Chilean reforms and the US

TV Pública argentina has a disturbing report analyzing the background of the Obama Administration disturbing pressure on Michelle Bachelet's Nueva Mayoría (New Majority) government to not proceed with the program on which she was elected of changing some of the more destructive neoliberal policies installed under the Pinochet dictatorship, Chile bajo la mirada norteamericana 05/17/2014:

Bachelet is pushing forward with a tax reform that was part of her program. For the Nueva Mayoría, "reform" does not mean what it means in the EU and even in the US at the moment: neoliberal plans to reduce salaries and lighten the regulatory and tax burdens on the wealthy. Bachelet's tax reform would actually require the wealthiest to pay more to support their country, including improving the financing of college educations.

US Ambassador to Chile Michael Hammer has already stepped in to complain about the Nueva Mayoría's reforms, demanding "clear rules" and the involvement of all "stakeholders," in particular US firms that might be affected in some way: Embajador de Estados Unidos pidió "reglas claras" al Gobierno ante reformas Radio ADN 06.05.2014.

Las visiones sobre los dichos del embajador de EE.UU. sobre la reforma tributaria CNN Chile 08.05.2014:

The accompanying article is Reforma Tributaria: Las visiones sobre los dichos del embajador de EE.UU. CNN Chile 08.05.2014

Bachelet was elected this year with her Nueva Mayoría coalition including a wide spectrum of center-left to left parties, including Chile's Partida Communista. Here's the most famous member of that party, Camila Vallejo Downing, talking about the tax reform, Reforma tributaria, intervención de Camila Vallejo 13.05.2014:

If this report from AllGov.com can be credited (Ambassador to Chile: Who Is Michael Hammer? 07/20/2013), Hammer may have an friendly inclination toward the notion of authoritarian government in Latin America:

Nominated by President Barack Obama on June 21 to be the next U.S. ambassador to Chile, Mike Hammer has been assistant secretary of state for public affairs since March 30, 2012, having served as acting assistant secretary since the March 13, 2011, resignation of P.J. Crowley, who was forced out after he characterized the harsh confinement of whistleblower Pfc. Bradley Manning as "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid." Hammer had been principal deputy assistant secretary since January 2011. If confirmed by the Senate, Hammer would succeed Alejandro D. Wolff, who has served in Santiago since September 2010. [my emphasis]

Being considered more trustworthy by this Administration than a critic of its harsh and genuinely repressive treatment of whistleblowers like Manning is not an encouraging sign in itself.

Born December 26, 1963, in Washington, DC, to parents Michael P. and Magdalena Hammer, Michael A. Hammer spent much of his childhood in Latin America, specifically Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil, where his father was working for the American Institute for Free Labor Development, a CIA front group that worked to undermine spontaneous radicalism and channel workers into corporate-funded, conservative labor groups. The elder Hammer was gunned down in a hotel dining room in San Salvador on January 3, 1981, by Salvadoran National Guard agents who had been trained at the Pentagon’s notorious School of the Americas. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, with both Secretary of State Edmund Muskie and Vice President Walter Mondale in attendance. He was probably a CIA agent. ...

After completing his studies at the National War College during the 2006-2007 academic year, Hammer served as political aide to ambassador Phillip Goldberg in La Paz, Bolivia, from 2007 to September 2008, when Goldberg was expelled after a series of incidents suggested that the embassy was engaged in espionage and fomenting discontent against the government. [my emphasis]

On the other hand, if his father was murdered by a Salvadoran rightwing death squad, maybe he learned from that it's wise to have reservations about authoritarian government in Latin America.

Also, I believe the correct term for what AllGov describes as the senior Hammer's role would be "CIA officer," rather than "agent," the latter being used for contacts working for the CIA rather than a CIA employee working under a cover like AIFLD.

We don't need any destabilization operations against Michelle Bachelet's government in Chile.

Tags: camila vallejo, chile, michelle bachelet

Michelle Bachelet returns as President of Chile

Michelle Bachelet was inaugurated today for her second (non-consecutive) term as President of Chile.

In a particularly nice touch, during today's official ceremony, the incoming Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was given the Presidential ribbon that signifies her assumption of office by the President of the Chilean Senate, María Isabel Allende, one of the daughters of President Salvador Allende who was murdered in the coup of 1973. (Not the famous writer Isabel Allende, who is a first cousin once removed of the murdered former President.)

Michelle Bachelet asume su segundo término como Presidenta de Chile -- Exclusivo Online Univision Noticias 11.03.2014

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Visión 7: Michele Bachelet asumió la presidencia de Chile TV Pública argentina 11.03.2014

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She previously served as President in the 2006-2010 term. She is from the Partido Socialista, which was also Salvador Allende's party. One notable feature of her electoral coalition, the Nueva Mayoría (New Majority) is that it includes the Communist Party, whose most famous member is Camila Vallejo, who began her first term today as a deputy in the Chilean Parliament. (Camila Vallejo asumió su banca con el puño en alto InfoNews 11.03.2014)

Tags: camila vallejo, chile, michelle bachelet

Chilean student leader Camila Vallejo in Argentina

"La sola mención de su nombre lleva directo a uno de los más importantes movimientos de protesta juvenil –y más allá del límite generacional– que sacudió a Latinoamérica en el último tiempo." ("Just the mention of her name calls directly to mind one of the most important youth protest movement - and one that reaches well beyond the generational borders - that has taken place in Latin America in recent times") - Ailín Bullentini, En marcha a la Plaza de Mayo Página 12 24.03.2012

Chilean student protest leader Camila Vallejo

Even though South America has fared relatively well during the current depression so far, thanks largely to their increasing rejection of neoliberal economics (the "Washington Consensus" of the 1990s), there have also been significant protest movements of indignados there during the last few years, notably in Chile, which the Pinochet turned into a Chicago School experiment in deregulation and Milton Friedman economics. The current billionaire President of Chile, Sebastián) Piñera, is committed to the neoliberal model and wants to have further deregulation and privatization.

Student leader Camila Vallejo (full name: Camila Antonia Amaranta Vallejo Dowling) became a charismatic and effective leader of protests in Chile, particularly those aimed at protecting and explanding access to higher education. She developed that role in her former office as chairperson of the Juventudes Comunistas de Chile (Young Communists of Chile). Yes, that naughty young woman is a Commie, can you believe that?

Still, however shocking her political affiliations may be to Americans - although in FOXWorld that would mean she's pretty much like President Obama - she has been impressively effective in articulating grievances felt by large numbers of Chileans and organizing protests to articulate them. She currently serves as the Vice President of the Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH).

In the Página 12 interview, she says, "Los jóvenes chilenos no somos hijos de la democracia, sino de la posdictadura" ("We Chilean youth are not children of democracy, but rather of the post-dictatatorship"). She was in Argentina to attend a marching commemorating the dark anniversary of the military coup in 1976, which began a seven-year military dictatorship, the most brutal in Latin American history. The fall of the Junta in 1983 and the re-establishment of democracy have become a founding myth for Argentine democracy, myth in the sense of being an emotionally-charged symbol. Working through the history of that period, including by legal prosecution of those who committed crimes on behalf of the Junta, continues to be an important part of the "kirchnerista" government of Cristina Fernández and her predecessor as President, her late husband Néstor Kirchner.

Camila compares Argentina's current state of democracy favorably to that in Chile because she believes Argentina enjoys a much greater degree of democracia plena (full and/or open democracy). One appealing feature of Argentina's current practice for her are the legal proceedings against criminals under the military dictatorship:

–¿Considera que en Chile podrían enjuiciarse y condenarse a los genocidas?

–Hay muchos atrasos en el país; uno tiene que ver con los juicios por los crímenes de lesa humanidad cometidos. Pero, ¿y los que ocurren hoy? Hace poco menos de un año, un carabinero asesinó a un niño, Manuel Gutiérrez, un delito que está juzgando la Justicia militar. Eso no puede ser, ahí tiene que intervenir la Justicia civil. Muchas cosas no han avanzado. Mucha gente que está en el poder hoy es responsable de lo que sucedió en la dictadura. (El presidente chileno, Sebastián) Piñera fue el empresario que más se enriqueció durante la dictadura. Los dos medios de comunicación más poderosos son golpistas. Son responsables, avalaron y son cómplices de torturas y asesinatos de la dictadura y apuntan a dejar atrás la historia, dejarla en el pasado, pensar en el futuro.

... mucha gente [en Chile] añora la dictadura. Existen sectores, aunque no son mayoritarios, muy de derecha, muy reaccionarios, y que recuerdan eso como los buenos momentos de nuestro país.

Do you believe that in Chile it would be possible to prosecute and convict those guilty of genocide? [the interviewer uses "genocide" inappropriately here to refer to crimes of repression under the Pinochet military dictatorship in Chile - Bruce]

There are many backward things in the country; one has to do with legal proceedings over the crimes against humanity that were committed. But, and those that are happening today? A little less than a year ago, a [military] rifleman murder a boy, Manuel Gutiérrez, a crime that is being handled by military justice. This can't be, civilian justice has to intervene there. (The Chilean President, Sebastián) Piñera was the businessman who got the richest during the dictatorship. The two most powerful of the news media were supporters of the coup. They were responsible for, endorsed and were complicit in tortures and murders of the dictatorship and aim to leave history behind, to leave it in the past, think about the future.

... many people in Chile miss the dictatorship. There are sectors, though they are not a majority, very rightwing, very reactionary, and who remember that as the good moments of our country.

Camila is not in agreement with the concept of Look Forward, Not Back when it comes to official crimes, it seems. Nor should she or anyone else be.

This video (Camila Vallejo YouTube date 02/28/2011) shows her talking about the needs of Chile on the anniversary of the Earthquake of 2010.



This one shows her more in Evita mode (Discurso Camila Vallejo 19/10/11 - El Infiltrado YouTube date 10/20/2011):



See also:

Camila Vallejo: "Tenemos que aprender mucho de Argentina" Página 12 24.03.2012

Oliver Trenkamp, Chilenische Studentenführerin. Lehr uns revoltieren, Comandante Camila! Spiegel Online 30.01.2012. A caption on her photo there reads, "Sie ist eine knallharte Kommunistin und beliebter als der Präsident" ("She is a hardcore Communist and more beloved than the President") Presumably it's the President of Chile meant there.

William Moss Wilson, Just Don't Call Her Che New York Times 01/28/2012

Ulrich Ladurner, Die Mächtige. Klug, schön, eloquent: Eine Studentin führt die Proteste in Chile an Die Zeit 21.08.2011

Revolutionskunde für Anfänger Die Zeit 02.02.2012

Tags: camila vallejo