Chile: Presidential Candidates Debate Their Policy Proposals

On Monday, Chilean presidential candidates Gabriel Boric, Jose Kast, Yasna Provoste, Sebastian Sichel, Marco Enriquez-Ominami, and Eduardo Artes discussed their government proposals in the last presidential debate ahead of the Nov. 21 elections.

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They harshly criticized far-right politician Kast’s proposals, which comprised repealing the law that allows abortion, merging the Women Ministry with another institution, and not recognizing equal marriage and single-parent families.

"These are not government proposals: they are a violation of the hard-won rights of women and LGBTIQ+ people,” 35-year-old leftist candidate Boric stressed, adding that democracy does not exist in a non-inclusive and intolerant society.

"Every family project that guarantees care and love for children must be respected and defended," pro-government politician Sichel also stated but defended the abortion criminalization. “We cannot legalize attacks on life,” he alleged.

Kast also questioned the work of the Constitutional Convention, proposed to construct a bordering ditch to curb illegal immigration, promised to fight the Mapuche Indigenous conflict as an act of "terrorism," and even defended Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1974-1990).

"Governance is built, not imposed by fear. A future president should promote policies that put an end to human rights violations and abuses of power," Provoste, the only female candidate, stated and agreed with former lawmaker Enriquez-Ominami that citing Pinochet as an example of democracy is a huge mistake.

"We must eliminate violence from state institutions, which caused so much damage during the dictatorship and the 2019 anti-government protests. We must reach agreements based on the common good that Chileans expect. Only in this way will we defend democracy," the Communist Party militant Artes stated.