SANTIAGO, Chile — In 2019, when hundreds of thousands of Chileans took to the streets in protest, a young tattooed politician helped broker a deal to end the unrest. The pact called for a new constitution to appease protesters clamoring for a fresh start — and a voice for those who had long been mostly shut out of the South American nation’s politics: women, indigenous people, the LGBT community. Now this young politician, a shaggy-haired 36-year-old former student activist, Gabriel Borich, is the president of Chile. And this week, she received a document that could become Chile’s new constitution, a 388-article charter that envisions a progressive, feminist future for the South American nation. “Today we begin a new phase,” Boric said Monday at Chile’s former congress building in Santiago, the 19th-century palace that hosted the constitutional assembly last year. “Once again, humans will have the final say in their destiny.” A 10-year-old rape victim requested an abortion. A judge urged: Get pregnant. Chileans are set to vote on September 4 on the document, which will enshrine many of the priorities of social movements led by younger generations: gender equality, environmental protection, indigenous rights and guaranteed access to education. The constitution is one of the first in the world to be drawn up in the context of a climate crisis and drawn up by a convention with gender equality. It recognizes the sentience of animals and their “right to live a life free from abuse.” It is a woke constitution promoted by leftist millennials and built for a modern nation under the leadership of one. The question is whether Chileans are ready for it. “What Chile decided … was to become part of the new demands made by a certain generation,” said Sergio Toro, a political scientist at Chile’s University Mayor. Their success, he said, depends on whether they can achieve this new social compact. “If they succeed, it will mark the beginning of a different country.” The experiment could serve as a case study in writing a progressive constitution in the 21st century – and the challenges in getting a divided nation to agree to one. After the 2019 protests, nearly 80 percent of Chileans voted in 2020 to draft a new constitution to replace the country’s Augusto Pinochet-era charter, influenced by Milton Friedman. But it now looks increasingly unlikely that Chileans will approve – opinion polls show a vote to reject it with a clear lead. The war next door: Conflict in Mexico displaces thousands At one point, the first democratically drafted constitution in Chilean history included 499 articles, which would make it one of the longest such documents in the world. Reduced to 388, plus 57 more to help transition the country to the new map. It is a notable departure from the current map, which did not mention Chile’s indigenous peoples. The document would enshrine Chile as multinational — comprising many different peoples — and pick up the possibility of autonomy of indigenous territories. One section would guarantee the restoration of historically indigenous lands at a “fair price”. Another would make the government responsible for preventing, adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change. Elsewhere, the document will warrant biodiversity protection, enshrine the right to nature and pave the way for replacing the country’s deeply unpopular private water rights system. “This was an unprecedented process, because we were able to consider all the evidence related to climate change when drafting the new constitution,” said Cristina Dorador, 42, a microbiologist from Antofagasta. “I hope all this can serve as an example for other countries.” The map would make the government responsible for providing free higher education, health care and many other services. It will guarantee the right to housing and leisure. He would demand that at least half of all members of the government and Congress, and employees of public and public-private corporations, are women. It also recognized the government’s responsibility to eliminate gender-based violence. In Cuba, a frantic search for milk The first article defines Chile as gender inclusive and equal. “Feminism appears in the constitution as one of the central pillars of the redistribution of power,” explained Constanza Schönhaut, 33, a representative from Santiago. It would shake up Chile’s political system, abolishing the Senate in favor of a “House of Regions”—an upper house made up of elected representatives from each region of Chile—and lower the barriers for independent candidates to run for office. elected positions. “This proposal is completely different in form and substance from the 1980 constitution,” said Kenneth Bunker, director of Tresquintos, a political analysis website. “If this was drafted in a room by four generals, then this new sentence was written with a full plurality.” The 155-member constitutional assembly consisted mainly of independent and leftist members. Seventeen seats were reserved for the country’s 10 indigenous communities. The makeup of the convention has come under criticism. “The proposal is radical because it represents only one sector of the left, which is obviously not what our country wants,” said Arturo Zúñiga, a conservative congress delegate who waved the red, white and blue national flag. at Monday’s ceremony. “In my opinion, the way forward is to find a new method to write a constitution that unites our country.” An American murder suspect fled to Mexico. The Gringo Hunters were waiting. The tumultuous negotiations were marred by controversy that helped fuel a campaign to discredit the assembly. Representative Rodrigo Rojas Vade, a popular figure in the 2019 marches, was elected to the convention on promises of free, high-quality health care — and because of his experiences with a rare form of leukemia. It turned out that his diagnosis was false and he resigned. The spread of misinformation and selective readings of the text have sparked battles. A conservative senator, Felipe Cast, nephew of Jose Antonio Cast, who Borich defeated in December, falsely tweeted that the proposal would allow abortions at any point in pregnancy. The text guarantees the right to make free, autonomous and informed decisions about the body, reproduction and contraception. as well as the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy. However, it clarifies that abortion will be regulated by a separate law. If voters reject the document, the 1980 constitution would remain in place and the country would likely have to convene an entirely new constitutional convention to restart the drafting process, said Tania Busch Venthur, a law professor who teaches constitutional rights at Andrés University. Bello of Chile. . “Chile is a country where people are not good at talking about things directly,” he said. “Maybe this is a process where for the first time, we sat down to talk honestly and saw that our differences were deeper than we thought.”
