The Chilean Constituent Process Was Tied Up: President Maduro

On Monday, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro lamented the outcome of the Chilean plebiscite and affirmed that the constituent process was bound from the beginning.

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"What pain for the Latin American peoples!," he said regarding the results of a plebiscite in which 61.87 percent of the voters rejected the new constitutional text, which was to replace the Constitution inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

The Bolivarian leader highlighted that the Chilean right and its mainstream media deployed actions to limit the constituent process that emerged from the 2019 social uprising but was "controlled" during the President Sebastian Piñera administration (2018-2022).

"It was not an original popular process. Before it started as a constituent process, the Chilean process had its wings clipped from the Piñera-controlled Congress. In Chile, an original, sovereign, and plenipotentiary process was never convened. They cut off its wings early and filled it with limitations. In the end, they called a constitutional convention," Maduro said.

"In Chile, they mediated the original constituent power that awakened with the 2019 social explosion against Piñera and the neoliberal model. They mediated it from the first play."

In analyzing what happened in the juridical-political process that culminated in the plebiscite held on Sept. 4, the Venezuelan president also stressed that there was no political leader who would provide a strategic direction to the "I Approve" campaign. 

"There was a lack of strong, clear, and credible leadership that would take the lead on the constitutional text. In the end, the Pinochet dictatorship's constitution remained in force," Maduro said.

"All our solidarity with the Chilean people. It was a defeat of the historical project raised by the social unrest forces. The defeat will fall on the shoulders of those responsible."