Chile Constitutional Updates 2021 (Sept.14 , 2021)
Bylaws
The bylaws regulating the drafting of the new constitution were supposed to be approved last week -- but a dispute over whether articles regulating Indigenous consultation and participation must be subject to a two-thirds quorum for approval by the plenary led to a heated debate. Last week it was finally determined that constitutional articles passed by plebiscite with Chile's Indigenous communities will be obligatorily presented to the Constitutional Convention's plenary, which will then evaluate the proposals as it does other articles.
The bylaws will be voted on today, Tuesday, Sept. 14. It is still unclear which of the new norms will need two-thirds majority. No single ideological alliance has veto power in the CC, which has dissipated some leftists initial opposition to a rule requiring a two-thirds majority for some norms.
(CNN Chile, La Bot Constituyente,)
Rojas scandal
Chilean Constitutional Convention delegate Rodrigo Rojas Vade's confession that he does not, in fact, have leukemia could be a major blow for the "Lista del Pueblo," and, to an extent, for the credibility of the convention itself. Rojas gained prominence as an example of the country's unfair health care system, appearing at protests with a catheter. He made extensive references to the costs of his cancer treatment and there were crowdfunding efforts to raise money for his medical expenses. However, while he has promised to resign as a constitutional delegate, it is not clear that he can legally do so, nor is there a legal path to removal.
The CC presented a criminal charge against Rojas: his sworn declaration of assets as delegate included a 27 million peso debt "for chemotherapy treatment against cancer" that could qualify as perjury.
(Guardian, La Bot Constituyente, CNN Chile, CNN Chile)
More
Fundación Interpreta has identified a process of "digital guerrilla warfare" against the CC, particularly its president Elisa Loncón, attacks which are launched from accounts that were also used to lobby against the creation of the convention itself, last year. (CIPER)
Chile's constitutional rewrite process is ultimately a chance to turn the final page on the country's Pinochet-dictatorship era, according to Foreign Policy's Latin America Brief: "The broad public debate surrounding Chile’s constitutional rewrite stands as an example for other countries grappling with the far-reaching legacies of national trauma."
This weekend was the anniversary of the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende. He was overthrown, at least in part, because his government showed that Chile could be transformed, Chilean sociologist Tomás Moulian told Jacobin.