Since the 1840s Chile had Latin America’s oldest and longest-running democracy — until President Nixon, Henry Kissinger, the CIA, and Chile’s military and mining companies overthrew it on September 11, 1973. They installed General Pinochet, an EXTREMELY BRUTAL dictator who murdered and “disappeared” thousands of Chile’s people and ran the nation in a fascist way to serve big business and the military. A 1998 referendum restored democracy in 1990 after 17 years of dictatorship.
In recent years several South American nations have flexed between right-wing leaders and left-wing leaders.
On December 19, 2021, Chile’s voters elected 35-year-old Gabriel Boric, a former student activist to be the next president. He will be the most progressive since President Salvador Allende (the socialist who was overthrown by Chile’s and the U.S.’s right-wing forces in 1973). Boric defeated a political opponent who admired Pinochet’s dictatorship. Boric has vowed to work to end Chile’s neoliberal economic model and raise taxes on the wealthy to fight inequality, protect the environment, and uplift families.
Here are some articles about Chile’s young, progressive next president:
A few days before the election, Democracy Now! posted this news:
In Chile, voters this weekend will determine a close runoff election between far-right candidate José Antonio Kast and leftist Gabriel Boric, a former student leader. If Boric, who holds a narrow lead, wins the race, he would become Chile’s youngest and most progressive president in years. Meanwhile, Kast’s win would make him “an authoritarian taking power with anti-immigrant, anti-abortion, nationalistic and very hateful rhetoric in relation to everything that is progressive,” says Chilean American author Ariel Dorfman.
The day after the election, the New York Times reported this:
Gabriel Boric, a Former Student Activist, Is Elected Chile’s Youngest President. The millennial will play an important role in helping shape a new legal framework for a nation that has been roiled by social upheaval.
This article — also the day after the election — reports Boric’s election as a victory for socialism over fascism:
Social Movements in Chile Fend Off Far Right Threat With Gabriel Boric’s Victory:
This article says Boric’s victory will have implications beyond Chile’s borders:
On December 21, 2021, the New York Times reported that Gabriel Boric went “From Shaggy-Haired Activist to Chilean President” and said this 35-year-old “is now the most prominent face of a generation of Chileans who are calling for a break with the past.” Here is the article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/21/world/americas/chile-boric.html
