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Pinochet 2.0?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://chiletoday.cl/who-is-kast-the-far-right-frontrunner-in-chiles-presidential-race/">Kast family</a> has played a part in right-wing Chilean politics for decades. José Antonio – or JAK, as he is often known – is the son of former Nazi, Michael Kast, who escaped to Chile after the second world war. </p>
<p>His brother, Miguel Kast-Rist, was one of the “<a href="https://www.tni.org/my/node/12111">Chicago Boys</a>” – the Harvard-trained economic thinktank assembled by Milton Friedman to design a strict monetarist economic model for Augusto Pinochet in the years following the 1973 US-backed coup in which the then-president, Salvador Allende, was deposed and murdered. Miguel’s son Felipe is a senator and a member of the governing coalition party, Evópoli (political evolution).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet shakes the hand of US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger in 1976." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433935/original/file-20211125-1695-cfsk03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433935/original/file-20211125-1695-cfsk03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433935/original/file-20211125-1695-cfsk03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433935/original/file-20211125-1695-cfsk03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433935/original/file-20211125-1695-cfsk03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433935/original/file-20211125-1695-cfsk03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433935/original/file-20211125-1695-cfsk03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Augusto Pinochet with US secretary of state Henry Kissinger in 1976, Pinochet’s Chile was a testing ground for neoliberal economic policies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Kast family were both benefactors and supporters of the Pinochet regime and have been dogged by allegations of involvement in human-rights abuses during Pinochet’s decades in power. José Antonio Kast stood on a platform of social and moral order and is expected, if he secures victory in next months run-off election, to represent the interests of the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/pinochets-ghost-haunts-divisive-chilean-election-2021-11-21/"><em>Pinochetista</em> elite</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/general-pinochet-arrest-20-years-on-heres-how-it-changed-global-justice-104806">General Pinochet arrest: 20 years on, here's how it changed global justice</a>
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<p>His campaign managed to capitalise on <a href="https://globalvoices.org/2021/10/19/chile-rejects-the-migrants-it-once-welcomed/">anti-immigrant sentiment</a> stirred up by a recent surge of migration from Venezuela, Haiti and Colombia. He has also successfully exploited a widespread fear of communism – helped by Chile’s notoriously <a href="https://lab.org.uk/chile-lies-censorship-el-mercurio/">concentrated</a> media that has been sympathetic to the Pinochet regime and its fiercely neoliberal model. </p>
<p>Another message hammered home by the Kast campaign was a fear of the “enemy within”. This is a dog-whistle reference to tensions in the southern Araucania region, where indigenous <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-55042838">Mapuche communities</a> are struggling to exert ancestral land rights, placing them in direct conflict with multinational interests.</p>
<p>His socially regressive proposals include the deportation of migrants, scrapping the women’s ministry and the continuation of the unpopular pension system. He also supports the further militarisation of Chilean society, exemplified by draconian <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/10/why-chile-protesters-say-state-security-law-criminalises-protests">laws</a> that already heavily penalise protest and the constant presence of armed security forces on the <a href="https://www.tni.org/en/article/expression-meets-repression">streets</a> of Santiago since the 2019 social unrest, <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/11/22/more-polarized-than-ever-presidential-election-in-chile-marks-new-political-era-pub-85839">promising</a> a “firm hand” against activists. </p>
<h2>Boric’s challenge</h2>
<p>The low turnout reflects the Boric campaign’s failure to engage Chile’s working-class vote. This is nothing new in Chilean politics – from the start of the country’s transition to democracy, votes have been steadily <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228641113_Voter_Turnout_Evidence_from_Chile">declining</a>.</p>
<p>Gabriel Boric <a href="https://time.com/6121561/gabriel-boric-chile-election/">rose</a> to political prominence as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/18/a-fairer-chile-ex-student-leader-bids-to-reshape-country-in-divisive-election">student</a> leader at the University of Chile, Santiago during the 2011-13 student protests. He was elected to the Chilean congress in 2013 and again in 2017 as an independent. In the 2021 presidential election, he stood as a candidate representing the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/two-political-upstarts-notch-upset-wins-chiles-presidential-primaries-2021-07-19/">Apruebo Dignidad</a>, a coalition of left-wing parties. </p>
<p>Valentina Rosas, a political scientist at Chile’s Pontifical Catholic University, alluded to the disconnect between the political elite and the wider electorate, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/22/jose-antonio-kast-chile-right-wing-presidential-election">telling The Guardian</a>: “It looks like some of the things Boric stands for don’t respond to people’s urgent needs. They have no bearing on the price of bread or stopping people breaking into your home.”</p>
<p>Despite huge numbers of protesters calling for social change during 2019-20’s mass mobilisations – with many risking extreme violence and imprisonment from Chile’s notoriously repressive security forces – voting figures indicate that grassroots movements do not necessarily translate to formal political engagement. Boric will need to counter this if he is to attract the numbers necessary to win the presidency. </p>
<p>But trends in Chile’s voter participation indicate a growing disenchantment with parliamentary politics as numbers continue to fall. In 1989, the turnout in the first democratic election after the Pinochet regime was toppled, was 94.7%. But by 2017, after two decades of weak transition to democracy, and successive governments failing to address growing structural inequalities, just 46.5% of the electorate voted. </p>
<p>Whatever the reasons behind the disengagement of Chilean voters, Boric must find a way to lure back people alienated from parliamentary politics. If he is unable to do this, the country risks slipping back into the clutches of the far-right, whose legacy was once thought so toxic in Chile.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172462/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carole Concha Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Three decades after the Chilean people toppled the notorious Pinochet regime, a new standard bearer for the far right is leading the polls.Carole Concha Bell, PhD Candidate, Department of Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1691822021-11-16T18:49:43Z2021-11-16T18:49:43ZHow plants survive in one of the driest places on Earth, and what they can tell us about climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432248/original/file-20211116-23-pxfwh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1381%2C1032&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A climate measuring station in Chile's Atacama desert.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexander Siegmund</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The coastal region of the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile is one of the driest places on Earth. Less than a millimetre of rain falls there per year on average.</p>
<p>It is hard to imagine that plants could grow in such inhospitable conditions. And yet, they do: <em>Tillandsia landbeckii</em>, a genus of plant from the pineapple family (Bromeliaceae), survive in the desert by ‘combing’ water out of the fog that rolls in from the nearby coast.</p>
<p>These plants also function as an indicator for climate change and for the availability of fog water, which can also be used by humans as a sustainable water source. </p>
<h2>Desert fog</h2>
<p>The climate of the Atacama Desert is largely shaped by a quasi-permanent high-pressure cell over the South Pacific along the Chilean-Peruvian coast, which creates a <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/temperature-inversion-layers-1434435">thermal inversion layer</a> – where the air increases in temperature the higher you get in the bottom part of the atmosphere. In the inversion layer, the moist, cool air of the Pacific is separated from the dry-warm air masses above.</p>
<p>As a result, extensive stratocumulus clouds form in the air layer closest to the ground, but they do not bring any rain. This process is supported by the <a href="https://www.discoveringgalapagos.org.uk/discover/geographical-processes/oceanography/humboldt-current/">Humboldt Current</a> – a cold Pacific current that flows north along the coast of South America.</p>
<p>Fog is created along the coast where the layer of cloud hits the ground. This fog can penetrate several kilometres inland before it dissolves due to the dryness of the Atacama Desert. The frequency, intensity and spread of fog are subject to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00606-021-01782-z">strong fluctuations</a> based on the season and time of day.</p>
<h2>Adapting to the desert</h2>
<p>Atacama ecosystems are very vulnerable to changes in fog frequency and intensity. <em>Tillandsia landbeckii</em> has adapted to the extreme drought during its evolution and occurs as an endemic species only in the fog ecosystems of the Atacama Desert.</p>
<p>The plant has no roots, instead using its older, dead parts to stick to the sand, which gathers around it like a small dune. The plants comb out the moisture in the mist using their thin leaves and shoots, which swell as soon as they come into contact with water.</p>
<p>Nocturnal dew seems to be another source of water, especially in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169809507002104">summer months with little fog</a>. Together, these groups of plants are known as ‘lomas vegetation’.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432250/original/file-20211116-25-5wsmvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Tillandsia in the Atacama Desert" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432250/original/file-20211116-25-5wsmvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432250/original/file-20211116-25-5wsmvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432250/original/file-20211116-25-5wsmvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432250/original/file-20211116-25-5wsmvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432250/original/file-20211116-25-5wsmvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432250/original/file-20211116-25-5wsmvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432250/original/file-20211116-25-5wsmvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tillandsia live by ‘combing’ water out of the fog.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexander Siegmund</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Collecting fog</h2>
<p>The distribution of this type of vegetation in the Atacama Desert is limited to a narrow area along the coast, where fog occurs regularly. The distance to the Pacific, the prevailing wind direction and topography (height, inclination and exposure to the main wind direction) significantly limit the distribution of fog ecosystems.</p>
<p>By analysing satellite data, we can see that <em>Tillandsia</em> stocks are situated between 800 m and 1,250 m above sea level and from 3 km to 45 km inland, mostly on sandy plains along fog corridors or on slopes exposed to the west or south-west.</p>
<p>Groups of <em>Tillandsia landbeckii</em> stand up to half a meter high in a ribbon-like structure that runs perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction. The <em>Tillandsia</em> are thus optimally exposed to the supply of moisture and nutrients. Row spacing, width and density are largely dependent on the amount of available fog water and thus also a good indicator of general water availability.</p>
<p>On the basis of satellite and drone data, we can <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.6924">analyse and model the plant population</a>, including growth rates and genetic variability between plants, to better understand the prevailing conditions.</p>
<p>We compare the results from the <em>Tillandsia</em> distribution with data from the seven climate measuring stations which are installed at different heights and distances from the sea. At these stations, air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, fog water amount, dew and leaf moisture can all be measured within a ten-minute period, and the corresponding data can be transmitted via satellite to the Department of Geography at Heidelberg University of Education, where I work.</p>
<p>We measure the amount of water in the air using standard fog collectors – a one square meter frame covered with a special net, which is set up at a height of two metres, perpendicular to the main wind direction.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432249/original/file-20211116-17-1b0fo4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Fully automatic THIES climate station of the Geography Department -- Research Group for Earth Observation (rgeo), e.g. for measuring the fog water with a Standard Fog Collector (SFC)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432249/original/file-20211116-17-1b0fo4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432249/original/file-20211116-17-1b0fo4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432249/original/file-20211116-17-1b0fo4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432249/original/file-20211116-17-1b0fo4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432249/original/file-20211116-17-1b0fo4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432249/original/file-20211116-17-1b0fo4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432249/original/file-20211116-17-1b0fo4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The fully automatic THIES climate station comes with a standard fog collector for measuring moisture in the air.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexander Siegmund</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within one week at the climate station in Cerro Oyarbide, 15 km from the coast, we measured 6.7 litres of fog water an altitude of 1,077 m. Just 2.5 km away, we measured 14.4 litres at an altitude of 1,218 m. At another nearby climate station at an altitude of 1,350 m, we only recorded 0.1 litres – this station is above the inversion layer, over which the fog does not appear.</p>
<p>Analysing this data over time, between 1998 and 2014, we see a <a href="https://aaqr.org/articles/aaqr-17-01-fog-0022">slight decrease</a> in the amount of water generated by fog during this period. This goes hand in hand with a decrease in the height of the thermal inversion layer. This lowers the upper limit of the stratocumulus cloud cover and thus the fog generated from it.</p>
<p>Based on this, it’s fair to say that, in the future, some of the higher areas of <em>Tillandsia</em> will lie outside the zones from which they can collect water.</p>
<h2>Fog as a sustainable water source</h2>
<p>The results from our years of research show that lessons from this hardy desert plant can be used to help human populations trap their own water from fog.</p>
<p>In coastal cities like Iquique and in smaller fishing villages on the edge of the desert, water resources are very limited. Water rights are privatised, and correspondingly expensive. Because of the extensive extraction of raw materials such as copper and lithium, used in the production of batteries, which require huge amounts of water, demand will continue to increase significantly in the coming years.</p>
<p>Domestic and drinking water has so far been obtained primarily from groundwater, but there could be lessons for humans in the distribution and behaviour of these plants.</p>
<p>There are close connections between the ribbon-like structure of the <em>Tillandsia</em> stocks, their growth rates and the measured fog water quantities. On this basis, we can develop a geo-ecological niche modelling of this unique fog ecosystem.</p>
<p>This can be used, among other things, to analyse suitable locations for fog trap nets, through which fog water can be gathered as a sustainable water source for the local population.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398230/original/file-20210502-19-2lk7b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>For 50 years, the UNESCO <a href="https://en.unesco.org/mab">Man and the Biosphere Program</a> (MAB) has combined exact, natural and social sciences to find solutions implemented in the 714 exceptional sites (129 countries) of biosphere reserves.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169182/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Siegmund is a Member of the European Science & Technology Advisory Group within the UN Office for Disaster Rish Reduction. He receives funding from the ERANet-LAC Programme of the European Union and personal support within the framework of a long-term cooperation with the Institute for Geography and the Atacama Desert Center at the Universidad Católica de Chile. He is the UNESCO Chair on Observation and Education of World Heritage and Biosphere Reserve.</span></em></p>This hardy desert plant lives in the hostile Atacama Desert in Chile by sucking moisture out of passing fog. As water resources become ever more scarce, humans could follow suit.Alexander Siegmund, Professor of Physical Geography and Geo-education, Heidelberg University of EducationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1636292021-07-12T12:29:31Z2021-07-12T12:29:31ZHow Latin America’s protest superheroes fight injustice and climate change – and sometimes crime, too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410644/original/file-20210709-13-1a9nnzj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=110%2C0%2C820%2C390&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Argentine justice crusader who calls himself Menganno has been patrolling the streets of the city of Lanus since 2010. Netflix has now picked up his character.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS21WlJupSs">Netflix Latinoamérica (screenshot)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not all heroes wear capes. In Latin America, some real-life icons wear Mexican wrestling masks or arm themselves with shields and herbicide to lead demonstrations and strong-arm government officials into protecting the people. </p>
<p>These superheroes aren’t <a href="https://www.marvel.com/characters/iron-man-tony-stark">traumatized billionaires</a> like Ironman or <a href="https://www.dccomics.com/characters/superman">aliens with modest alter egos</a> like Superman. They are regular people from Mexico, Argentina and beyond who, with outlandish costumes – and, sometimes, social media accounts – galvanize their communities to defend themselves against everything from police brutality to corporate greed. </p>
<p>Mass demonstrations in the United States have yet to spawn this kind of real-life superhero. But as <a href="https://vt.academia.edu/VinodhVenkatesh/CurriculumVitae">my research on Latin American cultural studies and history</a> demonstrates, common citizens there regularly don outlandish outfits and adopt comic book-inspired personas to promote social change.</p>
<h2>Mexico’s Superbarrio</h2>
<p>Perhaps the best-known character of this sort is Mexico’s Superbarrio, who in the late 1980s <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/superbarrio-the-peoples-superhero/">advocated for housing reform</a> in Mexico City. The character was created by Marco Rascón, a social activist and <a href="https://www.infobae.com/america/mexico/2021/02/10/marco-rascon-sera-candidato-a-la-alcaldia-cuauhtemoc-por-movimiento-ciudadano/">occasional political candidate</a>, who never actually wore the mask but who coordinated the character’s public appearances. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man holding a soccer ball stands next to a man wearing a red full-face mask with a cape and an 'SB' emblem on his shirt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409376/original/file-20210701-25-l6co8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Superbarrio, seen here in 1998, was an early real-life Mexican superhero who became popular across Latin America.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mexican-superbarrio-gomez-and-a-french-unemployed-pose-for-news-photo/1193446923">Eric Cabanis/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to organizing rallies for affordable housing and tenant protection programs, <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/02/27/mexico/1519752156_150172.html">Superbarrio routinely met with politicians and housing officials</a> as an advocate for the needs of the city’s poor, many of whom were rural migrants who came to the capital during Mexico’s <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190699192.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190699192-e-32">mid-20th-century boom years</a>. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, Superbarrio supported the Zapatistas – an Indigenous protest movement based in the southern state of Chiapas – in their grassroots challenge of the Mexican government and global capitalism. </p>
<p>The costume Rascón helped design for Superbarrio combined some elements of Mexican masked wrestlers like El Santo – a justice-seeking “luchador” who became a folk hero and movie character – with others recalling El Chapulín Colorado, perhaps the Spanish-speaking world’s best-known superhero. Superbarrio combined these influences with the stylized “S” chest <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Superbarrio.jpg">emblem of Superman</a>.</p>
<p>Superbarrio inspired <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1333/The-World-of-Lucha-LibreSecrets-Revelations-and">other real-life superhero protesters in Mexico</a>, including the environmental activist Ecologista Universal and the LGBTQ rights advocate Super Gay.</p>
<h2>Newer figures join in</h2>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/113329391" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A video showcases Menganno.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More citizen-superheroes have since emerged in other Latin American countries.</p>
<p>One is <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/519414187">Menganno</a>, a middle-aged Argentine crime fighter who patrols the streets of the city of Lanús on a motorbike, dressed in a full costume with mask and shield. Menganno alerts authorities and city residents whenever he comes upon petty crime, from robberies to drug deals. He also helps aid agencies in identifying people who need food or shelter. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.clarin.com/zonales/superheroe-conurbano-llega-cine-filman-pelicula-capitan-menganno-puma-goity-protagonista_0_ry0sadL3z.html">2018 Menganno movie</a> has languished in post-production due to the COVID-19 crisis, but Netflix Latin America may be picking <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS21WlJupSs">up his story</a>. </p>
<p>Like Menganno, the Honduran masked figure Súper H – born Elmer Ramos – informs his neighbors about such issues as <a href="https://www.radiohouse.hn/2016/07/11/super-h-el-superheroe-sampedrano-que-esta-cambiando-honduras/">homelessness, gang violence and corruption</a>. He has plenty of problems to identify: Súper H works in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/27/world/americas/honduras-murder-capital/index.html">San Pedro Sula</a> – once infamously known as the murder capital of the world. </p>
<p>Active on social media and in the streets since 2016, Super H wears a Mexican-style luchador mask and the jersey of the Honduran national soccer team. </p>
<p>Increasing pesticide use is one of his targets. Another is Honduras’ semi-authoritarian president, Juan Orlando Hernández. Several Hernández administration officials have been convicted in U.S. courts for drug trafficking; in their trials Hernández himself was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/world/americas/honduras-juan-orlando-hernandez-drug-trial.html">accused of participating in those operations</a>.</p>
<h2>Chilean characters</h2>
<p>Back in South America, Chile has seen several iconic figures arise from <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50191746">recent national protests there</a> against a <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-puts-its-constitution-on-the-ballot-after-year-of-civil-unrest-147832">public transit fare hike and a starkly unequal economy</a>.</p>
<p>Some of them are accidental heroes, like <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-chile-protests-heroes/looking-for-a-hero-shirtless-chilean-protester-police-hating-dog-rise-to-fame-idUKKBN1XH2S3">Pareman</a> or “Stopman” – a protester who was captured by journalists holding a stop sign while being hosed down by the police in October 2019.</p>
<p>Other notable homegrown Chilean protest heroes include the <a href="https://www.ecuadortimes.net/the-story-of-the-ecuadorian-spiderman-that-reached-the-heart-of-the-chilean-people/">Stupid and Sensual Spiderman</a>, a street performer in a Spiderman costume who twerks in front of police while chanting protest slogans, and a climate activist dressed as <a href="https://elcomercio.pe/mundo/latinoamerica/protestas-en-chile-la-primera-linea-heroes-o-vandalos-de-la-dura-batalla-urbana-en-chile-sebastian-pinera-noticia/">Mexico’s Chapulín Colorado</a> but armed with a gas mask and a sprayer of Round-Up herbicide.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B5LgFj0h9uH","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Chile’s modern-day protest heroes follow in the footsteps of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-chilean-dog-ended-up-as-a-face-of-the-new-york-city-subway-protests-129167">Negro Matapacos</a>, a street dog wearing a red bandanna who electrified protesters almost a decade ago. Though he died in 2017, Negro Matapacos is still depicted as a sort of super sidekick in Chilean graffiti and print.</p>
<h2>Capitán Colombia</h2>
<p>Dressed in black gym clothes, ski goggles and a gas mask, Capitán Colombia is a visible figure on the front lines of his country’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-colombians-are-taking-to-the-streets-to-protest-state-violence-161963">ongoing protests</a> against political corruption, economic difficulties and <a href="https://www.axios.com/colombia-lawmakers-health-care-protesters-a7b52d3c-01ce-4ad4-85f4-49331eca1b76.html">health care privatization</a>. </p>
<p>Capitán Colombia, who carries a tri-colored shield in the colors of the Colombian flag, adorned with a drawn heart, is a comic book-like muscular superhero. His toned arms and expansive chest are an exception to generally rounded physiques of Latin America’s other real-life icons.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A muscular man in a gas mask, ski goggles, and a tank top, holding a metal shield painted like the Colombian flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409375/original/file-20210701-25-1f7foev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Capitán Colombia has a comic book hero’s physique and an activist’s social critique.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/capitncolombia?lang=en">Capitan Colombia via Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like his Latin American peers, though, Capitán Colombia has no actual superpower. Still, his participation in marches draws local and international attention to the demands of his fellow protesters. So does his <a href="https://www.instagram.com/capitancolombia.oficial/?hl=en">Instagram account</a>, which has 11,000 followers.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>An all-male cast</h2>
<p>While Latin America’s mass demonstrations draw all genders – and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/06/chile-womens-day-protest">some are women-led</a> – nearly all its citizen-superhero protesters are male. In Chile, <a href="https://elpais.com/sociedad/2020-03-07/cubrirse-el-rostro-para-ser-legion-el-icono-de-la-lucha-feminista-en-chile.html">women activists have donned creative masks and outfits</a>, sometimes going topless at protests against gender violence and police abuse. They have not, however, adopted a superhero persona.</p>
<p>The all-male street superhero cast may reflect Latin America’s broader issues with gender inequity, and it mirrors the sparsity of women superheroes in both Latin American and U.S. comic franchises. Only recently have Marvel and DC put out <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2020/12/13/box-office-how-hollywood-sets-female-led-superhero-movies-like-wonder-woman-supergirl-catwoman-and-elektra-up-to-fail/?sh=37ad5d617fac">female-led films</a>. </p>
<p>In Mexico – which has seen several recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/mexican-women-are-angry-about-rape-murder-and-government-neglect-and-they-want-the-world-to-know-122156">feminist uprisings against rape and other forms of gender violence</a> – the government recently created a coronavirus-fighting superheroine named <a href="https://coronavirus.gob.mx/susana-distancia/">Susana Distancia</a>. Perhaps officials consciously sought to add a female-identified character into the mix of national superheroes. But their choice may have to do more with the rhyme of “distancia” – distance, as in social distancing.</p>
<p>Latin America’s activist superheroes skip the big screen to fight not aliens or supervillains but real world injustices. Might gender equality be a future target?</p>
<p><em>This story has been updated to correct an error, introduced during editing, about the Mexican state in which the Zapatista movement originated.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163629/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vinodh Venkatesh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In Latin America, common citizens have often donned outlandish outfits and comic book-inspired personas to lead demonstrations and promote social change.Vinodh Venkatesh, Professor of Hispanic Studies, Virginia TechLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1640882021-07-08T17:32:49Z2021-07-08T17:32:49ZChile: election of progressive indigenous academic to oversee constitutional reform is a blow to right-wing establishment<p>An indigenous academic will head up Chile’s newly formed constitutional convention, sending shock waves through Chile’s conservative right-wing establishment. </p>
<p>Elisa Loncon was voted in by delegates on July 4 after <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-57142087">an election</a> on May 17 returned a large majority of independent and opposition members. For many, her leadership heralds the start of a radical progressive shift in the country’s politics. </p>
<p>The 155-member constitutional convention will now meet to rewrite Chile’s constitution, with proposals needing a two-thirds majority to be adopted. </p>
<p>The decision to rewrite the constitution comes after a referendum was held in October 2020 following <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/18/chile-students-mass-fare-dodging-expands-into-city-wide-protest">mass protests</a> that began a year previously after a hike in metro fares. The transit protests developed into a mass social movement encompassing feminists, environmentalists, indigenous groups and anti-neoliberal activists calling for progressive socioeconomic change. </p>
<p>Protesters were <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-abolishes-its-dictatorship-era-constitution-in-groundbreaking-vote-for-a-more-inclusive-democracy-148844">unanimous about the need</a> to overturn the repressive constitution that had been imposed in 1980 by the Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-abolishes-its-dictatorship-era-constitution-in-groundbreaking-vote-for-a-more-inclusive-democracy-148844">Chile abolishes its dictatorship-era constitution in groundbreaking vote for a more inclusive democracy</a>
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<p><a href="https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/indigenous-academic-elisa-loncon-elected-to-re-write-chiles-constitution/">Loncon</a> is an academic of indigenous Mapuche descent, born into poverty, whose family has a long tradition of struggling for Mapuche autonomy and rights. Despite her humble origins, the 58-year-old academic has an educational CV that encompasses a degree in English at University of La Frontera in Chile, followed by postgraduate studies at the International Institute of Social Studies in the Hague, University of Regina (Canada) and the UAM Iztapalapa in Mexico City. She has a PhD from Leiden University in the Netherlands and a doctorate in literature from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.</p>
<p>Her election, along with the inclusion of 17 indigenous constituents into the constitutional assembly, comes at a time when <a href="https://theglobalamericans.org/2021/04/mapuche-organizations-call-on-international-agencies-to-intervene-on-behalf-of-chiles-indigenous-population/">tensions are high</a> in Araucania, the ancestral territories of the Mapuche in southern Chile. Despite making up more than 12% of Chile’s population of 18.95 million, Chile’s indigenous peoples have historically been socially and politically marginalised.</p>
<p>The Mapuche is the only indigenous Chilean group to have never been fully subjugated – they have resisted tyranny and dispossession since the arrival of Spanish colonisers in 1536. </p>
<p>During the ill-fated administration of Chile’s left-wing president, Salvador Allende (1970-73), the Mapuche won some land rights and were recognised as an ethnic group. But the Pinochet regime (1973-90) reversed these rights after militarily overthrowing the Allende government, sold off ancestral lands to national and multinational companies and imposed <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/05/chile-autoridades-deben-dejar-de-criminalizar-personas-mapuches-a-traves-de-ley-antiterrorista/">terror laws</a> in 1984 to suppress indigenous land recovery efforts.</p>
<p>The transition to democracy after the ousting of Pinochet in 1990 did little to alter conditions for the Mapuche. Despite a gradual shift towards democracy, the neoliberal socioeconomic model imposed by Pinochet largely remained unchallenged by successive governments, including those deemed “socialist” such as the two administrations of Michelle Bachelet (2006-10 and 2014-18).</p>
<h2>Oppressing Chilean minorities</h2>
<p>The expansion of the forestry industry in Chile’s southern regions, thanks to Pinochet era <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/chile-wildfires-forestry-industry-plantations">deregulation</a>, has led to the rapid <a href="https://www.patagonjournal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4189%3Achiles-threatened-forests-&catid=190%3Aconservation&Itemid=279&lang=en">destruction of forests</a> that provide plants vital for Mapuche medicine and are a vital source of food. Meanwhile industrial waste and hydroelectric dams <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/may/10/chile-patagonia-dams-hydroelectricity">have contaminated</a> many rivers and lakes in the region. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Portrait of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet wearing ceremonial uniform." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410389/original/file-20210708-27-kq945g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410389/original/file-20210708-27-kq945g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410389/original/file-20210708-27-kq945g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410389/original/file-20210708-27-kq945g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410389/original/file-20210708-27-kq945g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410389/original/file-20210708-27-kq945g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410389/original/file-20210708-27-kq945g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=977&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Repressive: Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Archivo General Histórico del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mapuche people trying to fight against the degradation of their lands have found themselves pitted against police acting in the interests of big business. It’s not uncommon for indigenous activists to be <a href="https://www.redpepper.org.uk/killing-of-indigenous-activist-in-chile-provokes-widespread-protests/">murdered</a>, including environmental campaigner Macarena Valdés Muñoz, 32, who was found hanged in her home in Newen-Tranguil, 500 miles south of Santiago in 2018.</p>
<p>Chile is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-57070812">the only</a> country in Latin America whose constitution does not even recognise the existence of its indigenous peoples. So Loncon’s appointment will be pivotal for Mapuche voices to finally be included in the delicate task of reshaping the identity of a country blighted by the years of repression under Pinochet.</p>
<h2>Road to reform</h2>
<p>In a powerful speech delivered in Chile’s capital, Santiago, after her appointment, Loncon signalled her intention to prioritise the rights of indigenous people and women: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This convention I will be presiding over will transform Chile into an intercultural Chile that does not violate the rights of women, the rights of caregivers … into a Chile that takes care of mother earth, that keeps its waters clean against all domination. A very special greeting for the Mapuche lamgnen [sisters] in Wallmapu [Araucania]. This dream is our ancestor’s dream.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That a left-wing outsider is presiding over the writing of a new constitution has stunned an ailing political elite that may finally be losing its grip on power. Marcela Cubillos, a prominent <a href="https://twitter.com/jwbartlett92/status/1233448326982520833?lang=en">pro-Pinochet activist</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/mcubillossigall/status/1411849469650481154">tweeted</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This convention has been installed with clear dominance of the Communist party and the Frente Amplio (Broad Front). We hope that the rule of law is respected, and the brakes are put on this attempt to overpower (it), that will be the focus. This will not be easy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With only 38 of the 155 seats in the Constitutional Convention, Cubillos and her hard-line conservative allies will find themselves relatively powerless in the face of an overwhelming majority on the constitutional convention of progressives: grassroots activists, feminists, LGBTQ+ representatives and indigenous peoples. </p>
<p>Delegates have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/protests-delay-inauguration-chiles-new-constitutional-assembly-2021-07-04/">signalled their intention</a> to address topics such as water and property rights, central bank independence and labour practices. After nearly five decades progressive change may finally be achievable in Chile.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carole Concha Bell is affiliated with Mapuche International Link, NGO based in Bristol that promotes the culture and rights of the Mapuche people. I am a volunteer press officer and receive no income from MIL. </span></em></p>Elisa Loncon has pledged to prioritise indigenous and women’s rights as part of the constitutional reform.Carole Concha Bell, PhD candidate, Department of Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1612142021-06-01T11:28:50Z2021-06-01T11:28:50ZHow we discovered a giant new crustacean scavenging on the deepest depths of the ocean floor<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401617/original/file-20210519-13-168up36.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=121%2C675%2C4039%2C2032&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">_Eurythenes atacamensis_, a giant scavenging amphipod from hadal depths of the Peru-Chile Trench.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-021-01182-z">Alan Jamieson</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Discovering a new species and placing it on the tree of life is a big responsibility. I have been fortunate to name four species from some of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4748.1.9">deepest</a>, most remote and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2020.1729891">least sampled</a> parts of the ocean. Each new species helps us uncover how life thrives in the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hqsPBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=jamieson+hadal+zone&ots=mwSGRXURPG&sig=UknVAyND0muPevPRqfvTtWB3BQs#v=onepage&q=jamieson%20hadal%20zone&f=false">hadal zone</a> (anywhere deeper than 6,000 metres or 3.7 miles). Now, let me introduce you to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-021-01182-z"><em>Eurythenes atacamensis</em></a>.</p>
<p><em>Eurythenes atacamensis</em> is an amphipod, a type of crustacean closely related to a shrimp, endemic to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Peru-Chile-Trench">Peru-Chile Trench</a> (also known as the Atacama Trench). Measuring more than 8cm in length, it is nearly twice the size of its nearest relative, making it a giant. Spanning an extensive vertical range, juveniles and adults can be found in the trench between 4,974 to 8,081 metres. This includes the deepest point, known as Richard’s Deep. </p>
<p>It is one of the most abundant members of the trench community, joining a <a href="https://theconversation.com/snailfish-how-we-found-a-new-species-in-one-of-the-oceans-deepest-places-103003">trio of snailfish</a> and long-legged, spider-like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txSOP_9yLCI">isopods</a>. As a <a href="https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.2007.52.4.1685">scavenger</a>, this amphipod plays a critical role within the food web by intercepting and redistributing food sinking down from above. They quickly detect and consume new carrion, like the mackerel bait we used to coax individuals into the trap. Unfortunately, they can accidentally ingest <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180667">microplastics</a> too.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bFqluXB9HcE?wmode=transparent&start=10" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Timelapse of <em>Eurythenes atacamensis</em> feasting on the baited scientific lander at 6,980 metres deep in the Atacama Trench.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their home is one of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2018.01.007">35 trenches</a> that reach hadal depths. These trenches are formed by a geologic process called subduction (where one tectonic plate is forced under another causing the ocean floor to quickly plunge). The volume of the Atacama Trench is almost the same as the neighbouring Andes mountain range, also created by the tectonic subduction zone. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Colour map of Atacama Trench." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402227/original/file-20210523-17-1agzf2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402227/original/file-20210523-17-1agzf2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402227/original/file-20210523-17-1agzf2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402227/original/file-20210523-17-1agzf2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402227/original/file-20210523-17-1agzf2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402227/original/file-20210523-17-1agzf2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402227/original/file-20210523-17-1agzf2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Atacama Trench in dark blue running along the spine of Peru to Chile.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NOAA/Wikipedia</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Compared to the conditions at the surface, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2009.09.009">hadal (or deep-sea) environment</a> seems extreme. It is pitch black with water temperatures varying between 1°C and 4°C at the deepest points. The hydrostatic pressure at hadal depths ranges from 600 to 1,100 atmospheres – equivalent to placing one-tonne on the end of your finger.</p>
<p>But this environment is entirely normal to the organisms that live there. Hadal inhabitants have a suite of biochemical, morphological and behavioural <a href="http://digital.ecomagazine.com/publication/?i=562381&article_id=3286789&view=articleBrowser&ver=html5">adaptions</a> that allow them to thrive in the trenches. Studying these ecosystems is not an easy task – which is why the hadal zone has been understudied compared to shallower parts of the ocean. </p>
<p>In 2018 two international research expeditions focused on the southern portion of the Atacama Trench. Scientists first set off on the Chilean vessel, RV Cabo de Hornos, to study the deepest part of the trench, Richard’s Deep, as part of the <a href="https://en.imo-chile.cl/post/2018-02-10-un-viaje-a-nuestro-mar-inescrutable-la-fosa-de-atacama.html">Atacamex expedition</a>. A month later, scientists on the German vessel, RV Sonne, <a href="https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/49388/1/BzPM_0729_2019.pdf">studied</a> the wider trench ecosystem, sampling from 2,500 metres to Richard’s Deep.</p>
<p>During the expeditions, unmanned submersibles called <a href="https://www.sdu.dk/en/forskning/hadal/research/lander+work">landers</a> were deployed. Landers were equipped with robust deep-sea imaging equipment and baited traps to bring animals up for closer inspection. Both expeditions were a success and collected hundreds of hours of footage and thousands of amphipods – including <em>Eurythenes atacamensis</em> – as well as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/snailfish-how-we-found-a-new-species-in-one-of-the-oceans-deepest-places-103003">new species of snailfish</a>, affectionately nicknamed the “Little Purple Lovely” until its official scientific name is decided. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A drawing of an deep-sea creature." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402228/original/file-20210523-13-1hlljwb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402228/original/file-20210523-13-1hlljwb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402228/original/file-20210523-13-1hlljwb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402228/original/file-20210523-13-1hlljwb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402228/original/file-20210523-13-1hlljwb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402228/original/file-20210523-13-1hlljwb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402228/original/file-20210523-13-1hlljwb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientific illustration of the <em>Eurythenes atacamensis</em> holotype, a female from 8052 metres in the Atacama Trench.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Johanna Weston/Marine Biodiversity</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once the specimens were back on land, the detailed work to sort, measure, identify and describe new species commenced. <em>Eurythenes atacamensis</em> is a member of a well-studied deep-sea genus (<em>Eurythenes</em>), which is notorious for what is known as <a href="https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3971.1.1">cryptic speciation</a>. In other words, when it is hard to visually tell one species from another. The fantastic photographs of <em>Eurythenes atacamensis</em> were actually taken back in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10489">2009 expedition</a> to the trench. </p>
<p>At the time, it was first identified as <em>Eurythenes gryllus</em>. With the new 2018 specimens, we accounted for cryptic speciation by applying an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-9994-7-16">integrative taxonomy approach</a> – pairing traditional morphology (the detailed study of an organism’s shape) with <a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-barcoding-a-better-way-to-discover-species-4933">DNA barcoding</a>. This latest research showed it was actually a different and undescribed species. </p>
<p>This taxonomic process helped us categorise organisms so we could more easily communicate the biological information. Together, the detailed visual assessment and genetics gave us a clear result that <em>Eurythenes atacamensis</em> was a new species. Once confident in the data, we selected several individuals to be described and illustrated. These individuals are called type specimens – the most important of which is the <a href="https://ecologyforthemasses.com/2019/09/12/preserving-biological-heritage-the-importance-of-type-specimens/">holotype</a> or the “name-bearing” specimen. We chose the name <em>atacamensis</em> in tribute to its home.</p>
<p>This discovery is another piece in the puzzle of understanding the world that we live in and the subtle interactions between organisms and their environment. It helps us understand how life thrives in the deepest parts of the ocean, under conditions that seem impossible to terrestrial mammals like us. It also gives us a glimpse into the hadal zone – not an extreme habitat bereft of life, but one filled with extraordinary biodiversity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The RV Sonne SO261 Expedition was funded by the HADES–ERC Advanced Grant “Benthic diagenesis and microbiology of hadal trenches” (Grant Agreement Number 669947) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The Atacamex Expedition was funded by the National Agency for Research and Development of Chile (ANID; Grant AUB 150006/12806). Additional support came from the Danish National Research Foundation, HADAL, (Grant number DNRF145), ANID through the Millennium Science Initiative Program (Grant ICN 12_019-IMO), and internal funding from Newcastle University</span></em></p>Deep ocean trenches are home to extraordinary biodiversity waiting to be discovered.Johanna Weston, PhD Marine Science candidate, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.