tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/chile-protests-77812/articlesChile protests – The Conversation2024-01-11T21:37:33Ztag: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>
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<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>
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<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/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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<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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<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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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<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/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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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>
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<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>
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<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>
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<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">
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<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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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/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>
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<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">
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<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>
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<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/1495042020-11-17T18:43:50Z2020-11-17T18:43:50ZThe limitations of international expertise when drafting new constitutions<p>On October 25, the Chilean people took part in a referendum on whether they wanted to adopt a new constitution. The result – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/25/world/americas/chile-constitution-plebiscite.html">78% in favour</a> – strongly signals their desire to leave behind the deeply neoliberal constitution <a href="http://constitutionnet.org/country/constitutional-history-chile">imposed by Augusto Pinochet</a>, which remains in place despite a <a href="http://www.iconnectblog.com/2020/10/introduction-symposium-on-chiles-constitution-making-process/">number of reforms</a> since 1989.</p>
<p>The referendum had its roots in a October 2019 decision by the government to increase metro fares by 3%. Protests quickly broke out and spread, and soon a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/30/chile-protests-portraits-protesters-sebastian-pinera">nationwide resistance movement</a> was born. Replacing the Pinochet-era constitution was one of the protesters’ key demands, and the referendum made that a real possibility. In the months ahead, the spotlight will be on the creation of the future constituent assembly, which for the first time in history will have <a href="https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/blog/2020/chile-celebrates-a-gender-equality-first.html">guaranteed gender parity</a>.</p>
<p>The process of writing a new constitution has the potential to <a href="https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/10/today-is-chiles-chance-to-bury-pinochets-legacy">mark a paradigm shift</a> in how political power is exercised in Chile, but we should also be clear-headed about the on-the-ground complexities of constitution-making.</p>
<h2>Constitution-making: a multifaceted process</h2>
<p>Creating a new constitution tends to be seen as the epitome of popular sovereignty. The power to write a new constitution (in French, the <em>pouvoir constituant</em>) is enacted by representatives of the people who create the fundamental norms that frame the structure of the state. The idea that “the people” can write a constitution first appeared in the 18th century in the context of US independence. More than just a legal device used to limit the power of government, the US Constitution marked a deeper paradigmatic shift – that political authority is not derived from god, but from the people, as the first three words of its preamble, <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/preamble">“We the People”</a>, make explicit. </p>
<p>Against this shared imaginary underpinning how we commonly think about constitutions, the reality is complex and multifaceted. Far removed from the ideal of sovereign independence, the process of writing a new one has always been a transnational affair. Indeed, no constitution ever fully reflects the idealised vision of the <em>pouvoir constituant</em>. Historically, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03050718.1993.9986286?journalCode=rclb20">constitutions adopted during decolonisation</a> were not drafted by “the people” but by metropolitan elites in big cities. As the British Empire was coming to an end, the constitutions of some of its former colonies were written by the colonial office, including that of <a href="http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/1963_Constitution.pdf">Kenya</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">“Rebirth”: Chileans vote by millions to tear up Pinochet’s constitution.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Today the transnational dimension of new constitutions is less explicit. They are often developed by a body representing the people, as will be case in Chile, but international actors are integral parts of the process. Without infringing on the sovereign exercise of the national constituent assembly, organisations such as the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/constitution-making-under-un-auspices-9780199498024">United Nations</a>, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (<a href="https://www.idea.int/">International IDEA</a>) and the <a href="https://venice.coe.int/webforms/events/?lang=FR">Venice Commission</a> – are often present during the drafting stage to provide “comparative expertise”. Recent examples include <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-11103008">Kenya</a> (2010), <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/tunisia-signs-new-constitution-progressive">Tunisia</a> (2014) and <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/nepal-new-constitution-approved/">Nepal</a> (2015).</p>
<h2>The inner workings of constitutional expertise</h2>
<p>Constitutional expertise provided by international actors is formulated in technical terms and is based on the assumption that the right constitutional framework will accelerate the desired social change. Over the last decade, there have been a variety of <a href="https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/chapters/practical-guide-to-constitution-building/a-practical-guide-to-constitution-building-chapter-1.pdf">“constitutional toolboxes”</a> and guidebooks published, providing a blueprint to be used in processes of constitution-making, from the structure of the state to human rights.</p>
<p>This international expertise is framed in apolitical terms, treating deeply political issues as technical ones, but its empirical grounds are shaky. Little to no academic research exists to tell us the social outputs of a given <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2003/01/28/promoting-rule-of-law-abroad-problem-of-knowledge-pub-1169">institutional framework</a>.</p>
<p>While constitution-making dates back several centuries, the process started to be formally studied only at the end of the Cold War. The discipline of <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198810230.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780198810230-e-39">comparative constitutional law</a> is thus a relatively new scientific field. When the aim is to create a constitution that will democratise a country’s political system, as it is the case in Chile, we still do not know if a particular institutional framework leads to a desired social outcome. Anyone claiming otherwise does not have the data to back that up.</p>
<p>Though this is no fault of their own, what international actors can provide is limited, as they rely on a developing academic discipline with significant methodological limitations. The discipline of comparative constitutional law is not only young, but it’s also – with <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-global-south-and-comparative-constitutional-law-9780198850403?cc=be&lang=en&">some exceptions</a> – largely <a href="http://iglp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Frankenberg-Critical-Comparassons-excerpt.pdf">ethnocentric</a>. For example, when assessing potential models to establish an independent constitutional institution that would combat corruption, experts tend to focus on a cases such as Germany, France, the United States and South Africa. At the same time, potentially valuable examples from non-western countries are discounted, thus reducing the horizon of possibilities.</p>
<p>Having the vision and political will to create a new constitutional framework that will fundamentally change how political power is exercised is obviously crucial. At the same time, constituent authorities should be aware of the <a href="https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/journal_articles/9625/">inherent limitations of the comparative expertise provided by international actors</a>. The opportunity that Chileans created for themselves should be celebrated as the success of hard-fought activism and social organising, even as hurdles await in the process itself. A new constitution can be a vessel to materialise the deeply felt desire for much-needed social change or can simply maintain the status quo with a slightly different face.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alicia Pastor y Camarasa ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>On October 25, Chilean citizens overwhelmingly voted to replace the country’s dictator-era constitution. This is an opportunity to look at the process of drafting basic laws around the world.Alicia Pastor y Camarasa, Chercheuse doctorante au Centre de recherche sur l'État et la Constitution, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1488442020-10-26T15:42:20Z2020-10-26T15:42:20ZChile abolishes its dictatorship-era constitution in groundbreaking vote for a more inclusive democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365537/original/file-20201026-13-e4nmro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=140%2C241%2C6569%2C4225&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chileans celebrate victory after the referendum, in Santiago, Chile, Oct. 25, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-gather-to-celebrate-the-victory-of-the-referendum-in-news-photo/1229286678?adppopup=true">Felipe Vargas Figueroa/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One year ago, Chileans took their <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-protests-explainer/explainer-chiles-inequality-challenge-what-went-wrong-and-can-it-be-fixed-idUSKBN1X22RK">anger over inequality and injustice</a> to the streets, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/5/chile-protests-chileans-demand-new-constitution-amid-unrest">insisting that redressing the nation’s deep structural problems would require</a> more than reform. They said Chile would need a new constitution with more rights and better social protections. </p>
<p>On Oct. 25, in a popular referendum, the rest of the country <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/25/world/americas/chile-constitution-plebiscite.html">overwhelmingly agreed with their diagnosis</a>. </p>
<p>Chile’s referendum asked voters two questions: Should Chile convene a constitutional convention to write a brand-new constitution? If so, who should write that constitution – an assembly comprising half congressional representatives and half citizens, or an assembly comprising just citizens? </p>
<p>With 79% of the vote, Chileans <a href="https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-54686919">demanded a new constitution written solely by their fellow Chileans</a>.</p>
<p>Our research on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HGTSACIAAAAJ&hl=en">democratic governments</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5xSYuXcAAAAJ&hl=en">women’s political participation</a> explains why Chile’s Oct. 25 vote breaks new ground and could set an example for democracies worldwide. </p>
<p>Countries usually write new constitutions only when <a href="https://www.politicalsettlements.org/portfolio/constitution-making/">wars end</a> or <a href="https://blog.politics.ox.ac.uk/making-arab-spring-constitutions/">when transitioning to democracy</a>. And constitutional conventions composed solely of citizens are practically unheard of. Chile shows what <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/12/chile-at-the-barricades">frustrated people in democracies can achieve when they rise up</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman in a face mask walks past graffiti reading 'Chile Decides'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363286/original/file-20201013-23-is80f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C0%2C5399%2C3321&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363286/original/file-20201013-23-is80f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363286/original/file-20201013-23-is80f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363286/original/file-20201013-23-is80f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363286/original/file-20201013-23-is80f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363286/original/file-20201013-23-is80f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363286/original/file-20201013-23-is80f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Chile Decided’ for change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-walks-past-a-graffiti-reading-chile-decides-in-news-photo/1228190415?adppopup=true">Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>A tale of 2 Chiles</h2>
<p>Chile’s current constitution dates back to Augusto Pinochet, the military dictator who governed the South American country from 1973 to 1990. </p>
<p>Pinochet lost power in a 1988 referendum, highlighting the transformative potential of ballot initiatives in Chile. </p>
<p>But even as Chile transitioned to free and fair elections, <a href="http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-01947-6.html">Pinochet’s legacy persisted</a> in the country’s restrictive, dictatorship-era constitution. It defined <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0010414097030006001">an electoral system</a> that limited the power of the left and favored incumbents, reducing turnover in office. The lack of electoral incentives for politicians to listen to voters <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1866802X1600800303">created an insular and unresponsive political class</a>. </p>
<p>For a while, these problems were masked by Chile’s booming economy. <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/CHL/chile/gdp-growth-rate">The economy grew</a>, on average, 7% annually in the 1990s, and <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/CHL/chile/gdp-growth-rate">continued strong in the new millennium</a>. </p>
<p>The economic boom reduced poverty, but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/opinion/chile-protests.html">the rich got much richer</a>. Thanks to Chile’s free-market economic system – loosely based on the U.S. model but with less regulation – today the wealthiest 10% of Chileans <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/lac-equity-lab1/income-inequality/income-distribution">receive nearly 40% of the country’s income</a>. Chile is one of <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/there-are-large-differences-in-levels-of-income-inequality-across-the-oecd_3129a6e6-en">the most unequal countries among developed nations</a>, worse than the United States. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Chileans wave flags while standing on a graffiti-covered national monument." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C0%2C5588%2C3705&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.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">Chile’s protesters won the right to choose their nation’s future, but not without bloodshed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-during-a-protest-against-a-wide-range-of-issues-news-photo/1228990130?adppopup=true">Claudio Abarca Sandoval/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Chile’s rich and corporations enjoy low taxes, its poor and elderly struggle with nearly no social safety net. While wealthy Chileans visit state-of-the-art private medical clinics staffed with U.S.-trained doctors, the poor rely on public hospitals where they must often <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/27/chile-hundreds-shot-and-beaten-street-protests">buy their own syringes, bandages and drugs</a>. </p>
<p>Chileans have <a href="https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1010&context=polisci-faculty-publications">long acknowledged</a> this inequality, but the presidents who followed Pinochet – whether on the left or right – did little to alter this model. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Latin American governments from Mexico to Brazil <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sp/article-abstract/24/4/345/4775169">invested in the comprehensive redistribution of wealth</a> and passed laws implementing <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2015.00278.x">gender quotas for legislative candidates</a>. Many amended their constitutions to clearly state that historically excluded groups like women and indigenous peoples enjoyed equal rights. Bolivia even <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41261455">wrote a new constitution</a> in 2008 recognizing itself as a multi-ethnic country and protecting Indigenous language, culture and lands. </p>
<p>Chile tried to address simmering unhappiness in 2017, expanding the number of seats in its congress, changing electoral rules to make races more competitive and introducing quotas for women candidates. But it was too little, too late. </p>
<h2>What changed?</h2>
<p>Chileans first took to the streets of the capital, Santiago, over an increase in public transit fares, <a href="https://www.leftvoice.org/timeline-from-student-rebellion-to-general-strike-in-chile">on Oct. 14, 2019. Things turned serious – and violent – overnight on Oct. 18</a>, as ever more people joined the demonstrations in what became known as “el estallido” – the explosion. </p>
<p>The following week, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50191746">1 million of Chile’s 19 million people marched for reform</a> nationwide, with wide-ranging demands. </p>
<p>Student protesters <a href="https://apnews.com/article/819108269b65dc2dd4dffcfd7712d53a">wanted free higher education</a>. Pensioners <a href="https://apnews.com/article/31ab8e9f5b9a467abdda53616edc72c2">wanted a dignified retirement</a>. Workers <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2019/11/12/chile-workers-unions-strike-in-support-of-ongoing-protests/?gb=true">wanted better wages</a>. Women and feminists <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/06/chile-womens-day-protest">wanted an end to gender violence</a>. </p>
<p>Chileans hope a new constitution with more rights and stronger mandates for such reforms will quell the protests, which <a href="https://en.mercopress.com/2020/10/12/rioting-and-protests-continue-in-chile-against-government-and-police-brutality">paused only during the height of Chile’s pandemic lockdown in spring and early summer</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aB7r6hdo3W4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Chilean feminists inspired a global trend with ‘El violador eres tú,’ a choreographed protest dance condemning violence against women.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fury on the streets continued even after Chile’s congress <a href="https://www.cnnchile.com/pais/toda-oposicion-acuerdo-pide-asamblea-constituyente-plebiscito_20191112/">agreed to hold a referendum</a> on writing a new constitution, and to let voters decide who would draft it. The referendum, originally scheduled for April 26, was postponed until October because of the coronavirus pandemic.</p>
<h2>Women make big gains</h2>
<p>With everyday Chileans writing the country’s new constitution, the decision-making power of the political class will be reduced. </p>
<p>Women will also have a greater voice in Chile’s future. <a href="https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/2019/11/27/nueva-constitucion-no-sin-mujeres/">Just two women</a> were among the 12 authors of its Pinochet-era constitution. But feminist leaders and women in congress insisted “<a href="https://www.latercera.com/paula/nunca-mas-sin-nosotras/">never again without women</a>,” demanding that the citizens elected to the constitutional convention be half women.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>When the <a href="https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2019/12/21/971123/Paridad-genero-constitucion-como-funciona.html">men in congress balked</a>, the women stood outside the chamber chanting, “we are half, we want half.” </p>
<p>In December 2019 congress conceded. By law, half of the citizens elected to write Chile’s new constitution must be women. This establishes a groundbreaking global standard for women’s political inclusion.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a face mask reading 'Sí apruebo.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A supporter of rewriting the constitution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-poses-with-a-face-mask-reading-i-approve-ahead-of-the-news-photo/1228658444?adppopup=true">Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The constitutional convention <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/world/americas/chile-mapuche-constitution.html">will also reserve seats</a> for Indigenous peoples like the Mapuche, a marginalized group whose ancestral lands <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/chile1004/3.htm">have been stolen</a> by the government. </p>
<p>At a time when people worldwide are rising up to demand more equitable and responsive government, from Black Lives Matter in the U.S. to <a href="https://theconversation.com/hong-kong-protesters-dont-identify-as-chinese-amid-anger-at-inequality-survey-suggests-122293">the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong</a>, Chile shows that sustained protests can bring sweeping change. Chileans, young and old, took exceptional risks to improve their country. </p>
<p>A vote to choose the citizen members of Chile’s constitutional convention comes next. At peaceful celebrations across Santiago on Oct. 25, demonstrators chanted, “<a href="https://twitter.com/jwbartlett92/status/1320513536028790790">May 22, May 22</a>” – the date of that election. </p>
<p>Chile’s pro-democracy movement has not all been peaceful or bloodless. </p>
<p>Iconic parts of downtown Santiago were destroyed last year, two-thirds of the city’s <a href="https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/santiago-metro-80-stations-damaged-or-destroyed-during-protests">metro stations</a> were damaged and 11 were set ablaze and ruined. Police fired on protesters with rubber bullets, and many of those arrested <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/world/americas/chile-police-protests.html">reported extreme brutality</a>, including sexual assault and even torture. Hundreds were wounded and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200229190253/https://nacla.org/news/2020/02/24/chile-struggle-democratize-state-plebescite">36 were killed</a> between October 2019 and February 2020. </p>
<p>It’s too soon to know whether the protests will subside with the referendum results. But Chile is moving forward with its mandate of change.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-puts-its-constitution-on-the-ballot-after-year-of-civil-unrest-147832">article</a> originally published Oct. 20, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148844/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 organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After a year of unrest Chileans voted decisively on Oct. 25 to replace their constitution, a relic of the military dictator Pinochet. Civilians, half of them women, will write the new constitution.Jennifer M. Piscopo, Associate Professor of Politics, Occidental CollegePeter Siavelis, Professor, Department of Political Science and International Affairs, Wake Forest UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1478322020-10-20T12:20:30Z2020-10-20T12:20:30ZChile puts its constitution on the ballot after year of civil unrest<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363286/original/file-20201013-23-is80f1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C0%2C5399%2C3321&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Chile Decides' whether to change its military dictatorship-era constitution at a popular referendum on Oct. 25.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-walks-past-a-graffiti-reading-chile-decides-in-news-photo/1228190415?adppopup=true">Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One year ago, Chileans took their <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-protests-explainer/explainer-chiles-inequality-challenge-what-went-wrong-and-can-it-be-fixed-idUSKBN1X22RK">anger over inequality and injustice</a> to the streets, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/5/chile-protests-chileans-demand-new-constitution-amid-unrest">insisting that redressing the nation’s deep structural problems would require</a> more than reform. They said Chile would need a new constitution with more rights and better social protections. </p>
<p>Soon they will learn whether the rest of the country agrees with their diagnosis. </p>
<p>On Oct. 25, Chile will hold a referendum that asks voters two questions: Should Chile convene a constitutional convention to write a brand-new constitution? If so, who should write that constitution – an assembly comprising half congressional representatives and half citizens, or an assembly comprising just citizens? </p>
<p>Experts predict voters <a href="https://www.elmostrador.cl/dia/2020/10/01/encuesta-criteria-72-votara-apruebo-y-19-rechazo-a-una-nueva-constitucion-en-el-plebiscito/">will vote for a new constitution written by their fellow Chileans</a>.</p>
<p>Our research on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HGTSACIAAAAJ&hl=en">democratic governments</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5xSYuXcAAAAJ&hl=en">women’s political participation</a> explains why Chile’s referendum is, to use a technical political science term, a big deal. </p>
<p>Countries usually write new constitutions only when <a href="https://www.politicalsettlements.org/portfolio/constitution-making/">wars end</a> or <a href="https://blog.politics.ox.ac.uk/making-arab-spring-constitutions/">when transitioning to democracy</a>. And constitutional conventions composed solely of citizens are practically unheard of. Chile shows what <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/12/chile-at-the-barricades">frustrated people in democracies can achieve when they rise up</a>.</p>
<h2>A tale of two Chiles</h2>
<p>Chile’s current constitution dates back to Augusto Pinochet, the military dictator who governed the South American country from 1973 to 1990. </p>
<p>Pinochet lost power in a 1988 referendum, highlighting the transformative potential of ballot initiatives in Chile. But even as Chile transitioned to free and fair elections, <a href="http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-01947-6.html">Pinochet’s legacy persisted</a> in the country’s restrictive, dictatorship-era constitution. It defined <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0010414097030006001">an electoral system</a> that limited the power of the left and favored incumbents, reducing turnover in office. The lack of electoral incentives for politicians to listen to voters <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1866802X1600800303">created an insular and unresponsive political class</a>. </p>
<p>For a while, these problems were masked by Chile’s booming economy. <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/CHL/chile/gdp-growth-rate">The economy grew</a>, on average, 7% annually in the 1990s, and <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/CHL/chile/gdp-growth-rate">continued strong in the new millennium</a>. </p>
<p>The economic boom reduced poverty, but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/opinion/chile-protests.html">the rich got much richer</a>. Thanks to Chile’s free-market economic system – loosely based on the U.S. model but with less regulation – today the wealthiest 10% of Chileans <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/lac-equity-lab1/income-inequality/income-distribution">receive nearly 40% of income in the country</a>. Chile is one of <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/there-are-large-differences-in-levels-of-income-inequality-across-the-oecd_3129a6e6-en">the most unequal countries among developed nations</a>, worse than the United States. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Chileans wave flags while standing on a graffiti-covered national monument." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C0%2C5588%2C3705&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363284/original/file-20201013-23-jsh9ht.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">Chile’s protesters won the right to choose their nation’s future, but not without bloodshed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-during-a-protest-against-a-wide-range-of-issues-news-photo/1228990130?adppopup=true">Claudio Abarca Sandoval/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Chile’s rich and corporations enjoy low taxes, its poor and elderly struggle with nearly no social safety net. While wealthy Chileans visit state-of-the-art private medical clinics staffed with U.S.-trained doctors, the poor rely on public hospitals where they must often <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/27/chile-hundreds-shot-and-beaten-street-protests">buy their own syringes, bandages and drugs</a>. </p>
<p>Chileans have <a href="https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1010&context=polisci-faculty-publications">long acknowledged</a> this inequality, but the presidents who followed Pinochet – whether on the left or right – did little to alter this model. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Latin American governments from Mexico to Brazil <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sp/article-abstract/24/4/345/4775169">invested in comprehensive redistribution of wealth</a> and passed laws implementing <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2015.00278.x">gender quotas for legislative candidates</a>. Many amended their constitutions to clearly state that historically excluded groups like women and indigenous peoples enjoyed equal rights. Bolivia even <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41261455">wrote a new constitution</a> in 2008 recognizing itself as a multiethnic country and protecting Indigenous language, culture and lands. </p>
<p>Chile tried to address simmering unhappiness in 2017, expanding the number of seats in congress, changing electoral rules to make races more competitive and introducing quotas for women candidates. But it was too little, too late. </p>
<h2>What changed?</h2>
<p>Chileans first took to the streets of the capital, Santiago, over an increase in public transit fares, <a href="https://www.leftvoice.org/timeline-from-student-rebellion-to-general-strike-in-chile">on Oct. 14, 2019. Things turned serious – and violent – overnight on Oct. 18</a>, as ever more people joined the demonstrations in what became known as “el estallido” – the explosion. </p>
<p>The following week, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50191746">1 million of Chile’s 19 million people marched for reform</a> nationwide, with wide-ranging demands. </p>
<p>Student protesters <a href="https://apnews.com/article/819108269b65dc2dd4dffcfd7712d53a">wanted free higher education</a>. Pensioners <a href="https://apnews.com/article/31ab8e9f5b9a467abdda53616edc72c2">wanted a dignified retirement</a>. Workers <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2019/11/12/chile-workers-unions-strike-in-support-of-ongoing-protests/?gb=true">wanted better wages</a>. Women and feminists <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/06/chile-womens-day-protest">wanted an end to gender violence</a>. </p>
<p>Protesters believe a new constitution with more rights would create stronger mandates for such reforms. The protests paused only during the height of Chile’s pandemic lockdown in spring and early summer. They <a href="https://en.mercopress.com/2020/10/12/rioting-and-protests-continue-in-chile-against-government-and-police-brutality">continue today</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aB7r6hdo3W4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Chilean feminists inspired a global trend with ‘El violador eres tú,’ a choreographed protest dance condemning violence against women.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is not a bloodless movement. Iconic parts of downtown Santiago have been destroyed, two-thirds of the city’s <a href="https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/santiago-metro-80-stations-damaged-or-destroyed-during-protests">metro stations</a> were damaged and 11 were set ablaze and ruined. Police fired on protesters with rubber bullets, and many of those arrested <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/world/americas/chile-police-protests.html">reported extreme brutality</a>, including sexual assault and even torture. Hundreds were wounded and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200229190253/https://nacla.org/news/2020/02/24/chile-struggle-democratize-state-plebescite">36 were killed</a> between October 2019 and February 2020. </p>
<p>Violent repression didn’t stop the fury on the streets. A month into the protests, Chile’s congress <a href="https://www.cnnchile.com/pais/toda-oposicion-acuerdo-pide-asamblea-constituyente-plebiscito_20191112/">agreed to hold a referendum</a> on writing a new constitution, and to let voters decide who would draft it.</p>
<h2>Gain and pain</h2>
<p>If, as expected, everyday Chileans write the country’s new constitution, the decision-making power of the political class will be reduced. </p>
<p>Women will also have a greater voice in Chile’s future. <a href="https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/2019/11/27/nueva-constitucion-no-sin-mujeres/">Just two women</a> were among the 12 authors of its Pinochet-era constitution. But feminist leaders and women in congress insisted “<a href="https://www.latercera.com/paula/nunca-mas-sin-nosotras/">never again without women</a>,” demanding that the citizens elected to the constitutional convention be half women.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>When the <a href="https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2019/12/21/971123/Paridad-genero-constitucion-como-funciona.html">men in congress balked</a>, the women stood outside the chamber chanting, “we are half, we want half.” </p>
<p>In December 2019 congress conceded. By law, half of the citizens who will write Chile’s new constitution must be women. This establishes a groundbreaking global standard for women’s political inclusion.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a face mask reading 'Sí apruebo.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363285/original/file-20201013-21-p2d0el.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">She’s voting ‘yes’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-poses-with-a-face-mask-reading-i-approve-ahead-of-the-news-photo/1228658444?adppopup=true">Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The convention <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/world/americas/chile-mapuche-constitution.html">will also reserve seats</a> for Indigenous peoples like the Mapuche, a marginalized group whose ancestral lands <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/chile1004/3.htm">have been stolen</a> by the government. </p>
<p>At a time when people worldwide are rising up to demand more equitable and responsive government, from Black Lives Matter in the U.S. to <a href="https://theconversation.com/hong-kong-protesters-dont-identify-as-chinese-amid-anger-at-inequality-survey-suggests-122293">the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong</a>, Chile shows that sustained protests can bring sweeping change. Everyday Chileans, young and old, took exceptional risks to improve their country. Some paid with their lives. </p>
<p>Today, even as Chile’s <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality">COVID-19 death rates soar</a>, Chileans are still out in the street, protesting inequality and campaigning on the referendum. They want their fellow citizens to vote <a href="https://chiletoday.cl/site/apruebo-campaign-enough-of-partial-reforms/">“yes” on writing a new constitution</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/BrigadistaDign1/status/1315005059646840834">to give the pen to Chile’s people</a> – not its politicians. </p>
<p><em>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-abolishes-its-dictatorship-era-constitution-after-year-of-unrest-148844">newer version of this story</a> was published on Oct. 26, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147832/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 organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On Oct. 25 Chile will decide whether to replace its dictatorship-era constitution with a new one written wholly by the Chilean people. The vote shows how protests can change the course of a nation.Jennifer M. Piscopo, Associate Professor of Politics, Occidental CollegePeter Siavelis, Professor, Department of Political Science and International Affairs, Wake Forest UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1399322020-06-22T12:18:57Z2020-06-22T12:18:57ZGeorge Floyd protests aren’t just anti-racist – they are anti-authoritarian<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343031/original/file-20200620-43191-19tukjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2875%2C1918&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters cross the Brooklyn Bridge on June 19, 2020 – Juneteenth – in the United States' third straight week of protest.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protesters-cross-the-brooklyn-bridge-on-june-19-2020-news-photo/1250972730?adppopup=true">Pablo Monsalve / VIEWpress via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The massive protests that erupted across the United States – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/world/europe/yorkshire-tea-pg-tips-black-lives-matter.html">and beyond</a> – after the police killing of George Floyd are billed as anti-racist mobilizations, and that they are. Demonstrators are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/">denouncing police violence in minority communities</a> and demanding that officers who abuse their power be held accountable. </p>
<p>But I see something more in this wave of American protests, too. As a sociologist specializing in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=QZrcxXwAAAAJ">Latin America’s human rights movements and policing</a>, I see a pro-democracy movement of the sort more common south of the border.</p>
<h2>The Latin Americanization of United States</h2>
<p>Normally, U.S. protests have little in common with Latin America’s. </p>
<p>Demonstrations in the U.S. are usually characterized by pragmatic, specific goals like protecting abortion access or defending gun rights. They reflect, for the most part, an enduring faith in the constitution and democratic progress. American protests are rarely nationwide, and even more rarely persist for weeks.</p>
<p>Latin America protests, on the other hand, are often sustained movements with ambitious goals. They seek regime change or an entirely new constitutional order. </p>
<p>Take Venezuela, for example. There, millions have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/venezuelas-opposition-is-on-the-verge-of-collapse-86187">protesting the autocratic President Nicolás Maduro</a> for years, despite brutal suppression by police and the military – though the opposition has not yet succeeded in <a href="https://theconversation.com/venezuela-power-struggle-plunges-nation-into-turmoil-3-essential-reads-110419">ousting him</a>. Even Chile, a relatively stable democracy, in 2019 faced <a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-political-crisis-is-another-brutal-legacy-of-long-dead-dictator-pinochet-126305">massive anti-inequality demonstrations</a> demanding, among other things, that the country rewrite its dictatorship-era constitution.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342272/original/file-20200616-23221-1cq3etv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342272/original/file-20200616-23221-1cq3etv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342272/original/file-20200616-23221-1cq3etv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342272/original/file-20200616-23221-1cq3etv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342272/original/file-20200616-23221-1cq3etv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342272/original/file-20200616-23221-1cq3etv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342272/original/file-20200616-23221-1cq3etv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342272/original/file-20200616-23221-1cq3etv.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">An anti-government demonstrator shouts at police officers during a protest on March 10, 2020 in Caracas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-anti-maduro-demonstrator-shouts-to-venezuelan-national-news-photo/1206472319?adppopup=true">Edilzon Gamez/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today’s U.S. demonstrations call to mind this kind of Latin American anti-authoritarian movement. </p>
<p>Americans’ famed faith in democracy has been eroding under Trump, a leader who, as a recent article in the <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-freedom-house-survey-for-2019-the-leaderless-struggle-for-democracy/">Journal of Democracy</a> noted, is “increasingly willing to break down institutional safeguards and disregard the rights of critics and minorities.” There is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/13/voter-suppression-2020-democracy-america">growing concern that voter suppression</a>, especially <a href="https://theconversation.com/georgia-election-fight-shows-that-black-voter-suppression-a-southern-tradition-still-flourishes-105263">targeting minority voters</a>, will undermine the 2020 election. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-study-george-floyd-protests-overwhelming-support-biden-2020-6">An ongoing study</a> by sociologist <a href="http://www.drfisher.umd.edu/">Dana Fisher</a> from the University of Maryland found that of hundreds of protesters in multiple cities, “people participating in the recent protests are extremely dissatisfied with the state of democracy.” Just 4% of respondents said they were “satisfied with democracy,” the author reported.</p>
<p>And these demonstrations are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/06/floyd-protests-are-broadest-us-history-are-spreading-white-small-town-america/">spreading across the country</a>, say protest researchers <a href="http://www.history.pitt.edu/people/lara-putnam">Lara Putnam</a>, <a href="https://polisci.uconn.edu/person/jeremy-pressman/">Jeremy Pressman</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/erica-chenoweth/">Erica Chenoweth</a> – including into small, largely white towns with deeply conservative politics. In terms of nationwide participation, they have eclipsed the women’s marches of January 2017. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342273/original/file-20200616-23221-12qtfpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342273/original/file-20200616-23221-12qtfpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342273/original/file-20200616-23221-12qtfpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342273/original/file-20200616-23221-12qtfpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342273/original/file-20200616-23221-12qtfpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342273/original/file-20200616-23221-12qtfpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342273/original/file-20200616-23221-12qtfpq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342273/original/file-20200616-23221-12qtfpq.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">Florida state troopers at a rally in response to the recent death of George Floyd in Miami, Florida on May 31, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protestor-holding-a-no-justice-no-peace-sign-shouts-at-news-photo/1216620141?adppopup=true">Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Undemocratic tendencies</h2>
<p>For Latin Americans, much about the United States has become familiar since Trump took office that January. </p>
<p>We recognize the <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/executive-overreach-imperial-presidency-congress-must-reclaim-proper-place-constitutional-order/">strongman president</a>, the <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/70041/barr-ignores-settled-justice-department-policies-in-run-up-to-2020-elections/">politicizing of democratic institutions like the Justice Department</a>, the open political corruption, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/supreme-court-wisconsin/609631/">partisanship on the Supreme Court</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-warning-from-latin-america-trump-is-opening-the-door-to-military-rule-73592">president’s reverence for military leaders</a>. As if to complete the Latin Americanization of this once archetypal democracy, Trump even deployed <a href="https://theconversation.com/militias-evaluate-beliefs-action-as-president-threatens-soldiers-in-the-streets-140123">troops to suppress civilian protesters</a> – something that’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-the-president-really-order-the-military-to-occupy-us-cities-and-states-139844">almost never done in the United States</a>.</p>
<p>Washington has historically had few qualms, however, about using its military to influence Latin American politics and society. From the 1960s through the 1980s, authoritarian military governments ruled Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and beyond, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/truth-justice-and-declassification-secret-archives-show-us-helped-argentine-military-wage-dirty-war-that-killed-30-000-115611">overt and covert U.S. support</a>.</p>
<p>Democracy retook Latin America by the last quarter of the 20th century, but the region’s recovery from authoritarianism is far from finished. My research on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=QZrcxXwAAAAJ#d=gs_md_cita-d&u=%2Fcitations%3Fview_op%3Dview_citation%26hl%3Den%26user%3DQZrcxXwAAAAJ%26citation_for_view%3DQZrcxXwAAAAJ%3AZph67rFs4hoC%26tzom%3D240">civil-military</a> relations is part of a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/world-politics/article/armies-and-politics-in-latin-america/3FD7A02CCC080A1DE135870787376094">large body</a> of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/422176?seq=1">academic literature</a> showing that military forces remain a latent presence <a href="http://www.cedla.uva.nl/50_publications/pdf/cuadernos/30-Cuadernos_Working_Paper-Dirk_Kruijt.pdf">behind Latin America’s democratically elected governments</a>. The scholar <a href="http://www2.kobe-u.ac.jp/%7Ealexroni/IPD%202015%20readings/IPD%202015_9/Gender%20and%20Militarism%20May-Pack-2014-web.pdf">Cynthia Enloe calls this the “ideology of militarism.”</a></p>
<p>From <a href="https://theconversation.com/nicaragua-protests-threaten-an-authoritarian-regime-that-looked-like-it-might-never-fall-95776">Nicaragua</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-an-election-wont-topple-venezuelas-maduro-89332">Venezuela</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/bolivia-is-not-venezuela-even-if-its-president-does-want-to-stay-in-power-forever-93253">Bolivia</a>, many elected governments in the region have devolved into essentially authoritarian regimes. Their populist leaders use quasi-constitutional methods like plebiscites, voter suppression and constitutional amendments to strengthen their power. </p>
<p>These undemocratic tendencies explain Latin America’s regular, sustained waves of massive anti-authoritarian protests. </p>
<p>In a similar way, Trump’s undemocratic tendencies explain some of the energy driving these young, multiracial crowds on American streets today. According to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/george-floyd-white-protesters.html?smid=em-share">University of Maryland researcher Dana Fisher</a>, 45% of white protesters surveyed said Trump motivated them to march, compared to 32% of black people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342274/original/file-20200616-23276-110dt6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342274/original/file-20200616-23276-110dt6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342274/original/file-20200616-23276-110dt6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342274/original/file-20200616-23276-110dt6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342274/original/file-20200616-23276-110dt6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342274/original/file-20200616-23276-110dt6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342274/original/file-20200616-23276-110dt6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342274/original/file-20200616-23276-110dt6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&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 anti-racist protest in Los Angeles on June 14, 2020. Rarely has the US seen massive, sustained, nationwide protests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protesters-gather-on-hollywood-boulevard-near-the-famous-news-photo/1249740821?adppopup=true">Mario Tama/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Police violence</h2>
<p>Police brutality is another underlying shared feature between American and Latin American protest movements.</p>
<p>As Black Americans have long recognized, police brutality is an instrument of authoritarian repression. In some Latin American countries, police routinely execute those <a href="https://theconversation.com/caught-between-police-and-gangs-rio-de-janeiro-residents-are-dying-in-the-line-of-fire-83016">they determine to be gang members</a>, drug traffickers or common criminals and <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-will-send-migrants-to-el-salvador-a-country-that-cant-protect-its-own-people-124475">face no consequences</a>. We call it police vigilantism.</p>
<p>Brazil is home to one of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/brazilian-police-show-high-use-of-deadly-force-1415664824">the world’s most lethal police forces</a>. Last year, police in the state of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51220364">Rio de Janeiro</a> killed a record 1,810 people. The victims are predominantly young black and brown men from poor neighborhoods. </p>
<p>In comparison, local police in the United States – which has about 100 million more people than Brazil – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police-shootings-2019/">killed 1,004 people nationwide in 2019</a>, according to a Washington Post analysis. Half of them were people of color aged 18 to 44. Most were male. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342270/original/file-20200616-23261-imlvda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C0%2C8181%2C5487&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342270/original/file-20200616-23261-imlvda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342270/original/file-20200616-23261-imlvda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342270/original/file-20200616-23261-imlvda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342270/original/file-20200616-23261-imlvda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342270/original/file-20200616-23261-imlvda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342270/original/file-20200616-23261-imlvda.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">New Yorkers filled the streets in support of Black Trans Lives Matter and George Floyd on June 14, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/thousands-fill-the-streets-in-support-of-black-trans-lives-news-photo/1219978820?adppopup=true">Michael Noble Jr./Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The raw numbers may be lower, but I’m struck by the similarity of the victims and the rationale behind the killings – as well as the impunity that usually follows police shootings.</p>
<p>I believe it is the overlap of continued police violence with the broader authoritarian creep in the U.S. that explains this unusual mass protest movement. Millions of Americans are taking to the streets for the same reasons as their Latin American counterparts – to fight for their lives, and for their democracy.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lilian Bobea a mandate holder at the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of people to self-determination. </span></em></p>Unrest in the US looks familiar to Latin Americans, who are accustomed to resisting undemocratic governments – and to their protest movements being met with violent suppression.Lilian Bobea, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Fitchburg State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1400362020-06-08T19:02:44Z2020-06-08T19:02:44ZUsing the military to quash protests can erode democracy – as Latin America well knows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340354/original/file-20200608-176564-b579mk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C2977%2C1998&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Chilean soldier stands guard at a ransacked supermarket in Santiago, October 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chilean-soldier-stands-guard-at-a-supermarket-after-it-was-news-photo/1177544361?adppopup=true">Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump on June 7 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/07/us/politics/trump-military-troops-protests.html">withdrew National Guard troops</a> from Washington, D.C., but his threat to “deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem” of <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-trump-mobilize-federal-resources-stop-violence-restore/story?id=71008802">civil unrest following the police killing of George Floyd</a> continues to fuel a firestorm of debate.</p>
<p>Calling upon the armed forces to restore order is rare in a democracy. Militaries are trained for warfare, not policing, and their use to quell protests politicizes the armed forces. </p>
<p>Latin America knows this all too well. The region has a long history of using the armed forces for political purposes under civilian, elected governments. In many cases, the result was <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-warning-from-latin-america-trump-is-opening-the-door-to-military-rule-73592">military dictatorship</a>. Even after civilian government resumed, restoring full democracy was a challenging process, my research on <a href="https://www.rienner.com/title/Democratization_and_Military_Transformation_in_Argentina_and_Chile_Rethinking_Rivalry">the region’s civil-military relations</a> shows. For <a href="https://www.cmi.no/publications/5569-the-argentine-military-in-democracy">democracy to succeed</a>, militaries have to respect civilian authority and renounce internal policing.</p>
<p>Even strong democracies have unraveled when the military was brought in to quell protest. Uruguay in the 1960s, Venezuela in the 1980s and Chile just last year provide insights. </p>
<h2>Uruguay</h2>
<p>Historically, Uruguay has been known for its social welfare policies, respect for civil rights and longstanding democracy. But in 1968, economic instability triggered mass protests by university students and labor unions, leading President Juan Pacheco to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521266529">declare a state of emergency</a> and call upon the military to quash the demonstrations.</p>
<p>Instead of disbanding, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520290013/uruguay-1968">social movement activism increased</a> and the nascent <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198606963.001.0001/acref-9780198606963-e-1311?rskey=RHaEGx&result=6">Tupamaros</a>, a Marxist guerrilla group, were emboldened.</p>
<p>Responding to Pacheco’s show of force, the Tupamaros took up high-profile kidnappings to show that the government was, in fact, weak. In defending against the insurgency, government became dependent on the military as a political ally. </p>
<p>By 1973, the military took over in a coup that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511528200">inaugurated a brutal 12-year dictatorship</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340347/original/file-20200608-176560-1g33gia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340347/original/file-20200608-176560-1g33gia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340347/original/file-20200608-176560-1g33gia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340347/original/file-20200608-176560-1g33gia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340347/original/file-20200608-176560-1g33gia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340347/original/file-20200608-176560-1g33gia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340347/original/file-20200608-176560-1g33gia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340347/original/file-20200608-176560-1g33gia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Families of those ‘disappeared’ during Uruguay’s military dictatorship outside the Legislative Palace in Montevideo in 2005.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/group-of-mothers-and-relatives-of-disappeared-during-the-news-photo/52260015?adppopup=true">Pablo Porciuncula/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Uruguayan military’s transformation was remarkable: It went from being relatively obscure to becoming the most brutal component of the Uruguayan state. Between 1973 and the restoration of democracy in 1985, hundreds were killed, and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3338122">one in every 30 adult Uruguayans</a> was detained, interrogated or imprisoned. </p>
<p>Despite the return to democracy, the military has largely avoided accountability for its crimes. To date <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/americas/uruguay/report-uruguay/">fewer than 10%</a> of nearly 200 cases of human rights violations from that period have been prosecuted. </p>
<h2>Venezuela</h2>
<p>Venezuela today is a chaotic authoritarian state. But from the 1960s through the 1980s, it had a stable two-party democracy and oil-fueled prosperity. Those pillars collapsed in 1989, after oil prices tanked and the country faced a debt crisis. </p>
<p>In response, President Carlos Andrés Pérez imposed austerity measures. In the capital of Caracas, the public reacted with protests and riots in the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3875580">wave of unrest known as the “Caracazo.”</a> </p>
<p>Pérez suspended civil rights, declared martial law and put Venezuela’s military on the streets for the first time in decades. In quelling the revolt, security forces killed at least <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3875580">400 civilians</a>. </p>
<p>The brutal repression – carried out mostly against the country’s poorest populations – produced division within the armed forces. Many junior officers resented the order to repress their people. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_RIPC_172_0127--caracazo-1989-twenty-years-on-from.htm">Among these officers was Hugo Chávez</a>, who would go on to stage a failed coup attempt in 1992. Six years later, he legitimately won the presidency with an anti-establishment agenda. Ultimately, Chávez’s election marked the complete dissolution of Venezuela’s two-party system and the birth of a <a href="https://www.sipri.org/commentary/topical-backgrounder/2019/crucial-role-military-venezuelan-crisis">militarized, autocratic state</a> that blooms in full failure today under his successor, Nicolás Maduro.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340345/original/file-20200608-176595-v38q9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340345/original/file-20200608-176595-v38q9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340345/original/file-20200608-176595-v38q9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340345/original/file-20200608-176595-v38q9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340345/original/file-20200608-176595-v38q9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340345/original/file-20200608-176595-v38q9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340345/original/file-20200608-176595-v38q9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340345/original/file-20200608-176595-v38q9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lt. Hugo Chávez in 1994 being freed from jail after an attempted coup in Venezuela.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/army-lieutenant-colonel-hugo-chavez-who-headed-the-1992-news-photo/151344613?adppopup=true">Bertrand Parres/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Chile</h2>
<p>Chile is often heralded as Latin America’s “<a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2020/03/12/can-chile-reinvent-itself">model</a>” democracy for its economic growth and political stability. Yet last year, it became the epicenter of mass protests that shook Latin America.</p>
<p>Chile’s protests began over transit fare hikes driven by President Sebastian Piñera’s economic belt-tightening but quickly grew to a wave of demonstrations in multiple cities calling for <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2020/02/24/chile-struggle-democratize-state-plebescite">long-pending reforms</a> to address inequality. Soon, protesters were demanding a new constitution to replace the one <a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-political-crisis-is-another-brutal-legacy-of-long-dead-dictator-pinochet-126305">drafted 40 years earlier during the Pinochet military dictatorship</a>.</p>
<p>In response, Piñera declared “we are at war” and deployed the military to oversee a state of emergency – its first political policing role since the dictatorship ended in 1990. In the ensuing months, dozens of protesters were killed, hundreds more injured and over 28,000 arrested.</p>
<p>Though <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/11/chile-responsable-politica-deliberada-para-danar-manifestantes/">the most violent repression</a> is attributed to police, Piñera’s move created challenges for Chile’s military, which struggled in the post-Pinochet era to redefine its image by focusing on national defense and <a href="http://www.providingforpeacekeeping.org/2014/04/03/contributor-profile-chile/">United Nations-led international missions</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340338/original/file-20200608-176550-5q8ccy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340338/original/file-20200608-176550-5q8ccy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340338/original/file-20200608-176550-5q8ccy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340338/original/file-20200608-176550-5q8ccy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340338/original/file-20200608-176550-5q8ccy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340338/original/file-20200608-176550-5q8ccy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340338/original/file-20200608-176550-5q8ccy.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">Chile’s militaristic national police are alleged to have used excess force during Chile’s 2019 mass protests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fernando Lavoz/NurPhoto via Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“I’m not at war with anybody,” said the general tasked with overseeing security in the capital last year, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/world/americas/chile-protests-riots.html">distancing himself from the president</a>. The military also apparently <a href="https://interferencia.cl/articulos/ffaa-se-niegan-nuevo-estado-de-emergencia-obligando-pinera-recurrir-policias-retirados">resisted</a> Piñera’s efforts to extend the state of emergency, arguing that the protests were a “political problem.”</p>
<p>Although Chile’s democracy has not unraveled, its political culture has been upended. Public <a href="http://www.latinobarometro.org/lat.jsp">support for democracy</a> had already declined 20% before the protests, yet the military remained one of Chile’s most trusted institutions. The militarized repression that occurred will likely erode <a href="https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/docs/20200116/20200116081636/encuestacep_diciembre2019.pdf">confidence in the armed forces</a>, too. </p>
<p>This widespread distrust occurs just as Chileans decide whether, and how, to write a new constitution.</p>
<h2>Slow slide into authoritarianism</h2>
<p>As in Chile, in the U.S. numerous officials – including former <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-06-02/robert-gates-overmilitarization-american-foreign-policy">Pentagon officials</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/politics/mattis-protests-statement/index.html">retired military officers</a> – are raising alarm over President Trump’s threat to militarize the protest response. Yet 58% of American voters approve of his stance, according to a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2020/06/02/58-of-voters-support-using-military-to-help-police-control-protests-poll-finds/#67311c6c2417">recent survey</a>.</p>
<p>One key lesson from Latin America is that democracy rarely breaks down suddenly. Countries <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562246/how-democracies-die-by-steven-levitsky-and-daniel-ziblatt/">slide gradually into authoritarianism</a> as leaders curtail civil rights, demonize opposition groups and muzzle the press.</p>
<p>Another is that professing “law and order” through militarization does not solve a country’s systemic problems. It only deepens divides – and imperils democracy.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140036/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristina Mani 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>Latin American history shows that sending out troops to quell unrest is a perilous move even in strong democracies. Usually, protesters die. Sometimes, the end result is authoritarianism rule.Kristina Mani, Associate Professor of Politics and Chair of Latin American Studies, Oberlin College and ConservatoryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1296022020-02-24T13:47:44Z2020-02-24T13:47:44ZIndian women protest new citizenship laws, joining a global ‘fourth wave’ feminist movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316652/original/file-20200221-92507-1jqxinr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5764%2C3831&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh neighborhood are protesting a new Indian citizenship law that they say will discriminate against Muslims, women – and, particularly, Muslim women.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/women-protesters-raise-slogans-ahead-of-their-march-to-home-news-photo/1201747107?adppopup=true">Burhaan Kinu/Hindustan Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women are among the strongest opponents of two new laws in India that <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/01/30/india-citizenship-act-caa-nrc-assam/">threaten the citizenship rights of vulnerable groups like Muslims</a>, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/04/india-citizenship-law-women/">poor women</a>, oppressed castes and LGBTQ people.</p>
<p>The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in December 2019, fast-tracks Indian citizenship for <a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-new-citizenship-act-legalizes-a-hindu-nation-129024">undocumented refugees from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan</a> – but only those who are non-Muslim. Another law - the National Register of Citizens – will require all residents in India to furnish extensive legal documentation to prove their citizenship as soon as 2021. </p>
<p>Critics see the two laws as part of the government’s efforts to redefine the <a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-plan-to-identify-illegal-immigrants-could-get-some-muslims-declared-foreign-127652">meaning of belonging in India</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-prime-minister-modi-pursues-politics-of-hindu-nationalism-what-does-that-mean-117794">make this constitutionally secular country a Hindu nation</a>. </p>
<p>Since Dec. 4, 2019, Indians of all ages, ethnicities and religions have been <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/campus-attacks-nationalists-and-police-alarm-india-s-scientific-community">protesting the new citizenship initiatives</a> in scattered but complementary nationwide demonstrations. The uprisings have persisted through weeks of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/23/india-deadly-force-used-against-protesters">arrests, beatings and even killings</a> across India by the police.</p>
<p>But the most enduring pocket of resistance is an around-the-clock sit-in of mostly hijab-wearing women in a working-class Delhi neighborhood called Shaheen Bagh.</p>
<h2>Women take charge</h2>
<p>Since Dec. 15, 2019, women of all ages – from students to 90-year-old grandmothers – have abandoned their daily duties and braved <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50902909">near-freezing temperatures</a> to block a major highway in the Indian capital. </p>
<p>This is a striking act of resistance in a patriarchal country where women – but particularly <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/the-rise-of-the-new-indian-muslim-woman-analysis/story-NA2GeOguvZn9ETT1NtsDaJ.html">Muslim women</a> – have historically had <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-bust-the-patriarchy-masquedaring-as-religion-women-activists-shatter-taboos-about-female-sexuality/340784">their rights denied</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&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 Shaheen Bagh movement uses both novel and traditional forms of protests, including marches, silent sit-ins and musical performances.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-hold-placards-as-they-sit-during-a-silent-news-photo/1200296283?adppopup=true">Biplov Bhuyan/Hindustan Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Shaheen Bagh protests are as novel in their methods as they are in their makeup. Protesters are using <a href="https://scroll.in/article/948440/the-art-of-resistance-ringing-in-the-new-year-with-anti-caa-protesters-at-shaheen-bagh">artwork, book readings, lectures, poetry recitals, songs, interfaith prayers and communal cooking</a> to explain their resistance to citizenship laws that, they say, will discriminate against not just Muslims but also women, who usually don’t have state or property papers in their own names. </p>
<p>On Jan. 11, women in the Indian city of Kolkata performed a <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/m7qenq/the-rapist-is-you-women-sang-the-bengali-version-of-the-chilean-feminist-anthem-to-oppose-the-caa">Bengali-language</a> version of a Chilean feminist anthem called “The Rapist is You.” This choreographed public flash dance, first staged in Santiago, Chile in November 2019, calls out the police, judiciary and government for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rapist-is-you-why-a-viral-latin-american-feminist-anthem-spread-around-the-world-128488">violating women’s human rights</a>.</p>
<h2>A dangerous place for women</h2>
<p>India is the world’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/28/poll-ranks-india-most-dangerous-country-for-women">most dangerous</a> country for women, according to the <a href="http://news.trust.org/spotlight/the-worlds-most-dangerous-countries-for-women-2011">Thompson Reuters Foundation</a>. One-third of married women are <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/07/halting-blow-domestic-violence-india-160701121800822.html">physically abused</a>. Two-thirds of rapes <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/12/29/791734411/what-headlines-and-protests-get-wrong-about-rape-in-india">go unpunished</a>. </p>
<p>Gender discrimination is so pervasive that <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/resource-pdf/UNFPA_Publication-39857.pdf">around 1 million</a> female fetuses are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20879612">aborted</a> each year. In some parts of India, there are <a href="https://wiki.ubc.ca/Sex_Selective_Abortion_in_India#Sex_Ratios">126 men for every 100 women</a>.</p>
<p>Indian women have <a href="https://theswaddle.com/a-brief-history-of-indian-women-protesting-gender-inequality/">come together in protest</a> before, to speak out against <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0719-03.htm">these and other issues</a>. But most <a href="https://www.academia.edu/24968867/Women_Are_Not_For_Burning_The_Anti-Dowry_Movement_in_Delhi_1">prior women’s protests</a> were limited in scope and geography. The 2012 <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/women-front-lines-india-citizenship-law-protests-191223061447173.html">brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old Delhi woman</a> – which sparked nationwide protests – was a watershed moment. All at once, the country witnessed the power of women’s rage. </p>
<p>The current women-led <a href="https://www.liberationnews.org/largest-ever-strike-indian-workers-show-strength-against-the-far-right-government/">anti-citizenship law demonstrations</a> are even greater in number and power. Beyond Shaheen Bagh, Indian women across caste, religion and ethnicity are putting their <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/india-women-rescued-friend-police-attack-viral-video-191216150934526.html">bodies</a> and reputations on the line. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e25KmRTb5RM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A Shaheen Bagh protest song.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Female students are intervening to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3wtJ8oHpFQ">shield fellow students</a> from <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/dozens-injured-india-police-storm-universities-191216033648272.html">police violence</a> at campus protests. <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/entertainment-news-swara-riteish-taapsee-shabana-azmi-and-other-bollywood-celebrities-react-to-jnu-violence/345266">Actresses</a> from <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/jnu-violence-attack-deepika-padukone-aishe-ghosh-chhapaak-6211979/">Bollywood</a>, India’s film industry, are <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/celebrities/story/priyanka-chopra-on-caa-protests-each-voice-will-work-towards-changing-india-1629553-2019-12-19">speaking out against gender violence</a>, too.</p>
<h2>Women’s secular agenda</h2>
<p>With their non-violent tactics and inclusive strategy, the Shaheen Bagh women are proving to be effective critics of the government’s <a href="https://www.boell.de/en/2014/02/26/patriarchal-politics-struggle-genuine-democracy-contemporary-india">Hindu-centric agenda</a>. Their leaderless epicenter of resistance raises up <a href="https://scroll.in/article/948440/the-art-of-resistance-ringing-in-the-new-year-with-anti-caa-protesters-at-shaheen-bagh">national symbols</a> like the Indian flag, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3J2i8l3AVY">the national anthem</a> and the Indian Constitution as reminders that India is secular and plural – a place where people can be both Muslim and Indian. </p>
<p>The Shaheen Bagh movement’s novel and enduring strategy has triggered activism <a href="https://www.siasat.com/every-place-shaheen-bagh-nandita-das-joins-caa-nrc-protest-1803853/">elsewhere in the country</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/shaheen-bagh-inspires-many-protests-across-the-country/cid/1736089">Thousands of women</a> in the northern Indian city of Lucknow started their own <a href="https://thewire.in/communalism/lucknow-women-anti-caa-sit-in-protest">sit-in</a> in late January. Similar “Shaheen Baghs” have sprung up since, in the cities of <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/shaheen-bagh-inspires-many-protests-across-the-country/cid/1736089">Patna</a> and even <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/inspired-by-shaheen-bagh-women-lead-protests-against-caa/article30832555.ece">Chennai</a>, which is located 1,500 miles from Delhi. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.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">Anti-citizenship law protests in India’s Assam State, Feb. 16, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-attend-a-protest-against-a-new-citizenship-news-photo/1201476342?adppopup=true">Anuwar Ali Hazarika/Barcroft Media via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Global women’s spring</h2>
<p>India’s Shaheen Bagh protests form part of a broader global trend in <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-unrest-propels-global-wave-of-protests-126306">women’s movements</a>. Worldwide, female activists are combining attention to women’s issues with a wider call for social justice across gender, class and geographic borders. </p>
<p>In January 2019 alone, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/19/womens-march-london-against-austerity-protesters-worldwide">women in nearly 90 countries took to the streets</a> demanding equal pay, reproductive rights and the end of violence. Young women were also at the forefront of the 2019 <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3025146/protesttoo-women-forefront-hong-kongs-anti-government-movement">pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/08/lebanese-women-demand-new-rights-amid-political-turmoil">Lebanon</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/sudan-women-protesters-leading-pro-democracy-movement-190423134521604.html">Sudan</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/11/brazil-women-bolsonaro-haddad-election/574792/">Brazil</a> and <a href="https://colombiareports.com/women-take-the-lead-on-5th-day-of-colombias-anti-government-protests/">Colombia</a>.</p>
<p>As I write in my <a href="https://www.routledge.com/New-Feminisms-in-South-Asian-Social-Media-Film-and-Literature-Disrupting/Jha-Kurian/p/book/9781138668935">2017 book</a>, such inclusive activism is the defining characteristic of what’s called “fourth wave feminism.” </p>
<p>There <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth">isn’t a common definition</a> of the first three feminist waves. In the United States, they generally refer to the early 20th century suffragette movement, the radical women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s and the more mainstream feminism of the 1990s and early 2000s. </p>
<p>Fourth wave feminism appears to be more universal. Today’s activists fully embrace the idea that women’s freedom means little if other groups are still oppressed. With its <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/west/caa-to-divert-peoples-attention-from-economic-crisis-793876.html">economic critique</a>, disavowal of <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/chandrashekhar-azad-shaheen-bagh-caa-nrc-protests-bhim-army-constitution-1639238-2020-01-22">caste oppression</a> and solidarity across <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/478570-protesting-women-in-india-are-uniting-muslims-hindus-and-religious">religious divides</a>, India’s Shaheen Bagh sit-in shares attributes with the women’s uprisings in Chile, Lebanon, Hong Kong and beyond. </p>
<p>The last time women came together in such numbers worldwide was the <a href="https://thewire.in/gender/metoo-campaign-brings-the-rise-of-fourth-wave-feminism-in-india">#MeToo movement</a>, a campaign against sexual harassment which <a href="https://theconversation.com/metoo-campaign-brings-conversation-of-rape-to-the-mainstream-85875">emerged on social media in the United States in 2017</a> and quickly spread across the globe. </p>
<p>Shaheen Bagh and similarly far-reaching women’s uprisings underway in other countries take #MeToo to the next level, moving from a purely feminist agenda to a wider call for social justice. Women protesters want rights – not just for themselves, but human rights for all.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129602/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alka Kurian has been awarded the 2020-2021 Fulbright U.S. Scholar award.
She volunteers for Tasveer, a South Asian non-profit dedicated to social change through thought-provoking South Asian films, art and storytelling.</span></em></p>A round-the-clock strike of Muslim women in a working-class neighborhood of Delhi is India’s most enduring pocket of resistance to religious discrimination, inequality and gender violence.Alka Kurian, Senior Lecturer, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, BothellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1277742020-01-03T13:48:03Z2020-01-03T13:48:03ZUnrest in Latin America makes authoritarianism look more appealing to some<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308147/original/file-20191220-11946-xn0gwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C16%2C3583%2C2372&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A demonstrator protesting new austerity measures in Ecuador confronts armed police officers during clashes in Quito, Ecuador, Oct. 11, 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Ecuador-Political-Crisis/70b382ea2d5a4afea30c4792cc7910e0/218/0">AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Months of sustained, sometimes violent anti-government protest in South America may have increased popular support for authoritarianism.</p>
<p>That’s the startling finding of a still-unpublished study I conducted using data from the <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/about-americasbarometer.php">AmericasBarometer</a>, a survey undertaken every two years in Latin American countries.</p>
<p>Although the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/11/07/latin-americas-upheaval-should-finally-shatter-conventional-wisdom-about-region/">massive demonstrations</a> that have shaken <a href="http://theconversation.com/whats-going-on-in-south-america-understanding-the-wave-of-protests-126336">Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Paraguay since late 2018</a> have distinct origins and impacts – from transportation prices to election fraud – there are some commonalities. </p>
<p>All are an expression of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/23/chile-protests-sebastian-pinera-apology-reform">deep frustration with the political status quo</a>, and many demonstrators cite <a href="https://theconversation.com/ecuadors-fuel-protests-show-the-risks-of-removing-fossil-fuel-subsidies-too-fast-125690">corruption, poverty and economic inequality</a> as overlooked <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/04/colombia-protest-duque-bogota">issues facing their nation</a>.</p>
<p>Some South Americans, particularly young people and <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/insights/I0842en.pdf">leftists</a>, see these mass protest movements as positive. In Chile, 80% of people surveyed in October 2019 <a href="https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/2019/11/03/encuesta-termometro-social-octubre-2019-80-de-los-chilenos-y-chilenas-aprueban-la-idea-de-una-nueva-constitucion/">said they approved of demonstrators’ actions</a>. In more conservative Colombia, <a href="https://www.eltiempo.com/politica/gobierno/encuesta-de-guarumo-dice-que-el-60-9-esta-en-desacuerdo-con-las-protestas-444288">34% did</a>.</p>
<p>But the protests have also been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/es/2019/11/04/espanol/opinion/protestas-chile-venezuela.html">polarizing</a>. For months, marches have disrupted people’s day-to-day activities and turned capital cities into conflict zones, creating some <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2378023118803189">resentment</a> – even fear that the social order is unraveling. </p>
<h2>Support for authoritarian government</h2>
<p>These feelings may be leading more South Americans to see autocratic governance as a necessity for maintaining law and order, my study of the AmericasBarometer’s survey <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/raw-data.php">data</a> suggests.</p>
<p>The AmericasBarometer, which is part of the Latin American Public Opinion Project at Vanderbilt University, has documented a relationship between support for protests and autocratic tolerance for years. </p>
<p>In 2012, their <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2012/AB2012-comparative-Report-V7-Final-Cover-01.25.13.pdf_">surveys</a> found that 30% of Latin Americans disapprove of “people conducting peaceful protests.” That group was 9% more likely than others to agree that the country needs “a strong leader who does not have to be elected by the vote of the people.” </p>
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<p>In <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2014.php">2014</a>, anti-protest respondents were 5% more likely to prefer an authoritarian government to a democratic one. </p>
<p>By <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2018/2018-19_AmericasBarometer_Regional_Report_10.13.19.pdf">late 2018</a> – after <a href="https://theconversation.com/venezuelas-opposition-is-on-the-verge-of-collapse-86187">large protests erupted</a> in <a href="https://theconversation.com/mass-protests-in-colombia-mar-presidents-first-100-days-but-reveal-a-nation-marching-toward-peace-107339">several Latin American countries</a> – this same group was 12% less supportive of democratic governance than those who view protests favorably.</p>
<p>Latin Americans who disapprove of protesting are also slightly more likely than others to say that it would be acceptable for a president to dissolve congress and govern without a legislature during difficult times. This is known as an “executive coup.” </p>
<p>In short, the AmericasBarometer surveys seems to indicate that protests increase tolerance for authoritarianism among Latin Americans.</p>
<h2>Fertile ground for autocracy</h2>
<p>Latin America has a complicated relationship with democracy. </p>
<p>Most countries in the region made heralded transitions away from <a href="https://theconversation.com/truth-justice-and-declassification-secret-archives-show-us-helped-argentine-military-wage-dirty-war-that-killed-30-000-115611">military dictatorship</a> in the 1980s. But public support for democracy in the region has been <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2018/2018-19_AmericasBarometer_Regional_Report_10.13.19.pdf">declining since 2010</a>. Today less than half of Latin Americans think <a href="https://time.com/5662653/democracy-history-latin-america/">democracy</a> is the best form of governance. </p>
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<p>Given this political context, I put the preliminary survey findings that mass protests increase support for autocracy to the test. I chose two countries gripped by protests in 2019 – Chile and Ecuador – to study the relationship between demonstrations and democracy.</p>
<p>Specifically, my experiment investigated whether extreme civil disobedience – mass protests that disrupt the economy, prevent leaders from governing or shut down public services, for example – increases people’s preferences for autocracy.</p>
<p>I ran surveys online in Chile and Ecuador, recruiting respondents via Facebook by placing ads on users’ newsfeeds – a research method previously used to study <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2101458">political behavior</a>. These participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a control group, in which respondents read entertainment news, and my test group, whose respondents read an article about protests threatening the country’s stability and citizens disobeying authorities.</p>
<p>After they finished reading the news, I asked respondents a series of questions measuring their support for autocracy. The results show that Chileans who read about civil disobedience were 10% more likely than the control group to prefer autocracy over democracy. Ecuadorians who read about social unrest were 2% more likely to support autocracy. </p>
<p>Taken together, after controlling for sex, income and education, I found that people in Chile and Ecuador were 7% more likely to favor autocratic government if they read about protests threatening the social order. </p>
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<h2>Protests and the fate of democracy</h2>
<p>My findings offer insight into some possible unintended consequences of South America’s ongoing mass protests. </p>
<p>These demonstrations have given a voice to some citizens long excluded by the political system, and mass civil disobedience has won protesters some major concessions from government. In Chile, there are promises of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-political-crisis-is-another-brutal-legacy-of-long-dead-dictator-pinochet-126305">more equitable constitution</a>. In Bolivia, <a href="https://time.com/5723753/bolivia-evo-morales-resigns/">President Evo Morales resigned</a> during protests that followed allegations of election fraud. </p>
<p>But for Latin Americans unsettled by this political and social upheaval, authoritarianism is apparently starting to look more appealing. </p>
<p>As a result, South American demonstrations aimed at strengthening democracy may actually end up weakening it.</p>
<p>[ <em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127774/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paula Armendariz Miranda is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Minnesota, where she is completing a dissertation on the personality roots of citizen support for authoritarianism. She is also a visiting scholar at Vanderbilt University and part of the editorial team at Comparative Political Studies.</span></em></p>All those democracy protests in South America may be having some unintended consequences.Paula Armendariz Miranda, Ph.D. Candidate, University of MinnesotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1291602019-12-27T14:23:18Z2019-12-27T14:23:18ZCountries to watch in 2020, from Chile to Afghanistan: 5 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307993/original/file-20191219-11914-a47ix3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4079%2C2715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anti-government protesters in Chile defend themselves against a police water cannon, Santiago, Nov. 15, 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Chile-Protests/78c38eaebd6e417b9c67c5ef12bb8969/211/0">AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Where will the world’s attention turn in 2020? </p>
<p>The United States’ impeachment trial of Donald Trump and the United Kingdom’s long-awaited Brexit are sure bets. And after the U.S. military withdrawal from northern Syria in October, Bashar al-Assad may well win his civil war this year.</p>
<p>Many other countries will see pivotal events in 2020, too. Here are five countries to watch. </p>
<h2>1. Venezuela</h2>
<p>This year will bring new depths of misery to Venezuela, which is suffering the worst economic collapse ever seen outside war. </p>
<p>“Most Venezuelans today are desperately poor,” explains St. Mary’s College professor Marco Aponte-Moreno, citing a U.N. statistic that 90% of the people in the South American country live in poverty – double what it was in 2014.</p>
<p>The increasingly severe U.S. economic sanctions passed last year, aimed at crippling the authoritarian regime of Nicolás Maduro, are <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-reasons-why-trumps-venezuela-embargo-wont-end-the-maduro-regime-121538">only making life harder for poor Venezuelans</a>, Aponte-Moreno writes.</p>
<p>Most Venezuelans today rely on monthly government food delivery to survive. </p>
<p>“If the government runs out of money, poor people will feel it the most – not the government officials,” writes Aponte-Moreno. </p>
<p>It is unclear when Maduro’s rule will end. Last year, his government survived several coup attempts and opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s effort to wrest power from Maduro to become Venezuela’s “rightful” president was backed by 60 countries. </p>
<p>“Maduro has few international allies,” says Aponte-Moreno. “But China and Russia continue to be Venezuela’s most powerful international boosters and have bailed out Maduro by giving his government massive loans.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307990/original/file-20191219-11946-1ubbq23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307990/original/file-20191219-11946-1ubbq23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307990/original/file-20191219-11946-1ubbq23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307990/original/file-20191219-11946-1ubbq23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307990/original/file-20191219-11946-1ubbq23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307990/original/file-20191219-11946-1ubbq23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307990/original/file-20191219-11946-1ubbq23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307990/original/file-20191219-11946-1ubbq23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&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">Children bathe with buckets of water in La Guaira, Venezuela, Aug. 17, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Venezuela-Political-Crisis/37e63708c8c54728a3556bb75685d8c1/24/0">AP Photo/Leonardo Fernandez</a></span>
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<h2>2. Gabon</h2>
<p>Sixty years ago, Gabon was among 17 African countries to declare their independence from colonial rule. Now, many Gabonese are <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-its-ruling-dynasty-withers-gabon-a-us-ally-and-guardian-of-french-influence-in-africa-ponders-its-future-110076">hoping to enter a new era</a>: democracy.</p>
<p>Gabon’s longtime president Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose family has run the central African country since the late 1960s, is frail after an apparent stroke. The 60-year-old narrowly survived a military coup last January. </p>
<p>These events have “created a strong national sentiment that Gabon’s five-decade Bongo dynasty is on its last legs,” writes University of Tampa political scientist Gyldas A. Ofoulhast-Othamot.</p>
<p>Political upheaval is rare in Gabon, an oil-rich country of 2 million. But stability is not the same as democracy. </p>
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<span class="caption">A military ‘coup to restore democracy’ in Gabon in Jan. 2019 failed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Gabon-Coup/c0fec374c0c049ed8df0f7c6291bc8d7/13/0">Gabon State TV via AP</a></span>
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<p>“Gabon has had just three presidents” since 1960, writes Ofoulhast-Othamot. “The current president’s father – Omar Bongo Ondimba – ruled Gabon with an iron fist for 42 years,” allowing oil wealth to enrich a tiny elite and dutifully maintaining the country’s loyalty to France. </p>
<p>Surveys show 87% of Gabonese feel that the country is headed in the wrong direction under Bongo.</p>
<p>Gabon’s next presidential election isn’t until 2023. But, Ofoulhast-Othamot predicts, “Bongo’s time in office may run out sooner.” </p>
<h2>3. Chile</h2>
<p>Chile is one of several South American countries to see massive, sustained demonstrations in recent months. Weeks after declaring “war” on protesters, Chilean president Sebastián Piñera relented to their demands to reinvent the country’s constitution.</p>
<p>Chile’s current constitution was written under Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the dictator who ruled the country from 1973 to 1990. Pinochet is reviled for overseeing several thousand extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances. </p>
<p>He also left the country with social and economic policies now “<a href="https://theconversation.com/chiles-political-crisis-is-another-brutal-legacy-of-long-dead-dictator-pinochet-126305">ripping Chile’s social fabric apart</a>,” writes Drake University’s Paul Posner, who studies inequality in Chile.</p>
<p>Pinochet took free market economics to unprecedented extremes in Chile, eviscerating labor rights and ending government funding of the country’s retirement and health care systems.</p>
<p>“These neoliberal reforms came with strong support from the U.S. government,” notes Posner. </p>
<p>Shifting responsibility for providing social services from the state onto the private sector made Chile an economic dynamo. It has grown by around 4.7% annually since 1990. </p>
<p>But that prosperity was unevenly distributed. Unemployment among poor Chileans is 30%, private health care is exorbitantly expensive and even middle-class Chileans can’t afford to retire.</p>
<p>This year, Chileans will vote on a new constitution meant to address these severe social and economic inequities. </p>
<p>“Raised in democracy, Chile’s young protesters expect a fairer share of the country’s wealth,” writes Posner. “And they’re not old enough to fear an authoritarian crackdown for proclaiming their rights.”</p>
<h2>4. Afghanistan</h2>
<p>Eighteen years into the United States’ disastrous war in Afghanistan, renewed negotiations with the Taliban militant group are raising the possibility of peace.</p>
<p>But that will take more than an accord, says peace-building expert Elizabeth Hassemi, a faculty lecturer at Johns Hopkins University.</p>
<p>“History shows that <a href="https://theconversation.com/taliban-negotiations-resume-feeding-hope-of-a-peaceful-more-prosperous-afghanistan-127772">economic growth and better job opportunities are necessary to rebuild stability after war</a>,” she writes.</p>
<p>Hassemi believes Afghanistan’s “abundant natural resources” could help the country along its path to recovery. </p>
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<span class="caption">Afghanistan is open for business, Kabul, Sept. 8, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Afghanistan-Daily-Life/b13b4f95db6d4fe7b726c359dbaff1d9/25/0">AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi</a></span>
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<p>Afghanistan produces coveted cashmere, pine nuts and saffron, and the craggy mountains of Panjshir Province hide emeralds of renowned color and purity. In a more stable Afghanistan, says Hassemi, agricultural and mineral exports could bring substantial income to rural areas long held by the Taliban. </p>
<p>“A Taliban accord is necessary to end the Afghanistan war,” Hassemi says. “But creating meaningful jobs and sustainable economic growth will help create a durable peace.”</p>
<h2>5. Mexico</h2>
<p>Thirteen months into Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidency, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cartel-sieges-leave-mexicans-wondering-if-criminals-run-the-country-126986">cartel violence in Mexico has never been worse</a>.</p>
<p>“Recent deadly attacks by criminal organizations have instilled fear across Mexico,” writes Angélica Durán-Martínez, of University of Massachusetts Lowell. </p>
<p>These include two shootouts between cartels and police that killed 30 people in October 2019, a deadly 12-hour criminal assault on Culiacán, Sinaloa, that forced Mexican security forces to release the son of drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and the November massacre of nine Mormon women and children in northern Mexico. </p>
<p>López Obrador campaigned on novel strategies to “pacify” Mexico. He proposed pardoning low-level drug traffickers who leave the business, legalizing marijuana and holding trigger-happy soldiers responsible for committing human rights abuses.</p>
<p>Today, those proposals remain largely untested. And with <a href="https://politica.expansion.mx/mexico/2019/12/03/2019-cerrara-con-36-000-homicidios-y-solo-1-de-cada-10-se-castiga-reportes">36,000 murders reported last year</a> – 90% of which went unpunished – 2019 was the bloodiest year in modern Mexican history.</p>
<p><em>This story is a round-up of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129160/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
There’s much more going on in the world than the Trump impeachment and Brexit. Here are five momentous global stories to track in 2020.Catesby Holmes, International Editor | Politics Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1284882019-12-17T15:15:57Z2019-12-17T15:15:57Z‘The rapist is you’: why a viral Latin American feminist anthem spread around the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307174/original/file-20191216-124027-1e2xah6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C17%2C1829%2C934&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'The rapist is you' sung next to Tower Bridge on December 7. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sMBYZiMetI&feature=youtu.be">Las Tesis Londres 7 December 2019</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Chilean feminist anthem called “<em>el violador en tu camino</em>” or “the rapist on your way” that has gone viral worldwide reached London in early December.</p>
<p>Responding to a social media call by Latin American women living in the city, hundreds of feminist activists gathered on the south side of Tower Bridge on December 7. Wearing colourful clothes, black blindfolds and <em>pañuelos</em> – green scarves symbolising the campaign for legal abortion – they sang and performed a choreography rich in political symbolism. </p>
<p>The song – also known as “the rapist is you” after one of its lyrics – was <a href="https://youtu.be/aB7r6hdo3W4">first performed</a> in public on November 25 in Santiago, Chile by feminist group Las Tesis outside the country’s Supreme Court to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. </p>
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<p>Amid <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/13/chile-un-prosecution-police-army-protests">ongoing protests in Chile</a> demanding social reforms, there has been widespread criticism by <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/11/chile-amnistia-internacional-denunciara-violaciones-ante-cidh/">international human rights organisations</a> over the extremely violent way in which protestors are being treated. Protesters have reported the use of kidnapping, torture, and sexual abuse against women in Chile. The use of sexual violence concerned almost 15% of all complaints made within the first 40 days of the protests, according to a report by the campaign organisation <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/22/chile-respect-rights-protest-response">Human Rights Watch</a>. The Chilean state’s response became a major theme in the song. </p>
<p>The song rapidly crossed national borders. From <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqSZR0QyHFw">Mexico</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqIV3zSVZXs">Greece</a>, and from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRuiaIX79JU">the Basque country</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSlyC15U7vQ">Kenya</a>, it has become a global vehicle of feminist protest with local adaptations built around a solid lyrical core: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Patriarchy is a judge who judges us for being born<br>
and our punishment is the violence you don’t see.<br>
It’s femicide, impunity for my murderer,<br>
it’s disappearance, it’s rape.<br>
And it wasn’t my fault, where I was, or how I dressed.<br>
The rapist is you, the rapist is you.<br>
It’s the police, the judges, the state, the president.<br>
The oppressive state is a macho rapist. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Powerful symbolism</h2>
<p>For protesters the lyrics and choreography directly reflect their experiences. The pillars of institutional power – the police, the judges or political leaders – either turn a blind eye to sexual violence or become its perpetrators. During the performance, the blindfolded activists squat three times. According to <a href="https://culturacolectiva.com/musica/un-violador-en-tu-camino-letra-y-significado-cancion">Las Tesis</a>, this alludes to the humiliating body position women are forced to assume when arrested in Chile, often stripped naked. Elsewhere, performers have pointed in the direction of the institution named each time, such as the police or the courts.</p>
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<p>The performance is a visible, vocal public act. It is a direct contrast to the silencing of complaints about missing and violated women, often symbolised by a red hand print over a performer’s mouth. As Catalina Venegas, one of the organisers of the London event told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The song is about the worse forms of gender violence: femicides, disappearances, rapes that are all difficult to trace because they are buried under a layer of silence. And silence, in all these cases, is the worst possible scenario you can imagine. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Transnational appeal</h2>
<p>The popularity of the London event and the diverse crowd that attended it triggered an uncomfortable question: why was this song relevant to us all, Chileans, Latin Americans and others? The question of transnational connections, at the core of my own ongoing research, has persistently pointed towards the shared realities of violence as experienced by women and marginalised groups around the world. </p>
<p>I have attended feminist protests in several countries both as a researcher and a feminist activist and survivor of sexual violence. The message I see in this song is alarmingly similar to what I’ve witnessed in other protests: “This is a war.”</p>
<p>Gendered violence is an international common denominator affecting our communities. I’ve heard from women in both the UK and Spain who feel they have to carry weapons to avoid being raped when going home alone, or who submit themselves to a form of curfew after dark for fear of gendered violence. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306774/original/file-20191213-85391-nhisw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306774/original/file-20191213-85391-nhisw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306774/original/file-20191213-85391-nhisw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306774/original/file-20191213-85391-nhisw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306774/original/file-20191213-85391-nhisw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306774/original/file-20191213-85391-nhisw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306774/original/file-20191213-85391-nhisw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kitty-knuckles and personal safety alarms attached to keyrings that my research participants carry on them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Athanasia Francis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Failure to acknowledge where accountability lies leads to victim-blaming rather than addressing that violence against women is a complex, society-wide problem. For example, police in Suffolk, England, recently angered many when they <a href="https://twitter.com/nightipsw/status/1200800022012551169">decorated a community Christmas tree</a> with messages advising women to avoid excessive drinking, walking alone late in order to stay safe at Christmas.</p>
<p>Justice systems in various countries seem to be equally complacent or misogynistic when dealing with this type of violence. The treatment of cases such as “The Wolfpack” or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/26/wolf-pack-case-spain-law-misogyny">La Manada</a> trial in Spain, where a semiconscious victim had to prove that she actively resisted her rape to qualify for justice, exposed the deeply ideological assumptions built into the country’s legal systems. In the end the attackers were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/protests-spain-five-men-cleared-of-teenagers-gang-rape-pamplona">convicted of sexual abuse</a>, not rape. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-gang-rape-accusations-treated-as-sexual-abuse-in-spain-another-trial-fails-another-victim-121777">Why are gang rape accusations treated as 'sexual abuse' in Spain? Another trial fails another victim</a>
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<p>This transnational feminist response in the form of a song proposes solidarity and empathy in turbulent political times. It’s calling for an acknowledgement of sexual violence as a systemic and global problem in democratic institutions that, ironically, were created to prevent it. </p>
<p>The version of the song performed in London ended with the phrase: “The state doesn’t support me, it’s my sisters that do.” This widespread political cry in the form of a poetic truth – too close to home for some of us – makes the call for change too hard to ignore.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Athanasia Francis 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 Chilean feminist anthem is being sung across the world in protest at violence against women.Athanasia Francis, PhD researcher in Hispanic Studies; Basque Studies, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1279482019-12-04T14:13:14Z2019-12-04T14:13:14ZCollage art and activism in Chile: Instagram posts building on the legacy of Latin American ‘mail art’<p>Since widespread protests started in October 2019 in Chile, social media has become a key way for artists and activists to circulate and exchange information and ideas. Independently curated Instagram feed <a href="https://www.instagram.com/collagechile/">@CollageChile</a> has taken a particularly prominent role. The work, in form and dissemination, echoes 20th-century mail art and collage practice from Latin America, a practice that involved postcard-sized art sent through the postal system that challenged the region’s authoritarian regimes in the 1960s and 80s.</p>
<p>On October 18 2019, protesters took to the streets of the Chilean capital Santiago, angered by a proposed increase in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/18/chile-students-mass-fare-dodging-expands-into-city-wide-protest">Metro fares</a>. What started as a local protest about a specific issue, led to rioting and exposed mass discontent. The protests are the largest the country has seen since the end of the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in 1990. </p>
<p>Chile’s president Sebastian Piñera, who is politically centre-right, responded by putting the military on the streets and declaring a state of emergency. He <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/dead-santiago-supermarket-set-fire-191020052021604.html">declared</a>: “We are at war against a powerful enemy, who is willing to use violence without any limits”.</p>
<p>Piñera’s actions produced further protests and he was forced to <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-protests-escalate-as-widespread-dissatisfaction-shakes-foundations-of-countrys-economic-success-story-125628">table constitutional change</a>. The president’s comments – and the ease with which he imposed severe measures – prompted widespread disapproval by Chileans who took to social media with the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23noestamosenguerra&src=typed_query">#noestamosenguerra</a> (#wearenotatwar). </p>
<h2>Instagram activism</h2>
<p>Activists have used social media to report and denounce human rights abuses by police and military. Videos posted show police beating and firing live rounds at unarmed protesters. Particularly gruesome images show the results of police firing pellets directly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/19/world/americas/chile-protests-eye-injuries.html">into protestors’ faces to blind them</a>.</p>
<p>Artists on @collagechile have also used its large and instantaneous networks for political effect. A feed of images from the past connect viewers with what is at stake in the present. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5IlNkgFKOj/"><em>Perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco</em></a> (Perfectly I Distinguish Black from White) by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mattialmg/">@mattialmg</a> takes its title from Chile’s foremost poet and songwriter, Violeta Parra. Parra’s folk protest songs still resonate in Chile after her death in 1967. Parra is depicted wearing an eye patch, a symbol for protesters blinded by police. The collage implies that while the state blinds its citizens to reality, both literally and metaphorically, people cannot be prevented from seeing realities of inequality and state violence in Chile today.</p>
<p>Pinochet’s face menaces some of the collages, highlighting that the current government’s reaction is a dark reminder of his dictatorship from 1973 to 1990. In fact, Piñera relied on powers rooted in the constitution drafted and implemented by Pinochet’s regime (Articles 39-45) and commentators question whether they have been used <a href="https://www.uchile.cl/noticias/158804/ha-sido-ilegal-la-implementacion-del-estado-de-emergencia">legitimately in this case</a>. Many have fought for greater changes to Pinochet’s constitutional legacy, which they believe <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/chiles-constitutional-moment/">favours the country’s political and economic elite</a>. </p>
<p>In <em>La misma mierda, distinto olor</em> (Same shit, different smell) by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ordeph/">@ordeph</a>, images of Pinochet’s military junta are mixed with images of contemporary politicians. Piñera’s face is positioned next to Pinochet’s, their faces connected by a bold red intestinal shape. Chile’s past is digested and blended with the present to link the past’s authoritarian leaders with today’s politicians. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304456/original/file-20191129-95250-pwpz6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304456/original/file-20191129-95250-pwpz6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304456/original/file-20191129-95250-pwpz6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304456/original/file-20191129-95250-pwpz6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304456/original/file-20191129-95250-pwpz6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304456/original/file-20191129-95250-pwpz6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304456/original/file-20191129-95250-pwpz6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=978&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">La misma mierda, distinto olor!!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://66.media.tumblr.com/1e0d233029a810f475c9804f83b68d17/088364f90c89ace5-e8/s1280x1920/f45d53ffd332cf9fd4a8e5acba3c8ce63a9ded3e.jpg">@Ordep/Instagram</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Sharing these image via social media builds on a legacy of artists using collage and disrupting media messages seen in Latin American <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/mail-art">mail art</a>, which began to be practised in the 1960s and was a global movement. Mail artists created small postcard-sized art works which included visual poems, collage or drawings that were shared through the postal system.</p>
<p>Social media, however, takes these exchanges further by connecting more people via hashtags and Instagram feeds. Each time Piñera restates that the country is in a <a href="https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/chile/2019/11/28/pinera-en-ceremonia-de-nuevos-pdi-estamos-enfrentando-a-un-enemigo-poderoso-e-implacable.shtml">war with a powerful enemy</a>, artists respond quickly with collages that challenge the president’s own narrative. </p>
<h2>Pre-digital circuits of exchange</h2>
<p>Artists in South America engaged with <a href="http://sfaq.us/2014/12/fifty-years-of-latin-american-mail-art/">the practice</a> to subvert censorship and create circuits of exchange to challenge dictatorships. The Chilean artist and poet Guillermo Deisler highlighted abuses committed by Pinochet’s regime in his mail art. First imprisoned following the coup, Deisler sent postcard-sized artworks such as <a href="http://www.lomholtmailartarchive.dk/networkers/guillermo-deisler/1985-01-10-deisler"><em>Aktion por Chile y America Latina</em></a> in 1985 from his exile in East Germany. </p>
<p>Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles’s Insertions into Ideological Circuits in the 1970s involved stamping <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/meireles-insertions-into-ideological-circuits-2-banknote-project-t12512">banknotes</a> with demands for answers regarding political killings by the state. He also used recycled <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/performance-at-tate/perspectives/cildo-meireles">Coca Cola bottles</a> to insert subversive messages into public circulation.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YgxwmgdWa0U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Forced to flee to Brazil in 1976 after political persecution, Argentine artist León Ferrari collected newspaper clippings related to disappearances, detentions and the discovery of mutilated bodies during the last Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983). Ferrari received more in the mail and compiled these into <a href="https://www.macba.cat/en/nosotros-no-sabiamos-3265"><em>Nosotros no sabíamos</em></a> (We Didn’t Know, 1976) – a folio challenging Argentine society’s silence on the dictatorship’s brutality. </p>
<p>It was dangerous to make and receive mail art in Latin America. Like many others, <a href="https://post.at.moma.org/content_items/1273-the-unhappy-ambiguity-of-clemente-padin-politics-and-polysemy-in-latin-american-mail-art">Clemente Padín in Uruguay was imprisoned</a>in 1977 and Argentinian mail artist Edgardo A. Vigo’s son was <a href="https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/vigo/#:%7E:targetText=Vigo%20was%20active%20during%20the,%E2%80%9Cdisappeared%E2%80%9D%20his%20son%20Palomo.">“disappeared” during the dictatorship</a>. </p>
<p>Deisler, Meireles, Ferrari, Padín, Vigo and others faced down these risks to use existing communication systems to denounce injustice, subvert censorship and traditional circuits of exchange. This legacy of art which challenged dominant political slogans is used by collage artists in Chile today.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-protests-escalate-as-widespread-dissatisfaction-shakes-foundations-of-countrys-economic-success-story-125628">Chile protests escalate as widespread dissatisfaction shakes foundations of country's economic success story</a>
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<p>In the digital era, the internet has become the primary means to challenge mainstream media. While undeniably it is used to share information of dubious origin, social media is a powerful information exchange circuit. Online media reach audiences unthinkable in the age of broadcast and postal circulation. </p>
<p>By reminding viewers of the recent past and documenting current injustices, the images shared through platforms such as Collage Chile become the new digital insertions into ideological circuits. And, in this they are continuing a legacy of socially engaged art practices in Latin America. </p>
<p>Current collage art, as shown on Collage Chile’s platform, builds on a tradition of practice in Latin America that challenges abuses of power and social inequality. From the generation of artists who were killed and had to leave their countries due to dictatorships, a new generation has emerged who insist that the past’s abuses should never be repeated. This generation have the ability to share their work globally through social media and form new online communities of resistance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127948/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sebastian Bustamante-Brauning 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>Chilean art activists are using social media to expose abuses and, in doing so, they’re engaging in the legacy of Latin American mail artSebastian Bustamante-Brauning, Doctor of Philosophy Student, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1263052019-11-18T14:00:25Z2019-11-18T14:00:25ZChile’s political crisis is another brutal legacy of long-dead dictator Pinochet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301853/original/file-20191114-26237-ba3gyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C0%2C5056%2C3448&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protest music in Santiago, Chile, Nov. 12, 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Chile-Protests/d30ae73761684bdf8337a1a045c14ff8/14/0">AP Photo/Esteban Felix</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After weeks of <a href="https://larepublica.pe/mundo/2019/11/14/chile-la-zona-centro-de-santiago-se-convierte-en-tierra-de-nadie-protestas-sebastian-pinera/">intense, sometimes violent nationwide protests</a>, Chilean President Sebastian Piñera has relented to demands to rewrite the Chilean Constitution. The protesters say they want a new constitution to address Chile’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/chile-to-hold-referendum-on-new-constitution/2019/11/15/ef973a9c-07b8-11ea-ae28-7d1898012861_story.html">severe social and economic inequities</a>.</p>
<p>Chile’s current constitution, which dates back to 1980, was written under Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the dictator who ruled the country from 1973 to 1990. Pinochet is reviled for overseeing several thousand <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/1990/05/truth-commission-chile-90">extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances</a>. He was <a href="https://theconversation.com/general-pinochet-arrest-20-years-on-heres-how-it-changed-global-justice-104806">arrested in 1998 on charges of crimes against humanity</a> but died before being tried.</p>
<p>But he also implemented the <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/chile-protests-global-uprising-income-inequality-sanders-warren-billionaires-20191027.html">free-market reforms</a> that are often credited for Chile’s celebrated economic dynamism. After growing at <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=CL">an average of 4.7% a year</a>, Chile’s economy today is <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=CL">nine times larger than it was in 1990</a>. </p>
<p>Since Pinochet’s exit, Chile has been widely seen as a stable and vibrant <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/097492840305900108?journalCode=iqqa">Latin American success story</a>. So <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-heads-into-presidential-runoff-with-a-transformed-political-landscape-86453">even left-leaning governments</a> have mostly left the dictatorship-era economic system in place. </p>
<p>Under the surface, however, Pinochet’s free-market reforms were actually <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-protests-escalate-as-widespread-dissatisfaction-shakes-foundations-of-countrys-economic-success-story-125628">ripping Chile’s social fabric apart</a>.</p>
<h2>Growth without equity</h2>
<p>Chile is one of the world’s most unequal countries, with less equitable income distribution than <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/gini-coefficient-by-country/">neighboring Peru, Bolivia and Argentina</a>.</p>
<p>And it’s getting worse. In 2006, the top 10% of Chilean earners earned 30 times more income than the bottom ten percent. In 2017 <a href="http://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/casen-multidimensional/casen/docs/Resultados_ingresos_Casen_2017.pdf">they earned 40 times more</a>.</p>
<p>Such statistics reflect a reality that most Chileans know firsthand. Chile’s enormous economic growth benefited the rich, but working and middle-class people still struggle with <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---travail/documents/publication/wcms_248029.pdf">low wages and job insecurity</a>. As protesters consistently point out, simply earning enough for health insurance and retirement is a constant struggle.</p>
<p>High rates of tax evasion among Chile’s wealthiest citizens mean that the country’s income inequality problem is likely <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/56016/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRARY_Secondary_libfile_shared_repository_Content_Fairfield,%20T_Top%20income%20shares_Fairfield_Top%20income%20shares_2014.pdf">even more severe than official figures suggest</a>.</p>
<p>These problems began with Pinochet’s free-market reforms. After assuming power in the 1973 coup against President Salvador Allende, the right-wing dictator set about dismantling the welfare state the socialist Allende had begun to build. The policy changes he made were <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/chile-agrees-hold-referendum-constitution-5-191115221832042.html">codified in the 1980 constitution</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301854/original/file-20191114-26273-8w0i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301854/original/file-20191114-26273-8w0i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301854/original/file-20191114-26273-8w0i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301854/original/file-20191114-26273-8w0i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301854/original/file-20191114-26273-8w0i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301854/original/file-20191114-26273-8w0i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301854/original/file-20191114-26273-8w0i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301854/original/file-20191114-26273-8w0i50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&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">Soldiers supporting the coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet take cover as bombs are dropped on the presidential palace, Sept. 11, 1973.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Chile-CHILE-/9c28961944e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/34/0">AP Photo/Enrique Aracena, File)</a></span>
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<p>Pinochet targeted three areas – labor rights, retirement and health care. These neoliberal reforms, which came with strong support from <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=OW12mnUqGQwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA208&dq=United+States+support+for+neoliberalism+in+Chile&ots=pQhMkN1RgC&sig=K5tYQIuDn5073CE1o0CjQxaK_Sc#v=onepage&q=United%20States%20support%20for%20neoliberalism%20in%20Chile&f=false">the U.S. government</a>, shifted primary responsibility for managing the economy and providing social services from the state to the private sector.</p>
<p>The most important determinant of inequality, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2016.1216534">my research finds</a>, was the dictator’s evisceration the rights of Chilean workers to organize and negotiate with employers. </p>
<p>Pinochet did this by creating new ways for companies to hire workers, including allowing different types of temporary contracts. In Chile, temporary workers do not have the right to worker protections such as severance payments when terminated, <a href="https://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=207436&idVersion=2017-06-09">employer-paid protections against workplace injury and the right to unionize</a>.</p>
<p>These rules make temporary workers cheap labor, giving employers strong incentives to maintain or expand their reliance on them. As a result, less than <a href="http://redatam.dirtrab.cl/redchl/COMPENDIO/Neg_Colectiva.pdf">3% of Chilean workers</a> are covered by contracts that allow workers to <a href="http://redatam.dirtrab.cl/redchl/COMPENDIO/OOSS.pdf">collectively organize to negotiate with management</a>.</p>
<p>Even permanent workers saw their unionization rights decrease markedly under Pinochet’s labor code. Many Chilean workers ended up in weakened so-called <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=x7KHDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=bargaining+groups+chile&source=bl&ots=LAf-bxJ5Fg&sig=ACfU3U2Qf5a2fNJxG2v4k47bryUK04X6Rg&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiEx6HYn-jlAhVNwlkKHRjYBEQQ6AEwDXoECAoQAg#v=onepage&q=bargaining%20groups%20chile&f=false">bargaining groups</a> that do not grant workers the right to strike. Overall union membership in Chile today is <a href="http://redatam.dirtrab.cl/redchl/COMPENDIO/OOSS.pdf">less than half what it was under Allende</a>. </p>
<h2>Poor safety net</h2>
<p>Supporters of Pinochet’s free market labor reforms argued that these reforms would <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w10129">reduce inequality and increase employment</a>, particularly for Chile’s least skilled workers. </p>
<p>The opposite happened. Despite enormous economic growth over the past three decades, employment rates for workers at the lower end of the economic ladder remain exceptionally low. </p>
<p>The unemployment rate for workers at the bottom 10th of Chile’s socioeconomic ladder has <a href="http://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/casen-multidimensional/casen/docs/Resultados_trabajo_Casen_2017.pdf">averaged nearly 30% since 1990</a>, government data shows. Meanwhile, unemployment for the top 10th of earners has stayed around 2%. </p>
<p>Pinochet-era changes to Chile’s pension system have compounded inequities in the labor market.</p>
<p>In keeping with its extreme free market ideology, Pinochet’s military regime replaced the original retirement system – which was based on combined contributions from workers, employers and the state – with a privately managed pension system. </p>
<p>Under this system, all workers except the military and national police were made solely responsible for their individual retirement accounts. The state and business contributed nothing. </p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1866802X19861491">leftist President Michelle Bachelet</a>, Chile in 2008 began to provide minimum pensions for the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21699763.2016.1148623">poorest retirees</a>, too. </p>
<p>Because employers don’t help employees save for retirement, the cost of labor in Chile is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12116-011-9091-2">comparatively low</a>, increasing Chile’s competitiveness in the global economy.</p>
<p>But Chilean retirees have fared poorly. Most can’t save enough to sustain themselves in old age. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301855/original/file-20191114-26229-1l52qtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301855/original/file-20191114-26229-1l52qtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301855/original/file-20191114-26229-1l52qtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301855/original/file-20191114-26229-1l52qtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301855/original/file-20191114-26229-1l52qtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301855/original/file-20191114-26229-1l52qtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301855/original/file-20191114-26229-1l52qtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301855/original/file-20191114-26229-1l52qtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Sebastian Piñera, who previously governed the country from 2010 to 2014, has agreed to Chilean protester demands for a new constitution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Chile-Protests/80c2d73d312e4dc2b3ba27fd46f18164/7/0">AP Photo/Esteban Felix</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pinochet’s privatization of Chile’s health care system has similarly increased the distance between rich people and everyone else. </p>
<p>Under Allende, Chile was <a href="http://kaisnet.or.kr/resource/down/11_1_08.pdf">headed toward free, universal health care</a>. The Pinochet regime created a for-profit private health care system to compete with the government-run system, but it’s so prohibitively expensive that 90% of the poorest third of Chileans still <a href="http://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/casen-multidimensional/casen/docs/Resultados_Salud_casen_2017.pdf">rely exclusively on the public system</a>. It is critically underfunded and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168851017300660">offers lower-quality care than the private system</a>. </p>
<h2>Pinochet’s real legacy</h2>
<p>The fractures in the veneer of Chile’s “model economy” have been showing since at least 2006, when <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/08/student-protests-in-chile/100125/">massive, nationwide student protests</a> erupted over <a href="https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/chiles-student-protests">increased education costs</a>. </p>
<p>Like those earlier protests, students have been at the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/chile-protests-hundreds-of-thousands-take-part-as-peso-hits-record-low/a-51218587">forefront of today’s protests</a>. Many are too young to remember the human rights abuses, political repression and economic deprivation of Pinochet’s regime. But they have personal experience with the social inequality it gave rise to.</p>
<p>Mass protests are the result of those two realities. Raised in democracy, Chile’s young protesters expect a fairer share of the country’s wealth. And they’re not old enough to fear an authoritarian crackdown for proclaiming their rights.</p>
<p><em>Correction: This story has been corrected to more accurately interpret data on the wealth gap in Chile.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126305/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul W. Posner 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>To quell weeks of protest over extreme inequality, Chile’s president has agreed to rewrite the country’s constitution, passed in 1980 under the deadly military regime of Augusto Pinochet.Paul W. Posner, Associate Professor, Clark UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1263062019-11-14T12:59:24Z2019-11-14T12:59:24ZUrban unrest propels global wave of protests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301580/original/file-20191113-77291-1nxmrnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4176%2C2792&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chilean police clash with anti-government demonstrators during a protest in Santiago, Chile, Nov. 12, 2019. Santiago is one of a dozen cities worldwide to see mass unrest in recent months.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Chile-Protests/349587027bf24a9d9cb1d90de10bf884/11/0">AP Photo/Esteban Felix</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/why-are-there-so-many-protests-across-the-globe-right-now/2019/10/24/5ced176c-f69b-11e9-ad8b-85e2aa00b5ce_story.html">Numerous anti-government protests</a> have paralyzed cities across the globe for months, from La Paz, Bolivia, to Santiago, Chile, and Monrovia, Liberia, to Beirut.</p>
<p>Each protest in this worldwide wave of unrest has its own local dynamic and cause. But they also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/10/25/global-wave-protests-share-themes-economic-anger-political-hopelessness/">share certain characteristics</a>: Fed up with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-50123743">rising inequality, corruption and slow economic growth</a>, angry citizens worldwide are demanding an end to corruption and the restoration of a democratic rule of law.</p>
<p>It is no accident, as <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/central-america-caribbean/2019-10-29/why-latin-america-was-primed-explode">Foreign Affairs recently observed</a>, that Latin America – which has seen the most countries explode into the longest-lasting violent protests – has the slowest regional growth in the world, with only 0.2% expected in 2019. Latin America is also the world’s <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/inequality-is-getting-worse-in-latin-america-here-s-how-to-fix-it/">region</a> with the most inequality.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/world/americas/evo-morales-bolivia.html">Bolivia’s once-powerful president</a>, Evo Morales – whose support was strongest in rural areas – was forced out on Nov. 11 by a military response to mass urban unrest after alleged electoral fraud. </p>
<p>In October, <a href="https://theconversation.com/lebanon-uprising-unites-people-across-faiths-defying-deep-sectarian-divides-125772">Lebanon’s prime minister</a> also resigned after mass protests. </p>
<p>One under-covered factor in these demonstrations, I would observe as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Dv_-dxQAAAAJ&hl=enhttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Dv_-dxQAAAAJ&hl=en">scholar of migration</a>, is domestic, rural-to-urban migration. All these capital cities gripped by protest have huge populations of desperately poor formerly rural people <a href="https://www.cairn.info/mediterra-2018-english--9782724623956-page-101.htm">pushed out of the countryside</a> and into the city by <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-making-soils-saltier-forcing-many-farmers-to-find-new-livelihoods-106048">climate change</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-struggling-agricultural-sector-what-went-wrong-20-years-ago-45171">national policies</a> that hurt small farmers or a <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-is-responsible-for-migrants-108388">global trade system that impoverishes local agriculture</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301593/original/file-20191113-77326-6t9jol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301593/original/file-20191113-77326-6t9jol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301593/original/file-20191113-77326-6t9jol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301593/original/file-20191113-77326-6t9jol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301593/original/file-20191113-77326-6t9jol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301593/original/file-20191113-77326-6t9jol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301593/original/file-20191113-77326-6t9jol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301593/original/file-20191113-77326-6t9jol.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">Backers of ousted Bolivian president Evo Morales march in La Paz, Bolivia, Nov. 13, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Bolivia-Elections/bf7e9e9d1762473c952642cba48435d8/2/0">AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rapid urban growth</h2>
<p>Cities worldwide have been growing at an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jul/12/urban-sprawl-how-cities-grow-change-sustainability-urban-age">unsustainable pace</a> over the past seven decades. </p>
<p>In 1950, the New York metropolitan area and Tokyo were the world’s only megacities – cities with more than 10 million people. By 1995, 14 megacities had emerged. Today, there are 25. Of the 7.6 billion people in the world, 4.2 billion, or 55%, <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html">live in cities and other urban settlements</a>. Another 2.5 billion people will <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html">move into cities in poor countries by 2050</a>, according to the United Nations. </p>
<p>Most modern megacities are in the <a href="https://qz.com/africa/688823/80-of-the-worlds-megacities-are-now-in-asia-latin-america-or-africa/">developing regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America</a>. There, natural population increases in cities are aggravated by surges in rural migrants in search of a better life. </p>
<p>What they find, instead, are sprawling <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/south-america-drug-slums-jurisdiction-organized-crime/">informal settlements</a>, frequently called <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-humanitarian-summit-urban-crisis-idUSKCN0Y80GA">urban slums</a>. </p>
<p>These marginalized parts of cities in the developing world – called “favelas” in Brazil, “bidonvilles” in Haiti and “villas miserias” in Argentina – <a href="https://blogs.unicef.org/east-asia-pacific/the-dark-of-day-life-in-jakarta-urban/">look remarkably similar across the globe</a>. Ignored by the municipal government, they usually lack sanitation, clean drinking water, electricity, health care facilities and schools. Informal urban settlements are usually <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/massive-urban-slums-1435765">precariously located</a>, near flood-prone waterfronts or on steep, unstable mountainsides. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301583/original/file-20191113-77305-nugz0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301583/original/file-20191113-77305-nugz0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301583/original/file-20191113-77305-nugz0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301583/original/file-20191113-77305-nugz0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301583/original/file-20191113-77305-nugz0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301583/original/file-20191113-77305-nugz0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301583/original/file-20191113-77305-nugz0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301583/original/file-20191113-77305-nugz0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&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 urban slum in Jakarta, Indonesia, April 3, 2017. Jakarta has seen regular outbreaks of protest since May 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Indonesia-Daily-Life/50adf90547c94f898ba7b39c5342e8b8/18/0">AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their economy and, to a significant degree, politics, are <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/bringing-the-state-to-the-slum-confronting-organized-crime-and-urban-violence-in-latin-america/">infiltrated by gangs</a> – organized crime groups that profit off the illegal trafficking of drugs, people and weapons. These gangs, in turn, may be <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/massive-urban-slums-1435765">linked to political parties</a>, serving as their <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40553119?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">armed enforcers</a>.</p>
<p>Many rural migrants, who lack identity documentation, social entitlements, housing and financial services, are forced to work in these illicit labor markets. </p>
<p>This system replicates in a predatory, illegal form the <a href="https://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100310810">patron-client relationship</a> still common in many developing countries, in which a rural economic elite provides employment, loans, seeds, cash or protection for farmers in exchange for “taxes” – usually a share of the farmer’s produce – and political fealty. </p>
<p>In the unstable market economy of the urban slum, <a href="https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/Challenge%20of%20Slums.pdf">gangs are the patron</a>.</p>
<h2>A staging ground for discontent</h2>
<p>The injustices of this daily life underlie the anger of many of today’s protesters. From Quito, Ecuador, to Beirut, the extreme marginalization of so many people living in big, dysfunctional and dangerous places has boiled over into deadly unrest. </p>
<p>In Haiti, for example, the majority of demonstrators who’ve staged <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/opinion/haiti-protests.html">nine straight weeks of massive protests</a> against documented official corruption, gasoline shortages and food scarcity are extremely poor Port-au-Prince residents. They are highly motivated to keep protesting because they are facing starvation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301591/original/file-20191113-77342-1krg6v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301591/original/file-20191113-77342-1krg6v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301591/original/file-20191113-77342-1krg6v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301591/original/file-20191113-77342-1krg6v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301591/original/file-20191113-77342-1krg6v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301591/original/file-20191113-77342-1krg6v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301591/original/file-20191113-77342-1krg6v2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301591/original/file-20191113-77342-1krg6v2.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">People in the Cite Soleil slum, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, wait for government-distributed food and school supplies, Oct. 3, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Haiti-Political-Crisis/0fab5cb697ef4794b291c63bd3f1a76f/1/0">AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even Chile, which technically is the wealthiest Latin American country, has an awful lot of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-50123743">very poor people struggling to get by</a>. Its current protests, which began in mid-October with a hike in the Santiago subway fare, are disproportionately composed of youth and rural migrants from Santiago’s poor outskirts. Among Latin American countries, Chile has the second-highest rate of internal migration in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5362059/">all of Latin America</a>, second only to Panama. Bolivia ranks fifth in the region.</p>
<p>It is not the actual movement of rural people into cities that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0738894215581315">creates social upheaval</a>, according to a 2015 analysis of 20 years of data on internal migration, poverty and inequality for 34 cities in Africa and Asia. Rather, it’s the overall poor and unequal educational and housing opportunities that rural-to-urban migrants face in cities – coupled with their <a href="https://homerdixon.com/tag/project-on-environment-population-and-security/">socioeconomic marginalization</a> – that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0738894215581315">spurs urban discontent</a>. </p>
<p>People who fled impoverished countryside only to find poverty in the city, too, are demanding more. Two centuries after the <a href="https://mappinghistory.uoregon.edu/english/EU/EU06-00.html">peasant rebellions that toppled monarchies across Europe</a>, cities have become the stage for the kind of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-50123743">resentment and frustration</a> that can destabilize entire nations.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126306/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry F. (Chip) Carey 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>From Santiago and La Paz to Beirut and Jakarta, many of the cities now gripped by protest share a common problem: They’ve grown too much, too fast.Henry F. (Chip) Carey, Associate Professor, Political Science, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1263362019-11-11T23:21:27Z2019-11-11T23:21:27ZWhat’s going on in South America? Understanding the wave of protests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300882/original/file-20191108-194633-1wtsvo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C388%2C4401%2C2134&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators clash with a police water cannon during a recent anti-government protest in Santiago, Chile. Several South American countries have been experiencing massive social unrest in recent months.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The news that Bolivian President Evo Morales <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/10/americas/bolivia-new-election-audit/index.html">is resigning amid an election fraud scandal</a> highlights an unfortunate reality about South America. Even though the continent has made big economic strides in recent years, it’s often still plagued by political and civil unrest.</p>
<p>With more than 425 million people, South American countries are among the world’s largest producers and exporters <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/19127/biggest-producers-of-beef/">of beef</a> <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/world-leaders-in-soya-soybean-production-by-country.html">and soy</a> (Brazil), <a href="https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/171.htm">oil</a> (Venezuela), <a href="http://www.ico.org/trade_statistics.asp">coffee</a> (Colombia), <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/hs92/2204/">wine</a> (Argentina and Chile), <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/264626/copper-production-by-country/">copper</a> (Chile and Peru) and <a href="https://www.theoilandgasyear.com/market/bolivia/">natural gas</a> (Bolivia). </p>
<p>But South America has also long been known for its <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/why-political-turmoil-is-erupting-across-latin-america/2019/10/10/a459cc96-eab9-11e9-a329-7378fbfa1b63_story.html">political instability</a> and public policy tensions. </p>
<p>In the past century, several South American countries faced coups, military dictatorships and social uprisings. The last few months have shown that the turmoil is hardly a thing of the past.</p>
<h2>Wave of demonstrations</h2>
<p>In addition to Venezuela, where <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-reasons-why-trumps-venezuela-embargo-wont-end-the-maduro-regime-121538">political and economic crises</a> have resulted in a humanitarian disaster known around the world, there has been recent turbulence elsewhere in South America.</p>
<p>Paraguay has been experiencing massive protests against President Mario Abdo. Paraguayans are angry about <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2019/08/22/a-secret-hydropower-deal-with-brazil-causes-a-political-crisis-in-paraguay">an agreement with Brazil on the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant</a> that’s considered detrimental to the smaller country. </p>
<p>With the government at a 69 per cent disapproval rating, the opposition has started an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-paraguay-president/paraguayan-presidents-popularity-plummets-amid-brazil-linked-political-crisis-idUSKCN1V421O">impeachment process against Abdo and his vice-president that’s close to completion</a>. The impeachment comes just seven years after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/22/paraguay-fernando-lugo-ousted">former president Fernand Lugo was himself impeached</a> in 2012 amid land disputes that resulted in 17 deaths. </p>
<p>In Peru, President Martin Vizcarra <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5972760/peru-president-dissolves-congress-corruption/">has dissolved congress</a> in an attempt to force new parliamentary elections. His actions have resulted in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im5LX4Nc0sg">several demonstrations</a> around the country, including one that <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/11/reuters-america-update-2-mmgs-las-bambas-copper-mine-faces-production-halt-amid-protests.html">blocked access to a copper mine and caused production to cease</a>. </p>
<p>Vizcarra was the vice-president until last year, after <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/peru-kuczynski-resign-1.4587182">former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned</a> due to a possible connection to a bribery scandal involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. Another Peruvian president, Alan García, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47965867">killed himself last April</a> when the police arrived at his home to arrest him for involvement in the same case.</p>
<h2>Election results disputed</h2>
<p>Bolivia has also been experiencing a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/28/bolivian-election-protests-santa-cruz-block-roads-la-paz">massive wave of demonstrations</a>. The opposition <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/bolivia-opposition-leader-calls-for-new-election-amid-unrest/a-51100841">did not accept the results of recent elections</a>, which gave the victory to Morales in the first round of voting for his fourth term. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301110/original/file-20191111-194637-31ckza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301110/original/file-20191111-194637-31ckza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301110/original/file-20191111-194637-31ckza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301110/original/file-20191111-194637-31ckza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301110/original/file-20191111-194637-31ckza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301110/original/file-20191111-194637-31ckza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301110/original/file-20191111-194637-31ckza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301110/original/file-20191111-194637-31ckza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&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">Morales attends a news conference in La Paz, Bolivia, on Nov. 10, 2019. Morales is calling for new presidential elections and an overhaul of the electoral system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Juan Karita)</span></span>
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<p>Leading the country since 2006, Morales accepted <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-election/bolivia-split-as-opposition-calls-for-morales-to-step-down-rejects-audit-idUSKBN1XB4SA">a ballot audit</a> from the Organization of American States (OAS), which found the results of October’s elections could not be validated because of “serious irregularities.” He announced he was quitting for “the good of the country.”</p>
<p>Since the election, roads were closed across the country and daily riots were routine. Santa Cruz, the richest province in Bolivia, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20191029-dozens-injured-in-clashes-as-bolivia-s-election-standoff-enters-second-week">is experiencing an ongoing general strike</a>.</p>
<p>In Ecuador, President Lenin Moreno withdrew a subsidy on fuel, in place since the 1970s, due to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). <a href="https://time.com/5705202/what-happens-next-in-ecuador/">The price of fuel has since skyrocketed</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/ecuador-unrest-led-mass-protests-191010193825529.html">provoking massive protests</a> that paralyzed parts of the country in October.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300885/original/file-20191108-194661-1ndlc29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300885/original/file-20191108-194661-1ndlc29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300885/original/file-20191108-194661-1ndlc29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300885/original/file-20191108-194661-1ndlc29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300885/original/file-20191108-194661-1ndlc29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300885/original/file-20191108-194661-1ndlc29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300885/original/file-20191108-194661-1ndlc29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&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">Anti-government demonstrators scale the facade of a residence to reach the rooftop in search of a better vantage point to battle with police in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50010190">Moreno has accused</a> his predecessor, Rafael Correa, and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of being behind the demonstrations, which continued <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/14/ecuador-protests-end-after-deal-struck-with-indigenous-leaders">even after the return of the subsidy</a>. </p>
<p>Chile, the South American country with the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/HDI">highest human development index</a> and one of the <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-richest-countries-in-south-america.html">highest GDPs per capita in the region</a>, is facing the biggest wave of public turmoil since the re-democratization of the nation in 1990. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-chile-went-from-an-economic-star-to-an-angry-mess/2019/10/29/9d575fe8-fa41-11e9-9e02-1d45cb3dfa8f_story.html">The triggers</a> were the increases in public transit fares and electricity bills at the beginning of October. </p>
<h2>Education, old-age pensions</h2>
<p>Issues relating to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/stunning-wealth-poor-services-behind-massive-chile-protests/2019/10/28/93e8e3e4-f93a-11e9-9e02-1d45cb3dfa8f_story.html">education</a>, mostly private and expensive, and the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/stunning-wealth-poor-services-behind-massive-chile-protests/2019/10/28/93e8e3e4-f93a-11e9-9e02-1d45cb3dfa8f_story.html">pension regime</a> are fuelling a lot of the unrest in Chile, particularly among youth and the elderly. The protests have resulted in at least 20 deaths and thousands injured amid charges of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/24/chile-protests-human-rights-un-investigation">state-sanctioned violence</a>.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Brazil and Argentina, the largest countries in South America, are not currently dealing with similar turmoil even though both countries recently held elections that revealed deeply divided electorates.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301111/original/file-20191111-194669-1o0fytt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301111/original/file-20191111-194669-1o0fytt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301111/original/file-20191111-194669-1o0fytt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301111/original/file-20191111-194669-1o0fytt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301111/original/file-20191111-194669-1o0fytt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301111/original/file-20191111-194669-1o0fytt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301111/original/file-20191111-194669-1o0fytt.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">Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro smiles during an event in Brasilia, Brazil, in October 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)</span></span>
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<p>In October 2018, Brazil elected right-wing former army captain <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/28/americas/brazil-election/index.html">Jair Bolsonaro</a>. The onetime congressman defeated the leftist candidate, resulting in the first defeat of the Workers Party since 1998.</p>
<p>Regardless of the defeat and the wear caused by several corruption scandals, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46013408">Brazil’s left-wing parties</a> still have a large number of seats in parliament as well as state governors. </p>
<p>In Argentina, the recent election of <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/alberto-fernandez-wins-argentine-presidential-election/a-51011631">Alberto Fernandez</a> has brought back the leftist party of former president Cristina Kirchner, who became vice-president. Even in defeat, former leader Mauricio Macri received 41.7 per cent of the vote, showing that, just as in Brazil, the opposition against Fernandez is strong. </p>
<h2>Possible consequences</h2>
<p>The resurgent unrest in South America has some similarities from country to country.</p>
<p>Most started because of minor causes, like bus or subway fare increases, but pertain to broader public policy problems like corruption, access to education, health care or pensions. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-05/south-american-economies-dive-south-as-growth-outlook-dims">Economic issues</a> have played a significant role in the widespread dissatisfaction. </p>
<p>The strong economic indicators of years past in South America <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-latam-economics-recession-analysis/latin-america-lacks-ammunition-to-fight-global-economic-slowdown-idUSKCN1VA1YH">have weakened</a>. Many countries are now facing low GDP increases and high unemployment. </p>
<p>Even Chile is experiencing a decline in its economic outlook. The country is often considered <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/chiles-ascent-from-3rd-to-1st-world/article12298793/">the first developed Latin American nation</a>. It is a bit early to say if the recent events could change that status. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-protests-escalate-as-widespread-dissatisfaction-shakes-foundations-of-countrys-economic-success-story-125628">Chile protests escalate as widespread dissatisfaction shakes foundations of country's economic success story</a>
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<p>The unrest in South America is <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2019-10-24/protests-across-south-america-unleash-public-anger-at-elected-leaders">already being compared</a> to the Arab Spring, the wave of pro-democracy demonstrations in North Africa and Middle East. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/30/arab-spring-aftermath-syria-tunisia-egypt-yemen-libya">In 2010 and 2011</a>, the Arab Spring fuelled the fall of autocratic presidents in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, and generated civil war in Yemen. </p>
<p>Although there are similarities, South American countries are largely democratic, even if some of those democracies are fragile. The most recent South American elections have seen voters swinging between left- and right-wing parties.</p>
<p>The following weeks will determine the impact of these collective South American backlashes. Despite the amount of natural wealth in the region, instability in South America is commonly generated by economic crises, resulting in the type of massive civilian protests we’re seeing now. </p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126336/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lenin Cavalcanti Guerra 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>In the last century, several South American countries faced coups, military dictatorships and social uprisings. Despite economic improvements in recent years, the continent remains mired in unrest.Lenin Cavalcanti Guerra, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1256302019-10-29T11:43:35Z2019-10-29T11:43:35ZAs Latin America revolts, in Argentina the insurrection was at the ballot box<p>Argentina has a new president after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/argentina-elects-new-president-on-promises-to-fix-economy-and-unify-a-struggling-nation-124965">centre-left candidate Alberto Fernández</a> and his Frente de Todos coalition won a solid majority of 48% in elections on October 27. The incumbent Mauricio Macri was pushed into second place with 40% of the vote in what was an indictment of his economic record. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/argentina-elections-is-frontrunner-alberto-fernandez-a-populist-125629">Fernández comes from a tradition</a> of Peronism – a politics tied to the ideology of former Argentinian leader, Juan Perón. His decision to have Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the former president, as his vice-presidential running mate, proved to be a brilliant political strategy. It outmanoeuvred Macri who had based his campaign around a monotonous confrontation with “Kirchnerism” and with vilifying her record. It also created conditions which led to reunification within the Peronist movement of which she and this new government are a part.</p>
<p>Fernández’s victory was welcomed by presidents Evo Morales in Bolivia and Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico – his preferred regional partners – but not by Jair Bolsonaro in <a href="https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/mixed-responses-from-latin-american-leaders-to-frente-de-todos-victory.phtml">Brazil who said</a> that Argentinians had made a bad choice. Bolsonaro’s reaction was unsurprising, given that Fernández has openly stated that former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is a political prisoner. </p>
<p>This was the ninth presidential election in Argentina since the country’s transition to democracy began in 1983 after years of military dictatorship. Turnout exceeded 80% of those eligible to vote. </p>
<p>As other countries in Latin America such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/chile-protests-escalate-as-widespread-dissatisfaction-shakes-foundations-of-countrys-economic-success-story-125628">Chile</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/07/ecuador-anti-austerity-protests">Ecuador</a> struggle with violent unrest, Argentinians decided to make their voice heard at the ballot box. This is significant for the wider Latin American region because it shows that insurrection can also take place when established political parties rearticulate the demands of social movements. And it regenerates the push for progressive political representation in the region. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-latin-american-left-isnt-dead-yet-124385">The Latin American left isn't dead yet</a>
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<h2>Macri’s record</h2>
<p>Argentina’s alarmingly bad economic performance under Macri is only part of the explanation for Fernández’s victory. The political programme of the winning Frente de Todos coalition – positioned in opposition to the neoliberal policies of Macri – gave Argentinians a real electoral choice. It was an election strategy that can provide lessons to other insurgent movements fed up with austerity. </p>
<p>Back in 2016, Macri <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3lHaCzBK1Y">agreed that his presidency</a> would be evaluated on his administration’s success at reducing poverty. But according to the Catholic University of Argentina, <a href="https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/el-observatorio-uca-estima-pobreza-2019-sera-nid2267616">poverty rose from 29.2% in 2015</a>, when Cristina Fernández de Kirchner left office, to 33.6% in 2018, and 35.4% in the first quarter of 2019. This added more than 7m people into poverty in nearly four years. An initial reading of the election results suggest that voters took Macri’s pledge seriously and punished him accordingly for failing to deliver on his main promise. </p>
<p>The rise in poverty did not happen in isolation but as a byproduct of the government’s attempt to make the economy more competitive and attract direct foreign investment following Macri’s liberalisation strategy that included lifting capital controls, cutting down energy subsidies and lowering trade barriers.</p>
<p>The result was <a href="https://theconversation.com/argentina-how-inflation-debt-and-poverty-combined-to-deliver-a-brutal-primary-election-result-for-president-mauricio-macri-121960">a race to the bottom</a>, with falling minimum wages, rising inflation, a depreciation of the peso and a jump in unemployment. Argentina was left exposed to speculative international capital and when a crisis in emerging market currencies took place, Macri decided in May 2018 to request a “preventive” IMF loan that ended up totalling US$56.3 billion, the largest in the institution’s history. </p>
<h2>Avoiding mass unrest</h2>
<p>There were protests throughout Macri’s administration, <a href="https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/protesters-block-roads-hold-anti-government-marches-across-country.phtml">including in September 2019</a> against rising inflation and poverty. But in the context of a socioeconomic crisis of such epic proportions, it’s striking that Argentina hasn’t experienced either widespread social unrest, such as in Chile or Ecuador, or a full-on <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4534786.stm">political debacle like in 2001</a> when a state of extreme institutional instability resulted in five presidents in just 11 days. In fact, Macri should become the first non-Peronist Argentinian president to complete a full tenure in office – and he still received the support of 40% of the electorate. </p>
<p>In the past, Argentina’s democratic institutions have managed to resolve moments of great uncertainty that included military uprisings in the late 1980s and political movements such as the “we want them all out” campaign of 2001. Since then, “Kirchnerism” – the political ideology linked to former presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – emerged as a new progressive political identity. Its presence made the work of translating protest into institutional politics possible. </p>
<p>In 2019, the Frente de Todos coalition managed to build a united front against Macri’s neoliberal policies. In the process, they managed to make compromises with moderate political elites who would otherwise have been opposed to their political programme, while also allying with labour and social campaign organisations. </p>
<h2>Challenges ahead for Fernández</h2>
<p>While the recent demonstrations in Chile and Ecuador have been successful in reversing specific austerity measures such as price hikes in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-50148714">transport</a> and <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecuador-protests/ecuadors-moreno-scraps-fuel-subsidy-cuts-in-big-win-for-indigenous-groups-idUKKBN1WT26J">petrol</a>, it’s unclear yet whether these uprisings will result in representation within political institutions. But this is what has happened in Argentina, where Fernández’s coalition managed to listen to the demands of those mobilising in anger against the government.</p>
<p>The Frente de Todos coalition incorporated the social demands of angry Argentinians into their political programme. This included rejection of Macri’s plans to make labour laws more flexible and to reform the pension system, as well as a rejection of handing out moderate penalties to perpetrators of human rights abuses. It was this link between social mobilisation and political representation that prevented widespread uprisings in 2019 in the face of economic crisis and inequality. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/alberto-fernandez-who-is-the-frontrunner-for-argentinas-presidency-121839">Alberto Fernández – who is the frontrunner for Argentina's presidency?</a>
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<p>The challenges ahead for Fernández are enormous, including how to deliver quickly on people’s demands for redistribution of state resources at time when commodity prices are low and the state finances are dire. Another is how to generate sustainable development out of the abundant shale oil and gas reserves in Argentina’s <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/75e6d166-90f5-11e8-9609-3d3b945e78cf">Vaca Muerta region</a>. </p>
<p>That said, in the context of the global rise of right-wing, xenophobic mavericks, the election in Argentina represents a hard-won triumph for inclusive democracy. For now, there is an ample sense of hope – an elusive but important political currency.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125630/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juan Pablo Ferrero 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>Alberto Fernández has been elected as Argentina’s new president, defeating Mauricio Macri, who was punished for his economic record.Juan Pablo Ferrero, Senior Lecturer in Latin American Politics, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1256282019-10-25T11:17:16Z2019-10-25T11:17:16ZChile protests escalate as widespread dissatisfaction shakes foundations of country’s economic success story<p>Chile’s capital city Santiago appears dynamic and bustling, complete with gleaming skyscrapers and a modern metro network. Against the backdrop of the snow-topped Andes mountains, the Costanera Tower – South America’s tallest building – symbolises the country’s open neoliberal economy and mass consumption society. </p>
<p>But protests have rocked the country, challenging this image of stability and prosperity.</p>
<p>Following a government proposal to increase the price of metro tickets, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/18/chile-students-mass-fare-dodging-expands-into-city-wide-protest">students began to dodge metro fares</a> in protest on October 14, jumping the turnstiles <em>en masse</em> and setting metro stations on fire. The protests soon spread within Santiago and to other Chilean cities, leading President Sebastian Piñera to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/19/chile-protests-state-of-emergency-declared-in-santiago-as-violence-escalates">declare a state of emergency</a> and daily curfews on October 18. This legislation, which dates from the dictatorship era of the 1970s and 80s, allows the military to patrol the streets. </p>
<p>But the move has led to an escalation of the protests, as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-50137360">thousands of Chileans disobeyed the curfews</a> by marching peacefully against government policy and violent repression on a daily basis, calling for Piñera to resign.</p>
<p>The images of soldiers and tanks on the streets, dispersing protesters with water cannon, tear gas, and physical violence, recall the images of military repression during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1990. The economic and ideological legacies of the Pinochet era as well as the nature of Chile’s transition to democracy are key to understanding the reasons for the protests. The anger of those on the streets is as much a reflection of the country’s high inequality as it is of these unresolved legacies.</p>
<p>Much of the media coverage of the protests has focused on the spectacle of looting, vandalism, and soldiers beating the protesters. Since the protests started, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chile-news-santiago-at-least-18-dead-and-thousands-arrested-in-chile-protests-2019-10-24/">18 people have died and there have been 3,000 arrests</a>. But there are wider causes behind these events. The protests emerged in the middle of growing dissatisfaction with high levels of inequality and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-50086133">a high cost of living</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298569/original/file-20191024-170458-18lmv41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298569/original/file-20191024-170458-18lmv41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298569/original/file-20191024-170458-18lmv41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298569/original/file-20191024-170458-18lmv41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298569/original/file-20191024-170458-18lmv41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298569/original/file-20191024-170458-18lmv41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298569/original/file-20191024-170458-18lmv41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Income inequality has not improved in Chile since the days of the military dictatorship.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wid.world/share/#0/countrytimeseries/sptinc_p99p100_z;sptinc_p90p100_z/CL/2015/eu/k/p/yearly/s/false/16.671499999999998/60/curve/false/1990/2015">World Inequality Database</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the surface, Chile looks like an economic and political success story, as the country’s GDP growth has <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=CL-ZJ">outpaced that of Latin America as a whole</a> in recent years, but many Chileans are struggling. The metro fares have come to symbolise what they feel is the unjust distribution of income and social spending. </p>
<h2>Legacy of Pinochet era</h2>
<p>Like the state of emergency, Chile’s social and economic policies also date from the dictatorship. Neoliberal reforms were introduced in the mid-1970s by Pinochet and his team of American-trained economists, known as the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/the-chicago-boys-in-chile-economic-freedoms-awful-toll/">“Chicago Boys”</a>. The reforms took place in the context of violent repression. <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2013/09/chile-years-pinochet-s-coup-impunity-must-end/">Official investigations</a> showed that 3,065 people were murdered by state agents during the dictatorship, 40,000 tortured, and hundreds of thousands forced into exile.</p>
<p>The 1970s reforms included the elimination of subsidies, welfare reform, and the privatisation of state-owned companies, the health sector, education and pensions. Pinochet’s reforms led to high levels of unemployment, declining real wages, and expensive social services, such as education. The impact is clear today in education, characterised by low levels of public spending and highly unequal access to good-quality schools and universities. Between 2011 and 2013 students <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22118682">organised mass demonstrations</a> against Chile’s education policies, and dissatisfaction remains.</p>
<p>Chile turned from a military to a civilian government in 1990, following the 1988 referendum in which Pinochet was defeated. But due to the nature of the transition, social and economic policies changed very little. Pinochet negotiated his departure in such a way that the armed forces kept control of the political process, including his own appointment as a lifelong senator. The 1980 military constitution – which is still in place today – has allowed Piñera to declare the controversial state of emergency to deal with the protests. Although some of the military control structures have been dismantled since Pinochet’s death in 2006, the civilian governments on the right and the left have had a limited appetite to address the country’s inequalities.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-50148714">response to the protests</a>, on October 22 Piñera suspended the planned fare increases and announced a spending package of reforms to address the protestors’ concerns. The fact that Chileans <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/23/chile-protests-sebastian-pinera-apology-reform">continue to protest</a> around the country shows that many people feel these measures are too little, too late. </p>
<p>Given the long historical roots of the inequalities, it’s unlikely that one-off extra spending can address the country’s structural problems. Even if the government’s intention has been to de-escalate the situation, its hardline response to the protests signals growing polarisation rather than a quick resolution to the issues.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125628/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marieke Riethof 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>Unresolved legacies of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet are driving anger at the cost of living in Chile.Marieke Riethof, Senior Lecturer in Latin American Politics, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.