After 10 months of intense negotiations, Chile has finalized the draft of a new constitution that could replace the document drafted during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
María Elisa Quinteros, president of the equal 154-member assembly, will officially present the draft at a ceremony in the port city of Antofagasta on Monday afternoon.
“This is an ecological and equal constitution with social rights at its core,” she said in an interview.
Among the long list of rights and freedoms enshrined in the draft, the new constitution makes higher education free, ensures gender equality in government and gives the state responsibility for preventing, adapting to and mitigating climate change.
The constitution will be put to a referendum on September 4, in which all Chileans over the age of 18 must vote.
Chile exploded in protest in 2019, with millions taking to the streets to denounce a host of deep-rooted inequalities. In response, political parties compromised to replace the Pinochet-era constitution.
Almost 80% of voters chose to begin this journey in a referendum in October 2020, and seven months later leftists and independents stormed the elections for a constitutional convention.
“With every bill passed, we have provided answers to the demands of the 2019 demonstrations, such as better health care, education and pensions,” Quinteros said.
The new document will grant constitutional recognition to indigenous peoples of Chile for the first time.
“Whether this Constitution is rejected or approved [by the plebiscite]I believe that the indigenous peoples of Chile have already won,” said Rosa Catrileo, who represents the Mapuche, the country’s largest indigenous group.
“We have made our demands visible at the national level and as a result we will never exclude ourselves from the conversation again,” she said.
The new document even includes a clause for the compensated return of historically indigenous land.
Among a host of other changes, it votes to abolish the Senate in favor of a unicameral legislature, paving the way for the replacement of Chile’s deeply unpopular private water rights system.
Since July of last year, the former congress building in Santiago has been the scene of a protracted and often bitter public battle over Chile’s future.
The process was participatory, with citizens able to approve articles and debate laws at rallies across Chile.
As the country confronted its past head-on, delegates were occasionally hounded by the public while a vocal campaign to undermine the process raged in the background.
Although significantly reformed under the presidency of Ricardo Lagos in 2005, the Pinochet-era constitution retains the ideological fingerprints of the Chilean dictator.
It omits certain rights, such as the right to housing, and focuses on safeguarding the legacy of the military regime and a market-based model for social service delivery.
At 499 articles, Chile’s new constitution would be the longest in the world, raising some concerns about the delegates’ “maximalist” approach.
The Convention was divided into three commissions: one to streamline and condense the document; another to plan the transition from one constitution to the next; and a third to write a preamble.
However, the prospects ahead of the September referendum are uncertain.
Recent polls suggest initial enthusiasm for the reform has evaporated, with 46% saying they will oppose the bill while 38% are in favour.
“There is a possibility that we are replacing an illegitimate, authoritarian constitution with a divisive and ill-defined one,” said Kenneth Bunker, director of tresquintos.cl, a political analysis website.
Chile’s progressive new president, Gabriel Boric, had a difficult start to his presidency with falling approval ratings but was quick to voice his support for the convention after winning December’s elections.
“It is not wise to equate the success of the government with the success of a referendum,” said Bunker, who believes a tight mandate for the new document could prolong political upheaval in Chile.
If the draft is approved by a majority, it will be ratified as Chile’s new constitution. If rejected, the 1980 document will remain in effect.