Sitting at the counter of his daughter’s grocery store in downtown Santiago, Hugo Toro recalls the 1973 Chilean military overthrow of the elected government of Socialist President Salvador Allende and the installation of right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet. relaxed mood.
“Many people want (the coup) to happen,” Toro said. He remembers long lines for food as stores sold out due to the economic havoc caused by Allende’s policies. “People were shouting ‘cowards’ in the streets at the soldiers because they didn’t intervene.”
Chile’s left-wing President Gabriel Boric wants a moment of unity before celebrating his country’s 50th anniversary on September 11. He called on all parties to sign a joint statement condemning the coup and committing to democracy – what he called “a reasonable and minimal consensus”.
His efforts have largely failed, exacerbating the country’s extreme polarization and political paralysis. Leaders on the right and left have spent months blaming each other for this dark period in Chilean history.
About 36% of Chileans now believe the military’s actions were correct, up from 16% in 2013, according to research firm Mori. While few defend the abuses of the Pinochet regime, which killed at least 3,196 people and established more than thousands of torture centers, conservative politicians increasingly claim the coup was needed to prevent Chile from becoming Necessary for a Cuban-style dictatorship.
Last week, the right-wing Chilean Vamos Union presented its own manifesto committed to democracy but described the coup as the “culmination” of a process of “democratic collapse”.
“They are departments that have been around for 50 years,” Toro said. “It never ends.”
The standoff reflects broader political stagnation. The rise of the far left and right over the past decade and the devastating mass protests of 2019 known as the “social explosion” have divided lawmakers.
Congress, made up of 22 political parties, has been trying to pass reforms to address the inequalities and inadequate public services that fueled the unrest. Chile’s economy is expected to grow by only 0.2% in 2023, making it the second weakest country in Latin America, after Argentina.
“We are in a state of paralysis,” said Marta Lagos, director of pollster Latinobaómetro. “People are very unhappy.”
This contrasts sharply with the political climate that governed Chile from the end of the Pinochet regime in 1990 until around 2010, when a series of center-left governments ruled. They acquiesced not to significantly alter Pinochet’s economic model, which prioritized privatized services and an investor-friendly constitution guaranteeing property rights.
In return, the right cooperates to gradually expand the state through social reforms. Chile’s economy has grown much faster than the regional average and millions of people have been lifted out of poverty.
Center-left Socialist senator Jose Miguel Insulza, who served as a minister in several of those governments, said they were not doing enough to address inequality.
“But today, neither the left nor the right seems interested in reaching any long-term agreement,” he said, adding that the left-wing coalition “is led by young people who came to power by denouncing the conciliatory nature of the old government”.
Insulza said the lack of compromise could permanently damage Chile’s export-led economy. “The reason the world likes Chile is simple – it is credible and predictable. The day it stops being predictable, it has a lot to lose.”
Meanwhile, Chile’s Vamos faces a growing challenge from far-right Republicans who appear unwilling to make concessions to a government they see as weak. Boric, who was sworn in 18 months ago, has seen his approval rating fall below 30%, weighed down by Chile’s worst crime wave in three decades, a stagnant economy and faltering plans to amend the constitution.
His unwieldy coalition, which stretches from the center left to the Communist Party, lacks a majority in parliament. That stymied two main elements of Boric’s agenda: plans to hand over parts of the pension system to the state, and to increase Chile’s taxes, one of the lowest in the OECD, to fund social programs.
Guillermo Ramírez, leader of the right-wing Democratic Independent Alliance in the lower house, said Boric’s first year in office “pursued maximalist reforms.” Although he is optimistic that Congress will agree to limited pension reform, UDI still has not considered raising taxes.
The anniversary of the coup has pushed political polarization to extremes. In August, the Communist Party called on lawmakers to denounce a 1973 congressional statement criticizing Allende that the left believed gave the green light for military intervention, but right-wing lawmakers led by Ramirez instead voted to speak loudly in the House of Representatives Read the statement.
Ricardo Martínez Menanteau, a former general who led Chile’s army until 2022, said it was a depressing sight. “We saw 50 years ago what happens when politicians go to extremes and are unable to compromise.”
Borik has been trying to unite politicians. In July, he fired the manifesto’s adviser, Patricio Fernández, under pressure after the author said historians “can continue to debate why (the coup) happened.” To the far left of the coalition, this felt too much like a defense of the coup.
In August, a former soldier committed suicide after being convicted of the extrajudicial killing of musician Victor Jara following the coup. Boric shocked even his left-wing coalition partners when he said some people “fail to face justice” And died in a cowardly way.”
“It will be impossible to move forward if Borrick continues to speak from a position of moral superiority and demand that the rest of us align with his understanding of history,” said Republican Sen. Rojo Edwards. explain.
Carmen Hertz, the communist lawmaker who led the effort to oust Fernandes, denied the coup could be considered anything other than a crime against humanity. “It’s like saying there are different perspectives on the Holocaust,” Hertz said.
Sitting in his cluttered home in Santiago, Fernandez said politicians are “missing the point” of the anniversary. “The discussion shouldn’t be ‘Who do I prefer, Pinochet or Allende?’ That’s a twisted way of looking at it,” he said. “It’s a trauma, a horror.” “
He added that he and Borik wanted to “end this polarization” and “focus on learning from the past to understand how to protect our democracy in the future.” “But we can’t. Maybe it will happen on the 51st anniversary.”
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