This past Sunday, Chileans — including ex-pats here in South Florida — rejected the draft of a new constitution. It would have replaced the old one written four decades ago under the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. It also would have been one of the most progressive charters in the western hemisphere.
WLRN’s Christine DiMattei spoke with Americas editor Tim Padgett about why Chileans voted the new constitution down — and what this means for the leftist wave we've been seeing in Latin America recently.
As the pandemic continues, you can rely on WLRN to keep you current on local news and information. Your support is what keeps WLRN strong. Please become a member today. Donate now. Thank you.
Tim, is it strange that Chileans vetoed this new constitution when previously they'd voted so enthusiastically to have one drafted?
Well, not according to polls we've been watching all year, which forecast the “no” vote winning this referendum — and in the end, 62% did vote against it. But as you point out, two years ago, 80% of Chilean voters said they wanted a new and especially a more democratic constitution. And that clamor was supposedly tied to the re-emergence of the left we've seen recently in Latin America.
READ MORE: Will Chileans, and Miami expats, turn Pinochet's outpost into a progressive stronghold?
Why did so many Chileans say they wanted a new constitution?
Chile is Latin America's most prosperous country, but too many people have been shut out of that prosperity. That's of course a common story across Latin America. So a few years ago, we saw often violent street protests because Chileans were just fed up with that. They said, "Let's get rid of the old constitution," which was written way back when right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet ruled Chile, and which has always given the country's elites inordinate advantages and privileges.
Last year, Chileans elected an assembly to write a new constitution, and more than two-thirds of its members were from the political left. At least half of them were women. And don't forget — last year, Chileans also elected a young, leftist president, Gabriel Boric.
This is a big setback for the Chilean and Latin American left — but it shows the limits of their recent wave, which isn't a bad thing. Maybe things will move more to the less radical center now.
Then it seems little surprise that the very liberal commission they elected produced a very progressive constitution. What made their new charter so progressive?
Just about every provision in it. It would have made Chilean government much more inclusive — for example, it mandated gender parity in public institutions. It guaranteed free health care; much more empowerment and autonomy for indigenous Chileans; abortion rights; and strong environmental safeguards like restrictions on Chile's powerful mining industry. Few if any constitutions in Latin America — or the world, really — are as liberal as this one was.
CONFUSED AND UNSETTLED
Why, in the end, did Chileans reject it?
Because the final product turned out to be too liberal, too leftist, for most Chileans. It was extraordinarily long and complicated, for starters. But, for example: it would have made Chile's indigenous communities separate nations — it said Chile would now be a “pluri-national” country. That sort of thing just confused and unsettled a lot of Chileans.
I talked on Sunday with Viviane Espinosa Terrell, who voted in the referendum with almost 2,500 other Chilean expats here in Miami. Here’s what she had to say about the draft constitution:
“I rejected it. In this constitution, there isn't balance. I think we can progress, in many different ways that we could all agree with, without going to the far right or the far left.”
Do you think most expats voted the way she did?
According to the Chilean consulate, yes: 82% of Chilean voters here rejected the constitution — even though the Chilean diaspora is not as conservative as, say, Cubans and Venezuelans. A lot of Chilean expats arrived here in the 20th century escaping not left-wing dictators, but a right-wing dictator, Pinochet.
So what happens now — and where does this leave the leftist wave we've seen recently in Latin American politics?
Chileans have to decide now if they want to go back to the drawing board. President Boric has suggested they will.
But this is definitely a setback for the Chilean and Latin American left. We have been seeing leftist presidents elected across the region, most recently Gustavo Petro in Colombia — a former leftist guerrilla. But this shows Latin America's leftists the limits of that wave.
And that's not a bad thing. It reflects the democracy Chileans said they want more of. Earlier, they said they wanted a more progressive constitution. On Sunday, they said, “Well, we didn't want that progressive a constitution.” Now, perhaps things will move more to the less radical center in Chile, if not Latin America.
