Chile’s Ruling Coalition Crumbling under Social Upheaval and Demands for New Constitution

Dec. 24, 2019 (EIRNS)—Chile’s governing coalition, “Chile Vamos” (Let’s Go Chile), made up of the country’s two right-wing parties, the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) and National Renewal (RN), is disintegrating under the weight of two months of nationwide protest, disputes over how to deal with it, and an international spotlight placed on gross violations of human rights carried out by military and police during this period.

The backdrop to this is continuing protest, although somewhat diminished in size, and popular demands for deep and lasting social and economic change. After last week’s Congressional vote approving a bill calling for a national referendum to write an entirely new Constitution, President Sebastián Piñera signed the bill into law yesterday and set April 26, 2020 as the date on which the referendum will be held, the daily La Nación reported. Citizens will vote on whether a new Constitution should be written, and what mechanism will be created to write it.

But it’s not clear that Chile Vamos will last until then, or even whether Piñera can remain in office—given his 10-13% approval rating. The UDI has said it’s leaving the coalition, as it opposes the Nov. 15 agreement signed by the government and most other political parties to replace the 1980 Constitution, written by dictator Augusto Pinochet’s top adviser, synarchist Jaime Guzman. This is a betrayal of the party’s values, the UDI asserts, and especially of Guzman—the follower of Hitler’s “Crown Jurist” Carl Schmitt—whom the UDI worships as a national savior.

Piñera is visibly nervous over the fragile state of the coalition, while his reputation continues to suffer from the several international reports documenting continuing human rights violations by police. The latest one released by the National Human Rights Institute Dec. 20 provided evidence of torture, arbitrary detentions, sexual assault and deliberate targetting of protesters’ eyes to blind them.