Matías Meza-Lopehandía, DD expert. H H. and in indigenous movements, he was appointed to the position.
The elected president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, appointed this Tuesday the expert on human rights and indigenous movements Matías Meza-Lopehandía as his new chief of staff.
The lawyer is a member of Convergencia Social, Boric’s party that is part of the Frente Amplio bloc, and has a master’s degree in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science, in the United Kingdom.
Meza-Lopehandía, who already advised Boric during his years as a deputy for the southern Magallanes on issues related to indigenous movements and human rights, will not only handle the president’s agenda, but will also be one of his key advisers, he collects EFE.
The former student leader, who will take office on March 11, confirmed the day before that he will announce his future cabinet the penultimate week of January and that this will be “a synthesis of the different generations”, “equal” and “with social diversity.”
At just 35 years old and with more than 4.6 million votes, Boric became the youngest and most voted president-elect in the history of Chile on December 19.
The still deputy for the southern Magellan won by 55.8% of the votes and by a overwhelming majority of almost 12 points of difference to the far-right José Antonio Kast in the most uncertain elections of the Chilean democracy.
Defender of the constituent process in which the country is immersed and staunch critic of the neoliberal model installed during the military dictatorship (1973-1990), Boric promises a profound agenda of changes to expand the role of the State towards a welfare model similar to that of Europe .
A candidate of the Broad Front and the Communist Party, Boric will also be the first president who is not part of the two traditional blocks of center-left and center-right that have controlled Chilean politics since the return to democracy.
Meanwhile, at the same time, Boric has been presented with a new headache: looking for official residence, a task for which he has already discarded his apartment for rent in the center of Santiago and the La Moneda palace, seat of the Government.
Boric has been renting since he left his family home at the age of 17 in southern Punta Arenas, in the extreme south of Chile. It is the first time since the return to democracy that a head of state does not have his own house.
The small apartment that she rents with her partner, Irina Karamanos, in the bohemian and tourist neighborhood of Bellas Artes, in the center of the capital, was immediately discarded because it does not meet the minimum security parameters, such as having more than one access .
For a few weeks, La Moneda was one of the options his team considered, despite the fact that it has been uninhabited as an official residence for more than 70 years.
“The last president who lived there was Carlos Ibáñez del Campo in 1958. His successor, Jorge Alessandri, had an apartment in the center and installed the tradition that the leaders live in their own residences,” explained Pía Montealegre, an expert on heritage from the University of Chile.
The palace, with four floors and about 20,000 square meters, is one of the first neoclassical constructions in Chile and was conceived to mint coins in colonial times.
It was President Manuel Bulnes who reformed it in mid-1846 and made it an official residence for a century.
The building, in the heart of the capital and surrounded by shops, banks and offices, “was no longer inhabited because the premises were not very practical,” said Montealegre.
In addition, the expert added, the residential area was destroyed in the bombardment during the 1973 coup and extensive work would have to be done in the event that it was to be reoccupied.
An option that Boric himself ruled out a few days ago: “The conditions are not there and it is important to separate the workplace from the place where you sleep.”
In the 2000s, it was thought to build a stable presidential house in the Cerrillos area, but the project ended in failure.
“The public welcomes that presidents are treated more like citizens than princes and that they live more in common residences than in palaces,” said Montealegre.
All the presidents from Salvador Allende (1970-1973) to Sebastián Piñera (2018-2022) have lived in personal residences in the communes with the greatest resources of the capital, such as Las Condes, Providencia and La Reina, in the so-called “Oriente de Santiago ”.
So did General Augusto Pinochet, who during the 17 years that the regime lasted, lived in a large house in Las Condes, which was the official home of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army.
If, as everything points out, Boric chooses another neighborhood to live in as of March 11 when he assumes power, “it would be the first time that a president lives in a middle-income commune,” said Mauricio Morales, from the University of Talca.
Engaged in student struggles and a staunch defender of the constituent process in which Chile is immersed, Boric promises a profound agenda of changes to build a welfare state similar to the European one and end the pressing socioeconomic inequality that triggered the serious revolts of 2019. (I)
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