CHILE: Activists Fear Setbacks Under Rightwing Government

[Judi Lynn]

CHILE: Activists Fear Setbacks Under Rightwing Government
By Pamela Sepúlveda

SANTIAGO, Feb 3, 2010 (IPS) - Trade unions and non-governmental organisations in Chile are worried that rightwing billionaire Sebastián Piñera's election as president will mean setbacks in terms of social policy and respect for labour and social rights.

Statements by the conservative president-elect, who triumphed in the Jan. 17 runoff vote, with regard to overhauling state-owned enterprises to boost efficiency and adopting policies aimed at increasing economic growth, sparked concern among the labour movement, environmentalists, indigenous peoples' associations and other social organisations.

His campaign pledges also worried the centre-left "Concertación" or Coalition for Democracy, which lost its hold on power for the first time in 20 years.

To judge by the Harvard-educated airline magnate's pro-business campaign platform, strikes, protests and social tension will increase over the next five years, Álvaro Ramis, president of the Chilean Association of NGOs (ACCION), told IPS.

Especially given the fact that part of the Chilean right still identifies with the 1973-1990 de facto regime of late dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who died in 2006. Some 3,000 people were killed or forcibly disappeared and nearly 30,000 were tortured under the dictatorship.

"I believe there is an emotional aspect (in the NGOs' concerns), awakened, for example, by seeing 'Pinochetistas' in Piñera's rallies justifying and legitimising human rights abuses," said Ramis.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50207

[Peace Patriot]

1. Anybody have a clue how a country that gave Michele Batchelet an 80% approval rating, recently,

could elect a rightwing, Pinochet-loving billionaire instead of Batchelet's leftist successor?

I haven't seen any analysis of this, and don't have a clue (except for having suspicions of the worst--such as a CIA-rigged election--based on past history).

[rabs]

2. In a nutshell

1. "Concertacion fatigue" after 20 years of uninterrupted rule.

2. Selection of Frei as candidate. Lackluster, sourpuss did not appeal to younger (and even some older) voters. His previous term (before Lagos and Bachelet) was totally unremarkable.

3. Concertacion committed the same critical error as the right in five previous election; it split its cohesion.

4. Unexpected candidacy of former Socialist turned Independent Marcos Enriquez-Ominami (36 years old) in the primary siphoned off 20 percent of the Concertacion voters. That MEO got 20 percent was a clear indication of Frei's unpopularity among younger voters in the left.

5. MEO only gave lukewarm support to Frei four days before the runoff. So many of MEO's younger followers did not bother to vote for Frei, who is considered a throwback to the aging and worn-out Pinochet-era politicians.

6. The right this time presented a unified front, unlike in the previous five elections since Pinochet was toppled. For the left, Pinera is seen not as a "presidente" but a "gerente." (CEO)

7. Bachelet (83 percent approval last week) is handing over a healthy and thriving economy to Pinera (something like a 25 billion dollar nest egg). Should Pinera screw up with privatization of large chunks of nationalized industries (CODELCO copper for example), the right will be in trouble again.

8. For many in the Concertacion, the Pinera term is a bump in the road that will be used to infuse new, younger blood; the Pinochet-era politicians will be gone.

9. MEO is already seen as a candidate in 2015, but the wounds of this election will have to heal before then. Carolina Toha, same age as MEO, also is being mentioned as a potential candidate down the road.

[Peace Patriot]

3. THANK YOU! And, oh, Lord, I fear for that "25 billion dollar nest egg"!

You mean a Chilean government surplus, right? (Not Pinera's "nest egg" for buying future elections?)

I re-read the sentence. I think you mean she left Chile's budget well into the black, with $25 billion extra. It's only half what Venezuelan ended up with, in international cash reserves (about $50 billion total), after five years of fast economic growth and good financial management--a nice cushion for Venezuela against the Bushwhack Great Depression. But it is a significant accomplishment and a great boon to Chile.

The trouble is that what the rightwing does with surpluses is loot them, and then they loot all future revenues on the top of that, with tax cuts for the rich and other devious thefts. Here, one of the means was war--transferring at least a trillion dollars to war profiteers. And I wonder if Pinera has that in mind--military spending. For instance, Batchelet settled a 100 year old dispute with Bolivia, by granting Bolivia access to the sea, at long last. It caused a war back then. And it may well be a vulnerable place to strike at the Morales government. The rightwing bastards in Peru, I know, have kicked up a fuss about this Batchelet policy--saying some strip of the land in that agreement is theirs, or something. They are real troublemakers, on puppet strings to Washington. Pinera and Garcia could cook up a storm of trouble for Morales.

This is what I fear most from a Pinera regime. Batchelet was such a peace-maker--and an extremely adept diplomat. I watched in amazement as she somehow corralled Colombia into voting with the majority, in UNASUR, to back up Morales after he threw the U.S. ambassador out of Bolivia (for fomenting that white separatist insurrection). She got a UNANIMOUS resolution. I thought at the time that Uribe might've been having visits from Diem's ghost, warning him of the perils of being a CIA puppet--and that's how she got Colombia's vote. (Peru was the hold out--but she managed to keep them from attending.) In any case, will all that new South American unanimity fall apart--with Pinera adding to Garcia adding to Uribe (or, god forbid, Santos)--stirring up disputes and military incidents, getting leaders at each other's throats, preventing a united front against U.S. intervention--as Batchelet engineered--and even colluding with the CIA on toppling governments and with the Pentagon on starting wars? Will they pursue a Washington-designed "divide and conquer" strategy against their neighbors--with Pinera the lead operative?

I do very much fear this.

THANK YOU so much for the rundown on the political situation in Chile. I didn't realize how devastating it was that MEO's endorsement was late and limp. (I just read that he'd endorsed Frei, and thought that would put Frei over.) I hope your analysis is right, that it will provide the socialists with an opportunity to shed old, tired leaders--and find themselves another Michele Batchelet. I still find it astonishing that a party with an outgoing president with an 80+% approval rating could lose--even with a lackluster candidate. And I will probably suspect, to the day I die, that the CIA had a hand in it, because this was so, so, so, SO important to the U.S. Roman Empire, whose toady scribes immediately produced narratives of the demise of the Left in Latin America. One coup. One rightwing victory--and all the slaggy journalists pulled out what seemed like pre-written, cut-and-paste texts from Langley.

[protocol rv]

4. It's very simple, my friend

Sometimes people just want change. Lula's candidate isn't that popular either, but Lula has done a very good job. I sure hope we can stop Chavez here, it's time for change, and he interrupts the TV shows too often.