Chile presents this Monday the final text of the proposal for its new Constitution

In a symbolic ceremony, the convention that drafted the proposal for the new Constitution of Chili He will present the final text to the citizens this Monday, who will have until September 4 to decide whether to approve or reject it in a mandatory plebiscite.

in the old National Congresslocated in Santiago, the body will deliver the project to the country’s president, the progressive Gabriel Boric, thus closing a chapter that will go down in the annals of the country’s history.

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Chileans will have two months to decide in a referendum if they are satisfied with the proposal, the first Constitution that emanates from a fully democratic process in the history of the country, or if you prefer to maintain the current one, inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

CLOSING A CHAPTER

A year ago the constitutional convention was installed and began to work against the clockthe first parity in the world and made up of 155 people -mostly progressive- elected at the polls.

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The group concluded the text last Tuesday, which consists of 390 articles aimed at increasing social rights and responding to the demands for equality that emanated from the massive social protests of 2019.

The constituent and academic Agustín Squella is satisfied with the result and points out that “the text is, in general, better than the average of the Constitutions of the continent”.

“The most important thing is its orientation, because it declares Chile a social and democratic state of law for the first time,” he told Efe.

The political scientist from the University of Chile Julieta Suárez-Cao highlighted that the convention has completed its work within the established period with a text supported by two thirds of the conventionnoting that the proposal is “very innovative.”

The project, he told Efe, moves away from what were “the Latin American Constitutions of the beginning of the century, which concentrated a lot of power in the Executive” and manages to “strengthen Congress and give voice to the regions.”

A POLARIZED COUNTRY?

The right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy, create a social security system or more autonomy for indigenous peoples are some of the most groundbreaking proposals in the textwhich has been highly praised by progressives but branded as “partisan” or “indigenist” by conservatives.

“Chili he has had a tremendous opportunity before him, but he has squandered it. Today we are facing a biased text that does not represent the majority,” said constituent Hernán Larraín, one of the faces of the Chilean center-right.

The text, he clarified to Efe, leaves Chile “in a compromised situation and more polarized than ever, very divided in the face of the exit plebiscite on September 4.”

This is reflected in the main polls, which for months gave the option of approving the new Magna Carta as the winner, but which a few weeks ago they turned around to give rejection advantage.

CONTROVERSY UNTIL THE END

Valentina Rosas, an analyst at the Catholic University, told Efe that the process began with high support due to the “tremendous desire for general change that existed in the country,” but “the support was greatly diminished by the controversies and specific criticisms against certain constituents”.

The latest controversy occurred this week, when Larraín denounced a supposed change without consultation in one of the articles, changing the concept of “pre-existing nations to the State” for that of “indigenous nations”.

As a result of this accusation, on Saturday, a group of 41 right-wing constituents sent a letter demanding that the final text be published quickly and that the end of the voting be certified.

The one on September 4 will be the first vote with compulsory suffrage since the voluntary vote was established in 2012, which, according to experts, adds more uncertainty to the results.

“We trust that the path of changes that we began to travel together, we can conclude in a historic milestone marked by high participation,” said the government spokeswoman, Camila Vallejo, on Saturday.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.