By C.J. Atkins
NEW YORK: Voters in the presidential primary of the Unity for Chile (Unidadpor Chile) coalition have selected the Communist Party’s Jeannette Jara as their candidate to face off against the right-wing candidates José Antonio Kast and Evelyn Matthei in November’s general election in Chile. Presently Gabriel Boric is the President of the country representing this ruling coalition.
Jara scored a stunning 60% total in a four-candidate race on Sunday. Her next closest challenger was Carolina Tohá of the Democratic Socialism party, who took 27.7% of the ballots. The parties in the Unity for Chile coalition pledged to support whichever candidate won the primary, however, so all the left and progressive forces in the country are now rallying behind Jara.
“Today begins a new path that we will walk together, with the conviction to build a fairer and more democratic Chile,” Jara declared on social media after the Electoral Service announced her win. “In the face of the threat from the far right, we respond with unity, dialogue, and hope.”
At a rally with supporters Sunday, she urged her compatriots to “hold on to each other and not let go, so we can face Chile’s far right with the broadest possible front.”
She was immediately congratulated by President Gabriel Boric, who is barred from running for re-election due to constitutional limits on presidents serving consecutive terms.
“Jeannette Jara immediately steps up to lead the forces of progressivism toward the future,” Boric said Sunday evening. “What lies ahead will not be easy, but Jeannette knows about tough battles. Now, let’s all work together for unity to rally the majority of our compatriots to continue building a fairer, safer, and happier country.”
Jara, 51, is one of the most prominent political leaders in the country. Before stepping down to run for president, she served as Minister of Labour in the Boric government. In that position, she spearheaded successful efforts to reduce Chile’s workweek from 45 to 40 hours and raise the minimum wage.
Kast, her main opponent in the general election, is making his third try for the presidency. Last time around, he lost to Boric, capturing 44% in the second round after having led in first-round balloting.
Kast is part of the right-wing royalty of the Chilean ruling class. His parents were German immigrants who arrived in Chile in the early 1950s. His father, Michael Kast Shindele, was a member of the Hitler’s Nazi Party and a lieutenant in the military of the Third Reich.
He escaped from U.S. custody and then fled the de-Nazification campaign in Germany after World War II. He settled in Chile, where, together with other relatives, he set up a sausage factory that made the family one of the richest in the country.
The fascist politics brought over from Europe were passed down through the generations. One of Kast’s brothers, Miguel, was a “Chicago Boy” economist and labour minister for the former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet. He helped impose neoliberal policies that crushed the Chilean working class, with an emphasis on privatization, deregulation, and attacks on unions.
As a politician, Kast has consistently pushed a reactionary platform premised on giving free rein to big business and handing over control of social policy to ultra-conservative forces. He advocates major tax cuts on the wealthy, a rollback of labour and other progressive legislation, a halt to immigration, and bans on things like emergency birth control and same-sex marriage.
His frequent praise for the years of the Pinochet dictatorship have generated controversy but also endeared him to leading capitalists, the military, and the religious base of voters who all fondly remember the years of tyranny that saw tens of thousands of trade unionists, students, Communists, socialists, democracy activists, and indigenous people murdered.
In 2021, running against Boric, Kast framed the election as “a choice between freedom and communism.” With an actual Communist as his main opponent this time, the red-baiting is expected to reach new extremes.
Also in the race is right-wing candidate Evelyn Matthei of the Independent Democratic Union, who has earned the endorsement of some sections of the capitalist class and the foreign business press. The Economist magazine in 2024 proclaimed her “The woman who will lead Chile’s counter-revolution.”
She served in the government of former President Sebastián Piñera, is a consistent defender of the Pinochet dictatorship, and also comes from a fascist pedigree. Her father, Fernando Matthei Aubel, was the son of a German military officer and was trained by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s.
After the Pinochet coup in 1973, he returned to Chile and was promoted to the rank of general. During the dictatorship, he served as a government minister and was implicated in campaigns of political repression and trafficking of bacteriological weapons, which were tested on political prisoners.
In the last years of the dictatorship, Evelyn Matthei was head of a government body tasked with privatizing Chile’s pension system. During the struggles to democratize the country’s political system and overturn military rule in the late 1980s, she was the leader of the campaign that sought to continue the dictatorship and was elected to parliament as a pro-Pinochet deputy.
The latest opinion surveys have her in third place, at 10% support.
The platform of the Unity for Chile coalition has put the issues clearly on the table for voters. It declares: “Chile must decide where to go in the coming years: Deepen the path of change or enter an authoritarian drift.”
Jara and the coalition make the case that the far-right is seeking to “roll back our rights” and promotes an “exhausted free market model that makes life precarious.” The alternative, they argue, is a coalition of “those who have historically fought for profound social change: the communities, unions, feminists, youth, indigenous peoples, socio-environmental movements, and cultural figures.”
It recalls the Popular Unity coalition that elected socialist Salvador Allende to the presidency in 1970, who was killed during the 1973 U.S.-backed Pinochet coup, but the left program seeks to go beyond the past to build an even stronger progressive front to address the economic challenges of today.
The Jara candidacy is sparking excitement among grassroots forces. At a meeting of activists just before the primary election, leaders from a number of movements spoke about the nature of the Jara campaign.
“We women support those who have stood by us,” said Karen Palma, a vice president of Chile’s main labour federation, the Workers’ United Center of Chile (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Chile, CUT). “Jeannette promoted the 40-hour work week, pension reform, and the minimum wage.”
Lautaro Carmona, president of the Communist Party of Chile, praised the united front stance taken by all the parties currently participating in the government. “A new step has been taken, a very important step, which reflects the will, determination, and conviction to contribute decisively to a single and united candidacy within the governing coalition,” Carmona said.
“We have an experienced leader, with proven capabilities in state affairs, with social leadership and a deep commitment to training, development, and empathy regarding major national issues.”
Carmona said Jara’s nomination “reaffirms that this leftist force is not limited to a single party, but rather formalizes its willingness to build a new government supported by a broad coalition, composed of eight parties committed to the transformation and rights of the vast majority, especially workers.”
Jara’s campaign will face a tough battle against Kast and Matthei. Economic conditions remain tough for many Chileans, and opinion polls show crime is on the minds of many voters—issues which her right-wing opponents will surely try to latch onto as their main appeal.
She is also seen as the would-be successor to the current Boric administration, which has been playing defense on several fronts ever since losing a referendum vote to replace the Pinochet-era constitution in 2023.
Constitutional reform was a major part of Boric’s campaign for the presidency, so losing that vote—coupled with economic headwinds—have allowed the business-controlled press in Chile to paint a picture of a flailing government.
However, the Communist Party and its allies are jumping into the fight with a program that they believe the Chilean people will support. It centers on public security with a social focus, combatting organized crime by returning control of neighbourhoods to communities.
On the health front, it seeks to strengthen the public system via direct investments in primary care and reduced waiting times, and supporting health workers to ensure they can provide what their patients need. It says that more resources are needed in health care, not privatization.
On the economy, the Communists say it’s necessary to “redistribute to grow.” A Jara presidency will push for more progressive taxation, increasing taxes on the super-rich while boosting public investment in infrastructure, education, and technology.
“What is often presented as grand ideological debates,” the Communist Party said in its platform, “is translated here into simple and profound issues: having a fair salary, living in a safe neighbourhood, feeling that the state respects and listens to you. It’s a program that doesn’t stop at abstract promises, but offers tangible responses to real life.” (IPA Service)
Courtesy: People’s World
