Two years after experiencing the most serious social and political crisis of the last three decades, Chile faces its most relevant electoral process of the 21st century, in the middle of a constituent process that for many experts will culminate the transition that began after the end of the military dictatorship in 1990.
To the west, with the Andes mountain range as a natural wall, Chile It borders Argentina, with which it maintains good relations, although in recent times marked by discrepancies over the sovereignty of the southern seas.
To the north, passing the desert and the highlands, Chile shares a border with Peru and Bolivia, with which it has kept diplomatic relations frozen since 1978 due to the Bolivian demand for access to the sea, a territory that it lost in the War of the Pacific at the end of the 19th century. .
Chile It is one of the longest countries in the world: its narrow strip stretches between the Pacific Ocean and the imposing Cordillera de Los Andes for more than 4,300 kilometers.
Its territory, divided into 16 regions and inhabited by more than 19 million people, has varied climates and rich biodiversity.
Santiago, its capital, is located in the center, is inhabited by more than seven million people and is home to La Moneda (presidential headquarters) and the Judiciary. The National Congress, on the other hand, is located 122 kilometers from Santiago, in the coastal city of Valparaíso.
On Chile, there are ten indigenous peoples who today, for the first time in history, participate in the drafting of the new constitutional text: Aymara, Rapa Nui, Quechua, Diaguita, Atacameño, Chango, Colla, Kawashkar, Yagán and Mapuche.
The Mapuche people are the most numerous and to date they maintain a political conflict with the State to recover the lands that they inhabited for centuries and that today are owned by large forestry companies.
Political regime
Chile It is a presidential republic that since the end of the military dictatorship has been governed by a duopoly of political coalitions: the Concertación (center left) and the Alianza por Chile (right).
The left, isolated since the dictatorship, was rearticulated anchored in traditional parties such as the Communist and especially in social mobilizations where strength was accumulated from 2006 onwards, with the student revolution as the hotbed of current leaders, including a presidential candidate.
The groups that seek to reach the first magistracy for the period 2022-2026 are the right-wingers of Chile Podemos Más (Sebastián Sichel), the left with Approve Dignity (Gabriel Boric), the center with the New Social Pact (Yasna Provoste), the Partido Progressive (Marco Enríquez-Ominami), the extreme right with the Christian Social Front (José Antonio Kast), the ultra-left Patriotic Union (Eduardo Artés) and the independent Franco Parisi, who is not in the country.
About 15 million people can go to the generals on November 21 to vote for a president, as well as for deputies and senators who will occupy seats in Congress.
200 years of independence
Chile installs its First Government Junta on September 18, 1810 and, after a political-military campaign against the Spanish crown, proclaimed its independence on February 12, 1818.
Between 1879 and 1883, Chile faces a war against the Peru-Bolivia Confederation driven by clashes between the elites of both countries, a milestone where Chile takes over the northern lands and leaves Bolivia without access to the Pacific.
In 1891, the country was shaken by a civil war that ended parliamentarism and consolidated the power of the conservative nuclei over the liberals, while within the population an incipient labor movement was germinating from the nitrate fields to the north of the country.
Salvador Allende Gossens, a socialist activist, became the first Marxist democratically elected as president in the 1970 elections, initiating a process known internationally as the “Chilean road to socialism.”
The Allendista project was fiercely truncated by the Chilean right through a military coup promoted by all branches of the Armed Forces, supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States.
Henceforth, Chile suffered a 17-year dictatorship in which more than 3,000 political opponents and left-wing militants were killed and / or disappeared, with hundreds of thousands tortured and harassed in secret prisons and torture centers.
The civic-military dictatorship, which had the support of the Chilean right, ended in 1990 after a plebiscite fueled by protests that lasted from 1983 to 1989.
Patricio Aylwin, a Christian Democrat politician, was the first president to assume the transition to democracy, initiating a period of Concertación governments that would last until the first term of the current head of State Sebastián Piñera in 2010.
The outbreak of 2019
Despite showing itself as one of the most stable countries in the Latin American region, Chile was according to some experts a true “pressure cooker”: The inequality and impunity of the business and political elite involved in multiple cases of corruption and abuse generated unrest that erupted in protests in October 2019.
The spark was the rise in transport tickets and the result was waves of massive demonstrations throughout the country since October 18, events that ended with thirty deaths, hundreds of mutilated eyes in the hands of State agents. and thousands of injured.
The institutional outlet offered by the political parties, echoing the most heartfelt demands of the protesters – where women played a leading role with concentrations of more than 2 million people – was the Constitutional Convention, the body in charge of drafting the new Fundamental Charter. that will replace the current one inherited from the dictatorship.
The Constitutional Convention began its functions on July 4 and is made up of 155 delegates, including 17 indigenous representatives of all native peoples.
Other data
According to the World Bank, Chile has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimated at US $ 279,000 million, a GDP per capita that by 2025 is projected over US $ 30,000 according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and an inflation that at the close this year it could reach 5.7% according to the Central Bank.
The currency is the peso, which is priced at about 800 units to the US dollar.
Chile It is the world’s leading producer of copper and in 2020 the production of the red metal reached 5.77 million tons. In addition, it has more than half of the planet’s lithium reserves, a key mineral for the energy transition promoted in developed countries.
It also exports fish, pulp, wine and fruits to the most important markets in the world, such as Europe, China and the United States.
The impact of the crisis derived from the pandemic caused the Chilean economy to fall by 5.8% in 2020, the worst figure in four decades.
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Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
