This entry was prompted by two blog posts by ocasional forumite Tomás Bradanovic.
Over the years, I have lost any illusions about the Chilean system. Since the return of “Democracy” It has been a whited sepulcre which internationally sold the image of a progressive nation while successfully concealing truly astonishing levels of corruption and governmental incompetence.
The financial reforms undertaken by the Military government, and wisely left alone by early Concertación administrations bought an influx of wealth to the country. Materially, Chile had never been so well off.
Unfortunately the underlying venality of the local culture led to the widespread abuse of that wealth and a progressive accumulation of privilege and power by the astute and unscrupulous, right up to the present day.
This was actually foretold by José Piñera, one of the architects of the reforms now being dismantled by the Boric government.
These recent posts by Bradanovic feature two scandals; the second, truly sordid Spiniak affair, is seen as an attempt by the then-government to divert attention from the MOP-Gate scandal where the extent of revealed ministerial corruption threatened to bring down the Lagos administration.
Tomás blames that government for opening the Pandora’s Box of systemic corruption, demagoguery, and the abysmal administration we see in present-day Chile.
…Las prácticas políticas más sucias, el enriquecimiento ilícito más descarado y el uso del poder sin frenos para conseguir ventajas políticas fue lo que caracterizó al primer gobierno socialista que tuvo Chile después de Salvador Allende.
So for those who insist in seeing the current conflicted situation in terms of a Right vs Left struggle, I would say don’t believe any of it, just hope that forces for Good, (or at least for Reason!) will eventually prevail, after all no hay mal que dure cien años.
