The tear gas and the water-launching car returned on Friday afternoon to the Plaza Italia sector, the nerve center of the social demonstrations in October 2019 against the economic model of one of the most unequal countries in the OECD and which were marked by serious acts of violence, such as looting and burning of subway stations, buildings and companies.
In the midst of a crisis that seemed without a way out, the political class agreed on an institutional way to respond to citizen demands, which triggered a plebiscite where almost 80% of the population decided to end the Constitution imposed during the dictatorship of Augustus. Pinochet, through a body that will be made up of 155 people, with gender parity and 17 positions guaranteed for representatives of native peoples.
All of them will be elected this Saturday and Sunday in a mega election, where Chileans will also elect their communal authorities and, for the first time, the highest authority in their regions.
But, unlike October 2019 or the eve of the plebiscite, there are no more than 150 people in the place, who are demonstrating peacefully in support of the Palestinian people.
There are no streets full of protesters or barricades, there are no hooded men, and the statue of General Manuel Baquedano has not been vandalized. It is the opposite of the image of a demonstration in the sector. This time, it is only about people waving flags, and the use of tear gas and water launchers by the Special Forces is - in the opinion of the protesters - completely disproportionate.
In the place is Nicole Kramm, photographer and documentary filmmaker, who is capturing images.
For her it is not just any day.
This Friday marked his return to an area where he lived during the protests of the social outbreak, where he kept a daily record of the mobilizations, which ended abruptly on December 31, 2019, when he was shot in his right eye by officers of the Carabineros Special Forces, which caused him the permanent loss of his vision and that, for months, made him believe that his career had been cut short.
Nicole says that she had not returned to the sector since October 2020, on the eve of the plebiscite.
Being there still scares him.
“It's hard for me to go downtown.
I have been in therapy for more than a year and I know that I am progressing, but it will never be the same ”, he acknowledges.
Documentary filmmaker Nicole Kramm is one of the more than 300 victims of eye trauma during the social outbreak in Chile.Cristian Soto Quiroz
Although it sees with "suspicion and distrust" the constituent process indicates that it will vote "so that the same ones as always do not come out."
"Although the outbreak conditioned this new Constitution and now there are votes, they guarantee absolutely nothing, because if we demobilize, they will screw us," he says.
Walking around Plaza Italia is to see the vestiges of what was a mobilization that put the institutionality in check. The buildings maintain the improvised metal protections, several shops have been closed for months. Some restaurants have slowly begun to open their doors, amid the relaxation in restrictions as a result of covid-19, where although the pandemic remains out of control, the conservative government of Sebastián Piñera has highlighted the progress in the plan of vaccination, where 7.4 million people have completed their immunization schedule, which is equivalent to half of the target population.
When advancing towards the west it is possible to see the ruins of the San Francisco de Borja Church, belonging to the Carabineros, and which was completely set on fire to commemorate the first anniversary of the social outbreak.
A few more steps to the west, the walls of the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center (GAM) begin to appear, holding hundreds of slogans and street art displays.
Kevin Villalobos is at the scene walking with his partner, Paula.
“I came practically every Friday, and I have several memories.
On the one hand, there were people who were protesting peacefully with posters, batucadas, and on the other, those who were defending this mobilization of the pacos (as the Chileans nickname the carabineros), who at all times were trying to evacuate the area, ”he recalls.
“I am quite suspicious of the process, which was an agreement of the political class for the political class. In any case, I am going to vote, because even though I distrust myself, I want to take advantage of the minimum tool that I have, which is voting, to try to change things so that they are not always the same ”, says 22-year-old Kevin. who until before the pandemic worked as a bartender and today is unemployed.
A couple of blocks to the south is Fabian, 51, who sells books on the street.
A field that he entered five years ago, after being unemployed.
Unlike Nicole and Kevin, Fabián saw the outbreak as a “mere spectator” which, he admits, causes him embarrassment.
“I am very critical of the system, but I have not done anything to change it.
Instead, these young goats, because this arose from a young spontaneity, they are doing it, ”he says from his informal book store.
Regarding the vote, he assures that yes or yes he will go this Sunday.
The San Francisco de Borja church, belonging to the police, has been closed since the fire during the protests in October last year.Cristian Soto Quiroz
But Plaza Italia is also a place of contrasts and for decades it was considered a symbolic border between upper and lower classes. Although those limits have been blurred, it is enough to only move a few meters away from the zero zone of the protests to begin to see changes: Providencia begins to the east and the presence of green areas increases considerably and several of the damages caused during the protests have been repaired. People are seen walking dogs or doing sports, others sitting in the bars of the sector, and elderly people watching the afternoon progress before their eyes.
Nélida Rojas is 75 years old and is determined to vote, although she admits that she still does not fully understand what role the governors will play, as the regional leaders, elected by the citizens, will be called: “I am going to vote because if not, no I will have the right to claim.
I am interested in that if the most suitable, the most serious and less profitable come out ”.
Norma, her sister, who accompanies her in the park, explains that this time she will be absent from voting: she is 79 years old and her polling place is too far away.
A few meters to the south, another elderly woman categorically rules out talking to this medium: "How am I going to give you my name, that lends itself to scams," she says.
The unknown of participation
"The electoral environment has deflated," says Marta Lagos, director of the Latinobarómetro, the largest pollster in Latin America.
The economist relates that on Thursday, hours before the mega election, she went to La Vega, one of the main markets in the capital, where she took the opportunity to talk and “survey” people, something she usually does every time she is in the city. Street.
Lagos says she came out worried: most of the people she spoke with told her that she will certainly not go to vote.
A figure that has a correlation with a poll carried out in April by Latinobarómetro - which was never published due to the postponement of the elections to May - and which showed that 60% of those surveyed were not clear about what they would vote for. in the election.
“For the most important election in recent years to have a low electoral turnout would be a defeat. God willing that I am very wrong and there is a high vote, "says Lagos, who attributes the" lack of environment "to the quarantines, the suspension of the campaigns after the postponement of the elections, the lack of information about the process and its importance, among other factors.
Disinformation about the process is an aspect that the candidates themselves have also had to face.
Claudia Pizarro seeks to be reelected for a new period in the mayor's office of La Pintana, a commune located on the outskirts of the capital, one where the internet connection continues to be unstable and there are barely two bank branches for 190,000 inhabitants, in contrast to communes of greater revenue, where banks are around the corner.
This campaign, he says, has been special not only because they have not been able to talk face to face with people, due to the quarantines, but a good part of the conversations have been focused on explaining what is being voted and what is at stake with the result of this Sunday.
A carabinero guards the base of the monument of General Baquedano, on May 14.Cristian Soto Quiroz
“Chile is not going to change as we want with the sole election of mayors.
Chile is going to begin to change the day we have a new constitution, "he says.
For Marcela Ríos, Coordinator of the governance area in the UNDP Chile office, the election this Saturday and Sunday is "perhaps the most difficult to predict" amid the quarantines and the lack of information campaigns about the process.
However, he warns that “beyond the official information it is likely that many citizens have encountered candidates at the fair or in the plaza.
The territorial part may be having an effect that is not so evident to the media and the elites, and we may be surprised ”.
To this, Ríos says, it should be remembered that the October 2020 plebiscite had the highest citizen participation since the entry into force of the voluntary vote in Chile, which is explained by the 20-point rise in the participation of voters under 30 years and who were the ones who, for the most part, took to the streets in 2019.