chile

Moving *beyond* that crap, though -- yes to the wines, indeed, and hurrah to my cousin George's longtime girlfriend now wife Pilar, whose family emigrated from Chile when she was three. She's ultracool (and a total babe to boot) and the whole damn family roXoR.

Destroy the movie version of The House of the Spirits. Ugh.

http://www.ecoadven.com/SABrochure/ImagesSA/saltochico.jpg

Enjoy Chile! It's an amazing country.

Viña del Mar reminded me of what I imagine Florida to be like...

Also if you go to Chile and don't ride at least one dodgy funicular then you suck!

i would like to thank the american assosciation of dairy farmers for making this "joke" possible.

I always regretted missing out on Chiloe. All that witchcraft and scorcery.

Don't forget to rub Magellan's shiny toe.

not that this will be of interest to many people but fucking Chile just voted the right in for the first time since the the 1960s. Fuck fuck fuck.

and the irony of it is, outgoing prez Michelle Bachelet is hugely popular.

Just ate at a restaurant in l'eixample, Barcelona to celebrate the bicentennial of this fucked /cool country.ceviche, an empanada, sopaipillas, chupe de mariscos, pastel de choclo, a wee pisco sour. Would've preferred to be there, but was a nice way to mark the occasion. Viva chile mierda.

jim, how did you end up spending so long in chile? work? family?

My connection with chile is family : my dad's from there. Not spent as much time there as I'd liked to have, i've visited 4 times, twice for 3 weeks and twice for a month, twice as a child and twice in the last couple of years. Have often pondered going to live there for a while but i'm not nearly bold enough for a cross continent move and use my execrable Spanish, or whatever, as an excuse.

Although I don't know the country all that well it's often in my thoughts, this year especially -the earthquake, the right getting back in, my grandmother passing away, the miners, the football team making the world cup.

Planning a trip for autumn next year. Might take in some of the north of the country, where I've never been.

Has anyone been to Vina del Mar lately? I am taking my niece to go a wedding and I have only ever stayed in Valparaiso, but now most of my family has moved to Vina. I used to go to every winter break to visit my grandmother and that would include a trip to the beach in Vina, but I haven't been since she died probably 10 or 12 years ago.

So, it's all happening in Santiago. Nationwide strike and a charismatic communist student leader. Mash-notey, Green Day-soundtracked YouTube homage to her here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V3p2MPB2UE&feature=player_embedded

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/aug/26/chile-national-strike-violence-santiago?picture=378287810

Good protest gallery over at the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/aug/26/chile-national-strike-violence-santiago?picture=378287810

Oh hey, I'll be here for 6 weeks. I have enough family there to tell me about basic stuff, so... where the Santiago record stores and Villalobos style parties at?

For records: you need to check out this awesome labyrinth of a flea market on weekends called the Persa Bio Bio, a few blocks east of the Franklin metro station on the yellow line. It's a bit hard to describe so I'll let this link explain it: http://www.santiagomagazine.cl/living/el-persa-bio-bio-flea-market-done-right

Anyhow, ask for "Johnny's Records". Tons of vinyl. Lots of fun. If you have any curiosity or interest, you might want to ask for suggestions regarding Chilean folklore music, possibly of revolutionary inclination. There's some really beautiful, powerful stuff you could probably pick up for a good price.

Other good record shops right near Metro Los Leones, particularly Sonar Tienda and Disqueria Funtracks.

For electronic music, check out Club La Feria up in Bellavista. It's kind of the default. I couldn't tell you about where the underground clubs or parties are (I go back to Chile -where I spent my childhood- every few years, but live in Boston), but if you pm me I can connect you to a friend or cousin who would.

Hope you have a fantastic time!

i go to chile

going in september to ski volcanoes but would also appreciate any other intel on cool things to do

Villaricca is a good volcano, you can't ski it but you do sled down on your arse. It's in the lake district which is gorgeous.

Also hit up Valparaiso if you can, and at the opposite end of the country the Torres Del Paine trek is stunning. Santiago's kind of nothingy.

Anyway, lovely country lovely people. Hope you're not a vegetarian.

dunno if we'll make it all the way down to Torres Del Paine (though I'd like to). valparaiso is definitely on my list, though, seems like a pretty cool town

i go there 2day

Say hello to the Andes for me. And watch out for earthquakes.

have fun! it is an amazing place. eat seafood or peruvian because most of chilean food is garbage

yeah i was googling about chilean food and pretty much everyone says that -- which was sort of a bummer since i love to eat but sticking to a diet of peruvian and seafood sounds AOK to me

it is fwiw baffling to me that a country as bounteous as chile would have mediocre cuisine, esp since they produce good wines

yea it is weird. my very quick speculation based on spending only a few months there about 10 years ago says that:

1) there is a big fast food culture, so places serving shit like hot dogs, sandwiches, fried chicken, and french fries are widespread
2) there is less of an indigenous presence compared with neighbors like peru or bolivia, or other latin american countries like mexico
3) the cultural influences at play in chile (spanish, german, and some indigenous but again considerably less so than other latin american countries) are gastronomically less interesting than other countries, e.g. peru (spanish, indigenous, chinese, japanese, african), argentina (spanish, italian), brazil (portuguese, indigenous, african)

that said it has miles and miles and miles of coastline so yea the seafood will be spectacular. also the areas with stronger indigenous presences (e.g. chiloe) have incredible food

you can get really good seafood all over chile. I particularly enjoy merluza negra aka Patagonian toothfish aka "Chilean seabass", and all sorts of chupes aka stews that are made from different types of seafood. you can get them made out of locos - these things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concholepas_concholepas - if you like mayonnaise (which is important for enjoying Chilean sandwiches/hot dogs) locos mayo (just locos served with mayonnaise) is pretty delicious.

so yeah, the sandwiches. I love Chilean sandwiches. well i loved, I am a vegan now, which will make my next visit to chile somewhat more difficult. homemade bread, some sort of meat, and tomatoes, chili, mayonnaise, avocado etc. steak with green beans is a chacarero. a completo is a hot dog with the works, where the meat is more like the condiment than vice versa.

ceviche is good, peruvian ceviche probably better but luckily there are plenty of peruvian restaurants.

average chilean meal at home is like a piece of meat, some potatoes and some vegetables. luckily the vegetables are very good! it's spring so artichokes will be in season i think.

the fruit cherimoya is pretty great, don't think it'll be in season, and also they cultivate them in California so you've quite probably had one before (although i never see them here in Vancouver bc despite the preponderance of Californian fruit, not even at stupid wholefoods).

empanadas are also good. September is "el mes de la patria", independence day on the 18th and the anniversary of the coup on the 11th. traditional empanada around this time is empanada de pino that contains minced beef, boiled egg, raisins, etc. might sound bad but is really tasty. you can also get fried empanadas with cheese which are dece. also drink some chicha (maize booze) out of a horn thing if the chance arises.

I really enjoy Chilean bread. pan amasado, pan hallula. nice sort of scone-like little round breads that are tasty with some butter and cheese.

little fried pastries called sopaipillas that can be savoury or sweet are tasty.

typically Chilean creole "drink" called mote con huesillo (boiled wheat husks, in a syrupy liquid with a re-hydrated dried peach) is worth trying for sure.

oh yeah and pisco sour is so obvious but in the north of chile they grow these limes calles limones de pica that are kind of like key limes and are basically essential to a proper pisco sour.

called not calles

mmm cherimoya

chileans love them some beef too. most meals I had there involved beef and potatoes.. not awesome but not heinous

choripan = bbq'd chorizo on a bun.

quite like chilean empanadas actually. the ones i've had didn't have raisins in them, though

i've had other latin american countries' empanadas, and i think my favourites are the ones from chile and argentina (their salteñas)

not a fan of the icing sugar on the peruvian ones

never been to chile but I gotta post when someone actually mentions salteñas bc they're the best, paceños forever

I love going to South America just for the fruit tbh

oh man, yeah.

pacae, lucuma (-flavoured ice cream), platano de la isla/manzano, maracuya, guanabana, granadilla, cherimoya

thanks guys! I am so hungry now

yeah in La Paz there's this bougie resto Dumbo on the Prado that makes amazing fruit drinks, w or w/o milk. I love their tumbo drink, tastes like all the best fruits all mixed together, like a liquid fruit cocktail as you get in cans in the USA

jugo de maracuya is the best, lucuma also delicious

I had a pastel de choclo which was topped with caramelised sugar, like a creme brûlée. That was a really weird experience.

i don't think it's the same thing but i had sweet humita in peru, which was really, really good

sweet humitas are really good

In Santiago we ate out at this place and my friend ordered pastel de choclo and it tasted like cigarette ash :(

I think the thing in chile is that everything is really oversweetened (to the point of being like, a public concern) and yeah, fast food culture. My favourite thing was humitas with diced tomatos and avocado with some olive oil mixed in. And marraquettas, which I think are supposed to be the de facto national bread, are great. Empanadas are delicious. Chilean sandwiches are weird. Aside from seafood all the best restaurants I ate at were Peruvian, because omg authentic peruvian food.

yesterday we skied a Cerro and then went to a rodeo

life is good

enjoy it, gbx!

hoping to make it out to patagonia once in this life. antarctica would be a dream come true

well that was fun

ski mountaineering is fun

https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/11225320_10100571418140266_8222542089262893288_n.jpg?oh=c217d75deb3871bd9899013e4073b66f&oe=5666AA73

https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/v/t1.0-9/12004690_10100574997242716_2009773118661914150_n.jpg?oh=f4dc193e10db7ee5b137d085b903e8ed&oe=569AB696

https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/12002247_10100575088010816_6881214488047904144_n.jpg?oh=fb3081191459d6e745180b9e1c39f23c&oe=566E9DA5

jealous!

what peak is that?

How high did you climb?

awesome

wowwwww

peak pictured is volcan lonquimay (first pic is from cerro morro) -- elevation is only 9400ft but we started at about 5000ft

few days earlier we made an attempt at nevados de chillan but came up a couple hundred meters

short, due largely to my lack of fitness

great descent tho. lonquimay on the other hand was bulletproof 30deg ice for virtually the whole way down. great day tho

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20003k7a#general_summary

yeah, they're saysing either 7.2 or 7.9.

tsunami alert

man, second time within two years

holy shit

:/

good luck, gbx. we hope you weren't on the coast or on a cliff when it happened!

I'm seeing 8.3, jeez

http://www.rt.com/news/315618-tsunami-waves-chile-earthquake/

I actually landed back in Boston about an hour after it happened -- yikes

Glad you're back safe gbx (and sounds like a rad trip you took). I have lots of family (including mother, who just went back from visiting ) and friends in Chile and no idea how they fared tonight

hope you hear from them soon cg

Thanks gbx. Ok so I heard via my aunt in Santiago that the family is fine, and the damage in general much less than in 2010 (despite only half a Richter's difference) because the shock waves were primarily horizontal rather than vertical in nature (a function of the

displacement at the fault line

https://images.vivino.com/labels/00d06ft8ifr5v.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ajftae7.jpg

https://images.vivino.com/thumbs/0271wpwebbwzp_375x500.jpg

that first one is from my dad's hometown lol

Chilean wine-growing country is p big into Pinochet in general though #problematiccarmenere

what is the most woke part of chile?

Chile is extremely unwoke even as far as South America goes.

boring answer to the question though: probably Santiago.

The University of Concepcion was always good for a bit of left-wing activism too.

Oh yeah there's a small seaside town called Horcon that is popular with hippies and artists and has chile's only nudist beach

what about valparaiso

yeah probably a good answer tho ive only spent like a day there. definitely more woke than adjacent Vina del Mar.

Where is that wine from? I have a bottle from Undurraga that is "Pablo Neruda" logo wine.

Paul Schaefer was born near Bonn in 1921. He had a glass eye, having accidentally gouged out his right eye while trying to untie a shoelace knot with a fork. He joined the Nazi youth movement before becoming a Luftwaffe medic stationed in France during World War II. In 2006, Mr. Schaefer was sentenced to 20 years for sexually abusing minors and three years for violating weapons laws. In 2008, he received additional sentences for torturing colony residents and for killing an allegedly traitorous security agent who had served under Pinochet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Baviera

Margot Honecker (née Feist; 17 April 1927 – 6 May 2016) was an East German politician, who was an influential member of the East German communist party and the East German regime until 1989. From 1963 until 1989, she was "Minister of People's Education" (Ministerin für Volksbildung) of the GDR. She was married to Erich Honecker, the dictator of East Germany from 1971 until 1989.[1][3][4][5]

Honecker was widely known as the "Purple Witch" for her tinted hair and hardline Stalinist views, and was "hated and feared" in East Germany.[1][4][6][7] Former Bundestag president Wolfgang Thierse has described her as "the most hated person" in East Germany next to Stasi chief Erich Mielke.[8][9] She was responsible for the enactment of the "Uniform Socialist Education System" in 1965 and mandatory military training in schools.[3]

idk if this counts as woke? probably more woke than paul schaefer anyway

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/aug/29/chile-president-michelle-bachelet-introduces-gay-marriage-bill

ok, so it hasn't passed yet.

and abortion is still illegal in most circumstances.

but some progress

i mean considering there was no divorce law until 2004 the country is making some strides

i would like to go back to chile

Me too. Santiago seemed really nice for all 3 days I was there

me three. it's been 9 years -_-

Me too. Was gonna do a couple months there last year but had to change plans. Looks super cool

I would like to go back to chile

i would like to go back to chile

― gbx, Tuesday, August 29, 2017 9:00 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i am going back to chile

when? It's cold and grey right now.

mid-late aug, going to portillo as my first "real boy who's finally done with training" vacation

You;ll just miss the total solar eclipse. Although it is more near the atacama and prolly will be too cloudy anyway.

ah well. we might take an extra day or two in santiago (possibly valpo), so if you've got any recs i'm all ears

Imagine my brother in law leaving 91-degree Miami for Santiago on Monday for a business trip

I don't eat out a lot in Santiago because restaurants vary broadly and I have better wine and spirits at home. But if you want to splurge a bit Borago and Peumayan are really good. Both try to do local and ancestral ingredients/methods, I think Borago is still on some of the top restaurants in South America list but it's relatively reasonably priced. If you go to hang out in Lastarria most of the restaurants are good (Bocanariz is a good wine bar for wine flights from all Chilean regions and has a nice food menu) and The Singular hotel has a nice rooftop bar. There is that weird castle restaurant thing in La Forestal Park right across from Bellas Artes that has a nice roof but I guess it will be cold. The neighborhood around Barrio Italia is probably the only other hipstery area. People really seem to love Liguria, and it has a great atmosphere but the food is very average. Another restaurante in Bellavista I like is Como Agua Para Chocolate.

If you have a car you should take those days to drive to the best Pablo Neruda house in Isla Negra. On the way you can hit up some wineries. Casa del Bosque has a nice restaurant and on the way to Valpo, House of Morande has a nice restaurant as well. It being winter, I would check before going that they are open/reservations. There are a couple of Italian restaurants that are really good in Valpo, but I can't remember the name of them. They were all up on the one hill that is the main place everyone goes to look at graffiti.

(i actually think santiago is a little boring but it's ok because i am a little boring these days.)

yerac i lived in santiago a long time ago (2005) and i thought it was a little boring with mostly bad food too :)

It's gotten magnitudes better but it's still comparatively pretty boring and full of mediocre food/service. I wish they could get their sushi game somewhat on point.

thanks for the tips, yerac!

Before you go to Valpo you should watch that wack Eli Roth movie set there, Aftershock. I tell chileans about this movie and they are like, wtf.

all the pablo neruda houses are worth a visit imo

here we go

think we're gonna try for borago on our last night (if we can get in)

narrator: they did not get in

we did go to peumayen tho! great presentation if not totally mind blowing, across the literal boards the courses came on, but at USD$36 a screaming value and well worth it. rec very much appreciated yerac!

oh! that sucks about Borago. I never found it to be hard to get a table for whenever but it's been a year or so and I think they have moved locations. I liked peumayan a lot but my spouse who needs the veg menu said last time he went it was mostly cheese (which he does not eat) so we have not been since. What did you eat and what did you do in Santiago?

Borago was open for reservations allllll week so we stupidly didn't actually try to place a res until Friday, for a Saturday night booking for four. Oh well

I got the "mixed" tasting menu, which had samplers of the meat/sea/veg menus

the mushroom pate was exquisite

Borago is a little funny, whimsical. Like drinking tea out of horns. Scraping some mushroom paté off of a big stone. They had something I called the pine diaper, where they would bring out a burlapy cloth infused with foresty/earth smells with the dish in the middle and when they opened the cloth it would release the fragrance.

we didn't get to do much in Santiago on Saturday because we ran out of gas on the way out of Chillan and lost a few hours to that little escapade

At least it was warmer this weekend!

Okay, I felt the need to make a fast thread in English so the people who aren't from this country know what's going on Chile.#EvasionMasiva#EvasionMasivaTodoElDia pic.twitter.com/qQJLvjl7xv

— vakyn 📌 AU (@_SE0KJ1N_) October 18, 2019

Good thread explaining what's going on rn in Santiago

It's pretty quiet here now. A lot of people waiting for the bus. Two weeks ago there was a football team staying at a hotel down the street from me and after the fan rally a bunch of barras bravas just started trashing our street, pulling up signs to lay in the middle of the street, setting trash on fire. The police came with the teargas and the firemen were quick but they kept resetting fires. I was annoyed because the firemen are all volunteer and donation funded. Last night was pretty crazy though.

The food and real estate here are on par with most US cities that I don't get how (I mean I do) how they keep the wages so low. It's really messed up.

now that's direct action fuckin hell ahahahahahaha yes lads https://t.co/C79kJNF0p4

— niko 🐝 (@nik0_mcr) October 19, 2019

A lot of metro stations and buses were set on fire too. FIRE!

This:

https://www.reddit.com/r/chile/comments/dkl5j8/y_recuerden_amigos_el_lumpen_no_es_aliado_de_la/

So much hair-raising footage going round.wonder how long it can go on for?

Pinera is a fool.

yes, he really is.

for those not following he was seen dining in a nice resto the first night of the unrest, and then has made statements typifying the unrest (with lots of the participants being teens/youth) and the police/military response as being a war against evil.

I didn't realize he was one of chile's 11 billionaires.

or 13 or 14 or however many they have now with the minimum wage still being ~400usd a month.

After he made that comment all the neighbors were banging their pots in all the buildings around me (I live in providencia).

Chilean troops fired on civilians from APC, footage from 1 hr ago pic.twitter.com/oUF9shP9B0

— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) October 21, 2019

jesus, fucking armed troops on tanks firing at will here

I am surprised an apology and changes came this fast. https://www.cnnchile.com/pais/presidente-pinera-medidas-agenda-social_20191022/
I also see that there may is impeachment talk for Pinera.

I’m seriously relieved by Piñera’s statement. It’s just a beginning obviously, and needs to be backed up by real reforms, but man his tone up until now, combined with the specters of the junta crystallizing on the streets, was started to freak me out, having lived through ‘73 and all...

Then after checking on my family and friends there (including some who live right on Plaza Italia), and calming down a bit, I begin to wonder ... why aren’t we in the US rioting? Brutal neoliberalism for decades, violently racist structures and policy,, and a level of corruption that makes Chile look like a parent-teacher association... why are we so bloody patient[?

had started to freak me out, I meant

Probably the only chance people can really gain wins. This and the riots in Ecuador have given me joy

why aren’t we in the US rioting?

I (a non-American) tried raising this question in rolling US politics threads a couple of times and was met with hostility. There's always an exceptionalist excuse.

I would think because of guns and people being so imprisoned by their shitty health insurance (or lack of) and being so trained to be overly concerned about property destruction.

It's a shade funny though that the metro in Santiago has magnitudes better service that the NYC MTA. Like trains comes often, on time with countdowns, stations are mostly large and well taken care of...

It was pretty nice to see the media here covering older people being vocally supportive of the students and later shots of the elderly in their wheelchairs beating on their pots in solidarity.

Amusing to think that the Second Amendment may in fact be preventing US citizens from rebelling against their tyrannical government.

Your point about property destruction is interesting btw. As far as I can tell, it is indeed a far bigger deal in Anglo-Saxon countries (loosely speaking, of course).

Whenever people say violence and they only mean property destruction or setting trashcans on fire, I am like "oh fuck off."

i also think americans are overly distrustful of their neighbors but pretend they are of the government.

I have no idea how one would go about rewiring them short of a science-fiction utopia dystopia.

The first night here when everything was being set on fire we both said "chileans do not fuck around."

so this is still going strong!

for spanish speakers: i enjoyed this short (11 minute) podcast about the situation

yeah there is a huge (the largest?) demonstration going on right now. Students at one of the major universities sent out an email that they voted to be on an open ended strike and I think the truckers are protesting the highway tolls (highways are privatized).

It's unfortunate about the amount of looters but I get it. One of the hotels by plaza italia was totally fucked up the other day.

I was reading somewhere that the firefighters think it's better to be volunteer only because it makes them run better and members take it more seriously. I don't know if that is just spin or not though.

oh yeah the whole bomberos being voluntary thing and the consequences of that with all the burnings had skipped my mind :/

I had been wondering if they would have a demand to the government for salaries but then I read about their pride in being volunteers...and I just don't know. We do have an automatic monthly donation that goes to them.

46 years after US-backed forces led by Pinochet kidnapped, tortured and murdered communist singer Victor Jara, tens of thousands were singing his music yesterday in the streets of Chile: pic.twitter.com/ewr3oUUMrf

— hmmm (@yke_hmmm) October 26, 2019

“Neoliberalism was born in Chile and will die in Chile” pic.twitter.com/Gaa90j8zdH

— UptownBerber (@HishamAidi) October 28, 2019

where are all the usual ILX suspects with their usual Strong Opinions on civil unrest in the S American zone? I know, pointless fucking question.

A Chilean orchestra gave an open-air performance of "El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!" ("The people united will never be defeated") in Santiago.

The song was written in 1973, only months before the violent coup by dictator Augusto Pinochet, who assumed power in September. pic.twitter.com/EYgn7U1XA3

— redfish (@redfishstream) October 28, 2019

some songs never age.

Piñera having a wee cabinet-shuffle today as if that's going to fuck all.

"to do fuck all" even

We might need to have a general global civil unrest thread.

Holy shit.

Tonight’s protest in Chile. pic.twitter.com/hVDyGw9POF

— Joshua Potash 🆘 (@JoshuaPotash) November 9, 2019

my spouse's colleagues and students have all been asking us gringos how we feel about the protests and if I am scared. He is like "oh she has an isreali gas mask with hydration tube."

Our street has been getting a lot of action because we live 2-3 blocks from the tallest building in SA which has a 6 floor mall in it, so it's been mostly closed for a couple of weeks and the police are defending that thing like it's full of virgins and puppies. So throngs are constantly being teargassed and chased onto our street. The whole block is full of teargas and our nice doorman (doormen here are usually just older men in cardigans) is watering our front garden and not even flinching when kids are doing reacharounds to fill their water bottles.

This is Leonardo Farkas, second place in the latest Chilean presidential poll; a businessman and philanthropist, known for his telethons raising money for handicapped children; who has said that if elected President "every Chilean would get their own house" pic.twitter.com/SP7Bz54Trh

— Populism Updates (@PopulismUpdates) July 16, 2020

lol sending the solar orbiter to image scan the blinding light from those gleaming pearlers. Without knowing anything about him my first impression is he sounds like he might be good?

aka Charlie Mullins of the Andes.

For someone who looks remarkably like Alf he's sure donated a lot millions to good causes.

100% this guy eats cats

maybe not so bad after all then!

Here's @BernieSanders, in 2003, talking about the American backed military coup that ousted Allende, and installed Pinochet, who oversaw the creation of a new, anti-democratic Constitution

Today the people of Chile voted it out 78%-21%#PlebiscitoChilepic.twitter.com/sRvu8nKhRz

— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) October 26, 2020

Big day.

Good to see high turnout as it's been in the toilet in recent elections.

Unsure how a new constitution will be able to deal with Chile's massive issues and egregiously unequal society but we shall see

Oh actually participation dipped since I last checked. Average for elections since mandatory voting was scrapped in 2012. 50% turnout

After Chileans elected members of a constitution-writing body, Chile's stock market goes into a nosedive. Investors fear radical changes ahead.

— Frida Ghitis (@FridaGhitis) May 17, 2021

really crappy participation again. terrible elections day for the right, which is good., obv. just seems to be a lot of cynicism about the political process in general from people who supported the estallido social

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/18/a-new-chile-political-elite-rejected-in-vote-for-constitutional-assembly?

Looks good.

yeah it's pretty encouraging. the right did terribly which obviously makes sense given how unpopular the president is right now, and given that they backed rejecting a new constitution. so they won't be able to fuck things up vetoing everything.

likelihood of a really big tent left coalition government under the communist jadue after elections at the end of the year.

Maybe not.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/21/chile-jose-antonio-kast-presidential-election-far-right

I think that the good results of Kast (far right) in the polls for the first round is due to the fact that he is consolidating the vote of the right, due to a weak candidate of the center-right. The vote of the left is still divided into two candidates, left and center-left, this should change in the second round. I hope so!

"The temporary death of democracy in Chile will be regrettable, but the blame lies clearly with Dr. Allende... Their coup was homegrown, and attempts to make out that the Americans were involved are absurd"

-The Economist, 15 September 1973 pic.twitter.com/lTwsV2a7PG

— John McEvoy (@jmcevoy_2) November 20, 2021

This guy Kast is literally the son of a Nazi.

and he's winning

centre right candidate in Chile concedes, hints that he will support the far right https://t.co/hiwXoKwCRY

— jamie k (@jkbloodtreasure) November 21, 2021

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/leftist-chile-presidential-candidate-leads-new-poll-dec-19-vote-looms-2021-11-29/

People in Chile celebrate the death of Pinochet's widow. Enjoy! https://t.co/3DUO23fEpU

— AngryWorkers (@WorkersAngry) December 17, 2021

no hay mal que dure cien años

the season finale of Chile is going crazy with this and then the most significant election since the return of democracy on sunday

Chile, Cadem/Plaza Pública poll:

Second round

Boric (AD, left|green): 55% (+1)
J.A. Kast (FSC, right): 45% (-1)

(+/- vs. 14 December '21)

Fieldwork: 15-16 December '21
Sample size: 1,007#Elecciones2021CL #Chile #Boric #Kast pic.twitter.com/o0AcrMMjMh

— America Elects (@AmericaElige) December 17, 2021

Chile: Presidential candidate José Antonio Kast (FSC, right) has conceded defeat in today’s runoff election and congratulated Gabriel Boric (AD, left|green) on his victory. #Chile #Elecciones2021CL #EleccionesChile2021 https://t.co/QWw0dkY57X

— America Elects (@AmericaElige) December 19, 2021

Kissinger to die before Xmas.

Gabriel Boric has become the world's most powerful Tool fan

— Populism Updates (@PopulismUpdates) December 19, 2021

Nazis lose again.

A victory for Bosch

I was searching Boric's Twitter feed to get a sense of his musical taste. He's also tweeted approvingly about Pearl Jam on multiple occasions.

uh oh

Populist flavor runs high in Chilean election campaign ads:pic.twitter.com/tyvjFtQzVf

— Brian Phipps (@brandstrat) December 8, 2021

Sexooooooooo

So happy, Kast winning would've killed me

This is good. Who knew sick riffs were the answer

Time for Kast to, ahaha, 'walk away'

Goose-step surely?

And yes of courss

henry kissinger lived just long enough to see a socialist take power in chile again.

— Asinus Pervicax (@Cato_of_Utica) December 20, 2021

enshallah

🚀 FUN FACT: The Swiftie candidate for the presidency of Chile, @gabrielboric has won the elections! 🇨🇱

He shares that he discovered @TaylorSwift13 during the pandemic and that his favorite album is "Folklore." pic.twitter.com/683H746hhK

— The Swift Society (@TheSwiftSociety) December 20, 2021

Mark Fisher, espectro y legado, a través de la lectura del ahora Presidente electo de Chile, @gabrielboric.https://t.co/vUT9FZLbBG pic.twitter.com/qS7gloSw4g

— Caja Negra Editora (@cajanegraedit) December 20, 2021

there are also photos of Boric wearing Radiohead & NIN hats. hope he turns out to be a great president cuz I think he rules

lmao

Chilean reddit is going ham with Boric memes pic.twitter.com/vn5CnoI5Oi

— ❄️🎄☃️🌹Garrison Grogan🌹 ☃️🎄❄️ (@gammison) December 20, 2021

These CIA budget cuts have been brutal. https://t.co/Rr8HZkiuRP

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) December 20, 2021

https://t.co/LCot5R9JpV pic.twitter.com/eBQWxVyV49

— Crowsa Luxemburg (@quendergeer) January 22, 2022

The Estallido Social in Chile from 2019-2020/-the present was one of the most powerful revolts of the last ten years. It went further than toppling a government, it won the chance for the social movements to rewrite the Constitution.
As predicted, that strategy has failed. pic.twitter.com/tYXNk7dN1P

— PeterGelderloos (@PeterGelderloos) May 16, 2022

Yeah, attempts to nationalize the mining sector in Chile have not historically gone without complications...

But there are 499 articles in the draft, and even if the entire document is rejected (as looks likely) in the September plebiscite, we don't know to what extent its tenets (such as recognition of greater autonomy of indigenous nations) will be implemented via other means.

This story ain't over.

Yeah, things are built stone by stone. A lot of anarchists ofc are writing it off (see also Peru) because voting, but my distanced sense is that these things won't go away.

Few things messier in the world than trying to finalize a constitution (hell, it's a nightmare just trying to agree on a non-profit's Mission Statement).

It's definitely not as fun as crowding into the Plaza de Italia and singing your lungs out.

Ugh. ^ I’d like to take that last sentence back. Comes off totally disrespectful.

Cry more bitch!

It is a woke and fiscally irresponsible mess https://t.co/TlzZriYrqs

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) July 6, 2022

they really need to stop calling things woke

Does the Economist do this a lot? It's a bit of a surprise..

Is that a joke

Instructive to compare this to their enthusiastic support of the Pinochet coup.

https://www.economist.com/news/2008/07/03/the-end-of-allende

the editorial does not in fact deploy the word "woke" in the headline or in the text

I didn't want to register (Esp after that picture of a bog roll).

It's not only a much better constitution than the precedent one (imo), but would look to be pretty dope on its own regards (imo again).

I assume you were joking xyzzzz__ but I guess if anyone didn’t know

At various points in its storied history, @TheEconomist opposed famine relief to Ireland, expressed sympathy for the Confederate States of America, was lukewarm about universal suffrage, opposed Britain's entry into World War I, and cheered the coup against Allende in Chile.

— Dhruva Jaishankar (@d_jaishankar) April 1, 2020

Xpost

Wokeness is a clear subtext in the piece ("lol, talking about gender, being nice to animals and the right to housing??"). I guess it's the mullet approach to editorial: business at the front in print, party at the back on social media.

Or just saying the quiet bit out loud for the clicks.

Beautiful.

I don't know guys, I think the new Chilean constitution actually sounds pretty good! https://t.co/Wp8QMKTDpt pic.twitter.com/gofKzsCWGC

— Gary McQuiggin (@ggaaarrryyyy) July 7, 2022

Thinking it's too good to get passed.

I'm sure The Economist patted Sri Lanka on the back.

sri lanka has been under 16 IMF programs and none have worked

— jude 🌍 (@whoajude) July 7, 2022

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXG6xgKVsAEKLKL?format=jpg&name=medium

sick burn

I guess it's the mullet approach to editorial: business at the front in print, party at the back on social media.

Finally done decent reporting on the constitution.

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/chile-constitution/

*some

🚨🇨🇱 Scores of UChicago professors and alumni have written to President @gabrielboric to slam the "shameful legacy" of the Chicago Boys that collaborated with Dictator Pinochet to write the 1980 constitution that has strangled Chile https://t.co/BaywoAfgEq

— David Adler (@davidrkadler) September 2, 2022

Don't forget: 80% of Chileans voted to bury Pinochet's constitution back in October 2020. The plebiscite today will come down to the wire, no doubt. But regardless of the outcome, there is no going back. Only steps forward on the path to a new Chilean republic.

— David Adler (@davidrkadler) September 4, 2022

not quite down to the wire

Yup, Adler is in "fight continues" mode. And the only reason we've had this vote is because of street protests.

The proposed new Chilean constitution began the year with majority support, which then crumbled as the disinformation specialists got to work and rumors spread that it would legalize abortion up to the moment of birth, allow people's homes to be confiscated, etc. pic.twitter.com/4eDDIHqUVg

— 🦀 Jon 🦀 Schwarz 🦀 (@schwarz) September 5, 2022

The Mapuches were colonized in the Occupation of the Araucanía (1883) and the Quechuas and Aymaras in the War of the Pacific (1884). Pinochet passed terror laws to steal Mapuche lands in the 1980s. The plurinational constitution would've returned Native self-determination. 2/

— New Amauta (@AmautaNew) September 5, 2022

Like so many Chileans, I'm painfully disappointed that the majority could reject principles of equality and respect outlined in #NuevaConstitucion - principles that came out of a direct cry from the estallido https://t.co/WDjz470DdW

— Naomi Larsson Piñeda (@naomilars) September 6, 2022

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Constitutional-Council-in-Chile-Remains-in-the-Center-Right-20230508-0001.html

🇨🇱 Chile Presidential Elections: Jeannette Jara of the Communist Party has come in 1st place. 2nd place is Jose Kast, the far-right pro-US candidate (and son of a German Nazi Party member).

They will now face each other in a second round of voting. pic.twitter.com/8pmu5ns3rt

— Ollie Vargas (@OllieVargas79) November 16, 2025

Boric is one more for the 'leftist disappointment' pile or what have you.

After being one of the most conservative South American countries in the late 20th, Chile has of late been one of the most liberal, and in particular host to a fantastic LGBT electro-pop scene, so this is a really shit development.

Not great!