First modification:
Four months ago, the Chilean population widely rejected a proposal for a new Constitution in a referendum. But this January 11, Congress approved a reform that opens the way to a second drafting process.
With the RFI correspondent in Santiago, Naïla Deroisné.
After the approval of the Senate at the beginning of January, the deputies validated the process yesterday with 109 votes in favor, 37 against and two abstentions. The text should be signed and promulgated this week by the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric.
No constituent assembly
This time it will not be a constituent assembly that drafts the text, but a committee of experts appointed by Parliament, accompanied by a council of 50 people elected by the citizens. This new procedure is not to everyone’s liking, especially some indigenous peoples.
“We are not going to give our support to this process because it is flawed. It reminds us of previous agreements, even the same agreement that was made to have the current Constitution in dictatorship,” denounces Diva Millapan, a Mapuche and coordinator of the Mapuche Women’s Network.
lack of legitimacy
The organization denounces an agreement drawn up between political parties, without taking into account the opinion of citizens. He also points out the lack of legitimacy of the Congress that approved the rules to draft the new fundamental law: “When all those who are now deciding were elected, it was not a mandatory vote. And the people who elected them were a small part of the Chilean population “Millapan explains.
She also fears that this time the indigenous peoples will be excluded from the drafting process and stresses that it is not known what the government means by a committee of “experts”: “It is not clear if the indigenous peoples will be there, and this committee is the one that will to write the new Constitution”, he laments.
The members of this committee of experts will be elected by Congress and must draft a Constitution proposal on which 50 councilors elected by the population will later work.
