A series of popular protests shook Chilean life between 2018 and 2020. The country entered the Covid-19 pandemic amid social, political and economic demonstrations, expressing the population's dissatisfaction with its rulers and their actions in national politics. The protests began with some occupations at universities and grew to large proportions with a combination of student and popular agendas. Dissatisfaction with reality was even more explicit with the election of a Constituent Assembly on October 25, 2020, demonstrating that the changes required by the people were urgent. In October, the Assembly completes 3 months of discussions around the writing of a new constitution.
The Chilean constitution represents the rules and laws of the Pinochet dictatorship. Augusto Pinochet governed Chile under an authoritarian and violent regime from 1973 to 1990. Even with the return of democracy in the country, it is still under Pinochet's constitutionality that 18.95 million Chileans live . In addition to institutionalized violence, Pinochet's period was characterized by the country's neoliberalization , with the flexibilization and precariousness of labor rights, privatization of basic services, such as water, electricity, sewage and public policies for the privatization of health, education and social security. Unlike other Latin American countries, redemocratization in Chile did not encourage the writing of a new constitution, which now acquires, 30 years after the end of the dictatorship, strength to think about a new proposal for legal norms.
Even in the elections for the 155 constituencies it was clear that many changes are to come. Gender and national parity - considering the original population in the country - was one of the factors that represented the desire to bury Pinochet's constitution. In this context, Elisa Loncón , a feminist, Mapuche indigenous and academic, was elected president of the Constituent Assembly. A milestone in Chilean politics, an indigenous woman has in her hands the responsibility of presenting the proposed new constitution by the second half of 2022. Considering her trajectory, her work and her participation in the feminist movement, expectations are high for the new norm, representing a vast portion of the population that is historically marginalized.
The feminist movement in Chile has played a central role in popular demonstrations since 2018. What began as a student agenda against sexual violence at universities, grew and culminated in the call for the Las Tesis collective to stage a major demonstration against patriarchy, which led to the streets of Santigo 2 million women and 3 million throughout the country . The protest internationalized the struggle of feminists who had been working behind the scenes in Chilean politics for years.
“The patriarchy is a judge. Who judges us for being born. And our punishment. It's the violence you don't see. It's femicide. Impunidad para mi asesino. It's the disappearance. It's the violation. And it wasn't my fault, neither where I was nor how I was dressed. You are the violator. Son los pacos. Los jueces. The state. El Presidente. The oppressive state is a male violator ”, read the feminist composition.
The song sung by hundreds of women on the streets of Santiago inspired feminist movements around the world, being translated into several languages, bringing to the forefront the unspoken violence, the veiled violence suffered by women. The feminist agenda permeates all social strata, whether in productive or reproductive work, whether in the private or public space, whether in their homes or government offices. The state is the violator when it allows us to receive less for the same jobs as men, when it does not judge the brutality to which women are exposed every day, when it promotes the feminization of poverty, when it institutionalizes the subtle and explicit violence to which women are affected.
It became clear to the Chilean population that the constitution itself had become a barrier to necessary social, political and economic changes. The state showed its most cruel face in the constitution itself: the one that allows and promotes the living death of millions of people. Not only did the feminist movement win victories with the Constituent Assembly, but also the indigenous population, which in this context has the opportunity to claim rights that have been denied for a long time. Considering the plurality of nationalities in Chile and respecting the diversity of these peoples in relation to their own cultures and ways of being in the world is part of a process of recognizing the humanity that is neglected on a daily basis.
In recent and historic votes in the Assembly, two very important guidelines for social movements were approved, one concerns the inclusion of debates on sustainability and climate emergency, showing respect for nature and natural resources. The second, driven by the leader of the Assembly, defines what denialism is and a punishment for human rights abuses during the dictatorship and also the repression of the Mapuche peoples in recent years. This concern of the Assembly demonstrates that some of its legislators are committed to the social changes necessary for the protection and reparation of violated peoples.
The achievements of the feminist movement and the movement of indigenous peoples in Chile motivate the continuation of the struggle for minorities around the world. This victory demonstrates that the fight is not in vain and that it can change our realities. The election of a Constituent Assembly makes explicit the need and desire for change on the part of the population. Political processes in Chile still hold great emotions with the progress of the Assembly, but one certainty that encourages us is that the people will not back down. Once the people know that the power is theirs, there is no turning back.
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Ananda Vilela , a black woman from the outskirts of Suzano, in Greater São Paulo. PhD student in International Relations at PUC-Rio and Master at the same institution. I research race and racism in International Relations and also the intersections between race, gender and class in social relations.
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