Chile
Donned spontaneously by thousands of young women streaming into downtown Santiago to celebrate the electoral victory of Michelle Bachelet on 15 January 2006, Chile’s tri-coloured presidential sash suddenly became the fashion statement of a generation.
Bachelet, a 54-year-old former health and defence minister, handily beat her opponent to become the first woman elected to govern Chile. And while their platforms were barely distinguishable – jobs, social welfare, market-oriented economic growth and global integration – the contenders starkly epitomize two contrasting faces of contemporary Chile. On the one hand there was the Harvard-trained billionaire entrepreneur from the political right, espousing his Catholic faith and traditional family values. On the other there was the public health paediatrician and socialist militant, professed agnostic and single mother of three, who had once been detained in a torture centre and later exiled.
Bachelet belongs to the centre-left Concertación coalition that has governed Chile for 16 years, since the end of military rule in 1990. The recent elections also swept its candidates into a Congressional majority, allowing the new President a running start on her pledge to increase spending on social welfare. Pension reform is high on her agenda, as are improvements to public education and health services.
During his six-year term, outgoing President Ricardo Lagos kept the business élites happy, signing no less than half a dozen free trade agreements. Concessions for roadways, utilities and other public infrastructure not already privatized by his predecessors were sold to the highest bidder. In one of his farewell appearances, Lagos reaped almost as much applause as Bono in a U2 concert in Chile’s infamous National Stadium, site of deaths and detentions following General Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 military coup.
Pinochet, now 90, bequeathed to Chile what may be his final ignominy when US banking authorities uncovered his personal fortune of at least $27 million stashed in secret accounts. Indicted on charges of tax evasion and false passports, he’s been in and out of house arrest for ongoing murder and torture investigations and is more likely to die than be sentenced.
Far from the political turmoil and brutal repression of the 1970s and 1980s, today’s Chile is peaceful, democratic and prosperous – for the privileged. But this narrow strip of land between the Pacific and the Andes, spanning deserts and icebergs, has social and economic inequalities as extreme as its geography.
In Santiago’s ubiquitous skyscrapers and shopping malls, modernity and wealth are everywhere to be seen. An estimated seven million mobile phones out-chirp the birds; car alarms are the new national anthem. It’s easy to be blinded by the glitter and the glass into seeing the sheen of success reflected across the social spectrum.
But behind Chile’s reputation as a Latin American economic tiger is an income distribution so skewed that it ranks among the worst in world, in the same league as Namibia, Brazil and South Africa.
Around a million Chileans earn the minimum wage of $225 a month. Not that a full-time job guarantees an exit from poverty: in this nation of runaway consumer credit, personal indebtedness is more widespread than malnutrition, and even the pizza parlours offer slices by instalment.
Popular movements are more quiescent than restive these days, product, some believe, of the consumer culture: the ‘haves’ are consumed by consuming and the ‘have-nots’ are consumed by survival. The revolutionary transformations that inspired so many to fight for freedom and democracy in the past are being carried out by new and re-emerging social actors, including environmentalists, urban cyclists, women, university students, indigenous rights activists and the indomitable poor.
At a glance
- Leader
- President Michelle Bachelet, who took office on 11 March 2006.
- Economy
- GNI per capita: US$4,910 (Argentina $3,720, United States $41,400).
- Monetary unit
- Chilean peso.
- Main exports
- Copper accounts for almost half of all exports, and current record-high prices have brought a windfall. Also fresh fruit, fishmeal, paper and wine. Chile has signed bilateral free trade agreements with all comers (including the EU, the US, Canada, Mexico, South Korea and China). Foreign investment abounds, especially in privatized utilities, many of which were swallowed up by financial conglomerates both transnational and domestic.
- People
- 16.1 million. Some 90% live in urban areas. People per square kilometre 21 (UK 245).
- Health
- Infant mortality 8 per 1,000 live births (Argentina 16, US 7). 95% of Chileans have access to clean water and 92% to adequate sanitation.
- Environment
- Natural resources are under threat from deforestation and mining. A multi- national manoeuvre to ‘relocate’ two glaciers in order to get at the gold beneath was scaled back after nationwide protests. In Santiago, air pollution from vehicles is so noxious it can obscure the city’s Andean backdrop for weeks at a stretch.
- Culture
- 9 out of 10 Chileans are mestizo (mixed Spanish and indigenous descent). The Mapuche (some 10% of population) in the south are the main indigenous group, with Aymara communities in the northern desert and the Rapa Nui on Easter Island.
- Religion
- Catholics predominate, but Mormonism and evangelical Protestantism are growing.
- Language
- Spanish. Mapudungun is spoken by Mapuche elders and Aymara can be heard along the border with Bolivia, but most native languages have disappeared.
- Sources
- World Guide, State of the World’s Children 2006, UNDP
- Last profiled
- www.newint.org/issue270/profile.htm
NI assessment
- Income distribution
- Scandalously top-heavy concentration of wealth, with the poorest 10% receiving under 2% of income and consumption, while the richest 10% account for 47%.
Previously reviewed 1995 
- Literacy
- Some 96% of adults can read but understanding the fine print of Chilean legalese is another story. An estimated 3.5 million people use the internet. 1995
Previously reviewed 1995 - Life expectancy
- 78 years (Argentina 75, US 78). A package of reforms guaranteeing universal free access to treatment for major diseases was enacted in 2005. Previously reviewed 1995
- Position of women
- Incoming President Bachelet has appointed _ministras_ to half her Cabinet posts, but women still earn 30-40% less than men, and the more educated the woman, the bigger the gap.
Previously reviewed 1995 
- Freedom
- Court-ordered gag rulings on media criticism of authorities have been eased. The criminal code is being overhauled and public trials and juries are being introduced. Previously reviewed 1995
- Sexual minorities
- Homosexuality is legal but you’d have to look hard to find openly gay men and women in public life. But in Santiago at least, gay culture is coming out of the closet. The age of consent is higher for gays.
- NI Assessment (Politics)
- President Bachelet’s campaign slogan was ‘I Am Continuity and Change’, which begged a few questions. While no one expects Bachelet to veer off the free-market speedway that has set the country’s economic course over the past three decades, there are faint hopes that this driver, with her platform to strengthen the social welfare safety net, will leave fewer casualties along the roadside.
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Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
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- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
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