Chilean Election: Leaning Right
Sunday’s presidential election in Chile goes into a Jan. 17 run-off round but the front-runner tonight is right-wing billionaire Sebastian Pinera, sometimes known as the Berlusconi of Chile. The owner of the national Chile airlines and much of the private electronic media, the Harvard-educated businessman is considered to be of the more “moderate” right, though his political lineage stems directly from the Pinochet dictatorship. His brother and political ally, Jose, was Minister of Labor [sic] during the dictatorship and champion of Chile’s notoriously failed privatized social security system.
Frei
Pinera failed to win an outright majority, garnering 44% of the vote. Eduardo Frei, representing the ruling center-left concertaction coalition took an anemic 30%. And for the first time in Chilean history, a third party candidate, Marco Enriquez-Ominami running to the left of Frei, was a major contender, racking up 20% of the ballots cast. Pinera is widely expected to win the run off next month, bringing the Chilean Right back to power for the first time since the end of military rule nearly 20 years ago.
There are many headlines one could write here: The Right Returns to Power. Chileans Tired of Status Quo. Chilean Political Upset. President Michele Bachelet’s Heirs Handed Defeat.
They are all true. But mostly, I think, it is the latter. The rise of Pinera and his likely election in January is severe condemnation of the rather pathetic political performance of the Christian Democratic/Socialist alliance which has goverened Chile since the political transition out of dictatorship. Though socialist Bachelet’s election in 2006 was hailed as a Great Big Deal, it hasn’t added up to very much at all. The free-market economic policies of the Pinochet dictatorship went mostly unmodified by the succeeding administrations of the concertacion. Chile’s macro-economic numbers look relatively good. But it remains one of the most economically unequal places in the hemisphere, with jillionaires like Pinera helicoptering over vast swaths of folks barely getting their three squares and often working for very low wages. National health care was never fully restored, the devastated public school system blew up in Bachelet’s face (with a full-on student rebellion), no de-Nazification of the military was ever carried out, and while individual judges showed courage in prosecuting human rights abusers from the days of the dictatorship, the government itself never lifted a finger to help.
Bachelet
Worse, among the 14 million Chileans or so on earth, the concertacion picked the worst possible candidate to represent them. Eduardo Frei, 67, is, well… I’m trying to think of his American analogue. Maybe like the Democrats trying to run Walter Mondale against Bush 41 in ’92? Frei, deeply unpopular, was already president of Chile in 1994-2000 and I don’t think anyone can remember anything he did. Oh wait… I just remembered one thing. He dispatched a diplomatic team to London to beg the Brits to release Pinochet — who everyone knew was responsible in 1981 for poisoning his father (also a former president) to death. That was rather magnanimous, no?
The selection of Frei exposed the total political exhaustion of the ruling alliance and destined it to defeat. Twenty years in power only gets you 30% of the vote!
Indeed, a few days before Sunday’s election, the ChriSci Monitor ran this excellent piece on just how bored Chileans were with the incumbents. The most fascinating part of this election was the sudden rise of 36 year old third-party
MEO
independent MEO, as Enriquez-Ominami is known. The son of Chile’s most charismatic and militant leftist leader during the Allende period – Miguel Enriquez who was killed in a 1974 shoot-out with Pinochet’s secret police– MEO broke with the concertacion and correctly branded both competing political alliances of right and the center-barely-left as “dinosaurs.” Man, is ever right. As someone who has 35 year long connection with Chile I am constantly astounded just how dominant the same old two dozen figures have been in Chilean politics.
MEO raised all sorts of uncomfortable issues that make Chilean pols squirm — like abortion and gay right, neither of which are really legal in Chile. Divorce, in a rather torturous form replete with mandated counseling, only became available in the last few years. Much like Obama, MEO rallied the young and the tired but only enough to get 20% of the vote.
It will be interesting to see what sort of entreaties the Jurrasic handlers of Eduardo Frei will now make to MEO’s team, seeking the votes of his followers in a last-ditch attempt to head off Pinera.
As to Pinera coming out on top… well, here’s a few thoughts. This ought to be good news for those among us who believe in American Exceptionalism by arguing that there is something special (or especially dumb) about folks who vote for millionaires like Bush
Miguel Enriquez
and McCain thinking they are Ordinary Folks. The Italians and, now, the Chileans, apparently suffer from the same delusions. So, alas, we aren’t that special.
On a more serious note, as a former translator to President Salvador Allende, overthrown in the 1973 military coup, I’m a sworn enemy of the political forces represented by Pinera. That said, I don’t think his rise to power will change very much at all, if anything in Chile. That’s because the concertacion itself changed so very little of what Pinochet imposed. Yes, there is a formal democracy in Chile and the restoration of rule of law. And that is good, for sure. But Pinera is not going to dismantle the democratic system. Why should he, if it elected him?
One negative, for sure, is that the glacial pace of social liberalization in Chile will now once again be impeded. You can forget about legalizing abortion. One plus: a Pinera administration is likely to have a “modernizing” effect on the rather wild and wooly Chilean right (most of which still idolizes Pinochet). Pinera was a cunning enough businessman to cautiously and very modestly distance himself from the dictator in his waning days. Once in power, and having to fashion a workable majority, he will likely have to hew somewhat toward the center and maybe he will bring along with him some of the more extremist werewolves.
One other plus: the concertacion died years ago and remained in power only because Chileans were too afraid to allow the Right back in power. Now, thank God, it’s time to bury it and its dinosaurs. Hopefully, in the opposition to a coming Pinera administration we will see more leadership coming from a younger, rejuvenating force like the figure of MEO.
Salvador Allende Sept. 11 1973
December 13th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
i haven’t polled all my momio relatives to hear who they voted for.
como tu dices, no importa pa’ na’.
December 13th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
wow, Marco parece a su papa, gave me goose bumps to see it. Not his politics of course, but that too is a reflection of where we are thirty six years later.
December 14th, 2009 at 7:34 am
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Fleas interest me so much
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Fleas interest me so much
that I let them bite me for hours.
They are perfect, ancient, Sanskrit,
machines that admit of no appeal.
They do not bite to eat,
they bite only to jump;
they are the dancers of the celestial sphere,
delicate acrobats
in the softest and most profound circus;
let them gallop on my skin,
divulge their emotions,
amuse themselves with my blood,
but someone should introduce them to me.
I want to know them closely,
I want to know what to rely on.
Pablo Neruda
December 14th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Geesh Marc. With all the other serious problems Chile has, for example the huge gap between the have and have nots, it is….well, amusing you find divorce, abortion, and gay marriage to be the ones worth mentioning….twice??
The health of a nation can be no more healthy than it’s families, whose primary purpose, as far as the State is concerned, is to provide a secure and stable environment from which to raise the next generation in order they not become basket case dependents on the rest of us, the State.
How exactly making it easy to get a divorce, abortions, and allowing same sexes to get married improves that all-important marriage bond escapes me, much less mention it as ‘important’ social standards needing change.
December 14th, 2009 at 9:04 am
“in order they not become basket case dependents on the rest of us, the State. ”
Or worse, basket case predators on the rest of us.
December 14th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Suzi,
Some people have evolved their wrongthink 36 years later, while others are steadfastly “jurassic” and reference Chile’s “notoriously failed privatized social security system” and how it “remains one of the most economically unequal places in the hemisphere” ad infinitum despite the inconvience of facts. “For sure.”
December 14th, 2009 at 10:54 am
i think putting up Frei more like re-running Carter…
this piece has a bit on the negotiations over MEO’s vote: http://www.santiagotimes.cl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17851:no-surprises-in-chile-election-pinera-to-face-off-against-frei-in-january&catid=49:elections&Itemid=27
December 14th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Marc:
Thanks for a great article and sharing your insight.
I had thought that Bachelet had really good international standing.. while I tended to downplay the school strikes. This only underscores what you are saying.
I had also thought that last weeks announcement from the courts that Frei pere was murderered and his killers known would influence the election.
Seperately, this election seems to buck the trend in the region.
The best news (even if I was pulling for the underdog) is that democracy works in Chile; a fact that should transcend the partisanship.
Thanks also to Anna for the Neruda piece (in translado). I have found it curious that his compilation of poems originally published by Six Barrel under the title ‘ Las uvas y el viento ‘ is the only work NOT translated into english.
Neruda had stood for the Presidency but stepped aside for Allende and became Ambassador to France instead. Can Marc shed any light on the Allende/Neruda relationship which may not otherwise be in print?
Again thanks.
December 14th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
“making it easy to get a divorce”
I know what you mean, Jim! I mean, just this weekend alone I couldn’t believe the injustice of Jenny and Mark Sanford actually deciding to get a divorce! And don’t even get me started on Newt Gingrich. Or all those other red-state conservatives who are destroying the sanctity of marriage (e.g., Kentucky, Mississippi and Arkansas, who had the highest divorce rates in 2003 according to the Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics). Heathens! Haters of family!
Let’s join the tea parties and tell them, once and for all, that WE’RE NOT TAKING IT ANYMORE! Family first! No more divorce!
Oh, and let’s make alcohol consumption illegal, too–talk to Woody about that one. After you swear off your scotch, of course.
December 14th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Well let’s see Marcus: thirty six years later we roll our eyes at the notion that people organize to fulfill a vision that puts the economy at the service of the community and not the reverse. How very quaint and evolved. Here in the US we have bought and paid for politicians that do the bidding of the financial, insurance, pharmaceutical and defense interests at the expense of the population whose living standard keeps dropping — and that’s evolved?? And what is in store for Chile with Pinera???
December 14th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Only one point of dissent: I think a Pinera govt is more likely to do something about Chile’s archaic abortion law than any Concertacion government, including the one now led by Socialist pediatrician Bachelet.
December 14th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Tim
Wouldnt that be wonderfully ironic? If that..
December 14th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Pablo
I dont know that there is much light to shed on the Neruda/Allende thing. I don’t believe there was any friction between them. Neruda was a sort of placeholder candidate for the Communist Party but when Allende stepped in and the UP coalition grew to include more centrists and groups and offshoots from the Christian Democrats, I dont think there was any hesitation in Neruda stepping aside. Everyone knew, including him, that he was not an electable candidate.
Hey Jim,. what are u smoking? U know about the gap between rich and poor in Chile because you read it here! I dont think abortion, gay rights and divorce are not the key issues there or anywhere else.. they are merely in basket of hot potato items in Chilean politics that are not maturely dealt with.
I cannot believe you are serious in saying , however, that divorce and abortion and gay rights would somehow undermine economic equality in Chile. Did someone hit you in the head with a hammer or are u simply a Papist Reactionary?
Let me remind you that gay rights, abortion and divorce have already been illegal in Chile forever and the country evolved into its current inequality alongside those prohibitons i.e. a puritanical social policy did nothing to contribute to economic cohesion.
Let me also shock you by saying that tons of Chileans are GAY, they DO have abortions and (before it was sort of legalized) they also effectively broke up their marriages. Hint: people around the world have always done these things and always will without or without the permission of you, the pope or the local regime. The only issue is whether or not a society or an individual is mature enough to recognize, legalize and humanely regulate these activities. Or does it prefer to live in self-righteous and destructive denial? Thanks for proving that Americans can be as backward as religious nuts in Third World countries. Enough said on an asinine subject.
December 14th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Chilean relatives of mien are gay, have had abortions. and have had divorces.
How’s that US national healthcare?
December 14th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Marc,
Don’t know if you saw it, but the NY Times had a couple of articles about voter apathy among the young in Chile.
Here’s one of them.
December 14th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
the NY Times supported the attack on Iraq, the debacle in Afghanistan, the Israeli apartheid state, the coup in Honduras….
fuck the NYT.
December 14th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Sergio
You’re sounding like The Grinch. The New York Times also exposed the NSA spying program. I find the article that Randy linked to of very high quality. I cant imagine which part of it you even mildly disagree with. It’s a pretty withering condemnation of the general ahuevonadoness of the concertacion.
December 15th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Chilean tabloid ephemera:
Chilean Elizabeth Poblete, who competed at the Beijing Olympics, was training in Sao Paulo, Brazil ahead of a meet when the baby boy was born.
Poblete said she had no idea she was pregnant although she did admit to feeling unwell at practice a week before the birth.
The child was born at six months gestation and remains in critical condition. It weighed just 2.25 pounds and measured only 15 inches at birth. The boy is currently on a respirator.
However, Poblete has since left the hospital where the baby is being treated after claiming she does not have the funds to continue medical care for her and her baby.
The hospital denies it discharged the 22-year-old because she failed to pay her bill.
The Chilean finished 12th in the 69-75kg category at the 2008 Olympics.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
read the article, Marc, and kudos por usar the beautiful adjective “ahuevonadoness” . But doesn’t chileno youth apathy point to systemic failings in “Chilean miracle” laissez faire capitalism the corporate NYT (and my brother’s former employer El Mercurio)glosses over? These systemic failings are really being preprogrammed tio maintain a staus quo of for, and by viejos.
Chile is in my view becoming the Switzerland of Latin America, with all the perhaps unsavory regional capital accumulation, and military bunkerism its appellation implies
Unlike freewheeling Argentina, Chile maintains its centuries old conservatism and insular immigration policies. Old school, si.
Dinosaurs like Frei, Lagos and Pinochet’s ghost acolytes
remind me more of my years as Chinese politics major when I studied (China and Taiwan’s) gerontocracy. Chile has the oldest demographics in Latin America (The NYT article alluded to this statistic without critical thought ) , and the old in Chile have voice and power, My 93 year old grandmother, who voted for Allende three times, now speaks fondly of Pinochet to her 20+ grandchildren.
The “apathetic” youth in the eyes of the gringocentric NYT I believe dutifully wait their turn, better fed and electronically satiated than their Peruvian, Bolivian, or even Argentine neighbors.
I was there observing in 2006, I’m going back next year. I look forward to more of your reports on Chile, as usual
Grinchily,
Viejito pascuero.
January 21st, 2011 at 8:47 am
Surfing in a warm bed. New sport. Happy.
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