Thousands march in Chile to press for progress in social reforms

Santiago. Thousands of workers and students marched through the center of Santiago on Thursday, in response to a call from the Unitary Central of Workers (CUT), the largest multi-union in the country, which is pressing for the approval of the blocked social reforms in Congress.

This is the first massive demonstration called by the CUT in the two years of government of the leftist Gabriel Boric, who took power on March 11, 2022 with the promise of launching a robust plan for social transformations.

However, this reform package remains semi-paralyzed in Congress due to lack of agreement with the right-wing opposition.

“There is a right that defends the entire business world (…), and having a majority in parliament has not allowed the reforms to advance,” Silvia Silva, a 43-year-old preschool teacher, told AFP. who attended the march.

Boric’s government suffered a tough legislative defeat a year ago, when the “idea of ​​legislating” a tax project intended to finance a health reform and a pension reform was rejected.

“We want to make a call to the government to effectively listen to the transversal demands and the social movement,” David Acuña, president of the CUT and who led the march that took place along the central Alameda Avenue, told journalists.

The demonstration was attended by workers from the National Group of Tax Employees, the College of Teachers, the Airport Federation and the National Confederation of Health Employees, among other groups.

The CUT did not provide figures for participation in the march, which filled several blocks of the main avenue of the Chilean capital.

Before starting the protest, a group of leaders displayed a banner outside the presidential palace of La Moneda that said: “Inexperience and arrogance do not allow us to advance.”

Boric assumed the Presidency at the age of 36, as the youngest president in the history of Chile, supported by a group of left-wing parties.

In Congress, a reform of Chile’s pension system, established by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), which established a pioneering system of completely individual capitalization, remains without major progress.

Parliament is also slowly discussing a reform of the private health system.