Since the far left have gone a great way to undermine the current constitution, it is quite unlikely that they will now start playing by the rules; indeed their whole aim in establishing the Convencion Constitucional is to divert power away from Congress towards their commie-dominated circus. Chilezuela, anyone?
And in a historic parallel, when faced with an uncooperative Senate, Allende did not attempt law reform; he got things done through presidential decree.
Not being any sort of legal authority, I don’t know whether the Pinochet constitution blocked that loophole. It would be ironic if a legal limitation on the abuse of presidential powers were adopted during the dictatorship.
When is the penny going to drop regarding the estallido social and everything that has occurred since then?
Its a power grab, plain and simple.
After the first round reprieve, I continue to stock up. If Kast wins, I expect the biggest, most violent street terror tantrum in history, if Boric wins, I expect a reckless celebration and then the continuation and validation of all the violence from 18O onwards with definitely more crimes of all types targeting the common person. If Kast wins, inflation will still continue as it is a worldwide phenomena, so stock up. If Boric wins, hyperinflation as the currency will quickly look like its neighbors, so definitely stock up and read and learn from accounts of prior hyperinflationary events in modern history.
The unbelievably sad thing is these are both the best case scenarios.
You know…the “worst case scenario” in 2019 was different in our minds than now.
We talked of hopping industrial shipping boats to escape the insanity of grown up children throwing a tantrum and burning and looting
@Mendoza I think you can say that of either candidate, that the composition of the congress is likely to limit the more extreme proposals. I don’t think that is really a great reason to vote for someone, though. I mean, what is the slogan there?, Vote XXX, maybe it won’t be as bad as I thought?
If the senate had gone to the left in November centrists might have voted Kast in December as a stabilizing vote.
You might also have anticipated further leftward shift in the senate in November and voted Kast in November for that reason.
Such an argument was never going to be true in the opposite case - vote for Boric to stop far right stuff would never have made sense since there are already enough left wing people in the chamber of deputies and the constitution anyway. So a full on far right agenda just isn’t on the cards.
At this point, with the senate evenly balanced, I’d argue that such tactical voting for the overall direction of the country doesn’t make as much sense, it makes sense to just vote for the best candidate now, that’s what I mean.
I wonder if a few% of Kast’s vote was from centrists stabilizing the countries shift to the left. Now that they have seen the results of the senate, might some of them shift to Boric? Total speculation of course.
Interesting words from Peruvian Nobel Prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.
I remember him being totally against Fujimori when he ran and lost against him and then his backing of Fujimori’s daughter during the recent Peruvian election as the lesser of two evils and to prevent a communist takeover.
Los temas abordados y las claves del apoyo:
“Los ojos de toda América Latina están centrados en Chile hoy en día. Así que no hay alternativa sino ganar las elecciones”.
“El problema con la izquierda son las calumnias, ¿no? La caricatura de la oposición, eso me imagino que en Chile debe darse mucho”.
“La elección en Chile es absolutamente fundamental. Si Chile recupera el liderazgo que tenía en América Latina, yo creo que la situación en América Latina cambiará muchísimo. Será muy importante que Chile lidere nuevamente lo que es la centroderecha, la libertad, estimular a los empresarios, estimular la inversión extranjera, todo eso crea trabajos, y hacer ciertas enmiendas a lo que falló en el pasado”.
Just saw that last night Macarena Castañeda, the woman who had accused Boric, met with him and that Boric apologised for “actitudes machistas” and that she is voting Boric. She won’t say what happened which is annoying but “actitudes” strongly implies verbal commentary of some sort, and nothing physical or criminal.
I think that Scandanavian was the one that mentioned this guy that writes for the Guardian and his slanted reporting. This is one of the latest things he has written:
“In Chile’s extreme north, he has been represented by Dr Izkia Siches, the former head of Chile’s medical union, a hugely popular figure whose measured, pragmatic leadership over the course of the pandemic won her widespread plaudits.”
It makes me wonder if he even lives here as he supposedly does. Colmed’s job was never to lead the pandemic. All I saw them do was complain about anything the government tried and then after a long time announced their disastrous short circuit plan. At least among the people I know, Iskia is not a popular figure at all.
That article was written by John Bartlett, a stringer who writes for various “progressive” publications, feeding biased news to the comfortably-distant “woke” allowing them to solidarize without any personal inconvenience.
In that article, he is recycling the same propaganda mentioned briefly here
I never seriously questioned the integrity of the major news sources until I started reading the bs they published during the estallido social. Maybe they get away with it because Chile is far away and relatively unimportant, and hence escapes closer scrutiny.
Yep - same guy.
Not sure about popularity, as I do think she is quite popular on the left and has been a great addition for Boric in the campaign, however, I completely agree with your position in regards to her involvement of fighting the pandemic. Colmed was always only a bystander and mostly a very critical one at that. I cannot see how she should be congratulated at all for the handling of the pandemic in Chile.
feargle - I think you have a good point. We are enough off of the radar that no one questions that sort of coverage because they have no personal experience.
In the end, according to the polls, half the population is supporting someone who is from an ABC1 background, who never worked an honest day in a real job, or started and worked their own business, or even obtained a university degree despite being a leader of “the” “student movement”, advancing directly into a tax-payer financed job at what 25 times more than the minimum wage, who is on drugs for TOC and who knows what else???
WTF???
I get the Pino repressive thing and all that, but that was a long long time ago with 30 years of center-left rule modifying the Constitution and eliminating poverty to the best numbers in Ibero-America, measures which even the right now support and all that means nothing??? Let’s regress and go directly to Allende 2 and down the tube???
My husband is a lawyer. He knows lots of lawyers, so I do too. I can count of my hand 5 that are not the brightest bulbs, but even they managed to do their thesis, internship and pass the “exámen de grado” even if it took a few times. My husband says that a lot of universities cap the exámen attempts at 3, but the U doesn’t have a limit. If he can’t even be bothered to pass the exam because it was hard for him, what can you expect from him as the leader of a country?
Even María Pía is a lawyer, and with a degree from the UC.
Par for the course for the Guardian, that must be the third or fourth hit job they’ve published on Kast in the space of a week, of course including the “his dad was a Nazi!” spiel. They were gushing with praise for Hugo Chavez back in the day, so no surprises there.
Over the last few years, Mary Anastasia O’Grady, who wrote that article, is one of the few foreign journalists who isn’t afraid to mention stuff that most of the others hacks gloss over.
“…In a video that circulated in 2018, he (Boric) delighted in a T-shirt featuring the assassinated Sen. Jaime Guzmán with a bullet in his forehead.
Against this backdrop, Mr. Kast’s offer of peace and a return to prosperity doesn’t sound so bad*”