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Five key points to understand the first year of the Government of Gabriel Boric

After a challenging 12 months, Gabriel Boric, the president of Chile, has experienced both political turmoil and hits. From the rejection of the new Constitution and the recent brake on the tax reform to the drop in inflation. This is a selection of the determining government issues in the future of one of the main economies of Latin America, which is useful to explain the actions of this leader in the current context.

Gabriel Boric celebrates his first year in the Chilean Presidency this Saturday, March 11, after emerging as a new leader of the Latin American left, who consolidated himself as the youngest president in the history of his country.

His arrival in power was marked by the promise of great changes, after the social outbreak of 2019, which made visible massive claims about economic and social inequality, which derived andn a constituent assemblywhose new text was later rejected at the polls.

Now he heads an administration with structural difficulties with a Legislature, without a pro-government majority, which complicates the approval of his ambitious social program. At the same time, he maintains some encouraging figures in financial matters and stands out on the international scene after raising his voice against dictatorial regimes such as Venezuela and Nicaragua.

To understand what his government has meant, we explain its key issues:

1. Rejection of the new Constitution, the first setback that Boric seeks to channel

The historic plebiscite to change the Magna Carta of the Augusto Pinochet era – and one of the main citizen requests of recent years – was widely rejected at the polls.

62% of Chileans spoke out against the new text. Only 38% voted for ‘I Approve’, on September 4, 2022. An apparent paradox and without a doubt a bucket of cold water for the Boric Administration, which only six months earlier had come to office with its sights set on concretizing that new step

The main discrepancies? Chileans showed their preference for a new Constitution, but they expressed criticism of the new text. Although the constitutionalists classified it as one of the most progressive in the world, especially in areas such as the environment, they refuted what concerns respect for indigenous justice systems, considering it contrary to the principle of equality before the law.

File-Dozens of people wait in line to enter a polling station during the voting day of a referendum to approve or reject a new Constitution.  In Santiago, Chile, on September 4, 2022. More than 15 million voters were able to vote for or against replacing the text inherited from the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990).
File-Dozens of people wait in line to enter a polling station during the voting day of a referendum to approve or reject a new Constitution. In Santiago, Chile, on September 4, 2022. More than 15 million voters were able to vote for or against replacing the text inherited from the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990). © Martin Bernetti/AFP

Likewise, the right to abortion, the presidential re-election and the elimination of the Senate generated rejection among part of the citizenship.

The experts also highlighted the misinformation that spread through social networks on issues such as the supposed risk that the right to private property would run.

Given this panorama, Boric promised to resume a new constituent process, in which the first steps have already been taken. On March 6, the draft of a new text and the installation of the commission of experts, made up of 12 men and 12 women, began.

It is expected that in the next two months the team will deliver a letter to the 50-member constitutional council, in charge of drafting the new Constitution, and who will be elected by the citizens on May 7.

2. The slowdown of the tax reform and the successes in economic matters

On March 9, the Chamber of Deputies rejected the tax reform, which would have created the first country tax on wealth. One of the big blows to Boric’s agenda, since the measure sought to finance his plan for social reforms, the pillar of his government program.

The bill, which did not reach the 78 votes required for its approval, it was trying to raise 3.6% of GDP in four years, around 10,000 million dollars.

As a result, the Chilean president indicated that several measures would remain unfinished. Among them, the increase in the universal guaranteed pension, equivalent to about 310 dollars. In addition, this setback leaves initiatives in education and health frustrated for the moment.

File-A customer shops during the reopening of a shopping center in Santiago, Chile, on April 30, 2020.
File-A customer shops during the reopening of a shopping center in Santiago, Chile, on April 30, 2020. Martin Bernetti / AFP

However, in economic matters, his Administration has also shown some encouraging figures, which indicate resilience in the face of global turbulence.

In the last year, Chile has maintained a downward trend in inflation. Last February it registered a drop of 0.1%. Among the sectors with a decrease in their prices, transportation stood out, with a decrease of 2.7%, and food and non-alcoholic beverages, with a decrease of 0.3%.

On the other hand, although Chile presented an increase in unemployment, which according to the country’s National Institute of Statistics places it at 8%, the figure is below two digits, compared to other countries in the region such as Colombia with around 13.7% until last January. In addition, the Chilean peso has achieved stabilization against the dollar.

Added to this situation the decrease in public spending by more than 23% in 2022, so that Chile achieved a surplus for the first time in a decade.

3. Insecurity on the rise

Boric came to the Presidency with a margin of violence that has been increasing in the last decade and, despite his attempts to mitigate it, the problem remains.

Crime frightens citizens with a homicide rate, which has increased 70% in the last six years, and the presence of organized crime gangs. It is considered the worst security crisis in the last 30 years.

Among the crimes with the greatest social connotation are assaults on condominium homes, and robberies of people aboard vehicles on public roads through interceptions by armed criminals.

Security forces clash with a protester during a protest against the Chilean government in Santiago, Chile, on January 3, 2020.
Security forces clash with a protester during a protest against the Chilean government in Santiago, Chile, on January 3, 2020. © Ivan Alvarado / Reuters

According to Daniel Johnson, executive director of the Paz Ciudadana Foundation, quoted by the AFP agency, the country experiences a series of “imported” crimes, such as hit men, motorcycle assaults or migrant trafficking, carried out by gangs -not necessarily foreigners – that have replicated this type of crime that surpasses the authorities.

In an attempt to deal with the problem, Boric has taken measures such as the deployment of the Armed Forces, in the south and north of the nation, to address issues of irregular migration and crime.

All in the middle of the turnaround of their previous positions, since this matter was not in the axes of their proposed program and also despite the traditional resistance of the left in this matter.

4. Internal political turmoil

On the eve of his first year in office, the Chilean president faced a major cabinet reshuffle, appointing five new ministers, including a new foreign minister. A challenge for a president who still has not resolved the dilemmas in his administration.

It is the second remodeling of his government team, which came just shortly after the unexpected defeat of his tax reform. The previous change occurred in September, when 62% of voters rejected the text of the new Constitution.

File-Chilean President Gabriel Boric celebrates International Women's Day on March 8, 2023 in Santiago
File-Chilean President Gabriel Boric celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2023 in Santiago © Pablo Vera / AFP

The president governs without a pro-government majority in the Legislature, which complicates the launch of his ambitious projects, while he fights to keep inflation low and confronts violent crimes in Chilean territory.

But a high point of the internal disputes came from the majority rejection of the 13 pardons, which he granted in December 2022. Most of them for crimes committed during the 2019 protests, a move that unleashed a barrage of criticism just at a time when its interior minister was trying to reach an agreement on security with the opposition, so the talks were frozen.

Boric, who suffered a sharp drop in his approval rating since taking office as the country’s youngest president last January, only to rebound to 35% last January, acknowledged that his administration is currently facing problems.

“We have had difficulties, who could deny it?” Remarked the 37-year-old political leader, who now aims to redirect his government with his new ministerial team.

5. Boric, icon of a new generation of leftists

The head of state arrived on the political and international scene with great aspirations and in a symbolic debut as the first left-wing president of Chile since Salvador Allende. The nation for decades was ruled by the right.

From the beginning, views from the entire region and the political spectrum put the magnifying glass on the president due to his little political experience and youth. Until now Boric has shown his opposition to the extreme left, which is moving away from the foundations of democracy.

Boric and Petro condemned from Santiago, Chile, the attacks in Brazil on Sunday.
Boric and Petro condemned from Santiago, Chile, the attacks in Brazil on Sunday. © Elvis González / EFE

In the international arena, he has raised his voice against regimes such as Venezuela and Nicaragua, even despite pressure from his political allies in his government..

This position was demonstrated on September 23, 2022, during a speech at Columbia University in which he insisted on his criticism of Human Rights violations in the countries governed by Nicolás Maduro and Daniel Ortega, respectively.

“It makes me angry when you are from the left and you can condemn the human rights violations in Yemen or El Salvador, but you can’t talk about Venezuela or Nicaragua,” he said.

His statements have confronted him with the most extreme wing of the Communist Party. Even so, last February, Boric again attacked the authoritarian regimes of Latin America, when he questioned the Government of Nicaragua and described Ortega as a “dictator.”

These positions have also earned him the support of citizens and international leaders known as new figures of progressivism and with whom Boric has held various meetings, such as the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern.

With local media and AFP

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