The Latin American Report # 177

Former Chilean President Sebastián Piñera Dies

A tragic accident while piloting his helicopter—on his way back from a visit to a business friend—has taken Piñera's life on Tuesday. President Gabriel Boric has decreed a three-day national mourning period. The only major businessman openly opposed to dictator Augusto Pinochet, and a central figure in the country's politics in the last 15 years, he had to manage natural and social catastrophes, such as the consequences of a devastating tsunami in February 2010 or the resounding protests against the education model or the cost of life in general. According to Forbes, he was the owner of a fortune of close to 3 billion dollars, and I think he never could saw beyond his privilege in this sense, anchored in a perspective where—for example—in order to get an education you have to invest. I remember when young Chilean student leaders visited our university, demanding for them the same opportunity that we have here in Cuba to pursue higher education for free.

Free not in the sense that the service has no cost, but in the sense that its direct beneficiary—whoever is interested in studying—does not pay in any part of the process. My parents never gave a peso for a tuition fee on my behalf, or for a book, not even for the food that I ate, bad or good, in all the educational institutions I went through. Sometimes people want to distort this fact by alluding that there is public education everywhere, but this does not guarantee that it is free for the beneficiary. What young people like the current president Gabriel Boric were betting on was the latter and not something in between, but then-president Piñera was not permeable to that demand—much more achievable for sure in Chile than in poor and battered Cuba—, going so far as to say that education was "a consumer good". That vision, which included other critical fronts such as health, understood that "nothing is free in this life", which is true, but discriminates based on capital.

_Source

Within the political spectrum, his narrative and policies tended to place him as a center-right politician. He integrated the so-called Lima Group, which was formed to discuss the continuity in power of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. He supported the establishment of an ill-fated parallel government there in 2019. "The dictator's days are numbered and they are not many, because there are many factors that play in that direction", he said about four years ago. "Immense sadness for the death of my dear friend Sebastián Piñera, (who) committed like no one else to Chile and the values of freedom and democracy in Latin America", reacted the former Argentine president Mauricio Macri. This is what the also former head of the Pink House Cristina Fernández said: "As everyone knows, we did not have the same ideas, but we were always united by a relationship of great respect: he was a right-wing man but deeply democratic". The funeral will take place in the Hall of Honor of the Congress of Chile.

He is singled out for the heavy repression of the protests that broke out in October 2019. Although the responsibility is specifically charged to certain agencies, undoubtedly Piñera—a member of the richest 1%, owner of more than 26% of the country's net wealth, to the detriment of the meager 2% owned by the poorest 50%—did not demand respect for the rights of a citizenry that took to the streets calling for a dignified life, to say the least of his possible faults. Piñera declared—literally—war on those who have never had his tycoon's privileges. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights documented "excessive or unnecessary use of force that led to arbitrary deprivation of life and injuries, torture and ill-treatment, sexual violence, and arbitrary detentions" during the repression of the protests, in which anti-riot shotguns with (unauthorized) lead pellets were used. Nearly 30 Chileans lost their lives in that context, some of them unlawfully at the hands of state agents, while Fabiola Campillai was one of the not few people who were left without eyes to mourn Piñera.

_Source

Blow to Milei

Argentinean Congress has taken a step backward in the legislative megaproject with which Javier Milei intends to advance his political program, marked by privatizations, deregulations, extraordinary delegations of power, and a sharp rise in prices. The atmosphere has been highly charged and rarefied since the end of January, with demonstrations by the opposition to put pressure on the executive and legislative branches. In a message that I found very creative, protesters were saying last week that "the caste is the pensioners", alluding on the one hand to the classic Milei narrative—which targets, in principle, the political caste—and at the same time to the cost of his adjustment for the most vulnerable. "In our homeland, no one should go hungry, since it is a blessed land of bread. However, today it is becoming increasingly difficult for hundreds of thousands of families to feed themselves well", denounced the Argentine Episcopal Conference. Clashes were reported with the police, who used rubber bullets, pepper spray, and hydrant trucks, in a new edition of the controversial security mechanism that is activated with every opposition demonstration.

Regarding Milei's omnibus bill, at the end of last week, Congress had approved it "in general", but now it corresponded to vote its articles separately. Although the government—which does not have much muscle in Congress—has achieved a certain level of consensus on its strategy with groups with an erratic political position, there were many reservations with the most controversial points of the legislative project, such as privatizations and the degree of discretion with which the Pink House aspires to command the economy, without needing the blessing of the legislative power. Milei's team speaks of betrayal by certain blocks, but some who felt alluded to said that "(the Government) made a score counting adhesions that did not exist... They reached the chamber without having the votes".

_{The Press Union of Buenos Aires denounced that the professionals of the sector have also been victims of repression by the authorities.}

So there is talk of Milei's inexperience, which is unforgivable with so much capacity available to advise him. He decided to withdraw the bill from consideration by articles already late on Israel's night. "They melted the Omnibus. They didn't know how to drive, they went out without brakes and wanted to put all the changes together", said appealing to metaphors a female legislator. "Thirty days ago we had an omnibus, now we are on a skateboard", said another congressman. One card left to play is the call for a plebiscite, a difficult step because a negative outcome could subtract a lot of political capital from the libertarian. Milei, and the flawed journalists of La Nación +, think that the 56% that voted for him frees the way to advance his program from any obstacle, or implies that the rest of the political actors must accept his proposals without any consideration, but they "seem" to forget that the Congress is an independent entity that also has a popular mandate, and that it exercises it badly or well, according to its legitimate interests or not, as does the Government, or the governorships. They believe that 56% is still there. I am not so sure.

_{Milei with the president of Israel yesterday (source).}

And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.