Gabriel Boric’s election as president of Chile in December was undoubtedly the most important political event to happen in Latin America in 2021.
Boric defeated José Antonio Kast, a far-Right supporter of dictator Augusto Pinochet, and ran on a platform of more social protections for the poor and higher taxes on the rich. The success or failure of Boric’s government will affect the Left’s ability to renew itself in the region. But the new administration, led by the youngest president in the country’s history (just 35), faces an enormous challenge.
Boric’s youthful, progressive, majority-women cabinet is inspired by the democratic socialism of Salvador Allende, Chile’s first ever socialist leader. His task is to oversee a profound transformation of Chilean society, burying the neoliberal economic model and building a fairer, more inclusive country. The mobilisation of social movements will be fundamental to this. In fact, Boric and the current political cycle is the result of a decade of social mobilisation in Chile.
