Chileans were preparing to return former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet to the presidency yesterday, hoping she can fulfill promises to reform a dictatorship-era system they blame for keeping the working classes poor and indebted to the privileged few.
Chile is the world’s top copper producer and its fast-growing economy, low unemployment and stable democracy are the envy of Latin America.
However, its citizens have taken to the streets in recent years, venting their frustration over the huge wealth gap between the rich and poor and a chronically underfunded education system.
Many voters blame policies imposed during Chilean general Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship for keeping wealth and power in very few hands. His regime privatized natural resources and many government functions and ended the central control and funding of public schools.
Bachelet, 62, is a former political prisoner, pediatrician, defense secretary and Socialist Party stalwart who is a centrist at heart.
She left office with sky-high approval ratings after her presidency from 2006 to 2010, despite failing then to bring about major changes in society. However, this time, she has taken up the protesters’ cause, vowing major changes in taxes and education to reduce the wealth gap.
Bachelet and her closest rival yesterday, Evelyn Matthei, were childhood friends and daughters of generals who found themselves on opposite sides after Chile’s 1973 coup, when Matthei’s father ran the military school where General Alberto Bachelet was tortured to death for remaining loyal to ousted Chilean president Salvador Allende.
The last survey by Chile’s top pollster CEP found 47 percent of declared voters going for Bachelet, suggesting she has a good chance at an outright majority when voters who did not reveal their preferences to pollsters cast ballots.
Matthei got 14 percent in the poll, which had a 3 percentage point error margin. Seven other candidates trailed, although independents Franco Parisi and Marco Enriquez-Ominami were gaining ground.
Chileans were yesterday also to choose 120 members of the lower House of Congress and 20 out of 38 Senate seats.
Unfortunately for Bachelet, her New Majority coalition will not be able to secure more seats unless it wins at least two-thirds of the votes in each district, under Pinochet’s “binomial” electoral system, which was designed to frustrate change.
“You almost feel sorry for her because she’s going to be stuck between the future and the past,” said Peter Siavelis, a political science professor at Wake Forest University and author of Democratic Chile: The Politics and Policies of a Historic Coalition.
“There all these demands in the streets for constitutional reform but she’s facing a Congress that’s going to be elected by the binominal elections system,” Siavelis said. “There’s not going to be a majority there. So the influence of the dictatorship is going to impact on her reforms.”
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS