Considered one of the three founders of the leftist student movement that would become the Frente Ampla, which this Friday (11) comes to power in Chile, Giorgio Jackson says that the absence of Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro from the inauguration of Gabriel Boric “is an attitude ideology that has more to do with the political character he built and that dialogues only with those who voted for him. At no time do we consider a distance from the Brazilian people, our giant brother, with whom we feel deep cultural and social proximity”, he said.
Considered the best known and with the greatest leadership among the trio formed by him, the now minister Camila Vallejo and the president-elect Gabriel Boric, Jackson was considered in the Frente Amplio the most prepared to run in the elections of December of last year. However, his age did not reach.
Chilean law requires the president to be at least 35 years old, and Boric was the only one who was that age when the registration date for candidacies arrived. Jackson is one year younger and Vallejo, also listed, is two.
The three friends participated in the 2011 student protests and then jumped to Congress. Now, from Friday, they will be in charge of the country.
Jackson, who will assume the post of secretary general of the presidency, spoke to sheetby videoconference, on the afternoon of this Wednesday (9).
Folha — The main obstacles to the reforms (tax and social security) that you propose will be in Congress, where the government will not have a majority. Its role will be, among other things, to coordinate this relationship between the Executive and the Legislative. How do you see this difficulty?
Jackson – Our difficulties are overlapping, we still have the pandemic and its effects on the economy, the continuation of the successful vaccination program and I also highlight those issues in which there is a lot of difference with the current management [de Sebastián Piñera]related to human rights and migration policies, which are very important to us.
We are very concerned about reforms because we do not have a majority in Congress. On other issues, I see more room to move forward and reach agreements; in reforms, everything will be more difficult. We will have to build strategies and we are working directly on that.
Do you believe that rightists who joined the ultra-rightist José Antonio Kast in the second round, but who are from a more democratic right, cannot accompany them in the reforms? A good part of the right had voted, the previous year, against Piñera’s will, in favor of the early withdrawal of pension funds.
Yes, there is a right that for a long time tried to build a more liberal and non-conservative narrative. I would say that since 2019 [ano das manifestações]when we found ourselves at a crossroads in relation to human rights and the reactions to the protests, there was a convergence between the left and this right to take a stand against the repression and human rights abuses that the State had been committing.
There was a part of the right that was also more sensitive to the effects of the pandemic, which voted for the early withdrawal of pensions.
However, when the electoral campaign intensified, this right embraced Kast and distanced itself from us. I think some of them may come back together, it’s part of our work starting Friday because we’ll need to have more support in Congress.
andThere is a part of the left that is already very critical of Boric, for his speech about the gradual implementation of reforms and, especially, in the case of so-called political prisoners, those people who have been deprived of their liberty, without trial, since the 2019 protests. intend to face this problem? On Friday, next to the inauguration, there will be a protest about it in Santiago.
We have had conversations with the families of these people and, in general terms, we want this issue to stop being dealt with by the State security law, which is what motivated their arrest. [acusados de causar e incitar distúrbios por questões polÃticas].
We want to take all these cases to a common justice treatment. But, as you yourself point out, it is a problem that parts of the left are in a great hurry to tackle. We will have to continue dialoguing until we resolve this issue, which is not easy.
There is also a pardon project that will go through the Senate, which is difficult to process, but for which we will fight hard, we hope for understanding in relation to these necessary times. I have been talking personally with these family members and, on their part, we are finding support.
October 2019 left us with a lot of debt and we want to settle them, for example, with reparation and justice for people who suffered mutilations, abuse, lost their eyes, this needs to be addressed with the utmost urgency.
Today, there is a state of exception, which implies militarization, both in the north and south of the country, something that is very much against the philosophy of his political group. Will you renew these states of exception?
This has not yet been decided and it is first up to an assessment by the Ministry of the Interior and the Presidency. My feeling is that the situation we have in the south [com os enfrentamentos violentos por terra entre fazendeiros e grupos rebeldes de origem indÃgena] it is not something specific and, therefore, it cannot be resolved by sending the Army and declaring a state of exception.
So what we have to do is design a policy to solve a problem that is ancient, dating back to the foundation of Chile.
In the north, however, we have a more serious issue due to the intensity and novelty, which is the huge number of Venezuelan migrants who are arriving every day, generating a situation of violence and confrontation with the residents. [principalmente em Iquique e Colchane]. In this case, I’d say it’s more acceptable to have a state of exception until you formulate a solution.
Because in the north the problem is urgent and exceptional, there is a level of conflict and violence that, for now, may require us to continue with this resource. But, as you said, it doesn’t correspond to the way we think these border security issues should be dealt with. Therefore, there is a lot to discuss and work on because the local population is having a hard time and we have a huge increase in insecurity there.
Many analysts believe that Boric’s victory could spur the left’s victory in Colombia and Brazil. What do you think about this?
I think it’s too hasty and pretentious on our part to think that, just because things happened like this here, this can catapult Gustavo Petro’s victories [com quem Jackson se encontra nesta quinta, 10, em Santiago] and from Lula.
I believe more that there is a generational aspect linked to the role that the government should have in relation to ecology, feminism, diversity, globalization. And that make you think that there may be a critical mass with regard to current models and how these models are not working. And may this aspect, yes, lead to more victories for the left in the region.
I have great illusions that certain principles, certain values, which face traditional models of government, begin to prevail, rather than rooting for names or parties. But, obviously, we are very attentive and with great expectations regarding what will happen in Colombia and Brazil.
If Gustavo Petro in Colombia and Lula in Brazil win, would that make Chile’s political life in the region easier?
Yes, and we will be talking about it with these leaders. With Petro, we’ll talk tomorrow [quinta, 10] here in Santiago, as well as other leftist political forces that are fighting for power in their countries.
But they must still go through their political processes. We think that this previous dialogue that we are already having with left-wing political forces in Latin America helps a lot.
X-Ray Giorgio Jackson
Born in Viña del Mar on February 6, 1987. He studied civil engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He was one of the leaders of the 2011 movements and the founders of the Frente Ampla. He served as a deputy for two terms. He will command the Ministry of the Secretary General of the Presidency in the Boric government.
