Lectures: 96
(In Memory of Rodrigo Pica)
In reality, we must consider the warning of the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, as correct, regarding the fact that if the State does not collect what is necessary to implement its social policies, Chile could face a new and severe state of convulsion. There is no doubt that Chileans have already lost hope that the current government of Gabriel Boric will be able, with the assent of the right-wing opposition, to satisfy the acute pending demands in terms of health, work, salary, education, welfare, housing and Other themes.
It is not for nothing that the polls and the latest electoral results indicate a high level of disapproval of the authorities and a very severe discredit of the political class as a whole. Likewise, there is a state of great social irritability that is expressed in the most diverse ways, including the increase in organized crime that devastates the entire territory and that manifests itself with much more anger than before.
Of course it is not in the Minister’s idea to appeal to the people so that with their mobilization and protest they press in favor of tax reform and greater tax collection. What the head of the Treasury does is nothing more than to frighten the right and the big businessmen so that they support this and other official initiatives that, for the rest, are not lukewarm enough and nothing revolutionary. However, immediately the opposition press, the right-wing parliamentary majority and the employers’ entities have accused Minister Marcel of “blackmailing” them to achieve their purposes. Warning La Moneda that they will not accept their policy of raising taxes in one of the nations with the greatest asymmetry in the world between the income of rich and poor.
For the rest, fear already exists regarding a new outbreak in the population. Teachers and students announce strikes and marches once they return from their winter break. Practically half of transport users also refuse to pay their fares and it is feared that the increase in toll charges, electricity and other services will become a trigger for discontent next July, as occurred in last.
Despite the ministerial bravado, the political and business opposition is more confident that the government is going to repress social discontent, just as it is currently doing in the southern macrozone with indigenous claims. Imprisoning, as we know, leaders who in the past were considered heroes by those who are in La Moneda today. In addition to giving the military and police a license even to kill by virtue of the states of emergency that it decrees. Claiming victims every day among whom it is often not known if they are real criminals (among them many minors). Something difficult to explain when, just a year ago, the new government promised to implement a profound renewal of the Carabineros in consideration of its excessive repression and flagrant violations of Human Rights.
At this point, it is very unlikely that the Government will appeal to the mobilization of the people to accompany and enforce its program. Boric and the political groups that accompany him are not Allende or Popular Unity. Rather, what is being observed is that the governing center-left wants to reconcile positions with the right and the bosses’ organizations. Excited to get some social sensitivity from the most refractory sectors. Without acknowledging that they are increasingly emboldened by the setback they caused the Executive in its constitutional project and by the hypocritical support that these sectors have been reaping from the probity scandals that affect the new authorities.
Scandalous episodes, certainly, in which once again huge fiscal resources are illegally transferred to foundations and political operators belonging to parties that, until a few months ago, boasted of representing a new ethic in politics. By the way, he lashes out at the Concertacionistas who were defeated in the last presidential and parliamentary elections and who now, curiously, are summoned to join the new government teams.
Make no mistake: the fear of the people that the right-wing, their media outlets, and the powerful bosses always and everywhere feel is also shared by those who came to power without demonstrating ideological forcefulness, courage, and programmatic solvency. So much so that those who eagerly seek to shake off the responsibility that fell on them in that Social Outbreak of 2019 that was actually mitigated by the Pandemic that affected the world and our country. A social revolt that, of course, can be repeated when inequalities persist and the impunity committed by the enemies of the people is repeated. Among those who are now recognized as the whole of the political class.
By Juan Pablo Cardenas S.
