Among the solid Chilean ceremonial traditions for the inauguration of the new president, great challenges and already with a wave of criticism from his own left-wing voters, Gabriel Boric takes charge of the country this Friday (11).
Boric has faced harsh criticism from the left that elected him after assembling a center-left, more moderate cabinet of ministers; advocating a gradual pace for tax and pension reforms; and not giving immediate guarantees of release to so-called “political prisoners”, people deprived of their liberty during the 2019 protests and land conflicts in southern Chile.
“No doubt, [os eleitores de esquerda] they will be the ones who will make more demands at the beginning of the government. To win the election, Boric went to the center as much as he could and thus lost ground on the left. He will have to show the will to implement changes quickly while facing the problems he inherits”, he tells sheet political analyst Claudia Heiss.
One of the issues that cannot wait is the state of exception, which militarized the south and north of the country and whose deadline is yet to expire.
In the south, the situation with the Mapuche groups seems to have calmed down, but in the north, in the region of Iquique, tensions persist. The new interior minister, Izkia Siches, expressed the possibility of taking to Congress a proposal to renew the state of exception and militarization of the north of the country, where there are clashes due to the continuous arrival of illegal immigrants.
“If Boric takes over and immediately sends Congress the request to use a harsh resource, like the ones used by Piñera, there will be protests. to its promises”, says Heiss.
But not everything will be a problem on the 11th. Santiago prepares for a popular party at Alameda (the capital’s main avenue), at night, after the formal ceremony that takes place during the day in the city of Valparaíso, where the country’s Congress is held.
Boric, 36, takes over after beating the far-right José Antonio Kast in the second round by 55.87% against 44.13% on December 19.
The handover of command and the presidential sash takes place in the Congressional Hall of Honor, where it has been a tradition since dictator Augusto Pinochet handed over power to the elected Patricio Aylwin in 1990.
While Boric will spend the night before in Valparaíso, the current president, Sebastián Piñera, will arrive in the city in the traditional Ford Galaxie, open, from where he can greet people. The car was a gift from Queen Elizabeth II of England, and has already transported, in addition to representatives, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, poet Pablo Neruda and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Among the different heads of state will be King Felipe 6th of Spain, Argentine Alberto Fernández, Ecuadorian Guillermo Lasso, Paraguayan Mario Abdo Benítez, Bolivian Luis Arce and Uruguayan Lacalle Pou. Brazil will be represented by Vice President Hamilton Mourão.
The dictators of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and of the Cuban regime, Díaz-Canel, were not invited.
There will be some guests who represent a left that Boric admires. One of them is the leading candidate of preferences in Colombia, Gustavo Petro, the former vice president of Bolivia Alvaro García Linera, representatives of the Frente Ampla Uruguaya, the Spaniard Íñigo Erregon and dissidents from Sandinismo, such as the writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli.
Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is also among those confirmed on the list released by the ceremony, as well as British Labor Jeremy Corbyn.
Meanwhile, in Santiago, the house chosen by the president-elect to live with his partner, Irina Karamanos, is a source of attention and attracts people who want to take selfies.
As Chile does not have an official residence for the president, it was necessary to look for a new property, since Boric’s original home is in Punta Arenas, in the south of the country.
Boric and Karamanos will live in the popular downtown Yungay neighborhood. A historic commune in which the streets are cobbled, not paved, and most of the buildings date from the 19th century. It is a lively place, with bars, restaurants and squares. There is also a vinyl record store close by, of which the president-elect has become a customer.
The address is almost poetic, calle Huérfanos (orphans), between Libertad and Esperanza.
