After 10 months of difficult negotiations, Chile is finalizing a draft of a new constitution that could replace a document drafted during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
Maria Eliza Quinteros, president of the 154-member Gender Equality Assembly, will officially present the project at a ceremony in the port city of Antofagasta on Monday afternoon.
“This is an ecological and equal constitution with social rights at its core,” she said in an interview.
Among the long list of rights and freedoms enshrined in the draft, the new constitution makes higher education free, guarantees gender equality in government and makes the state responsible for preventing, adapting and mitigating climate change.
The constitution will be put to a referendum on September 4, in which all Chileans aged 18 and over must vote.
Chile erupted in protest in 2019 and millions took to the streets, condemning many entrenched inequalities. In response, political parties reached a compromise to replace the Pinochet-era constitution.
Nearly 80% of voters chose to begin this trip in a plebiscite in October 2020, and seven months later, leftists and independents stormed elections for a constitutional convention.
“With each bill passed, we have responded to the demands of the 2019 demonstrations, such as better health care, education and pensions,” Quinteros said.
The new document will, for the first time, propose constitutional recognition of Chile’s indigenous people.
“Whether this constitution has been rejected or approved [by the plebiscite]I believe that Chile’s indigenous people have already won, “said Rosa Catrileo, who represents the Mapuche, the country’s largest indigenous group.
“We have made our demands visible at the national level and so we will never be excluded from the conversation again,” she said.
The new document even includes a clause for compensated restitution of historic lands of the indigenous population.
Among many other changes, he decided to abolish the Senate in favor of a unicameral legislature and paved the way for the replacement of Chile’s deeply unpopular private water rights system.
Since last July, the former congressional building in Santiago has been the scene of a long and often fierce public battle for Chile’s future.
The process is designed around participation, with citizens being able to support articles and discuss the legislation of assemblies throughout Chile.
As the country faced its past, delegates were sometimes persecuted by the public as a boisterous campaign to undermine the process raged in the background.
Although the Pinochet-era constitution was significantly reformed under Ricardo Lagos in 2005, it retains the ideological imprint of the Chilean dictator.
It omits some rights, such as the right to housing, and focuses on securing the legacy of the military regime, as well as a market-driven model for providing social services.
With 499 members, Chile’s new constitution will be the longest in the world, raising some concerns about the “maximalist” approach adopted by delegates.
The Convention is divided into three commissions: one for streamlining and consolidating the document; another to chart the transition from one constitution to another; and a third to write a preamble.
However, the outlook is uncertain ahead of the September plebiscite.
Recent polls show that initial enthusiasm for reform has waned, with 46% saying they would reject the project, compared with 38% in favor.
“There is a chance to replace an illegitimate, authoritarian constitution with a divisive and ill-defined one,” said Kenneth Bunker, director of tresquintos.cl, a political analysis website.
Chile’s progressive new president, Gabriel Boric, had a difficult start to his presidency with sharply declining approval ratings, but quickly voiced support for the convention after winning the December election.
“It is not reasonable to equate the success of the government with the success of the plebiscite,” said Bunker, who believes a tight mandate for the new document could prolong Chile’s political upheavals.
If the bill is approved by a majority, it will be ratified as Chile’s new constitution. If rejected, the 1980 document will remain in force.
Add Comment