Chile is getting ready for the Boric era with the beginning of the transfer of power

The transfer of power between the teams of Sebastián Piñera and Gabriel Boric began this Monday in Chile with a meeting between the outgoing and incoming authorities of the Interior, the portfolio with the most political weight in the cabinet.

The current minister, Rodrigo Delgado, received his successor, the independent doctor Izkia Siches, who will be the first woman to hold the position on March 11, at La Moneda (presidential headquarters) first thing in the morning.

“There are challenges that are common and that is what we have focused on, and also the incoming minister has given us a folder with certain information requirementsDelgado said at a later press conference.

The unprecedented migration crisis on the border with Bolivia and the violent territorial conflict in the south were the main issues addressed during the meeting, which Siches described as “welcome”.

Both areas are under a state of emergency, which in practice implies militarization, although the south has been like this since October last year and the north only since last week.

“We have a first working draft looking at the difficult situation and the humanitarian crisis in the north (…) we have already scheduled a meeting with the governors and also with the mayors to assess the continuity or not of the state of emergency”, assured Siches.

Chile has been experiencing an unprecedented migration crisis for a year, with half a thousand migrants entering the border town of Colchane every day through unauthorized crossings, which is completely collapsed and where there have been episodes of xenophobia.

Regarding the territorial conflict that the Mapuche people have faced for decades with large foresters in the southern region of La Araucanía, the future minister indicated that they will talk with “all those actors that allow us to visualize how to walk towards long-term solutions and in peace”.

“We do not want more victims in our country, we need to rebuild a homeland that can be found again”, he added.

“Collaborative and coordinated work”

After Interior, it was the turn of the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), which is in charge of relations with Parliament, highly fragmented and without majorities.

“We have an important challenge in Congress where no one has majorities”, said the future minister Giorgio Jackson, who assured that the tax reform will be one of his priorities.

The current official spokesperson, Jaime Bellolio, and his successor, the communist deputy Camila Vallejo, also met during the day, who stressed that the transfer of power is “collaborative and coordinated work with the outgoing government”.

On Tuesday it will be the turn of another portfolio of the so-called “political committee”, the hard core of the cabinet: Treasury. The outgoing minister, Rodrigo Cerdá, and his successor, the former president of the Central Bank Mario Marcel, will foreseeably address the inflationary spiral in which the country is involved, as well as the economic reactivation after the pandemic.

Throughout the week and until the inauguration on March 11, the authorities of the other ministries will meet, in which for the first time in history there will be a majority of women (14 versus 10 men) and a mixture of young politicians and established figures of the center left.

Boric, 36, will become the youngest president in Chilean history and the first not to be part of the two traditional centrist blocs that have led the country since the end of the dictatorship in 1990.

Defender of the constituent process in which the country is immersed and staunch critic of the neoliberal model installed during the military regime, the still deputy for the southern region of Magallanes wants to expand the role of the State towards a welfare model similar to that of Europe.