Chile’s Re-opened Human Rights Investigations and

Piñera’s Balancing Act

• Earthquake jars Santiago, preceding a turnover in government and anticipating a paradigm shift in the nation’s values

• Will Piñera fool us all or is Chile about to be peppered by intensified neo-liberalism?

On March 11, less than two weeks following a devastating earthquake that rocked Chile’s south-central region and even reached it’s capital 200 miles away, rightwing President-elect Sebastián Piñera is set to take office. This earthquake and the devastation it has caused will create an immensely difficult time for even Chile’s billion-dollar man to take on the leadership of a country immersed in such devastation. Barring the earthquake, Piñera was already facing controversy prior to taking office. On February 8, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced that her Concertación government would restart truth commissions to continue investigating human rights abuses compiled during the reign of Dictator Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990.

The reopened commissions could make for an interesting dynamic in Chilean politics due to the fact that re-established bodies could call for prosecutions of some of Piñera’s most ardent supporters. The left-leaning Concertación government, which has won all four previous presidential elections since 1989, will be handing over La Moneda, the presidential palace, to the rightwing Renovación Nacional (RN) government and the first elected president coming from the ranks of the right in more than a half-century. Piñera is now faced by the contradictory pulls of those who helped him achieve office and those who are still seeking retribution for the human rights violations afflicted on the nation more than 20 years ago, not to mention the task of leading a country facing the aftermath of one of the largest and most profound recorded earthquakes in history.

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This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Kaycie Rupp