The Chilean Way

The Chilean Way

By: Erreh Svaia

Caprine Dispersion

The first democratically elected socialist government in Latin America emerged in the then impoverished Chile at the hands of Salvador Allende (after 3 unsuccessful attempts), an enormous hope that became a surprise after his project of nationalization of key industries was exposed, earning him the rejection of several sectors of the country, political allies who turned their backs on him as a reaction against his radicalization, there would be a confrontation between powers, after Allende tried to break the balance between them, which eventually became a "constitutional" breakdown that turned into a deep economic crisis that provoked a call for the overthrow of the Allende government, a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet would brutally end the Allende government, and create space for the application of free market policies under the guidance of economist Milton Friedman, who saw the opportunity and took advantage of the "fertile ground" to experiment with their theories without any obstacle, thanks to the "hard hand" of Pinochet applied against any type of dissidence.

Today the Chilean economy is one of the strongest and with the greatest hope of growth in the region, its democratic system re-established in 1990 is considered one of the most mature in the country, in a tragic way, Chile has learned to align itself to long-term progress projects, staying aloof from the waves of left or right extremism that have arisen in the region, an unwanted experience, but which has granted this once underdeveloped country, a mature vision and the opportunity to see under a different perspective the progress of the country and a decrease in radical inclinations.

  

After 2 attempts, Lula da Silva, a candidate left the world of hard unionism and leading the Marxist Labor Party got his third bid to win the presidency in Brazil, considered the "candidate of hope", Lula's social vocation push a large part of the population in poverty to bring them closer to the middle class through social support programs, but the initial pleasant surprise lost momentum in the face of the impossibility of being able to transcend these welfare assistance through better opportunities for health, safety, education and work for that new middle class that emerged, through clientelism Lula could excite the minds of society, but once he got out of poverty, the opportunities for that middle class were over, and not a second period was worth to find the formula , even Lula designed a formula to continue his mandate in the person of one of his ministers, Dilma Rousseff (who seemed to reveal the sinister plan to deliver after two periods the mandate again to Lula, in the manner of Tabaré Velázquez in Uruguay, who like Lula, seemed to have used a former guerrilla for the Putin-style simulation), but Dilma did not have the same talent as Lula to keep people on his side, the management of a triumphant image that was tried to transmit through events such as World Cups of Soccer, Olympics and a Papal visit were insufficient for Dilma to gain support and were even key to revealing the corrupt nature in which the government of the Labor Party had decayed, Dilma was dismissed, replaced by an interim president and Lula, who by accelerating his plan to regain power, was put in prison before the accusations of being part of the scandal that he knocked down Dilma, again a great promise was cut off, an incumbent president suspended from office, and a newly elected government in person. Jair Bolsonaro, who arouses some suspicion by his sympathy for the old military dictatorships in the country, a former military man of a warlike nature whose "winning cards" are his promise to end socialism and to guide the country towards the free market with the help of his minister Paulo Guedes, to whom the ultra right tries to position as a modern version of Milton Friedman (to me a simple gimmick as Guedes is certainly no Friedman), in a parallel with Chile that seems to anticipate a relentless regime against dissidence and a new hardcore experiment of shock towards a Latin American economy, a radical and extreme turn that could give that hard lesson to a country on the dangers of extremism, it is difficult to know the scope that the Bolsonaro government will have, but if confirmed the hard signs that this has Given (he already has the anti socialist judge Serio Moro on his side), one could speak of the danger that Brazilian democracy runs at the hands of a right-wing populist who will ruthlessly apply the ultra-liberal experiment in order to prove his point.

Of course, the Chileans matured and learned to reject the radical experiments and to seek long-term projects seeking continuity and balanced their powers of government, the autonomy of their institutions, democracy, moderation, transparency and citizen participation with the In order to always advance to the front, for Brazil a hard lesson could be coming, and in the case of Mexico, if those who sold great hopes unfulfilled and intend to apply radical initiatives polarizing society and confronting it against the markets, a new turn towards a more brutal authoritarianism could find fertile land, Do we have to receive a hard lesson again in order to reach maturity? Will we be able to learn from someone else's head and avoid losing freedoms and rights?