President gabriel boric This Saturday he celebrates his first year at the Palacio de la Moneda, a very hectic period marked by the harshness of the internal opposition, with harsh criticism, multiple obstacles placed to the advancement of his reformist social agenda, and by his broad and fruitful projection towards the abroad, where it maintains a strong international prestige.
These are the nine milestones through which the government of one of the world’s youngest leaders and the first to the left to govern neoliberal Chile has passed since the coup d’état that overthrew President Salvador Allende (1970-1973) and installed the crude military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, of which this year marks half a century.
March 11, 2022: Arrival at La Moneda
Gabriel Boric forms a joint government that for the first time in the history of Chile includes the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, headed by Antonia Orellana, in the Political Committee (hard core) with the aim of mainstreaming feminist policies to all portfolios, a distinctive feature of his vision and management of the State.
March 15, 2022: Unsuccessful trip to the Autonomous Community of Temucuicui in the La Araucanía region
Barely four days after settling in La Moneda, Boric faced the first crisis that put his team’s political capacity to the test: the then Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches, in a decision described as “hasty and naive”, made a controversial visit to the Mapuche community of Temucuicui, in the troubled region of La Araucanía, and was greeted with shots fired into the air.
The ministerial delegation had to withdraw and sparked criticism from the opposition, which has since accused the government of inexperience
June 1, 2022: The Chilean Senate ratifies the Treaty of Escazú
A week after assuming the Presidency, Boric signed the proposal to adhere to the Escazú Agreement, the first environmental treaty in Latin America and the only one in the world aimed at protecting environmental activists, which his predecessor, Sebastián Piñera, had avoided ratifying.
After being urgently debated by parliamentarians, the Senate ratified the treaty that conforms to the environmental policies proposed by the Government.
August 3, 2022: Reparation Plan for Victims of Ocular Trauma during the 2019 social outbreak
Three years after the massive wave of protests that shook the entire country, known as the social outbreak, Boric presented a reparation plan for the more than 400 people who suffered eye trauma due to the harsh repression of the police forces, resulting in injuries. serious and even partially or totally losing their vision. It was one of the measures most anticipated by his voters.
September 4, 2022: The proposal for a new Constitution is rejected
62% of Chileans reject in a referendum the new Constitution proposal, which was intended to replace the one written in the dictatorship and gave greater social rights, a result understood as a heavy defeat to the Government that worked in favor of the campaign to approve the text.
Recognized then as the most complex political crisis of the year, Boric carried out a profound restructuring of the cabinet that meant the departure of some of his closest ministers, such as Siches, and the entry of Democratic Socialism (made up of parties of the former Concertación) to the executive direction.
September 21, 2022: Speech at the UN and consolidates international popularity
Half a century after former Chilean President Salvador Allende’s memorable speech before the United Nations Assembly in 1972, Boric came to the UN stage as the first Chilean left-wing president since the 1973 coup.
From that rostrum, he gave a speech in which he highlighted the importance of solidarity as the axis of economic models, condemned inequality and called for regional integration and defense of the planet.
December 30, 2022: Controversial presidential pardons
The Government presents presidential pardons to prisoners of the social outbreak and a former guerrilla, who unleashed an opposition onslaught. The harshness of the attack and the internal rulings, with different lists of those pardoned and controversy over the choice of some names, caused the departure of the cabinet of the Minister of Justice, Marcela Ríos, who, like Boric himself, had to face a Possible constitutional charge.
February 4, 2023: The most devastating fires in decades
The regions of Ñuble, La Araucanía, Biobío and Los Lagos, the heart of the Chilean extractive logging industry and one of the country’s breadbaskets, are the scene of the worst fires in contemporary Chilean history, devastating nearly 400,000 hectares and causing deaths. of about twenty people.
The determined action of the president, who interrupted his recently begun vacation to manage the crisis and put on his boots to go down to the field with brigade members and victims, allowed him to recover the rise in opinion polls after months of continuous decline.
March 8, 2023: Congress refuses to debate Tax Reform, key to the Government program
The Chamber of Deputies refused to debate the tax reform presented by the Executive, one of the hardest blows of the opposition to the strategy of the Boric Government, since it was one of the fundamental bases of the reformist program with which he won the elections.
The president himself showed his frustration when he warned that it meant a defeat for retirees, women and dependents and a victory for the evaders and their advisers.
Source: EFE
Source: Gestion
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