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Chile 2025. Special report and news feed
- La rédaction
- 10 hours ago
- 24 min read
To follow the presidential election in Chile, a news feed, supplemented by an evolving dossier (articles, analyses, investigations, interviews...), live access to which was reserved for our subscribers.
So, in the end, it was Kast , the son of a Nazi officer. He had no platform, except to cultivate fear. He managed to rally the votes of the "liberal" bourgeoisie, the very same class that had so readily accepted Pinochet's dictatorship; but also, no doubt, of the "ordinary people" who were easily duped by aggressive propaganda. The other media outlets were right (the defeatist press, soon to be collaborationist). But Jeannette Jara, the candidate of the entire left, had garnered "only" 26.85% of the vote in the first round. With 40% of the votes cast in the second round, she considerably improved her score. But it wasn't enough to beat Kast. Clearly, Jara suffered from her "communist" label. For many Chileans today, communism is no longer Cuba but Venezuela. And they see the concrete consequences of the Maduro regime: there are now more than half a million Venezuelans refugees in Chile (out of nearly 8 million Venezuelans who have chosen exile). Most of these undocumented migrants are condemned to poverty. And extreme poverty obviously fosters crime.
In other words: the "communist" Nicolas Maduro (staunchly supported in France by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who sees him as a model of the "democracy" he would like to establish here under the guise of a Sixth Republic) is the main architect of the defeat of another, genuine, communist. This lesson should be pondered.
Don't despair, though. In Chile, all is not lost. First, Kast won't really have a majority in Parliament to govern. Second, outside of political parties, Chilean "civil society," embodied by young figures, has managed to form and organize itself. It hasn't had its last word.
Thank you to those who were kind enough to follow this special edition live from Chile, which required a considerable effort from us, given the extreme modesty of our resources.
To conclude this segment, before further analysis in the coming days, here's one more song, "Cuando cuando," by Joé y el Toro. It's a song about love, politics, and hope:
"Just tell me how long / I'll wait for you as long as you want / I'll wait until the day cows fly / and the planets align / Just tell me there's a chance / However slim / I'll wait for you until the day / it rains upwards / and the mountains move / Just tell me how long, when, when, when / I'll sit and wait for you, until you tell me / when, when, when, when / I'd move mountains if you told me / when, when, when, when / Even if that day is far away / And there is no when / Invent a when / And I'll keep waiting / If you need time, I'll give it to you, it's free. / I'll wait for you until the day winter is hot and summer is cold. / Luckily I'm patient. / You're lucky." I will wait for you until the day you simply can no longer love me. Just tell me when. I will sit and wait until you tell me when. I would move mountains for you if only you would tell me when, when, when. Even if that day is far away, and there is no when, invent a when that I will continue to wait for.
10:59 PM . Ouch, things are moving fast. Kast is back in the lead, but there are still 80% of the ballots to count. In the meantime, another song, with Mon Laferte, "Otra noche de llorar": Another night to cry. Let's hope not...
10:55 PM . 33,215 votes counted (less than 5%). Kast: 52.62% Jara: 47.38%
The result is expected to be much closer than everyone predicted (except for the humanities ). A song to listen to while waiting for the final results, featuring Francisca Valenzuela
Song in Chile is part of a long history where rural folklore, protest songs, rock and hip-hop intersect, with some great figures who have become political as well as musical symbols.
Pioneers and Nueva Canción
Violeta Parra: a founding figure, collector of folklore and author of songs that have become classics, she paved the way for a popular song rooted in the peasant world and social struggles.
Víctor Jara: singer, director and activist, linked to Popular Unity, whose voice became emblematic of the Nueva Canción Chilena before his assassination after the 1973 coup.
Nueva Canción groups: Quilapayún, Inti‑Illimani, Illapu, but also Patricio Manns, Rolando Alarcón, Margot Loyola, Isabel and Ángel Parra, who combine Andean instruments, political poetry and support for popular movements.
From dictatorship to pop/rock
Under the dictatorship, part of this movement went underground or into exile, while Chilean rock and pop took over the role of social critic (Los Prisioneros foremost among them). From the 2000s onward, a new generation revisited this legacy: Los Bunkers, Gepe, Javiera Mena, Manuel García, Francisca Valenzuela, among others, combined political memory with the codes of pop, rock, and electronic music.
Contemporary Voices
Today, two female names dominate the international scene:
Ana Tijoux, a French-Chilean rapper, who mixes hip-hop, jazz and political lyrics (feminism, anti-racism, social struggles) and whose tracks like "1977" or "Somos Sur" have become references in Spanish rap.
Mon Laferte, a singer who blends bolero, rock and pop, and whose songs like "Tu falta de querer" have propelled her into international charts, while also embracing a feminist and committed stance.
Underlying it all, Chilean song has often served as a soundtrack to the great moments in the country's political history – Unidad Popular, dictatorship, social estallido – which explains its symbolic weight in the collective imagination.
9:55 PM . The polling stations close in 5 minutes.
Photo by Victor Reyes.
9 p.m. The results of the vote by Chileans in France are not yet known. Jeannette Jara is far ahead with 56.85% of the votes, 62.9% in Spain, 67.85% in the Netherlands, 74.82% in Norway, 75.71% in Denmark and 86.59% in Switzerland.
In contrast, José Antonio Kast, son of a Nazi officer who "took refuge" in Chile at the end of World War II, obtained... 95.45% of the votes in Israel! Kast also came out on top in China and the United Arab Emirates.
ANALYSIS Kast's Rasputin
Tonight, if the far-right candidate, José Antonio Kast, is elected, who will be in his entourage?
Cristián Valenzuela, the political strategist closest to José Antonio Kast
José Antonio Kast's inner circle did not spring up overnight in 2025: it is rooted in two solid matrices of the Chilean right, the UC Law Faculty of the 1980s (1) and the galaxy of the Jaime Guzmán Foundation (2). Around the Republican candidate gravitate a group of former university classmates, trained in Gremialism (3) under the tutelage of Guzmán, and a younger generation from the foundation, now in charge of the party's intellectual and programmatic apparatus.
In the inner circle are lawyers and business engineers who have known Kast for four decades and see themselves as the "crisis committee" capable of calling him at three in the morning to adjust a move or secure a strategic shift. These Derecho UC alumni—Julio Pérez, Patricio Dussaillant, Marco Antonio González, and others—carry the long memory of the project of an authoritarian, Catholic, and anti-statist right wing, as it was forged at the university and in Guzmán's work on the 1980 Constitution.
The second core group was formed from the Jaime Guzmán Foundation, a veritable training ground for far-right leaders, from which several of the masterminds of the Republican campaign emerged. Lawyer Cristián Valenzuela plays the role of chief strategist there, often described as Kast's "brains," in charge of communication and ideological framing, while younger figures, such as Sebastián Figueroa or the lawyer Carmen Sosa, work on the profile of a future cabinet and on the legislative translation of campaign promises.
Cristián Valenzuela is the lawyer and political strategist closest to José Antonio Kast, often described as the "mastermind" or "Rasputin" of the Republican campaign. A law graduate from the Catholic University (Derecho UC) and trained in the Gremialist school of thought associated with Jaime Guzmán, Valenzuela first worked as a legislative advisor at the Jaime Guzmán Foundation, then in government offices within the right wing (chief of staff at the Undersecretariat of Finance and later at the Ministry of Energy under Piñera). He subsequently became director of development at the UC law school and executive director of the think tank Ideas Republicanas, the Republican Party's policy laboratory. Several investigations have, however, highlighted his remuneration as an "expert" in the System of High Public Administration, responsible for selecting senior officials, even as he attacked public employees in a viral op-ed, calling them "parasites," which fuels criticism of his dual role as a far-right strategist and a consultant paid by the state.
The network surrounding Kast thus combines personal loyalty with doctrinal density. His inner circle provides Kast with an ideological framework that goes far beyond the figure of the "anti-establishment family man": a right-wing "republican" project embracing the Guzman legacy, articulated around an ultraliberal vision of the economy, a repressive conception of public order, and unwavering moral conservatism. Behind a few faces under 40, brought to the forefront to appeal to female voters and the urban middle class, the heart of the machine remains controlled by white men from the same university background and the same foundation, for whom the ideal Chile resembles more the ordered utopia of the 1980s than the demands for equality and diversity championed by the social upheaval.
See also, on the humanities : “Chile, the faces of the far right,” published on December 19, 2021 (a brief portrait of the Chilean far-right, nostalgic for Pinochet): https://www.leshumanites-media.com/post/chili-les-visages-de-l-extr%C3%AAme-droite
(1). Faculty of Law of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, one of the oldest and most prestigious in the country, founded in 1888 to train legal elites from an explicitly Christian perspective.
(2) The Jaime Guzmán Foundation is a Chilean conservative right-wing think tank, created in 1991 to perpetuate the ideological legacy of Senator Jaime Guzmán, the principal architect of the 1980 Constitution. The Jaime Guzmán Foundation is considered one of the main centers of thought for the Chilean right, with a strong presence in Congress through consulting contracts funded by parliamentary groups. Accredited as an NGO with consultative status at the UN, it combines doctrinal work, training of professionals, and legislative lobbying, serving a conservative agenda regarding society, family, and human rights, and an ultraliberal agenda regarding the economy.
(3) Gremialism (gremialismo) is a Chilean right-wing political movement that emerged in the 1960s at the Catholic University of Santiago around Jaime Guzmán, and which subsequently provided the ideological framework for a segment of the current right wing. Doctrinally, Gremialism combines the social doctrine of the Church, anti-communism, national Catholicism, and the defense of a society structured by strong "intermediary bodies" between the individual and the state. This vision justifies both the critique of party democracy and support for a "subsidiary" authoritarian state, as later enshrined in the 1980 Constitution, of which Guzmán was one of the principal architects. Even today, the Jaime Guzmán Foundation and a portion of the republican right explicitly claim this legacy.
REPORT: The Mapuche, an indigenous people of Chile, fear for their future under the far right
From left to right: The Truful River (or Truful-Truful), an Andean river in the Araucanía region of southern Chile, famous for its waterfalls and volcanic canyons ; Millaray Huichalaf (center of photo) is a Mapuche-Huilliche machi (spiritual and healing authority) and one of the central figures in the defense of the Pilmaiquen River in southern Chile; The first hydroelectric power station on the Pilmaiquen, built in the mid-20th century, is located opposite
of a botanical garden managed by the Mapuche people which showcases native trees.
The Mapuche, Chile's largest Indigenous group, have endured centuries of struggle. They first resisted the Inca conquest, then the Spanish. They fought back when the fledgling Chilean state annexed their territories and when military dictator Augusto Pinochet devastated their communities by ending collective ownership, allowing the confiscation and sale of their lands to logging companies. Now, the Mapuche, who make up about 12% of Chile's 19 million people, fear a more violent chapter in their history is yet to come, as the country prepares to elect its next president on Sunday in an election expected to hand power to the far right.
“The situation will worsen with a far-right government. Our prisons will hold more Mapuche people,” says Mapuche political scientist Karen Rivas Catalán, 37, from her lush property where chickens graze. The frontrunner to win Sunday’s election is José Antonio Kast, a former ultraconservative legislator who promises to deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants and grant emergency powers to the military and police to fight crime. His rival, the communist Jeannette Jara, who represents the ruling coalition, has also adopted a law-and-order platform to appeal to voters.
The Mapuche people are in the crosshairs of a planned repression.
A turning point for the Mapuche came during the 2019 social uprising, when Chilean protesters demanding a change to the country's market economy adopted the Mapuche flag and breathed new life into their cause. Leftist President Gabriel Boric came to power promising to withdraw troops from their lands and replace the dictatorship-era constitution with one that would enshrine their rights. But Boric quickly redeployed the army. Mapuche armed groups attacked security forces. The government extended the state of emergency. Voters rejected the proposed constitution, which would have brought about radical social change.
The Mapuche conflict simmering in the rolling hills and verdant forests of southern Araucanía is one of the most delicate issues facing Chile's next president. But unlike previous presidential elections, possible solutions to this unrest have barely been mentioned in a campaign focused on voters' fears about organized crime and illegal immigration, to the detriment of almost everything else.
When the Mapuche people were mentioned, it was in the context of plans for a severe security crackdown. The latest version of Kast's platform promised that his government would "use all constitutional, legal, and administrative tools, all intelligence and technological means, all the force and all the resources necessary to eradicate terrorism in the region." Kast concluded his campaign in Temuco, a southern city widely considered the capital of the Mapuche people. In a fiery speech delivered from behind bulletproof glass, Kast declared that the Araucanía region around Temuco was "stricken by fear, terror, and vandalism." "These are cowards who attack at night, their faces covered, and who forgive nothing, respect no one's rights," he said of Mapuche militants who have carried out sabotage attacks against soldiers and logging companies they consider invaders of their ancestral lands. "We are going to dismantle this group," he added, to the cheers of his supporters.
For years, the region has been under the control of Chile's militarized police, whom the Mapuche accuse of using excessive force. The group's distrust of the state has intensified in recent years with scandals such as the killings of civilians by security forces, including that of an unarmed young Mapuche farmer in 2018. In a dramatic case, a police intelligence unit was investigated in 2017 for fabricating evidence to falsely implicate Mapuche people in terrorist activities. The trial of the accused officers is ongoing.
The indigenous group fears a return to the conflicts of the dictatorship era.
For Angelina Cayuqueo, 58, a Mapuche language teacher, this election is existential. She is consumed by a “terrible fear” that, under a Kast government, her community will relive the traumas of Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship. “We already fear that things will turn out like they did under Pinochet, because that’s what they intend to do,” she says, while picking cherries on her land. During his two previous presidential campaigns, Kast repeatedly expressed his desire to amend a land restitution law enacted after Chile’s return to democracy in 1990, which allows the Mapuche to reclaim ancestral lands seized under the dictatorship.
At his last rally, Kast criticized the program, calling it a way "to expropriate land and give it to those who occupy it illegally." Although hundreds of thousands of hectares that had been given to non-Mapuche farmers and logging companies during the dictatorship have been returned to the Mapuche in recent decades, the program has done little to change the marginalization and endemic poverty of this group. "For them, it's not right that we, the Mapuche, are getting our land back," says Angelina Cayuqueo. "They wish the Mapuche people had never existed in history."
Victor Caivano and Isabel Debre / Associated Press
6:15 PM
6 PM MAJOR INTERVIEW Claudio Fuentes, political scientist: "Polarization is not perceptible in daily life, but it is very strong at the political level."
Claudio Fuentes, director of the UDP's Institute for Social Science Research, explains why Chilean polarization is more noticeable in the public sphere than within families, and how different social "niches" are grappling with the choice between hope, fear, and resignation. He adds that Chile has not shifted to the right, according to his polls. "In terms of priorities, this middle segment wants more government intervention, wants guarantees, wants protection, wants the police, but also wants a certain level of security and protection, which is what Kast promises."
There has been much talk about polarization. Do your survey responses reflect this? Examining the findings, we find that many Chileans still identify as centrists, for example, or say they have no problem sitting down at a table with someone of a different political opinion.
Regarding polarization, we asked the following question: to what extent do you feel polarized within your family, extended family, friends, work, country, and politics? And, generally, there's a perception that there isn't polarization in my immediate circle, but that it exists at the national level, and particularly in politics. The perception of polarization isn't present in daily life, perhaps due to a kind of bubble effect: we spend time with people who are closer to us and, consequently, we have fewer ideological disagreements. But it's very strong at the political level. In other words, polarization is perceived as a national phenomenon, but one that doesn't affect my personal life.
You said you wanted to know what Chileans talk about, since they don't really talk about politics at the dinner table. So what do they talk about? Security and immigration, which are the topics addressed by the presidential candidates, or do they talk about other things?
The issue of fear and insecurity is clearly a topic on the table. I don't know if it comes up in Sunday dinner conversations, but it certainly does in chats with friends. People are living in a state of alert, due to this mass media coverage, in addition to the sheer volume of information.
The other very prominent issue concerns economic instability, the feeling that things are not working very well.
The other phenomenon is a desire to have a better time, a better quality of life. A desire to travel, to go out, to have healthier relationships—and this also generates conversations. Today, Chile is very segmented into niches; conversations will be very different depending on the group you're talking to, whether it's young or old, high or low socioeconomic levels.
Photo Carlos Rodríguez / The Clinic
The latest Clima Social poll asked respondents about their feelings regarding the second round; 42% had negative words, and the most repeated were "hope" and "fear".
First, this is a long cycle, following five years of uninterrupted elections. This is the first time we'll have two years without elections. So there's clearly election fatigue. Second, there's a mix of emotions. On the one hand, those with more positive and hopeful feelings are the Kast voters. People who identify with the right tend to have a more optimistic view of the end of the government; the idea of change is important. The progressive "tribe" is very uncertain; they're very afraid of losing their social benefits. This represents about 35 to 40% of people who are afraid of what's to come.
Afraid of what?
Because of security concerns and the armed forces, the erosion of social rights is very pronounced in this segment. And there's another segment that's optimistic and tends to lean more to the right. They tend to want things to change quickly and radically. I think Kast targeted this segment well—the desire for radical change—which is what he proposed in his platform. And then there's a segment we've estimated at around 20%, almost 30%, which is what we call "resigned pragmatism." That is, they want things, they want things to happen to them, but they also have a certain sense of resignation. A certain frustration, a certain way of saying, "I have to keep working." But they want things to change: they want jobs, they don't want this feeling of insecurity. And this segment, which is very anti-political, is very affected by this. This segment is against politics in general and doesn't believe in it much, but they still have to go and vote.
Can we establish a link between these 20% and some and the voters of Parisi?
Yes, absolutely. That's where Parisi's voter base lies. It consists of the most disadvantaged social classes, the lower middle class, primarily men. These are segments of the population that are very concerned, first and foremost, about security, then about employment and economic growth.
You also asked respondents how they saw Chile's future over the next four years, and the dominant response was "optimistic" or "very optimistic." Is this because Chileans are shifting to the right? Are many relieved by the end of the Boric government?
First of all, I think Chile hasn't shifted to the right. Because when you look at what it means to be right-wing and what it means to be left-wing, being right-wing is generally linked to a certain way of thinking, a certain worldview. For example, right-wing people in Chile are more pro-market. They are less fond of the state, so they are more conservative on issues of individual liberties, abortion, euthanasia, and sexual diversity. The left wants more government intervention, but it is also more supportive of individual liberties. What we've seen in the polls is that these ways of thinking remain more or less stable, and that in fact, this middle segment, which will determine the outcome of the election, voted first against the left-wing constitution, then against the right-wing constitution.
So, can we say that all of Chile has shifted to the right? No, it depends on the circumstances. And I think we're currently in a situation where the demand from this particular segment is very favorable to order, very eager to restore a certain social order. And Kast promises them that. I think that, following the logic that all of Latin America has followed regarding the replacement of governments, they're saying to themselves: we need change, let's give Kast a chance. But there's a segment, 40%, that will continue not to vote for Kast.
In your polls, a large majority of Chileans support abortion in three cases, euthanasia, sex education, and gender education, which also marked the campaign. It's important to know that even if Kast is elected, in terms of values, there has already been an irreversible shift in Chile.
Absolutely, that's the great paradox of this election: you have a candidate who had to hide or not mention a part of his platform that, according to him, concerns individual liberties, and which could cost him the election. He knows that if he addresses these issues, he'll lose voters. For example, women. In general, since Bachelet's first term, starting in 2006, they began voting more progressively, and this trend has continued. In fact, it was women who gave Boric the victory. Today, women are much more liberal than men on these issues: abortion, euthanasia, sex education in schools, the morning-after pill—all these issues. And yet, they are more inclined to vote for Kast. Why? Because security has become the number one priority. So it's not that women are less liberal; they haven't become radicalized in that direction.
Given this week's debate, one of the biggest challenges for the next president will be unity. Ultimately, it comes down to a choice between a Republican and a Communist candidate. How do you unite the electorate after that? How do we govern this country?
Absolutely, I think this will pose a problem during the next term. The current Congress is more polarized than the previous one, there are fewer channels of communication between its members, and its political experience is less, as it includes many more newcomers in the areas of legislation and negotiation. And with very different visions for the country between the Kast camp and the progressive wing, managing this next administration will be very difficult.
Is Chile likely to experience four very turbulent years if Kast is to lead the country?
Much will depend on his ability to address the urgent issues he has identified—immigration, crime, and economic growth—without infringing on certain rights. If Parliament decides to ban abortion in three cases, there will obviously be a feminist backlash. Or to limit working hours to 40 per week, which has been the subject of debate. That's why he was careful to emphasize that he wouldn't do that, because he knows that once he started doing so, it could increase the level of conflict. But I think there will be a waiting period; in Chile, there has always been a period of adjustment.
Based on the responses of those interviewed, is it possible for a communist candidate to be elected in Chile?
I think the probability is low, because of course, the history of the Communist Party has a much stronger symbolic weight, and therefore it is very difficult for a person affiliated with the PC to become president...
At noon in Chile (4 p.m. in France), Jeanette Jara: voted.
5 p.m. (1 p.m. in Chile). Gas fraud
With a cloudy sky and With temperatures reaching 13°C, the Chilean capital experienced a somewhat cool election day in the morning, with the high expected to reach 20°C in the afternoon. By 10:00 AM, according to Servel ( the public body that organizes and oversees elections in Chile) , 98% of the votes had already been counted. As in the first round, long lines began forming at police stations for those wishing to abstain from voting.
José Antonio Kast voted at 10:00 a.m. The left-wing candidate was expected around noon to vote in Conchalí, and she had already spent a few minutes with the press this morning after arriving at her mother's house in the same municipality, where she had breakfast with her family. Shortly after 9:00 a.m., but in Punta Arenas, President Boric exercised his right to vote in this second round (photo opposite). In this context, he declared: “Today, for the last time as President of the Republic, I exercised my right to vote. This is an opportunity to emphasize that we must never take this right and this duty for granted. We must protect it, respect it, and honor it. We must also be aware of the responsibility that it entails. The decision of each of you has an impact on the common destiny of our homeland.”
A little later, former President Michelle Bachelet voted at La Reina. When asked whether her support for Jara, should Kast win, might affect her intentions to join the UN, she said: “It is not for me to decide the foreign policy of the president-elect. Now, the truth is that I have my principles and I don't sell out. I have my principles, and no one doubts my electoral choice. I think some people thought I wouldn't do anything because I had to protect my electorate. But the truth is, if I go to the United Nations, it will be for the same reason, without fearing pressure from anyone. A UN candidacy is a matter of state, not political affiliation.”
Meanwhile, one of the morning's controversies was the official complaint filed with Servel by Jeannette Jara's campaign team regarding an unprecedented situation involving the gas company Lipigas. Some of its customers received text messages explicitly urging the company to vote for far-right candidate José Antonio Kast in the second round: "Lipigas with Kast #Evopoli. Vote for Kast. #NoMigrantsDelincuentes. At Lipigas, we are committed to rebuilding our country! #ChileXlosChilenos #NoMigrantes #CaribeñosAlCaribe," read the curious message sent by the company to its customers via the LipiApp. The company responded by claiming its accounts had been hacked.
The first news reaching Chile regarding the second round concerns the closure of polling stations abroad. New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, and Japan, among others, were the first countries to open the polls for the 160,000 Chilean citizens voting abroad. According to unofficial figures, bad news arrived from New Zealand for Jeannette Jara in this second round. She obtained 68% of the vote, compared to 28% for Kast: the percentage seems promising, but it is the lowest result obtained by the left in that country (in 2021, Gabriel Boric won with 86% of the vote).
Headline of the newspaper Le Monde , this morning at 6 a.m.: "chronicle of a defeat foretold".
Yet Le Monde has a special correspondent on the ground. Proof of her professionalism: she left her home to go to the center of Santiago (she wouldn't dare venture beyond the affluent neighborhoods) to Plaza Baquedano, which is under construction and surrounded by wooden barriers. There, she still managed to meet Evangelina Gonzalez, a 37-year-old shop assistant. She is the only person "interviewed" (one sentence) in the entire article. Truly great journalism!
In the Maule region, 196 free transport services are operating at 100% to transport voters from rural areas to their polling stations.
4:00 PM. Defeat or victory: fear or love?
2:15 p.m. In memoriam. Violeta Parra
Violeta Parra (1917-1967) is the great founding figure of modern Chilean popular song, a singer, composer, poet, visual artist, and tireless collector of rural folklore. Born into a modest family of musicians and farmers, she traveled throughout the Chilean countryside from the 1950s onwards to collect songs, cuecas, and romances, which she recorded, rearranged, and broadcast on the radio, while also composing her own works.
In the 1950s and 60s, her stays in Europe, particularly in Paris, established her as an ambassador of a reinvented Chilean popular culture, before her return to Santiago where she created a Museum of Folk Art in Concepción and later the "Carpa de La Reina," a space for concerts and creative expression blending music, visual arts, and neighborhood life. Her repertoire—from "Gracias a la vida" to "Run Run se fue pa'l norte" and "Volver a los 17"—became a cornerstone of the future Nueva Canción Chilena, through its way of embracing love, poverty, injustice, and popular dignity.
Violeta Parra committed suicide in 1967, at the age of 49, leaving behind a dazzling body of work that still influences Chilean and Latin American song, as much through its melodies as through its conception of art as an act of memory and resistance.
2 p.m. In the rearview mirror
Since May 2021, there have already been 104 publications dedicated to Chile.
Some reading suggestions to get up to date.
In 2021-2022, around the time of Gabriel Boric's election and the work of the Constituent Assembly:
July 7, 2021. Chile: Elisa Loncon, for History
For Javier Agüero Águila, a professor of philosophy, the Mapuche academic Elisa Loncon, elected on July 4th as president of the Constituent Assembly of Chile, "is making democracy speak in a completely different way from how we have been taught to conceive of it. She is deconstructing the endogamous ecosystem of a political class which, in its incestuous self-reproduction, had given itself the means to prevail eternally."
November 21, 2021. Chile: a coin toss
Left or far-right? Two years after the massive social movement of 2019, Chile's future will be decided at the ballot box this Sunday, November 21. Presidential elections, but also legislative and senatorial elections, where independent candidates could emerge, such as Fabiola Campillai in the suburbs of Santiago, a factory worker who lost her sight after being shot by police.
December 19, 2021. Chile, the faces of the far right
Gabriel Boric won the second round of the presidential election with 55.8% of the vote: he embodies a "generation of thirty-somethings" ready to take over. But the far-right candidate, José Antonio Kast, garnered 44.13% (he had come out on top in the first round with nearly 28% of the vote). In his wake, 15 deputies entered the Chilean parliament under the banner of the Social Christian Front. A brief look at the Chilean far-right sphere, nostalgic for Pinochet.
Elisa Loncon: "Moving forward in the recognition of diversity and fundamental rights"
Elected president of Chile's Constituent Assembly, tasked with drafting a new constitution for the country, Mapuche academic Elisa Loncon gave an interview to the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle. Despite the obstacles in the process, she shared her hopes for a more egalitarian and inclusive country.
Chile. Time to Live, by Daniel Ramirez
Referencing a 1972 song by Osvaldo Rodríguez, philosopher Daniel Ramirez analyzes the election of Gabriel Boric to the presidency of Chile, the culmination of a long and seemingly endless wait, but one that must not ignore the obstacles that will arise along the way. Without illusions or messianism, the youth of a future world is nonetheless possible.
December 22, 2021. Chile: Elisa Loncon resigns as president of the Constituent Assembly
She paved the way. But the presidency of the Constituent Assembly in Chile is a rotating one. After six months in office, bolstered by the election of Gabriel Boric, Elisa Loncon is preparing to hand over the reins on January 4th. Who will succeed her? The humanities are placing their bets on a 42-year-old scientist who campaigned for an ecological constitution.
March 11, 2022: From Allende to Boric, the return of the left in Chile
Elected on December 19th against the far-right candidate José-Antonio Kast, the young and new president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, takes office this Friday, March 11, 2022. Economy, migration tensions, the Mapuche question, new Constitution: what difficulties await him for the first months of his term?
March 12, 2022. Gabriel Boric: "Together on the path of hope"
"We are deeply Latin American, and from this continent, we will ensure that the voice of the South is once again heard and respected in a changing world, in the face of all the challenges we face," said the new Chilean president Gabriel Boric yesterday in Santiago, during his inaugural address.
September 4, 2022. Chile: A historic day for rebuilding
Approve or reject? Chile votes to approve or reject a new Constitution, drawn up by a citizens' assembly, which would turn the page on the Pinochet years, a mix of dictatorship and unashamed neo-liberalism, and which would set Chile on the path of a true ecological revolution.
September 5, 2022. Chile: The reasons for a failure
Defeated in the December 2021 presidential election, the far-right, nostalgic for Pinochet, has had its revenge. With record turnout, though marked by youth abstention and a campaign polluted by a multitude of fake news, Chileans rejected the proposed new Constitution by 61.9%. Two years earlier, however, 78.3% had overwhelmingly supported a constitutional change. Chile will have to wait a while longer to escape the extreme neoliberalism of the left. The heirs of the "Chicago Boys," who had rallied to Pinochet, have once again managed to keep the social and environmental demands that brought the left to power on a tight leash. And this time, without a coup.
September 7, 2022. Chile, at a crossroads
Cabinet reshuffle, difficult continuation of a constitutional revision process, defeat of the environmental movement, blocking of pension reform… What lessons can be learned from the victory of the "Rechazo" in the referendum of September 4th?
And also:
November 24, 2021. Chile on the road to gay marriage
December 30, 2021. Chile, with or without lithium?
Nature, a subject of rights? After Ecuador, will Chile be the second country in the world to enshrine this principle in its future constitution, currently being drafted? One issue is already attracting attention: lithium extraction, of which Chile is the world's second-largest producer. While this material is considered essential to the transition to "green energy," it causes serious ecological damage in the Atacama Desert, where it is extracted. And the anger fueled by powerful mining interests, the water crisis, and inequality is pushing Gabriel Boric's Chile to rethink the use of its resources. Somini Sengupta, a distinguished journalist for the New York Times, investigated the matter.
January 6, 2022. Cheers, Chile!
Following a marathon election, 39-year-old María Elisa Quinteros succeeded Elisa Loncon as president of the Constituent Assembly. Her vice-president, a sexual diversity activist, is 32. She is a public health researcher, he is a rural doctor. It goes without saying that healthcare reform will be central to the next Constitution. And let's not forget environmental issues. This Friday, January 7, demonstrations took place across the country against new lithium mining concessions that the outgoing president wants to grant to multinational corporations.
January 2, 2022. Estefanía Leigthon, aka Stfi!, the youth of Chilean muralism
One of her latest works, Equality, is a 60-meter-high mural painted on a 26-story building in Santiago. A self-taught artist, Estefanía Leighton, aka Stfi!, already has a substantial body of work behind her at the age of 33, scattered throughout Chile, Latin America, and Europe. Chilean muralism remains a particularly vibrant art form.
February 22, 2022. The last of the Yaghan people. With her, a language disappears.
In Chile, Cristina Calderón dedicated her life to preserving the Yaghan language.
May 24, 2023. Dried grass and other bits of straw (logbook entry, 05/24/2023)
What is certain is that Chilean director Felipe Gálvez Haberle will not win the Palme d'Or. His film Los Colones ("The Settlers") is being presented out of competition in the "Un Certain Regard" category. The film takes place in 1901, in the far south of Chile, and recounts the genocide of the Ona Indians in Tierra del Fuego, a vast and fertile territory that the Western white aristocracy of the time relentlessly sought to "civilize."
November 20, 2024. The (Indigenous) Uprisings of the Earth
Twelve portraits. Twelve testimonies. They came from Russia, the United States, Chile, Ecuador, Vanuatu, Brazil, Nepal, Chad, Papua New Guinea, and Borneo to make the voices of Indigenous peoples heard at the Baku Climate Conference. Are we ready to listen to what these advocates for the common good are telling us, in all their simplicity?
October 22, 2025. Indigenous voices calling for a change of course
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) congress, recently held in Abu Dhabi, voted to recognize ecocide as an international crime. The congress was also marked by the first World Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nature. This is not an exotic issue: as the rightful guardians of life on Earth, Indigenous peoples are now demanding to be fully involved in the governance of their territories. Activists and scientists, artists and community leaders: the proof in ten portraits.
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