CHILE
Rats, Sewage and Humming Economies
Free marketers have long championed the economic success of Chile.
The South American country’s neo-liberal reforms in the 1980s and 1990s – cutting public benefits, lowering taxes – arguably set the stage for a renaissance that helped reduce poverty from 26 percent to less than 8 percent between 2000 and 2015, according to the World Bank.
But social upheaval has followed the slowdown of Chile’s export-oriented economy in the past year, especially as trade instability between China and the United States has suppressed the price of copper, a crucial local commodity, reported Al Jazeera. The worst drought in decades isn’t helping, added the Associated Press.
Around 80,000 teachers went on strike for seven weeks this summer, calling for structural changes in a system they said was not working anymore. Chilean law technically doesn’t cover education as a public right, leaving it instead to the private sector through a voucher system that hurts the poorest students, the left-wing magazine Jacobin explained. The teachers ended their strike in July but said they would keep fighting for reforms.
Students are also angry. Even at the elite National Institute in the capital of Santiago, the all-boy alma mater of numerous ex-presidents, students have staged protests against “rat infestations, blocked bathrooms with sewage leaking, cold showers, broken windows, leaking roofs and bullying teachers,” the BBC reported.
Confidence in the political system cratered in 2015, when the oldest son of then-President Michelle Bachelet was implicated in an insider trading and influence-peddling scandal, wrote Americas Quarterly. Bachelet responded by supporting major reforms to campaign finance and other rules governing elected officials.
Such improvements rarely quiet others seeking justice, however.
President Sebastián Piñera, a 69-year-old billionaire, assumed office 18 months ago. Since then, his critics say he has done little to address the many complaints of Chilean citizens about how their country operates. Piñera’s approval rating is now around 34 percent.
Meanwhile, relatives of around 1,100 people who disappeared during the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, for example, have been crying out for more information about their loved ones to no avail. Bachelet launched an investigation that is expected to yield results in two years. Many feel that Piñera isn’t doing anything to speed things up, the Guardian wrote.
Piñera also faces the uncomfortable task of overseeing prosecutions of accused sexual abusers within the Catholic church, Crux reported, including allegations against his uncle, Archbishop Bernardino Piñera.
In the current climate, reported Bloomberg, two young communist women lawmakers have proposed cutting the official workweek from 45 to 40 hours. Critics said the proposal would undermine productivity. The lawmakers, Camila Vallejo, 31, and Karol Cariola, 32, argued it would improve quality of life.
Economic indicators are important. They offer little, however, to those seeking justice and equality.
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