4 ms·

Gabriel Boric, a Former Student Activist, Is Elected Chile’s Youngest President

27 points by amrrs 5y ago

toraway1234 5y ago
He's also a communist, may we add that to the headline? Poor Chile.
- revolvingocelot 5y ago
  Indeed, the psychopathic attention of the three-letter agencies of the Pax Americana, both governmental and financial, tends to fall upon South American leftism in all its forms. I'm sure this time will be no different.
  - jonnybgood 5y ago
    These days not really. US government doesn't care about ideologies. US government cares about its interests. Socialist and communist governments are not an issue to the US. These governments know they need the US economically. The extent the US cares is them playing ball with Russia and China.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - revolvingocelot 5y ago
      Why bring up the US government as a whole? History repeatedly shows that "US" intervention in South America need not involve the entire governmental edifice; in fact, the most famous and effective examples involve only three-letter agencies (eg, the CIA) and their financial hegemonic counterparts (eg, the IMF). If ideological differences threaten international resource extraction -- and Boric's stance against Kast's plan of "empowering the security forces to more forcefully crack down on Indigenous challenges to land rights in the south of the country" certainly suggests such a threat to me -- then Something Will Happen, mark my words.
    - vintermann 5y ago
      Everyone thinks they only care about their interests. It's just that as they see it, it's not in their interest to do such things as admit they were ever wrong, and rarely in their interest to risk losing nebulous prestige from abandoning costly but disastrous policies, etc.
- vintermann 5y ago
  Let's not add partisan lies to the headline. He has support of the communists (which isn't surprising since the main opponent was praising Pinochet's sadistic dictatorship), but he's a social democrat associated with the Progressive International, not any of the many communist internationals.
- qsogtmjm 5y ago
  [dead]
ngokevin 5y ago
I'm in Santiago, Chile right now. It was hopping. So much optimism on the streets. People partied and chanted and honked until 3AM. I'm jealous of the people of Chile to be able to look at their country and see hope.
- GameOfFrowns 5y ago
  >I'm jealous of the people of Chile to be able to look at their country and see hope. Just like the Venezuelans before them did. Those are not cheering anymore for their Bolivarian revolution.
  - CyanBird 5y ago
    If you'd like to see them chant again then just lift the sanctions, same with Lebanon, or Iran, any nation will buckle under the siege of economic warfare even more so nations which have fragility on their system such as these social inclined ones
  - photochemsyn 5y ago
    On one hand, if you compare Venezuela to another oil-rich state Norway, and the difference in their economic results, what stands out is that Norway was very conservative with their national state oil fund, while Venezuela under Chavez was pretty liberal with using those funds to buy regional political backing (note 'conservative and liberal' here just refers to spending policy). The collapse in the price of oil in 2008-2009 thus had a far more crippling effect on Venezuela's economy compared to Norway's. On the other hand, Norway has not been subjected to the same kind of crippling economic sanctions that the USA has applied to Venezuela and it's an open question as to what would have happened to Norway's economy under those circumstances.
    - pydry 5y ago
      Norway is completely atypical for an oil rich country. Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Nigeria - these are the baseline for what you can expect if your economy is dominated by oil exports. Norway is interesting insofar as it is exceptional for not turning into a basket case.
revolvingocelot 5y ago
https://archive.md/oEcrz https://archive.md/oEcrz
pelagicAustral 5y ago
I've read so many 'Chile is dead' comment iterations over the last 24 hours its almost unbearable. Its all over the place. Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Times, La Tercera, and those are some of the media I read on a daily basis, thank God I don't have Facebook or Twitter... So many people seem to completely obviate the political culture in Chile and captiously use other failed South American governments to present a grim picture for the future. Boric is a not a radical communist. Its so sad to see such a large group of people that would rather see their entire country burn down just so they can say "I told you so"... its pathetic.

27 points by amrrs 5y ago

toraway1234 5y ago

He's also a communist, may we add that to the headline? Poor Chile.

revolvingocelot 5y ago
Indeed, the psychopathic attention of the three-letter agencies of the Pax Americana, both governmental and financial, tends to fall upon South American leftism in all its forms. I'm sure this time will be no different.
- jonnybgood 5y ago
  These days not really. US government doesn't care about ideologies. US government cares about its interests. Socialist and communist governments are not an issue to the US. These governments know they need the US economically. The extent the US cares is them playing ball with Russia and China.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - revolvingocelot 5y ago
    Why bring up the US government as a whole? History repeatedly shows that "US" intervention in South America need not involve the entire governmental edifice; in fact, the most famous and effective examples involve only three-letter agencies (eg, the CIA) and their financial hegemonic counterparts (eg, the IMF). If ideological differences threaten international resource extraction -- and Boric's stance against Kast's plan of "empowering the security forces to more forcefully crack down on Indigenous challenges to land rights in the south of the country" certainly suggests such a threat to me -- then Something Will Happen, mark my words.
  - vintermann 5y ago
    Everyone thinks they only care about their interests. It's just that as they see it, it's not in their interest to do such things as admit they were ever wrong, and rarely in their interest to risk losing nebulous prestige from abandoning costly but disastrous policies, etc.
vintermann 5y ago
Let's not add partisan lies to the headline. He has support of the communists (which isn't surprising since the main opponent was praising Pinochet's sadistic dictatorship), but he's a social democrat associated with the Progressive International, not any of the many communist internationals.
qsogtmjm 5y ago
[dead]

ngokevin 5y ago

I'm in Santiago, Chile right now. It was hopping. So much optimism on the streets. People partied and chanted and honked until 3AM. I'm jealous of the people of Chile to be able to look at their country and see hope.

GameOfFrowns 5y ago
>I'm jealous of the people of Chile to be able to look at their country and see hope. Just like the Venezuelans before them did. Those are not cheering anymore for their Bolivarian revolution.
- CyanBird 5y ago
  If you'd like to see them chant again then just lift the sanctions, same with Lebanon, or Iran, any nation will buckle under the siege of economic warfare even more so nations which have fragility on their system such as these social inclined ones
- photochemsyn 5y ago
  On one hand, if you compare Venezuela to another oil-rich state Norway, and the difference in their economic results, what stands out is that Norway was very conservative with their national state oil fund, while Venezuela under Chavez was pretty liberal with using those funds to buy regional political backing (note 'conservative and liberal' here just refers to spending policy). The collapse in the price of oil in 2008-2009 thus had a far more crippling effect on Venezuela's economy compared to Norway's. On the other hand, Norway has not been subjected to the same kind of crippling economic sanctions that the USA has applied to Venezuela and it's an open question as to what would have happened to Norway's economy under those circumstances.
  - pydry 5y ago
    Norway is completely atypical for an oil rich country. Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Nigeria - these are the baseline for what you can expect if your economy is dominated by oil exports. Norway is interesting insofar as it is exceptional for not turning into a basket case.

revolvingocelot 5y ago

https://archive.md/oEcrz https://archive.md/oEcrz

pelagicAustral 5y ago

I've read so many 'Chile is dead' comment iterations over the last 24 hours its almost unbearable. Its all over the place. Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Times, La Tercera, and those are some of the media I read on a daily basis, thank God I don't have Facebook or Twitter... So many people seem to completely obviate the political culture in Chile and captiously use other failed South American governments to present a grim picture for the future. Boric is a not a radical communist. Its so sad to see such a large group of people that would rather see their entire country burn down just so they can say "I told you so"... its pathetic.