The Collapse of Chilean Neoliberalism

The privatization has massacred the country, today the citizenship has a feeling of deep indignation product of this model that collapses chronically. This famous model that Chile would mistakenly give the name of Switzerland of Latin America would be just an illusion that would expire, which has begun in October 2019 with mass protests throughout the Republic of Chile.

   Massive protests were initiated by the most answering class of high school students, who organized mass evasions in public transport for the increase of 30 pesos from Chile at an already disproportionate cost leaving the subway ticket to the figure of 830 pesos from Chile the equivalent of 1.17 in US dollars, taking into account that the minimum wage currently in Chile is 301,000 pesos in Chile, a cost that is largely disproportionate to the reality of most Chileans. This immediately generated answers that later would end up incorporating an entire country, incorporating university students, the elderly and workers who would interrupt their workday to participate in the legitimate requirement of what is simply a more dignified life.

   Under the prism of the international analysis, this abrupt fall in democracy could have serious consequences and it is not new that the loss of trust in the institutions brings with its rage and widespread discontent. The State has not been able to establish control in the demonstrations because it has imposed the classical doctrine of armed repression, strengthen trusts with weapons in a fragmented citizenship, tired and willing to continue on the streets to obtain what they feel belongs to them, finding a government willing to promote exactly the opposite of respect for the constitutional principles of a democratic state, such as the Chilean state. The authoritarian past of Chile leaves a clear example to be remembered by all: Democracy and pluralism must prevail.

   In March 1990, Chile reconquered its precious democracy with a high and silent cost. Broad privatizations, secretly hidden from institutional transparency. These negotiations would benefit only a few since, our natural resources were sold, from water that is a fundamental resource for the existence of all life on this planet, to highways that have a disproportionate cost to the common of citizens from Chile, also our Education which enjoys an uncontrolled profit that only means favoring one infamous part; Like the previous ones, Chile’s pensions are one of the most critical aspects, they do not attend to showing even the slightest respect for our elders and this makes it clear that Chile can never be a society at the forefront of progress, no offering minimum dignity to their elders.

   Chilean society is deeply fragmented by the economic argument founded on inequality because the Neoliberalist system the theory of the new laissez-faire driven in part by the American economist Milton Friedman would be inadequate for Chile. Friedman who is the famous ideology of American numeric pragmatism which focuses on the uncontrolled great production of wealth in a short period, could not measure how much trouble this doctrine would be for Chile. This model requires the business to count and grow only numerically, never mention the quality of life or achievement of the individual. This model has been widely based in Chile in times of dictatorship (1973-1990), it is a hard nut to crack but the paradigms are changing with the widespread discontent of citizenship.

   The continuous injustices consummated by the political class are a concrete example that future generations do not deserve Chile because it is not the “oasis of stable democracy” mentioned by the president of the republic. We are a country that cannot punish violators of the law in the political class, but can without thinking twice dramatically commit to those who no one protects. The rigor of the law seems only to punish the most dispossessed and this brought with it the indignation consummated in all sectors of Chilean society, this outrage is absolute which seems not to end easily with a negotiating table. The institutional arrogance on the part of the executive power has shown its operational negligence by not listening and refusing all kinds of dialogue. Historic governors who showed arrogance in governing their own succumbed to lack of good governance principles based on equity, history in Chile seems to be repeated once again.

   Chile was a temporary mirage of stability for a couple of decades, but who paid for this stability was its citizenship, with disproportionate taxes. Everyone who has visited Chile has two main observations to make; consummate order and an extremely expensive country alongside European cities. The big mistake is to think that this cost is justified because it is not! In the absence of essential health and education services, we find that social gear does not identify with the institutions that have constantly made concrete abuse of their privileged position, in what societies around the world are called scourge of the corruption central motive of the massive discontent since, every society can be deeply reactive and answer if it does not have confidence in its institutions, the lack of trust in the institutions due to the scourge of corruption brings with it the perception of injustice and abuse in a systematic way, becoming just a time bomb ready to explode at any time.

   Citizen protests understand establishing substantial changes in the great economic and social inequalities that exist in Chile, these changes have to be made at once so that future generations can develop in the broadest social welfare, with essential services covered and not in an unjust model where inequality reigns creating irreparable fractures between citizens and the central government. Chile is socially fractured with its central government, with the injustice and mainly with the violence that the country has in a state of the national emergency with a curfew, in turn, a president who with repeated stubborn arrogance has only contributed to inflaming the popular boil. The president of the Republic Sebastian Piñera has given way warmly to present a social reform agency that has been immediately answered for not being in the expectation of what most Chileans need. A salary adjustment was mentioned going from the current 300,000 ($ 415.00) pesos of Chile as a minimum wage to 500,000 ($ 704.00) by official decree. The motto of citizenship is simply; A BETTER CHILE FOR EVERYONE.

   What is uncertain for now is the time to reestablish normality with the effective rule of law since fundamental freedoms of the individual have been violated, with fatal results. An official balance has been delivered that mentions 18 dead so far in the national demonstrations, the whereabouts of some injured and people who have been arrested in the context of demonstrations are also unknown. The current scenarios of violations of essential freedoms as manifested by the perception of injustice bring with it serious consequences of which fragments a country that loses the credibility of the guarantees of international law. These episodes leave Chile at the center of attention for a failure of the rule of law in a democratic regime since 1990. There is a large part of the country willing to directly demand the resignation of the president and this is where a specific question arises in question:

   Will the concrete and prudent solution be to demand the resignation of the head of state without having future answers from who will be in charge of the country, taking into account that the current president has come to the presidency thanks to the direct and representative vote of all Chileans?

Ignacio Olguin Barrueto