Chile's Choice: Approve a New Constitution or Stick with Pinochet's Legacy?

"This Sept. 4, I believe and pray that the Chilean people’s dreams of liberation and dignity will not again be thwarted. May the new constitution become a shining model for how we must care for each other and for nature in our troubled century.

The new constitution recognizes solidarity, participation and freedom from discrimination as essential features of a decentralized state, daring to imagine a country with parity in male/female representation, where the justice system lives up to its name, where nature and Chile’s ecology are scrupulously protected, and where Indigenous communities are recognized as full protagonists in the nation’s story. It establishes rights to abortion, healthcare, water, housing, education and adequate pension funds.

Most importantly, this new national charter marks a significant paradigm shift in how the common good should be conceived in Chile. It defends — with affecting tenderness — the needs of children and animals, of old and infirm people, of women and gender-diverse individuals and even of glaciers and rivers."

read article by Ariel Dorfman

Chile's Choice: Approve a New Constitution or Stick with Pinochet's Legacy? - CounterPunch.org