The influential American weekly magazine Time dedicates this Wednesday a long interview of several pages to the Chilean President Gabriel Boric who is also the full page cover of this edition, which can be considered a boost just four days before Chile votes in a crucial referendum on the text of a new constitution.
(Also read: Chile: Boric asks to respect the result of the constitutional plebiscite)
Boric recognizes that the “no” can be imposed in the referendum, what “would be legitimate”. But he adds that he will have to “continue with the mandate of the people (because) we have a consensus for a new constitution and on the need to update the foundations of our society.”
On whether a rejection of the proposed text would mean convening a new Constitutional Convention, Boric was clear: “It is what we as a Government must do. The people have decided that way. We can study the details, but it is the primary mandate,” he says.
The interview, with a friendly tone – he is presented on the cover as “The new guard” – touches on a multitude of issues, including that of an alleged hesitation when it comes to governing and facing issues such as pension funds or security, in the face of what Boric defends himself and says that his responsibilities as ruler “are very different from what they were at other times.”
“I am president of all Chileans, so sometimes I have to do things that I don’t like. In politics, changing your position is not weakness as long as it is consistent with your principles (…) I am more concerned about people who do not change their opinion“, He says.
(You may be interested: Jair Bolsonaro accuses Gabriel Boric of “setting fire to the Metro” in 2019)
Regarding the Mapuche conflict, he reiterates that “the state of emergency is not the solution, (but) we had to apply it because the security challenges were serious.”
And then he is optimistic that “the solution will come through dialogue between the Mapuche people and the Chilean state”, despite the attitude of “some groups, not representative of the Mapuche people who are armed and have no interest in dialogue “.
Read the transcript of TIME’s interview with Chilean President Gabriel Boric about the new constitution, his political rise and his vision for Chile https://t.co/tljejE0hPr
— TIME (@TIME) August 31, 2022
His left stance
The interviewer emphasizes her attacks on neoliberalism and wants to know if she considers herself a socialist, in response to which Boric recalls that her government “aspires to a form of organization that goes beyond capitalism” because neoliberal policies in Chile “reduced the state to its minimum expression and generated a radical individualism”.
“I believe in the liberal socialist tradition,” he clarifies, “but not in a state that controls everything like the socialism of the 20th century, which failed,” proclaims Boric, who does not shy away from the label of leftist.
I am president of all Chileans, so sometimes I have to do things that I don’t like
On how this is reflected at the continental level, Boric also elaborates: he cites the Colombian Gustavo Petro and the Brazilian Lula da Silva as close, but marks clear distances with the Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega: “I am very critical of authoritarian tendencies on the continental left, and that has cost me a lot of criticism.“.
That does not mean —he specifies— that he supports the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from continental forums, as the United States advocates, since he considers that “exclusion has not worked to correct things: if we have multilateral events and only those who are okay, it doesn’t make any sense,” he says.
(Also: ‘Getting sick in Chile is ruin or death’: new constitution proposes to change it)
Message for investors
Regarding his government’s relationship with mining and extractive sector multinationals —vital for Chile—, Boric clarifies a fundamental point: his government will seek stricter environmental standards, “but we are going to respect the law, because certainty must be generated. the rules on the fly in the middle of the game”.
The specific materials that his government intends to regulate more strictly are copper —of which Chile is the world’s leading producer—, lithium and hydrogen, and he advances an idea: “Make the export of these raw materials or energy conditional on changes in consumer behavior in the most developed countries”.
Gabriel Boric during the presidential inauguration.
EFE/Alberto Valdes
(Also read: Chile: Boric’s project to reduce the working day to 40 hours per week)
tie and disorders
The interview also goes into personal and style issues. For example, Boric refers to his rejection of the tie because “everyone has their own style”. And he recalls how the image of masculinity has been changing over the centuries: “Ties don’t make any sense to me“.
He bluntly refers to his hospitalization once for obsessive-compulsive disorder, and believes that talking openly about psychological problems means “busting some myths” like the one that mental health means weakness.
Boric concludes this friendly portrait with a declaration of love for music and an exposition of his varied tastes and styles: from Los Prisioneros to Charlie García or Ciro Rodríguez in the Latin American repertoire, to continue with Bob Dylan, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Metallica and Radiohead.
EFE
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