After 10 months of fraught negotiations, Chile's Constitutional Convention finalized the draft of a new magna carta that could replace the country's current dictatorship-era charter. Convention President María Elisa Quinteros formally presented the draft at a ceremony in Antofagasta on May 16. "This is an ecological and equal constitution with social rights at its very core," she said in an interview with the Guardian.
Chile's Constitutional Convention is now in its final phase, a "harmonization" of the text put together by commissions and approved by the plenary of constitutional delegates. The delegates carrying out this final task did not form part of the other commissions that proposed norms for the draft magna carta, reports La Bot Constituyente.
Delegates will vote on the Harmonization Commission's proposals to organize the 499 constitutional articles tomorrow. (La Bot Constituyente)
Among the nerdier tasks, the Harmonization Commission heard from linguist Claudia Poblete who convinced delegates to jettison the legal text practice of excessive capitalization. (La Bot Constituyente)
The convention will release its final draft to the public by early July. Two other commissions are tasked with creating a preamble and deciding on articles governing the transition period to the new constitution. (Bloomberg)
The preamble approved by commission reads: “We (nosotras y nosotros), the people of Chile, conformed by diverse nations, , el pueblo de Chile, conformado por diversas naciones, freely grant ourselves this Constitution, agreed upon in a participatory, parity and democratic process.”
“Considering the pains of the past and after a social explosion, we face the injustices and historical demands with the strength of youth, to assume this institutional path through a widely representative Constitutional Convention.”
The overarching challenge for advocates of the new magna carta “will be to imbue the new Constitution with a sense of inclusive constitutional patriotism,” writes Noam Titelman in Nueva Sociedad. “A democratic Constitution needs to be able to incorporate marginalized and abandoned identities, which were expressed around the October 2019 demonstrations, but also those who feel part of the traditional identities of Chileans.”
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The proposed constitution's progressive content and often chaotic drafting process "have fueled anxieties on the right. A minority in the convention, right-wing groups have struggled to influence the drafting process, resorting to tactics from the illiberal playbook: fearmongering, spreading disinformation and demonizing the opposition," write Jennifer Piscopo and Peter Siavelis in Foreign Policy. "The current moment shows that while using constitution-writing to give democracy a reboot generates new political possibilities, it can also embolden powerful opponents."
The campaign to reject the new constitution -- which Chileans will vote on in September -- began last year. Now that there is a public draft "the approve camp will get the chance to promote a tangible document," reports AS/COA. Likely areas of focus include how the draft responds to the concerns raised during protests and the open, inclusive nature of the convention.
Polling shows the top reasons cited to approve the constitution include wanting to guarantee rights to health care and housing and to have a magna carta that was conceived during democracy. But, polls show many voters are undecided on whether to approve the new draft, with estimates running as high as 27%, reports Bloomberg.
The draft constitution would be the world’s longest, coming in at 499 articles. John Bartlett, a journalist who covers Chile for The Guardian, said the framers went for “a maximalist, refoundational approach” that centers around social rights for marginalized groups—such as women, the indigenous, and the disabled—while also guaranteeing universal rights around free speech, the environment, housing, water, and health. Many of these rights are present in the current constitution, but are amplified in the new one, explains AS/COA.
Chile’s constitutional convention adopted a series of “fundamental rights” into the text of the proposed constitution on April 19. These social rights include, among others, the right to health care and social security, the right to unionize, strike and collectively bargain and the right to a dignified and adequate home. "The vote marks the first time positive social rights will be included in the Chilean constitution, writes Nicholas C. Scott in a Washington Post opinion piece.
The document establishes a national health service, meeting a major demand of the 2019 protests. It also creates a national education system that centralizes learning institutions under one agency and calls for free public education at every level. (AS/COA)
Delegates rejected multiple variations of a proposal that would have given the state exclusive mining rights over lithium, rare metals and hydrocarbons and a majority stake in copper mines. A separate clause, article 25, which states that miners must set aside “resources to repair damage” to the environment and harmful effects where mining takes place, did get a supermajority and will be in the draft constitution. (Reuters)
Constitutional Convention approved an expansion of environmental governance that also includes reshaping water rules. Chile’s government is looking at a gradual implementation for a proposed ban on mining near glaciers in order to limit the impact on some of the world’s biggest copper mines and their planned projects. (Bloomberg)
However, many of the environmental commission’s proposals failed to obtain enough support to enter the final draft, leaving many issues to future legislative debate. (Nueva Sociedad)
Markets have had mixed reactions: A Morgan Stanley analysis said the draft constitution wouldn’t disrupt Chile’s macro policy framework, and the exclusion of extreme articles is positive for fixed-income assets. JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts wrote it would weaken local institutions, though the equity market has already priced in much of that deterioration. (Bloomberg)
Other news
Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s short honeymoon period is partially due to the circumstances of his victory: he won the runoff election in December in part due to voters seeking to block his far-right adversary José Antonio Kast, according to Patricio Navia in the Latin America Advisor.
Other experts argue that high expectations for change in Chile — and the unwieldy Constitutional Convention upon which many pinned their hopes for such reform — are also behind Boric’s dropping popularity. (Latin America Advisor)
Chile's congress voted to approve a 14.3 percent increase in the minimum wage on May 18, as the country struggles with soaring inflation, reports Reuters.