“There is a sector that has validated violence as a method of political action in Chile”

TO In her 30s, Beatriz Hevia is the president of the Constitutional Council (CC) of Chili and has the responsibility of agreeing on a text that will be submitted to a referendum at the end of the year. Representative of the Republican Party, she is convinced that consensus is the only way to achieve stability.

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— As of Monday the 17th, the benches will present the changes they will propose to reach a constitutional text. What do you consider to be the meeting points and the lines that should not be crossed?

This Monday the 17th will mark a milestone. We have been listening to the citizens and the experts, and from that the benches are going to establish their positions. I hope that the benches are honest and frank in what they propose and are open to dialogue to reach broad agreements between all sectors.

— Are there issues that you would prefer not to touch on, such as pensions for example?

The draft delivered by the experts already touches on issues such as pensions, health, so we have to approach in a mature and respectful manner the different positions that exist to reach a solution that gives stability to the future of the country.

— After a month of installing the CC, do you think there is more stability now than there was after the rejection of the first draft of the Magna Carta?

They are different processes. We are living a serious and responsible process that hopefully takes care of the needs of Chileans. What Chileans want is to recover and rebuild our country, and that is what we are working on, and if that is synonymous with stability, I think it is very good that it is so.

President Gabriel Boric (c), speaks at the installation session of the Constitutional Council, within the framework of the Constitutional Process today in Santiago de Chile. (Photo: EFE) (ELVIS GONZALEZ /)

— You and your party propose placing the person at the center in the Constitution and the State at the service. How to reach that consensus when your country has a leftist president with a different vision of the role of the State?

The main thing is to have a text that puts people in the center. A State at the service of the people, giving them the necessary space so that they can develop as fully as possible in freedom, which implies reaching consensus. For that, we must recognize that we have different points of view, but if we can listen to each other and reach agreements putting Chile ahead -which I believe is what the 50 councilors who are in this process want-, we will be able to reach those meeting points so that it is a text that represents all Chileans and not just a sector.

— How to reach that consensus after a tense and polarized process?

There are several lessons that we can draw from the last few years that Chile has lived through. One is that it is necessary to dialogue and listen to each other, which is something that, thank God, I have seen in the CC in this first month and I hope that we continue with that spirit of bringing positions closer. This way it will be easier to arrive at a text that represents the majority of Chileans. My objective is that the Constitution puts the person at the center, we share it with my bench and various sectors, so we will have to see how we couple it with the priorities of other benches.

— How do you imagine the Constitution will be put to the consideration of Chileans on December 17?

I imagine a Constitution –and it will sound repetitive– that puts the person at the center, and that means taking care of certain pains of the citizenry, responding to certain needs, giving assurances that they can fully develop in different areas of the life, from the preferential right of parents to educate their children to how to guarantee greater security in our society, how to generate the necessary rules to rebuild the social fabric so damaged today. We need a text that allows us to improve coexistence among all.

— You generated controversy when in your inauguration speech you stressed that Chile is experiencing a deep crisis. An economic and political crisis, but above all a social one. How do you explain that Chile has gone from being the star of South America to a country in crisis?

There are pains that have been engendered in our society and have generated tremendous frustration, and that have led us to mistrust each other. We have seen how family life has been weakened, parents who do not pay alimony for their children, domestic violence, children who do not respect their parents, students who do not respect teachers. We have lost respect for authority, for the rule of law. We have seen it in recent years, and our duty today is to put that back together. There is a transversal and common diagnosis: Chile has a problem in how we behave and a public morality crisis. Having the diagnosis it is easier to come up with solutions.

— Chile reached this point after violent riots that caused then-President Sebastián Piñera to convene a constituent assembly. Is this ‘modus operandi’ part of a model to apply in Latin America using violence to force the call for such an assembly?

I can refer to the Chilean case, and indeed there is a political sector that has validated violence, riots, and the destruction of cities as a method of political action. That is also part of the moral crisis, they have taken advantage of this significant degree of frustration in our society. That’s what brings us together, and the main role I have today, is how we look forward, building from valid differences. I am convinced that Chileans want to recover and rebuild our country, that should be the objective without prejudice to the fact that perhaps for historians it will be extremely interesting to record what has happened in Chile and Latin America in recent years.

Thousands of Chileans took to the streets in the so-called social outbreak. (Photo: EFE) (Alberto Valdes/)

— The victory of the Republican Party in this last election for the CC has been categorical. Do you think the time has come for the right in the region?

I believe that this definition is always held by the citizens and we are going to have to see in each of the elections how they show who represents them in the best way. I am a representative of a sector that has always worked with the country in mind, proposing forward-looking solutions, debating ideas that many times one would expect to come from the institutions. However, that has not been the occasion and today, from my role and as representative of the Los Lagos region in the CC, I am tremendously grateful for the citizen support to represent them in this space and to be able to build a Constitution that has the values ​​that we think you should have.

— There are those who are scared by the term ‘right’. How are you doing with that? Because there are those who seek to label: right-wing, conservative, etc.

I am a person who has worked for the ideas of freedom, the defense of life, the family as the fundamental nucleus of society, I believe in social justice and many other factors, and if that defines me as someone from the right I have no problem with it being done that way.

— For some, the “extreme right” only exists when they refer precisely to conservative parties. How do you observe that?

There is a spirit to caricature the sectors that have said enough to injustices, corruption, the security crisis that our country is experiencing, violence in all its forms, and that tuned in with the citizens. It seems to me that more than a lack of respect towards a representative or party when using that expression, there is a lack of respect for the citizens who have trusted in that project. Citizens have ‘clicked’ with the view that we have of the country that we want to build and that has the support of citizens reflected in the last elections, so I dare to say that citizens have not fallen into the game of labels, rather, it has opened its door to listen to new political voices that make sense to it.

— New voices. At 30 years old, you hold the most important political position, because you are defining –along with the other assembly members– the future of your country. How does this weight feel at your age?

It is an enormous responsibility, but also a beautiful duty entrusted to us by the citizens, and I take it as such. I had been linked to public policies for several years, so I was aware of the work that we came to the CC to do, and along these lines I dared to accept the challenge of being a candidate to represent the region that saw me born and grow, putting my knowledge at the service of Chile, as I believe the other 49 directors did, each from their area of ​​professional and life experience. I take it as a beautiful challenge and I hope to live up to what the Chileans have entrusted to us.

— This year marks the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état by Augusto Pinochet. What do you expect from this commemoration?

I know there is a lot of interest in finding out my opinions and positions on this issue, but what Chileans expect from those of us in the CC is that we focus on constitutional issues. My focus is on the issues that unite us and not on those that divide us, that is my view on the matter.

Source: Elcomercio