Page 14 - MONTT LATIN AMERICAN MAGAZINE, DECEMBER, 2021

and universities is the one that accused the rulers who came after the military regime of not having broken ties with the neoliberal imprint, without quality public services and families in debt for life to pay for their children’s studies.
Eugenio Tironi, a professor at the Catholic University, says: “Boric would be a corrected version of the French activist Daniel Cohn- Bendit, who did May 68 in 2011 and instead of going to a hippie community, he created a party.” And he continues: “he sells himself to the system, but does not make a career out of the traditional parties and founds in 2017 his own force which is the Frente Amplio. He first defeats the Communist Party in the internal, then goes to the second round [after the first, on November 21], later rearticulates the entire centre-left “and, finally, wins the presidency.
Its defenders say that the grace of this new breed of politicians is not limited to the simple premise of the class struggle, but rather raises many other concepts that they consider important for society such as gender equality, a green economy, justice social, inclusion of native peoples, among others.
Although for a group it represents a new regional hope; for others it is a genuine enigma. What is clear is that Chile is once again a laboratory of the Latin American left.
A Harakiri for the Authoritarian Left
The eventual renewal of the new left is not a prerogative of Gabriel Boric alone because the old guard is not in retreat; it still remains on the stage of the Region eager to perpetuate themselves. In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, 76, won a questionable fourth consecutive term and in Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro continues to speak of the class struggle and egalitarian utopias, in addition of leading the worst refugee crisis of all time with almost six million of people fleeing their own country. In Central America there is a wide range of leftists, from the harsh dictatorships in Cuba and Nicaragua, to the newly elected Xiomara Castro in Honduras and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico. In Argentina, Bolivia and Peru the degree of adherence to Marxism- Leninism is variable, but there is still talk of the expropriation and confiscation of private companies, specifically agriculture, mining; let us remember what happened in the first country with Repsol and Aerolíneas Argentinas.
To that , it must be added that the oldest leftists in the Region such as Andres Manuel López Obrador from Mexico,
Cristina Fernandez from Argentina; Evo Morales of Bolivia and the newly elected president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, never criticize the hard-left regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Oliver Stuenkel, professor of international relations at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas, FGV, in Brazil argues that: “The elected President of Chile has very little in common with Castillo in Peru and even less with the authoritarian regime in Venezuela. Boric is a progressive. Castillo and other iconic leaders on the left are social conservatives. That, can allow Boric to become the face of the new Latin American left, inspiring other candidates in the Region. He adds that Boric speaks very differently from the traditional Latin American left. The day after voting in his native Punta Arenas, he said: “We are a new generation that enters politics with clean hands, a warm heart and a cool head. We are sure that we will create a more humane, decent and egalitarian Chile”. But while Boric talks about the main axes of his Government’s plan, the question that remains is whether from the Bolivarian left, the more nationalist one or the left that flies indigenous flags is willing to change to renew itself following the path that could mark the triumph of Boric. Many think that no, that it would mean a harakiri for them.
Independence of the Communist Party
But, first of all, Boric will have to demonstrate his independence from the Communist Party, PC, the largest of the conglomerate that leds Boric as President, the coalition Apruebo Dignidad also formed by the Frente Amplio that includes several small conglomerates that are Revolución Democrática (RD ), Convergencia Social (CS), Comunes and the Federación Regional Social Verde.
The leader of the Communist Party, PC, Guillermo Teillier stated that the agreements with the ex-Concertación for them to enter the Government cannot mean the change or moderation of the program and that they must keep the current FA-PC coalition in a leading role. In the PC there are doubts about integrating the Socialist Party and others into the Government, and for the same reason they aim to give them a more limited role, which could make it difficult for Boric to expand their base of support, since the Socialists would not accept a secondary position. This is of great importance because the alliance Apruebo Dignidad does not have a majority in Congress, since it represents 25 percent in the Chamber of Deputies and 10 percent of the Senate, so it
must agree to carry out part of its program, making necessary negotiations with the centre-left parties.
His opponents think that, being a young inexperienced in governmental matters, he will inevitably be dominated by the CP. They argue that other governments in the past failed to control this party, with more experience and knowledge, as is was the case of former Head of State Gabriel Gonzalez Videla, who appointed, in November 1946, three communist leaders as ministers of his first cabinet, thereby fulfilling his campaign promise, in exchange for his support. However, the communist strategy of pressing for full compliance with the Government program (as is what they are proposing today) through social mobilizations and, on the other hand, the strong economic impositions received from the North American Government, meant that, in April 1947, a few days after the Communist Party became the third political force in the country by obtaining 16.5 per cent in the municipal elections, the President reorganized his cabinet without the presence of the communists.
The situation worsened in July when, as a result of a mass transit strike in Santiago promoted by the Communist Party, its militants were fired from the public administration. In August, a strike by coal miners paralyzed operations in towns of Lota, Coronel, Curanilahue and Lirquen. In this scenario, the Government detained communist leaders and interned them in the Pisagua prison camp in January 1948. On September 3rd, with broad parliamentary support, including the majority of socialists, the Law for the Permanent Defence of Democracy was enacted, declaring the Communist Party illegal.
Another case was that of Salvador Allende; As one observer puts it: “This Head of Government was never a revolutionary, he was a socialist intellectual, but in the end, he could not control the revolutionary impetus of the extreme left and succumbed under his power.”
The Fight for a New Constitution
To prove the independence that Boric can have from the PC, Claudia Heiss, director of the Political Science career at the University of Chile maintains that the current President-elect sought a negotiated solution to the social outbreak and signed an agreement with the entire national political spectrum for Social Peace to draft a new Constitution, after a marathon day of meetings at the Santiago headquarters
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