{"id":33408,"date":"2022-09-07T09:23:44","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T08:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=33408"},"modified":"2025-07-14T16:08:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T15:08:22","slug":"why-did-chileans-reject-the-new-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/political-parties-and-ideologies\/democracy\/why-did-chileans-reject-the-new-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Chile’s new constitution fail?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Sunday 4 September 2022, Chilean voters convincingly rejected their country\u2019s proposed new constitution. In a straight \u2018approve\u2019 or \u2018reject\u2019 referendum, reject won<\/a> by a landslide 62 per cent, much to the dismay of human, indigenous & environmental rights activists and left-wing groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new constitution would have enshrined indigenous and environmental rights and the right to a free education into Chilean law as well as overhauling an increasingly substandard and neoliberal health system. Chile\u2019s current constitution was enacted by General Augusto Pinochet in 1980 during his brutal 17-year dictatorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to the result President Gabriel Boric has called for a meeting with all political parties to rewrite the proposed constitution. He tweeted in an address to the nation<\/a> that, \u2018The desire for political change and dignity requires our political institutions and actors to work harder with respect, dialogue and tenderness until we arrive at a proposal that represents us all. We are headed there. Long live democracy. Long live Chile.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After widespread protests in 2019, nearly 80 per cent of the population voted to change the constitution in 2020. Sunday\u2019s disappointing conclusion has left many campaigners wondering how and why the proposed new constitution fell short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fake news<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From the outset, misinformation played a large role in distorting<\/a> the aims of the new constitution and swayed public opinion against it. Accusations against individuals involved in the constitutional process consistently flooded social media networks while the articles in the constitution themselves were directly targeted in the weeks preceding the vote. Many of the female and indigenous members of the convention were subjected to a flurry of hate<\/a> across social media platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fake news became a defining feature of the \u2018rechazo\u2019 (reject) campaign<\/a> which, in turn, the mainstream Chilean media was more than happy to amplify for clicks and views. One such story, propagated by far-right politician Felipe Kast from the Uni\u00f3n Dem\u00f3crata Independiente (UDI), claimed<\/a> that abortions would be legalised up to 9 months of pregnancy. Other \u2018half-truths\u2019 circulating on Tik Tok, Instagram and Twitter were that private property would be expropriated, insurance funds could not be inherited, and that uniformed police would be abolished. An early 2022 survey found that 58 per cent of Chileans had been exposed to some form of misinformation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chilean newspaper El Mercurio<\/em> operates a network of 19 regional dailies and 32 radio stations across the country. Despite small shifts toward the centre since Chile\u2019s transition to democracy, it remains ideologically right wing and has consistently undermined the constitutional process. It\u2019s worth noting that media ownership is firmly in the hands of those that benefitted from Pinochet\u2019s regime and the accompanying economic model. Just two<\/a> commercial groups own the majority of the printed media (El Mercurio<\/em> and COPEA<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018enemy within\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chile is currently the only Latin American country that, to date, does not recognise its indigenous people. The new constitution would have provided a major breakthrough, making Chile a plurinational state. The articles contained in the proposed constitution were, however, not enough to mobilise the widespread support of the Mapuche population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Boric\u2019s presidential campaign in December 2021, he visited Araucan\u00eda (Wallmapu) in Southern Chile, the ancestral domain of the Mapuche. Boric told<\/a> the Chilean press \u2018militarisation is the wrong path. We must seek dialogue within a historical perspective. This conflict won\u2019t be solved within the remit of \u201cpublic order\u201d; we must restore confidence and talk about the territorial restoration of the Mapuche nation\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But just months into the new administration the government, who were clearly in the \u2018apruebo\u2019 camp, reneged on their promises and on 3 May 2022, troops were deployed in Araucan\u00eda. In late August, Mapuche leader Hector Llaitul and his son Ernesto, from Mapuche autonomous group Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM) were arrested for their political doctrine of indigenous liberation. These events have fed into the Pinochetista narrative of \u2018the enemy within\u2019 that Mapuche communities have had to contend with since the start of the dictatorship and, once again, have led to further tensions between the Mapuche and the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apruebo\u2019s flaws<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Along with the confusing stance regarding indigenous people and the constant scourge of fake news, the \u2018apruebo\u2019 (approve) campaign relied on people\u2019s willingness to read the proposed text and their ability to compare it with the previous constitution. The whole campaign was vastly underfunded compared to the \u2018rechazo\u2019 campaign that had the support of big business, and a political class that stood to lose their privilege had the referendum been won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marianna, 36, an \u2018apruebo\u2019 voter from Santiago reflects that \u2018the rechazo campaign was more effective in its reach\u2026 it simplified the articles in the text and infused terror in those people on the centrist spectrum, or who are less politicised, many of whom may have not voted previously. We must also consider that Chile has a super conservative constitution, and the new proposal was perhaps way too progressive and the jump [between the two] too large.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is undeniable is that this loss is a huge set-back for Chile\u2019s hard-won social progress and has left many wondering, what next?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chile’s proposed constitution was poorly understood amid a wave of misinformation and hostility from the reject campaign, Carole Concha Bell reports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":45875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[279,2269,145],"tags":[2688],"class_list":["post-33408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-civil-liberties","category-democracy","category-latin-america","tag-carole-concha-bell"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy did Chile's new constitution fail? - Red Pepper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chile's proposed constitution was poorly understood amid a wave of misinformation and hostility, Carole Concha Bell reports\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/political-parties-and-ideologies\/democracy\/why-did-chileans-reject-the-new-constitution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why did Chile's new constitution fail? 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