Chile: Chamber of Deputies approves reform to draft new constitution

Chile’s Chamber of Deputies approved this Wednesday overwhelmingly a constitutional reform that allows the process of drafting a new constitution during this year.

With 109 votes in favor, 37 against and 2 abstentions, MPs applauded and approved a reform that establishes that the new body to draft the Basic Law will consist of 50 people elected by the citizens and will be supported by a committee of experts appointed by Congress .

Chileans will elect May 7 Constitutional Council of 50 members. But there will also be two instances appointed by Congress, the composition of which is questioned by critics of this project.

A committee of experts will write a draft to be discussed by the elected body and the Eligibility Technical Committee, which ensures that the articles do not contradict the so-called “Fundamentals”.

Elections of members of the Constitutional Council this time will not count against the lists of self-nominated candidates. In this case, the composition of the three bodies will be equal. Approval of the regulations and articles would require a positive vote of three-fifths of the directors, rather than two-thirds of the previous process.

The most significant difference is the 12 “Fundamental Foundations”, unchanged and which should be included in the new Magna Cartaestablished before the start of the process: since Chile is a “democratic republic” with a “unitary and decentralized” character.

Indigenous peoples are recognized as “part of the Chilean nation, one and indivisible,” which prevents Chile from being declared a “plurinational” state, as the rejected project did.

Denials in the plebiscite

On September 4, 62.5% of Chileans rejected a constitutional draft drawn up by a congress with a progressive majority and composed of independent citizens not belonging to political parties.

A few days later, the political forces began negotiations to start a new process, since, despite the refusal in the plebiscite, there is a consensus on the need to replace the current Constitution established during the dictatorship.

President of Chile Gabriel Boricpromised to ensure the continuity of the founding process with Congress and the public forces and work to accelerate it.

Boric grants controversial pardons

Chilean President Gabriel Boric has pardoned twelve people convicted of framework of the social outbreak that hit the country in November 2019, as well as ex-partisan of the Patriotic Front Manuel Rodriguez (FPMR) Jorge Mateluna.

The Chilean government said all thirteen detainees were men between the ages of 21 and 38, in addition to Mateluna, 48.

The former guerrilla was sentenced in 2003 to 16 years in prison on charges of robbing a bank branch in the commune of Pudahuel, on the outskirts of the Chilean capital of Santiago. At the time, his defense stated that the conviction was based on false evidence.

The decision taken this Friday was formalized as part of election promises head of state, in which he promised to grant a general pardon through an amnesty law to prisoners associated with the riots unleashed during a three-year public discontent.

(According to AFP, EFE and Europa Press)