Many things have happened in recent months in the Constitutional Convention that began its work on July 4th, 2021.
It took three months to draft the General Regulations of the Convention and in the same month of October 2021 the constitutional debates began in the commissions created to deal with different issues.
In February, the Constitutional Convention approved an article of the new Constitution that declares Chile as a "regional, plurinational and intercultural State" during the vote they take to determine the norms that the Magna Carta will include.
"Chile is a regional, plurinational and intercultural State made up of autonomous territorial entities, within a framework of equity and solidarity among all of them, preserving the unity and integrity of the State," indicated the article approved by 112 votes in favor, 34 against and 2 abstentions.
The new article changes the definition of "unitary State" that is indicated in the current Chilean Constitution that was implemented in 1980, during the government of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
The proposal exceeded 2/3 of the vote, the minimum required to be included in the draft of the new Constitution that must be voted on in a mandatory plebiscite in which the population of Chile will decide whether to approve or reject it. If rejected, the current Magna Carta approved in 1980 will remain.
The Convention also approved other paragraphs in which it defines the territorial organization of the State "in autonomous regions, indigenous territorial autonomies and special territories." It also promotes the "cooperation, integration and development" of the regions, and defines criteria for the creation of regional entities that will rule in those areas.
The constituents approved 10 articles dealing with justice issues; among them, changing the name of the Judiciary to Justice Systems, and another article that guarantees that all bodies and persons involved in judicial processes must ensure equality, parity, and a gender perspective. The latter has caused a lot of concern since it would be annulling the principle of equality before the law.
The Constitutional Convention began its task on July 4th, 2021 and has a maximum term of nine months, extendable for three more, to conclude its task of giving Chile a new Constitution.
Yellows for Chile
Since the voting began in the plenary session of the Constitutional Convention in Chile, a group of academics and former ministers, mainly from the Center Left, have reacted to some ideas that are quite far from what the majority of Chileans expected from this new project.
This group of personalities who has achieved growing support has even announced a movement, which they have baptized "Amarillos por Chile", managing to gather signatures and support, all from various positions in politics, education, culture and governments of different democratic tendencies. "The spirit that must prevail in the Convention must be that of dialogue, conversation, truly listening to those who think differently," they say in their letter, led by Cristián Warnken, the columnist and former television presenter.
Over time, it has been confirmed that some constituents support very radical ideas such as dissolving the three powers of the State (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) to create a Plurinational Assembly.
Said initiative contemplated excluding the following groups from the right to vote in the base assemblies: owners of large companies, bankers and speculators, the high hierarchy of the church, the officers of the Armed Forces and the management of large companies.
Fortunately, sanity prevailed and this idea was rejected by a large majority. However, there are many other initiatives that put our current republic at risk.
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Yellows for Chile: a new movement is born made up of more than 70 personalities, including national prize-winners, academics, economists and former ministers of the Concertación (centre-left political group) organized in response to the danger of the "refounding" of Chile " right from the start".
"The great tragedies in our continent and in the entire world have occurred when we yellows have been silenced or have not raised our voice with sufficient conviction," says the founding document of this new citizen movement in one of its paragraphs.
The group's manifesto argues that there are refoundational spirits expressed especially in the Constitutional Convention. Faced with this, the subscribers suggest, it is necessary to raise "the voice" in favor of "dialogue and conversation."
"Many of the proposals that have emanated from the commissions and some of those that are already reaching 2/3 in plenary are turning on the alert signal among those of us who do not want the deconstruction of Chile, nor its dismemberment, nor its refoundation from scratch. ", they pose. "The spirit that must prevail in the Convention must be that of dialogue, conversation, truly listening to those who think differently."
They add that the yellows are "a silent majority in the country," who want "reforms, not revolution, not an inharmonious or biased Constitution, but a new balanced Constitution." That constitutional proposal, they argue, should move away from the "failed experiments of other Latin American countries." Instead, it should reconcile "order with freedom, change with stability, as one of our intellectual fathers of the country, Andrés Bello, dreamed and thought."
Support the initiative
There are also a number of economic figures who were authorities during the Concertación governments, such as former Finance Ministers Alejandro Foxley and Andrés Velasco; the former president of the Central Bank and former Minister of Economy José De Gregorio; and other former ministers such as Alejandro Ferreiro, Vivianne Blanlot, Ignacio Walker, Jorge Burgos, René Cortázar, Mariana Aylwin, Jaime Campos, Isidro Solís, Pedro García, José Joaquín Brunner and Enrique Krauss.
The list also includes representatives of Congress. Among them are the outgoing DC senator Carolina Goic, the incoming ex-DC deputy Andrés Jouannet, and former senators such as Soledad Alvear, Eugenio Tuma, Hernán Vodanovic and Fulvio Rossi.
The professor and poet Cristián Warnken Lihn comments that the group is made up mostly of people from the center and center-left, who do not want the country to be thrown overboard, but rather to make changes: but well done. This is not a political party, it is an open, citizen movement of very diverse people with no hidden agenda."
The following are excerpts from the "Amarillos por Chile" manifesto. The complete version can be reviewed at the end of this article, with the list of the 75 subscribers and their call for adhesions:
The denomination "yellow" emerged a long time ago in our country as an insult to those who were in favor of change, but in a gradual and responsible manner, and preferred the path of reforms to that of revolution, that of dialogue with those who think differently than the idea of turning the political adversary into an enemy to be destroyed. In the midst of the refoundational euphoria that wants to start from scratch, it is usual for the voice of the yellows to try to be silenced, and radicalism and maximalism seem much more attractive than prudence and realism. But in the desire for social transformations, there is not only the impulse towards the impossible (typical of utopias), we yellows feel the passion for what is possible, which consists in doing things well done, achieving the necessary changes without destroying what is good, betting for a better future without thinking that you are starting from scratch.
The great tragedies in our continent and in the entire world have occurred when we yellows have been silenced or have not raised our voices with sufficient conviction (as in the face of the legitimization of political violence, for example), making us feel self-conscious before those who shout more and build a version of reality as a Manichaean story, dividing the world into good guys and bad guys and offering simplistic solutions to complex problems.
Many of the proposals that have emanated from the commissions and some of those that are already reaching 2/3 in plenary are turning on the alert signal among those of us who do not want the deconstruction of Chile, nor its dismemberment, nor its refoundation from scratch, but a new beginning that collects the best that we have all built together in these decades and improves in an efficient and intelligent way what needs to be improved.
For this, the spirit that must prevail in the Convention must be that of dialogue, conversation, truly listening to those who think differently.
In this sense, the attempt by some radicalized factions of the Convention to ignore, and even erase, a significant political sector of the country (the center-right), as the maximalists of that time tried to do in the 1980 Constitution, is a huge political mistake. We must not forget that this sector obtained a very important vote in the last legislative election and 44% in the presidential election. Can a viable Constitution be made without including or listening to that sector, as if it did not exist? Proposing an exclusive constitutional text that was not born from genuine dialogue and listening also to the minority would be a pyrrhic victory that would not ensure a long life for said Constitution and would only help to polarize the country even more.
The "yellows" have always existed. We are -so we believe- a silent majority of the country. We demonstrated in the recent presidential election and with our vote we forced the extremes to moderate. This country is -deep down- more yellow than it seems. He wants reforms, not revolution, not an inharmonious or biased Constitution, but a new balanced Constitution, that gathers the best of our own institutional tradition (and not the copy of failed experiments in other Latin American countries), that manages to reconcile order with freedom , change with stability, as one of our intellectual fathers of the country, Andrés Bello, dreamed and thought.
We yellows have decided to raise our voice to contribute to this fundamental crossroads of our political and institutional history. We are here to support any initiative that goes in the direction of balance, moderation, common sense, unrestricted respect for Democracy (without surnames), the Rule of Law, freedom and also the promotion of social rights, reforming and improving both the market and the state. And we will loudly raise our voice against any attempt to lead us down the wrong path to repeat failed refoundational experiments in all parts of the world. Against any type of enlightenment, we reaffirm our trust in the light of dialogue and reason, which made it possible for this country to exist as a country and for democracy to re-emerge after the long night of intolerance and dictatorship.
This is our first statement, but it won't be the last. We want many Chileans who today feel politically orphaned to know that we Yellows are here and now, at this decisive moment in our history. We invite all free and democratic spirits to join this initiative without complexes, fear or mistrust. This is the time for courage, not cowardice or resignation.
