This Wednesday, October 18, marks the fourth anniversary of the 2019 social outbreak in Chile, which kept institutionality at bay and led to a constitutional process that is still ongoing. Currently, the country has not agreed on an explanation for the events of that day and in the weeks that followed, which unsettled not only Sebastián Piñera’s government but also democracy. The political class proposed a way out – the path to a new constitution – but four years after the events, Chilean leaders have failed to reach an agreement and the second attempt could fail in December’s referendum. Scholars of Chilean social life, like Kathya Araujo in EL PAÍS, have pushed for a grand social and political compact to escape the immobility of gridlocked politics.
To analyze what October 18, 2019 meant for Chile and the current moment, this newspaper convened 18 observers from Chilean society. These were their answers:
Eugenio Tironi, sociologist
Manuel Canales, sociologist
Sofia Correa, historian
Dante Contreras, economist and deputy director of the Center for Conflict and Social Cohesion Studies (COES)
Constanza Michelson, psychoanalyst
Pablo Ortuzar, anthropologist
María José Navia, writer
Sergio Muñoz Rivero, political essayist
Lucía Dammert, political scientist and security expert
Martin Hopenhayn, philosopher
Josefina Araos, historian
Hugo Herrera, lawyer and philosopher
Sylvia Eyzaguirre, researcher at the Center for Public Studies (CEP)
Rodrigo Karmy, academic at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Chile
Alejandra Sepúlveda, President of the Women’s Community
