Chilean President Signs Election Reform

[Peace Patriot]

Source: Prensa Latina

Chilean President Signs Election Reform

Santiago, Chile, Apr 5 (Prensa Latina) President Michelle Bachelet signed the reform of the exclusive "binominal" electoral system on Thursday, to favor election to Congress of forces of the people that have been so far excluded.

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The current electoral system was designed by Augusto Pinochet s dictatorship to artificially maintain a rightwing presence in Congress, excluding important sectors of Chilean progressives.

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(Batchelet) said "the best that could happen to democracy is that all the political sectors that represent the country are in the Legislature."

Read more: http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={1BB57400-7E0A-4E23-83DC-419EE44F8696})&language=EN

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Another step in the democratization of Latin America, which is proceeding apace, with leftist (majorityist) governments elected in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua, and big leftist movements in Peru, Paraguay, Guatemala and Mexico (likely to win future elections).

In Ecuador, the new, young "dragonslayer" president--US-educated leftist economist Rafael Correa--is engaged in a knockdown dragout with the highly corrupt legislature (bastion of the rich elites, the fascists and corporatists) over the powers of the people's assembly which is re-writing the constitution. AP's "talking point" is that Ecuador is a "politically unstable nation," but what is really happening is an orderly, lawful, peaceful, democratic challenge to wrongful rule.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2795198

In Venezuela, the issue was also the constitution. And what is remarkable is that everyone had read it! (See "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised".) The people wrote it. The people voted on it. And that was what was on everybody's lips--"what about our constitution?!"--during the violent military coup attempt in 2002. (The people won!)

The structure of entrenched rightwing power is also the issue in Bolivia, where the big landowners, fascists and corporatists control the law, the courts and the legislature, and are trying to split off the provinces that contain the oil and other rich resources, from the federal government, so that those resources benefit the few and not the many. The federal government is now headed by the first indigenous president of Bolivia, Evo Morales--a union organizer and grass roots activist--whose awesome peoples' movement threw Bechtel Corp. out of Bolivia, after Bechtel privatized the water in one Bolivian city and then jacked up the price to the poorest of the poor, even trying to charge poor peasants for collecting rainwater! The rich elites make these kinds of deals with foreign corporations--to the great detriment of the majority of people--then try to defend them with political and legal structures that exclude everyone else's interests.

In Argentina, the economy was destroyed, and the social fabric of the country was nearly torn asunder, by onerous World Bank loans--incurred by the rich, who then steal off the top and leave the poor to pay the debt, with draconian repayment terms that include drastically cutting all social programs, and opening the country to corporate predation. (The same thing is happening to our country right now--with this enormous deficit the Bushites have incurred--watch out!) Remarkably, the poor and middle class joined forces, and went round with tiny hammers breaking every bank ATM display window in Buenos Aires, in protest. Three governments later--in quick succession--they finally got a leftist government (that of Nestor Kirchner) that promised to get Argentina out from under World Bank debt and never get into it again. With Venezuela's help (which created the new Bank of the South), Argentina is now well on its way to recovery.

In Chile, the election of Chile's first woman president, socialist Michele Batchelet--who had been tortured by the US-backed dictator Pinochet, and lost family members to that dreadful regime--is another signal of this enormous sea change in South American politics. Although she did not achieve proportional representation in the legislature (which is what she sought), the additional seats to create broader representation is a significant reform.

Latin Americans are engaged in a very thorough, and profound, restructuring of power, from the bottom up. Another word for it is democracy. It seems like I've heard of that somewhere.

Viva la revolución!

[Judi Lynn]

1. It's about TIME they reformed that system, & she has a powerful center-right ally, now,

according to this article:

PIÑERA SAYS CHILE’S DEMOCRACY NEEDS “SHOT OF VIAGRA”

(April 5, 2007) Former rightist presidential candidate and LAN Chile airline owner Sebastián Piñera said Wednesday that he supported the debate surrounding the proposed changes to Chile’s binomial election system. Stating that “Chile’s democracy is sick because of a lack of participation,” Piñera said the electoral system should be changed and “injected with a shot of Viagra.”

Piñera, a member of the center-right RN political party, distanced himself from the more conservative UDI party with his comments. The UDI, which has benefited from the Pinochet-era electoral system, has firmly argued against changing the system. The current election system makes it difficult for smaller political parties to gain representation in Congress.

“In measures to improve democracy, the UDI normally takes a little more time to come around,” said Piñera. “But sooner or later, the UDI is going to realize that Chilean democracy needs more participation. It needs vitality, a dose of Viagra. One way to achieve this vitality is to bring in the two and a half million Chileans that are not represented by the current system.”

In the interview with Chile’s Channel 13, Piñera went on to say that there was never a bad time to improve democracy and that more honesty in government was needed. “We have to make democracy cleaner, transparent, and honest,” he said. “We have to get rid of the brutal and abusive government that I came to know all too well in the last election.”
(snip/...)

http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=13416&topic_id=15

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Peace Patriot, it almost sounds as if Piñera has heard some of your comments before having made this statement!

If this is something a center right politician will admit publicly, it's easy to guess that their previous (U.S.-implemented through violent coup) choke-hold on Chilean politics, even well after Pinochet fled to England has been hideous.



President Michelle Bachelet, center right politician Sebastián Piñera

[Judi Lynn]

2. More on that Pinochet-installed form which has been in use since 1980:

Chile’s binominal majoritarian election system was designed - at the request of former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet - by law professor and future UDI Senator Jaime Guzman, and was made a part of the Constitution approved in less than democratic plebiscite held in 1980. The election system has been criticized by just about every political party except the rightwing coalition Alliance for Chile -- made up of the UDI and the RN. Left-center and left-oriented political parties have been trying to reform the system for years, but have always been blocked in Congress by the Alliance.

The current system tends to favor larger parties and political blocks such as the Alliance and the Concertación, leaving no representation for smaller parties, even if they garner a high percentage of total votes (ST, March 24).

Piñera narrowly lost Chile’s last presidential election to President Michelle Bachelet, a member of the Concertación coalition that has ruled Chile since democracy was restored in 1990. While most members of the UDI still have links to the Pinochet-era dictatorship, Piñera is one of the few conservative politicians that was never linked to Pinochet or the vast human rights abuses committed during his regime, and who publicly opposed the Pinochet dictatorship in the October 4, 1988 plebiscite that forced Pinochet to abandon the presidency.
(snip)

[Peace Patriot]

3. Yes, I think that the Bolivarian revolution, which started in Venezuela, is having

a profound impact on all Latin American leaders and countries. Democracy is now the premise upon which the future is being built, and Latin American self-determination and regional cooperation are its guiding principles.

It was interesting what happened to Batchelet on Venezuela's bid for a seat on the UN Security Council. She apparently compromised, and, rather than supporting Venezuela, Chile abstained. (It would interesting to know what Condi Rice used as a bargaining chip or bludgeon.) Then, recently, Chile's ambassador publicly criticized the Batchelet government for abstaining. He's more of a rightest. (--can't recall his name right now.) So he may have reasons for "dividing and conquering" the leftist parties. And he really shouldn't be criticizing his government in public. (He got recalled as a result.) But what it tells me is that the trend of opinion in South America is pro-Venezuela and pro-Chavez. There is much other evidence of this--but this adds to the overall picture. Batchelet, who was probably making the best decision she could--in the interest of her people--at the time--a time when things were not so clear--is now being criticized for that decision, likely because Venezuela's bold ideas and initiatives are good for EVERYBODY. They empower other Latin American leaders--to the point where even the rightist/corporatist president of Mexico felt obliged to publicly lecture Bush, on his recent tour, on the sovereignty of Latin American countries, and mentioned Venezuela as an example!

I'm also thinking of the rightwing opposition candidate in Venezuela, in December--after Chavez had won with 63% of the vote--feeling obliged to distance himself from the rightwing plot to destabilize the country, after the election, and try another military coup. Even the rightwing is seeing, a) the benefit of lawful, orderly, constitutional government, and b) the benefits of the ideas generated by Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution--self-determination, social justice. You can't have a prosperous society without these things. And, also, if you band together--for instance, with the Bank of the South, and with the Mercosur trade group--you not only generate wealth, you keep it in your country and region.

Well, maybe the right doesn't go this far. But they most certainly seem to be abandoning the old paradigm--fascist coups, and bloody dictatorships allied with the U.S. and its corporate giants. The notion of SELF-DETERMINATION has caught on--and that is a major tenet of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela and in the Andes in general. And the other core ideas--maximizing citizen participation, dismantling the old rightwing power structures (in the legal/court system, the legislative system, etc.)--in short, democratization--are really taking off in a liberal country like Chile--not so much in Mexico and Guatemala, where the right still has a tight grip on the power structure, although even these leaders have to pay attention, because the leftist majorities in these counties are now seeing highly successful examples of democracy throughout South America. It is only a matter of time before these majorities also start democratizing their countries. And if the old paradigm of simply slaughtering the leftists and rebellious peasants is out, then they might have to actually compete fairly in the political arena.

To bring it back to Chile, this may be why a rightwinger like Pinera is aligning himself with idea of more participation. Pressure from the wildfire that is the Bolivarian revolution.

The Latin American rightwing is also undoubtedly aware what disgrace the Bush Junta is in, in the U.S. For one thing, we've got the Democratic Congress seriously questioning military aid and "free trade" deals with Colombia, due to the huge scandals there about rightwing paramilitary activity--including a plot to assassinate Hugo Chavez; also, drug trafficking and mass murder, connected to the top echelons of the Uribe government (beneficiary of so much lard from the U.S./Bushites). The Bush Junta cannot operate as support for rightwing cabals and violent repression, or cannot do so with any effectiveness. This seems to be another momentous change. I wouldn't underestimate the ability of the Bushites and rightwing elements, north or south, to cause more trouble, but I am absolutely certain that, whatever they do, it is going to occur in a atmosphere of accountability and public scrutiny that will mean the ultimate failure of that kind of powermongering. The Latin Americans have had it with this. And I think we north Americans, while we are way behind our Latin American compadres on what to do about it, have certainly reached a rather awesome consensus on what we don't want: the murderous, thieving fascist rule of the Republicons. We can learn a few things from Latin America on how to rise from the ashes of such a coup. They also have some things to teach us about the fascist-lite rule that some of the Democrats represent. The latter are associated with global corporate predation ("free trade"). Our revolution here cannot be merely political. It has to be political/economic.

[Judi Lynn]

4. What a tremendous point you made, among so many:

And if the old paradigm of simply slaughtering the leftists and rebellious peasants is out, then they might have to actually compete fairly in the political arena.

That's how you get the election boycott in the Venezuelan election three years ago, when the world knew the opposition was going to go down in flames BIG TIME, so they attempted to avoid admitting defeat by simply claiming they weren't going to participate.

I'm sure they are pining for the days when their oligarchy heroes like Carlos Andrés Pérez can cut the soul out of the poor by raising the cost of their transportation suddenly beyond their means to pay, then, when they storm out into the streets, instruct his military to start gunning them down in the streets, as he did in the bloody massacre on February 27, 1989.



More photos:
http://www.abn.info.ve/galeria/show.php?carpeta=El%20Caracazo.%20Fotos%20Frasso.%201989

I hope South America can complete its turn toward integration after being divided and conquered for such a long time by completely outside interests working together with the highly corruptible oligarchy.