The Struggle for Democracy and Memory in Chile

Can a democracy confront the darkest periods of its past to reimagine a more egalitarian future?

Fifty years ago, the socialist presidency of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a brutal coup in Chile. The military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, massively supported by the United States, introduced neoliberal policies that spurred rapid economic growth. Yet it also worsened social inequalities, while severely repressing intellectual freedom, political criticism and social dissent. A negotiated transition to democracy in the 1990s enabled the rise of center-left governments, which lessened poverty and pursued social reform. Yet economic stagnation and persistent inequalities, and legal constraints on policy alternatives, galvanized widespread protests over the last decade to convene a popular assembly and draft a new democratic constitution.

How do Chilean citizens address the violations of the military dictatorship and its legacies today? Why was the new constitution, which many citizens believed necessary, widely rejected in the 2022 referendum? What possible futures exist now?

The distinguished scholar, practitioner and activist Marcela Ríos Tobar explores these questions in conversation with Sanjay Ruparelia and Caitlin Andrews-Lee.