Change of command Chile 2022: Migration crisis, economy, the “Mapuche conflict”, the great challenges of Gabriel Boric

The management of the pandemic, the fragility of the economy, the political conflict in Araucanía and the unprecedented migration crisis are some of the most pressing challenges that the new president of Chile, Gabriel Boric.

From February 2021, The police have recorded more than 50,000 irregular entries into Chile through unauthorized border crossings.with a daily flow of hundreds of people.

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The magnitude of this unprecedented migratory movement towards Chile and the rest of the southern cone, derived from the Venezuelan exodus that already reaches nearly 6 million people, has generated an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the north of the country.

Venezuelans are seen on the highway on the way to Iquique, after crossing from Bolivia, in Colchane, Chile, on February 18, 2021. (Martin BERNETTI / AFP). (MARTIN BERNETTI/)

An unexpected challenge that combines discontent of the local population, lack of basic goods for the citizens who enter and a border militarization in force since mid-February.

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Controlling irregular migration and building diplomatic bridges with neighboring countries that are also affected by the crisis will be one of the urgent challenges that it must take on the new Chilean administration.

VIOLENCE AND INSECURITY

For decades in the south of Chile the call has been made “Mapuche conflict”which confronts indigenous communities with large agricultural and forestry companies that exploit lands considered ancestral by the largest indigenous people in the country.

A territory occupied by force by the State at the end of the 19th century in a process officially known as the “Pacification of La Araucanía”.

In recent years, in the heat of frequent arson attacks on machinery and property, the conflict has intensified, causing the death of a large number of Mapuche community members at the hands of State agents and also registering the death of police officers and hunger strikes by indigenous prisoners. .

On October 12, Sebastián Piñera decreed a state of emergency that militarized the area, a measure that Boric announced that he will not renew to “call for dialogue” between the parties.

Soldiers deployed in Temuco, Chile, on October 15, 2021, a few days after President Sebastián Piñera announced the state of emergency in the conflict zone with the Mapuche. (MARIO QUILODRAN / AFP).

NEW CONSTITUTION

The social outburst that shook the country at the end of 2019, the biggest political crisis in three decades, triggered an unprecedented constitutional process in the world that should culminate in the middle of this year with the calling of a referendum to ratify the proposal for a new Magna Carta.

A text that will replace the current one inherited from the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990) and considered the origin of the country’s inequalities.

A large part of the population has placed its hopes of change towards a fairer model in this processHence, taking care of it from the Executive so that the process comes to fruition is one of the main challenges of the new government.

The road to the new Constitution of Chile. (AFP).

FACE AN EXTREME DROUGHT

The year 2021 ended as the fourth driest year in Chile since records began, a critical hydric scenario that extends throughout the entire territory and most dramatically affects the central zone, where thousands of inhabitants receive water daily from cistern trucks.

A dramatic context where the temperature also does not stop rising: last winter it marked a maximum of almost 30 degrees.

There are a total of 13 consecutive years of drought, marked by low rainfall and a serious deficit of snow water in Andean areas.

Experts attribute the phenomenon to the climate crisis, but environmental organizations denounce that the Chilean water management model – whose origin dates back to the neoliberal economy established during the dictatorship – has aggravated it.

Increasing aid for small farmers and ranchers, preventing fires and guaranteeing the water supply will be a priority task.

The Chile found by Boric. (AFP).

POST PANDEMIC RECOVERY

Chilewhich suffered a significant drop in its GDP by 5.8% in 2020 due to the pandemic -the biggest drop in four decades-, has shown a rapid economic recovery, although the projections of the Central Bank for this year do not exceed 2.5%.

With one of the most open economies in the world and despite the fact that neither Russia nor Ukraine are among its main trade allies, its status as a net importer makes Chile a country with vulnerable points in the face of the war in Eastern Europe.

Fighting the inflationary blows derived from the increase in the price of oil and wheat and recovering jobs will be one of the main challenges to lift the Chilean economy, as well as maintain control of the pandemic.

To all this, one more challenge has been added at the last moment: the effects that the war in Ukraine will have on the globalized economy, which will also hit the fragile Chilean system.

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Source: Elcomercio