How Metro Fares Sparked Chile’s Constitutional Reckoning

26 ibid.

27 Howell. 28 James Cawley, “NASA and SpaceX Complete Certification of First Human-Rated Commercial Space System,” NASA, November 12, 2020, accessed April 8, 2021, https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-andspacex-complete-certification-of-first-human-ratedcommercial-space-system. 29 Juan Cruz González Allonca, “Abogados del espacio,” October 2019, TEDxRiodelaPlata, local audience, 9:08 minutes, TED en español, https://www. ted.com/talks/juan_cruz_gonzalez_allonca_abogados_ del_espacio?language=es. 30 Amanda Jane Hughes and Stefania Soldini, “The solar discs that could power Earth,” Future Planet, BBC, November 26, 2020, accessed April 4, 2021, https:// www.bbc.com/future/article/20201126-the-solar-discsthat-could-beam-power-from-space. 31 ibid. 32 ibid. 33 U.S. government, “DOD Releases Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Proposal,” U.S. Department of Defense, February 10, 2020, accessed April 9, 2021, https:// www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/ Article/2079489/dod-releases-fiscal-year-2021-budgetproposal/. 34 “NASA’s FY Planetary Budget,” The Planetary Society, planetary.org, 2019, accessed April 9, 2021, https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/nasas-fy-2020budget#:~:text=NASA%27s%20budget%20in%20 fiscal%20year,from%20the%20previous%20fiscal%20 year. 35 Hughes and Soldini. 36 Alison Stewart, “Revisiting America’s Fear of Sputnik,” The Bryant Park Project, npr, October 4, 2007, accessed April 9, 2021, https://www.npr.org/templates/ story/story.php?storyId=14980366.

By Amina Levites-Cohen

In October of 2019, one million Chileans took to the streets of Santiago to protest a 4% increase in metro fare. Even though Sebastián Piñera, the country’s President, called off the government-mandated increase, the protesters demanded that Chile’s dictatorship-era constitution be rewritten. The constitution, written under the brutal dictator named Augusto Pinochet, comes from a period when the government relocated many lowincome urban citizens to the outskirts of major cities. This exacerbated class divides because city governments ignored the needs of economically disadvantaged Chileans and directed funds towards developing affluent areas of cities instead.1 Many Chileans living in poverty used the metro as a cheap and efficient mode of travel, so the increased prices posed an immediate and tangible problem to families. For Chileans, the metro was not just a way to get from the edge of the city into the heart of a bustling metropolis; it was their opportunity to escape economic hardship and gain access to a host of social services and job opportunities. The protests became broader, using the metro fare hike as a symbol of the decades of economic and social inequality.2 In response, the government heeded the protesters and issued a referendum asking citizens whether the constitution should be rewritten.3 On the brink of political turmoil, Chile evaded crisis by resorting to democratic practices and

expanding social and economic rights, despite its authoritarian history, which marks the start of a hopeful phase for the country. Chile’s history as a country that defeated bureaucratic authoritarianism makes it a model for other struggling countries in the region. In 1974, Augusto Pinochet staged a coup d’etat, overthrowing Chile’s socialist government. The following sixteen years of his violent dictatorship resulted in a dated constitution that impacted the country for several decades. While Pinochet’s policies led to a stage of economic growth for Chile, the ruler did everything in his power to suppress dissent, including the torture of 35,000 Chileans.4 Pinochet’s constitution guaranteed authority to the military, curbed the power of the representative government, and allowed the Constitutional Tribunal to deem its opposers as “hostile” to democracy.5 In 1988, however, 53% of the Chilean people voted in a plebiscite against giving Pinochet another term.6 Ironically, this plebiscite was mandated by the constitution of Pinochet’s creation. While it took Chile years to recover from Pinochet’s abuse of military power, the country began having democratic elections in 1989 and has continued since.7 Chile’s status as a newly democratic state recovering from dictatorship gives hope to other countries in the regions in similar situations. One flaw in the Pinochet-era constitution is its lack of social equality, which drove millions of Chileans to fight for the rights of marginalized groups such as women. For example, the constitution delegates some social services to local organizations in a method called subsidiarity. These services include help for domestic abuse victims, but the organizations do not have the resources or budget to give adequate care. Also, government branches, like the army, are responsible for dealing with acts of violence towards women, but often, these authorities cover up the crimes they are supposed to be investigating. The Chilean legal system does not prosecute domestic violence with the same severity that it does typical assault and often punishes perpetrators of gender-related violence for commiting mere misdemeanors.8 Priscila González, a feminist organizer, believes that the government effort to downplay misogynistic violence “generates and perpetuates systemic violence against women.”9 Currently, the feminist movement in Chile focuses on preventing domestic violence and broadening abortion access. The government has allocated $1.7 million to combat domestic violence,10 and in 2017, Chile ended its abortion ban, extending legality to the procedure in dire circumstances. A Chilean women’s rights activist, Estefanía Campos says that “women’s rights used to come in second place, but now they are primordial” with the prospect of a new constitution, showing the value of grassroots organizing on democratic legislation.11 These victories are promising, but there is more work to do, and social justice activists hope that the new constitution will aid their efforts. The constitutional assembly to write a new constitution has pledged to add a gender parity clause to its draft after the clause garnered 79.81% of voter’s approval. Other activists aim to use the momentum from the parity clause to extend rights to LGBTQ+ people.12 In 2019, after the Chilean Constitutional Court denied a same-sex couple recognition for their marriage, the government proposed a bill to establish marriage equality that has been stalled in Congress for almost

four years.13 A constitutional overhaul would compel lawmakers to reevaluate court decisions and possibly enhance rights for historically marginalized groups. Today, Chile is recognized as a democratic country despite its tumultuous past. The Economist’s Democracy Index ranks Chile as seventeenth in overall democracy and classifies it as a “Full Democracy,” while the United States is considered a “Flawed Democracy.”14 Chile’s historical tendency to hold referendums, or national elections on one specific issue, certainly contributes to its status as a “Full Democracy.” Referendums are more direct and represent the will of the people accurately because they do not involve dividing the country to create representative districts that may serve the rulers instead of the people. The words “plebiscite” and “referendum” are often used synonymously, but the former has negative connotations because rulers like Napoleon and Mussolini have used them to stay in power.15 Countries and political leaders often avoid the word “referendum” because of its associations with the word “plebiscite,” but Chile has redeemed the word by upholding the democratic and self-determining intentions behind it. Chile’s history as an authoritarian bureaucracy during the 1980s makes it unlikely for the country to handle protests well. Nonetheless, the government listened to the people’s needs and utilized democratic practices. The new constitution would make Chile even more democratic and Chile is already often regarded as one of the most stable countries in a region facing instability and despotism. Hopefully, Chile will pave the way for other nations to adopt more democratic governments.

1 Alisha Holland, “Analysis | Chile’s Streets Are Filled with Protests. How Did a 4 Percent Fare Hike Set off Such Rage?,” The Washington Post, WP Company, October 30, 2019, www.washingtonpost. com/politics/2019/11/01/chiles-streets-are-fire-withprotests-how-did-percent-fare-hike-set-off-such-rage/. 2 Daniel Alarcón, “Chile at the Barricades,” The New Yorker, October 5, 2020, www.newyorker.com/ magazine/2020/10/12/chile-at-the-barricades. 3 Holland. 4 Amy Tikkanen, “Augusto Pinochet,” Encyclopedia Britannica, December 9, 2020, https://www.britannica. com/biography/Augusto-Pinochet. 5 “Constitutional History of Chile,” ConstitutionNet, January, 2014, constitutionnet.org/country/ constitutional-history-chile. 6 Eugene Robinson, “Chile’s Pinochet Beaten in Plebiscite on Rule,” The Washington Post, WP Company, October 6, 1988, www.washingtonpost. com/archive/politics/1988/10/06/chiles-pinochetbeaten-in-plebiscite-on-rule/cbc2e773-f1cc-4c37-bcb591b9de1e8084/. 7 “Chile Profile - Timeline,” BBC News, BBC, November 20, 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-latinamerica-19356356. 8 Katherine M. Culliton, “Legal Remedies for Domestic Violence in Chile and the United States: Cultural Relativism, Myths, and Realities,” Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons, April 10, 2021, scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol26/ iss2/1/. 9 Fernanda Gandara, “What the Constitution Says About: Women’s Rights,” Chile Today, October 19, 2020, chiletoday.cl/what-the-constitution-says-aboutwomens-rights/. 10 Charis McGowan, “Why Chile’s New Constitution Is a Feminist Victory,” Foreign Policy, January 1, 2013, foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/15/chile-constitutiongender-parity-feminist-protest/. 11 “World Report 2020: Rights Trends in Chile,” Human Rights Watch, January 14, 2020, www.hrw.org/ world-report/2020/country-chapters/chile#d91ede. 12 McGowan.