Chile: Supporters and opponents of a new constitution clash

On Sunday, August 28, supporters and opponents of a new constitution clashed in the center of Santiago de Cile in a tense situation. Tensions over Sunday’s (September 4) referendum on the new constitution (“Nueva Constitución”) are mounting across the country.

Over the weekend, thousands of Chileans took to the streets in various cities across the South American country to complete the “I Agree” and “I Reject” campaigns.

A march of bicyclists in favor of adopting the new constitution reached Plaza Italia, the epicenter of protests since October 2019, and intersected with another march of people from the countryside on horseback and in carriages expressing their rejection of the proposal.

At the central traffic circle in the capital, both groups shouted at each other, threw stones, and some even hit the cyclists. According to a video broadcast by local television stations, one horse-drawn carriage ran over several cyclists as it galloped into the pro-Constitution demonstration procession.

On Saturday evening local time, in the coastal city of Valparaíso, during a public event for the “I agree” option for the new constitution, an alleged artistic intervention took place in which a person pulled a Chilean flag out of another person’s anus.

The incident was recorded and shared on social media, causing great controversy and rejection from the government, the opposition, society in general, and LGBTI organizations.

The government announced that it had reported the act to the prosecutor’s office. The events occurred during the last weekend of campaigning before the referendum next Sunday.

Nearly 15 million of Chile’s almost 20 million residents will be called to the polls to vote on whether to accept or reject the proposed new constitution.

In November 2019, after a night of total unrest, political forces – in which current President Gabriel Boric played a vital role as an opposition deputy in Sebastián Piñera’s government (2018-2022) – agreed to call a referendum on the constitution.

More than 78% of Chileans favored amending the current text. In October 2021, they decided that a convention of 155 specially elected members would be entrusted with drafting the new text.

Despite the initial enthusiasm, the Constitutional Convention gradually lost supporters due to internal friction and several scandals involving a list of constituents linked to the social unrest.

The latest polls showed that opposition to the new text, which declares Chile a social state governed by the rule of law and enshrines fundamental rights, outweighed opposition by more than ten points.

The plurinational character of the state, the judicial system, and the abolition of the Senate are among the most controversial points of the text, even though leftist forces have agreed to amend the text if the “I agree” option wins.

If the text is rejected, the current constitution, drafted during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990) and reformed dozens of times after the return to democracy, will remain in force.

With information from Latina Press