For Mario Saavedra, painter from Valparaíso, and Nina Avellaneda, writer from Limache, Chileans that life gave me
Samuel Cort Hamdan
0. A threat to the popular will
In the first half of January 2023, the Chilean Chamber of Deputies approved that the legislative branch should determine the 24 members of a commission of experts in charge of drafting a new constitution for the South American country: twelve contributed by the deputies and twelve more by the senators.
And, as is known, the devil is in the details of the brake on the popular pulse: "to be elected as a member of this commission (…) the candidates must have a university degree or academic degree of at least eight semesters in duration and must prove professional, technical and/or academic experience of no less than ten years," specifies the legislative press office.
Leave it in the hands of a commission of specialists The opportunity to draft a new Magna Carta to replace the one imposed by Augusto Pinochet during the dictatorship is a particularly cruel and particularly indolent betrayal of the popular demands expressed throughout Chile during the social uprising that began in October 2019 and led to a first draft, which was already rejected in a plebiscite in September 2022.
In addition to singing in popular, spontaneous, overflowing ways,