Over 15 million Chileans are to vote Sunday in order to form the 50-member body to draft a new Constitution with which to replace the one stemming from the Augusto Pinochet military regime after the previous project was massively turned down in a referendum in September last. Voting is mandatory and fines are imposed on those who cannot justify their omission.
Despite its reluctance to resort to the same constitutional mechanisms adopted by the Sebastián Piñera administration, the Chilean Government of leftwing President Gabriel Boric Font Wednesday announced a state of exception to address violence in the indigenous southern zones.
Violence in the south of Chile is on the rise and the newly installed government of president Gabriel Boric is showing greater concern following the rejection of conciliatory messages by the indigenous Mapuche who is demanding land in La Araucaria, which they claim belongs to their ancestors, and now is occupied and exploited by forestry companies and farmers.
Chile's President Gabriel Boric Font Friday signed the so-called Escazú environmental agreement, which his predecessor Sebastián Piñera discarded at the last minute after having sponsored it. “We have changed course,” Boric said.
Quoting Salvador Allende and with a message for Latin American leaders to work together, Gabriel Boric Font addressed the people in his first speech as head of state from the iconic balcony of the Palacio de la Moneda in Santiago, Chile. At age 36, Boric was sworn in Friday as Chile's youngest ever President during e ceremony many regarded as the beginning of a new era.
The office of Chilean president-elect Gabriel Boric, who this Friday takes office as the successor of Sebastian Piñera, released the names of a list of special guests to the inauguration ceremony which includes well-known political leaders and social activists.
Chile's outgoing and incoming Presidents Sebastián Piñera and Gabriel Boric Thursday had a large series of engagements with foreign dignitaries who are in the country to attend Friday's inauguration.
The President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, will travel on Thursday night to Chile, where on Friday will take place the ceremony of change of command and the inauguration of Gabriel Boric as the new president of the Andean country.
Chile's Lower House Monday passed 73 votes in favor, 41 against, and five abstentions the renewal of the State of Exception in four southern provinces in the Bíobio and La Araucanía regions. The measure still has to be approved by the Senate.
Less than a week before the end of President Sebastián Piñera's term, Chile's government has announced plans to build a long ditch on the border with Bolivia as a measure to control the migration crisis stemming from the illegal arrival of people.