New hope in the fight against neoliberalism!

In 1973 the democratically elected leader of Chile, socialist Salvador Allende, was toppled from power. Army general Augusto Pinochet became the leader of Chile for the next sixteen years. During that time, the Chicago Boys – a name attributed to the economists educated in the 70’s at the University of Chicago, where Milton Freedman was a leading figure – had the perfect opportunity to transform Chile into the laboratory for the neoliberal ideas, that were later implemented in numerous countries all over the world, including Romania and Bulgaria.
During the 80s, Pinochet imposed a Constitution that made Chile the most neoliberal country. Private healthcare system, private pensions, private education, private water supply. Everything except the army was into private hands. The army was supposed to receive 10% of the revenues form cupper exploitation.
A militarized right wing dictatorship that led to the situation where the top 1% owned 26% of the wealth in Chile, while 50% of the poorest families owned 20% of Chilean wealth.
And yet, there are people that lionized general Augusto Pinochet for “bringing order” into the Chilean Society.
This is why we invited Paula Llanos Becerra, a Deuche Welle sports commentator and a feminist, to discuss the situation in Chile.
It is one of the most optimistic interviews in terms of people finally getting rid of a constitution that held them hostages to the neoliberal dogma for almost 40 years.
I discussed the protests with Paula that started in 2019 and how the Chileans have managed to elect new representatives to rewrite the constitution. Feminist organizations, representatives of the indigenous people, representatives of the LGBT community, of workers are now in the process of rewriting the fundamental laws of their country.
We invite you to follow our inspiring discussion with Chilean feminist journalist Paula LLana Becerra.