Under pressure from mobilization, Congress approved a constitutional accusation against Chadwick yesterday, and today it was Piñera’s turn. As the right proposed, the so-called “previous question” of whether the accusation corresponded was discussed first. Of course the legislators, honoring the pact, voted to save the murderer Piñera and refused to move forward with the constitutional accusation against him. Meanwhile, the Special Forces, faithful to their mandate, continued violently repressing the mobilized people and, in less than 2 days, left a child under 15 and an adult near death from tear gas grenade impacts – a situation that has repeated various times throughout the rebellion. What needs to be done for human rights violators to pay?
Opposition, Only to the Degree That is Possible.
Undoubtedly, the constitutional accusation against Chadwick is the product of the pressure of the mobilization that forced Congress to act against the former Minister of Interior and Public Security. It is an important development against the government´s key figure during the first days of the uprising, who also carries the responsibility for the murder of Camilo Catrillanca in 2018. However, the process did not prosper against Piñera, demonstrating the institutional limits to advancing against impunity.
Hundreds of mutilated people, scores of deaths, rapes and torture, and thousands imprisoned simply for demonstrating, complete the balance sheet of the repression in almost two months of rebellion. Despite the systematic violations of human rights, this repressive policy has failed to deactivate the momentum of the social mobilization. This situation has led the opposition to project itself in a role that began with making a pact with the government that declared war on the people, and now uses parliamentary mechanisms to remove politics from the streets.
This parliamentary process shows that the political arc was forced to act, while generating conditions to sow false perspectives. The Broad Front (FA) and the Communist Party (PC), in an attempt to clean their image, celebrated the accusation approved against Chadwick, while in previous days they were questioned for supporting – directly or by omission – the “anti-hood” Act. For its part, the right understands that it should has to give up Chadwick to keep Piñera unpunished. This exchange constitutes the main agreement between the Government, the former New Majority and the Broad Front, expressed in the “peace pact.”
To Stop Repression and Impunity, Piñera and the Pact Must Fall
Beyond isolated acts and cleaning their image, the policy promoted by the Frente Amplio and the Communist Party in the revolutionary process has been criminal: keeping Piñera in power with less than 5% approval rating.
Their position isolates the strength of the streets with the movement´s possibility of advancing, anchoring it as far away as possible and using the Social Unity (FA-PC) leaders to deactivate the main tool that has allowed us to break the government – the general strike – and hold closed rallies, like the camp, to promote a position of dialogue with those who kill us.
A difficulty that our process experiences is that the political leaders that negotiate in the parliament, then express their limits in the streets, demobilizing and protecting impunity. The opposite must be done, the greater politicization and democracy is in the mobilization and in the self-organized instances. It is necessary to continue strengthening the road that stops the repression from them by activating self-defense as a legitimate measure.
The Social Unity leadership has a great responsibility and that is why it is essential that they abandon their passivity and isolated acts and be consistent with the call for “civil disobedience” that they promote, urgently organizing a general strike, a measure that must be decided from the bottom up with assemblies in each workplace and coordinated with territorial authorities, the only guarantee to curb repression, for Piñera and the pact to fall, and for the human rights criminals of yesterday and today to be investigated by an Independent Investigation Commission, for Piñera and all those responsible to end up in a common jail, as it should be.
Movimiento Anticapitalista