Democracy in danger

An attempt to translate and summarize a libero opinion piece by Orlando Sáenz, who reflects on the future of Chile, using two emblematic examples.
It contains the warning that the current situation is unsustainable unless politicians can put their eternal wrangling to one side.

"…We see how terrorism in Araucanía has evolved from sporadic protests into an organized and violent guerrilla movement, a terrorism that will only be controlled through military action, as happened in Colombia, Mexico and Peru…

…We also see that student violence no longer serves rational purposes but is the manifestation of a youth made up of thousands of “rebels without a cause”. Ending it will require extreme and unpleasant measures. Is that possible in a country where the issue of Human Rights is invoked and manipulated by the very ideologies that infect the State itself?

“…Is it feasible to suppress the current levels of violence, even if the political will existed? History teaches us that, past a certain level, only an authoritarian regime can do it, as happened with the Bonapartist regime after the terror of Robespierre, the tyranny of the PRI after the Mexican revolution or, as in Chile itself, with the dictatorship of Pinochet after the anarchy that ended the Allende government…”

From those propositions, he continues on in a note of uncertainty:

"…Only rigorous authoritarianism solves problems of anarchic violence beyond a certain limit. But are we close to, or even beyond that limit? I really don’t know.

The article concludes:

“Instead of conspiring to “cook up” a new constitution, our politicians should concentrate on maintaining a democracy capable of being regulated by a new constitution.”