Photo: Elisa Loncón will be president of the Constitutional Convention of Chile

6 July 2021 – In a decision loaded with symbolism and reflecting the spirit of Chile’s constitutional convention, which began on Sunday (04/7), Elisa Loncón was elected president of the body that must draft the country’s new constitution.

The indigenous woman, 58, will preside over the body that will create the new Magna Carta, which should replace the current one, inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

Loncón is a teacher, linguist and Mapuche activist — Chile’s largest indigenous ethnic group. She was elected by an absolute majority (96 out of 155 votes) in the second round of the convention’s opening session, which was interrupted for nearly an hour due to protests by a group of constituents after clashes in the center of the capital Santiago between police officers and protesters.

“I thank the support of the different coalitions that gave their trust and placed their dreams in the call made by the Mapuche nation to vote for a Mapuche person, a woman, to change the history of this country,” Loncón said Sunday, accepting the post with his fist clenched above his head.

“You can dialogue with us, do not be afraid, because a policy of fear is also installed. There’s a lot of prejudice about an Indigenous and Mapuche candidate. So this is a call to free ourselves from our prejudices and interact on equal terms,” Loncón said in a recent interview with the Chilean newspaper La Tercera.

His election is a drastic change for groups that are not recognized in the current Constitution.

“This convention will transform the country and make it multinational and intercultural,” he said.

The agreement between the parties is that the presidency of the Convention will be rotating, although it is not yet defined how long each term would last at the head of the Assembly.

The election of Loncón is also a sample of the majority of progressives among the 155 parliamentarians who make up the assembly.

With a weakened right, with only 38 of the 155 seats, and the rise of independent candidates —mostly progressive—the convention will have the mission of putting a country hard of a country hard to get in the way of a social and institutional crisis.

Loncón occupies one of the 17 chairs reserved for indigenous peoples, seven of which are occupied by representatives of the Mapuche people, two by the Aymara people and one for representatives of each of the other peoples: kawésqar, rapanui, yagán, quechua, atacameño, diaguita, colla and chango.

Born in Traiguén, in the Region of La Araucanía in southern Chile, a Mapuche stronghold, Loncón lived her childhood in the Lefweluan community. She recently told Spanish newspaper El País that to go to school “she had to travel five miles from her home in the Mapuche community,” a route she used to take on foot.

Most of her family still lives in that community.

Loncón graduated as an English professor at La Frontera University in La Araucanía, and graduated from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and the University of Regina in Canada.

She also holds a Doctorate in Humanities from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and a Doctorate in Literature from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Symbolic election

The election of Loncón is symbolic because one of the main debates for the drafting of the new Magna Carta is the recognition of indigenous peoples.

The definition of rights for indigenous communities and the debate on a multi-national state are fundamental themes.

Among the demands of indigenous communities is the creation of a State that accepts the autonomy and rights of these peoples. In addition, they ask for guarantees in terms of territorial and recognition of their culture and language, among other points.

“This is a big problem that will cost you dearly, which will need many historical reparations. And obviously it’s complicated because it touches on property rights. But it’s fundamental. The models of New Zealand and Canada are the most interesting (on the subject)”, proposed the Doctor in Political Science Juan Pablo Luna, professor at the Catholic University of Chile, in a recent interview with BBC Mundo (bbc Spanish service).

Chile and Uruguay are among the few Latin American countries that lack explicit recognition of indigenous peoples in their constitutions.

On the other side are Bolivia and Ecuador, two nations that not only recognize these peoples, but also chose to enshrine the multi-national character of their constitutions.

Luna said that the inclusion of rights guaranteed and recognized in the Constitution for indigenous communities does not only represent a strong symbolic effect.

The Doctor of Political Science pointed out that several Latin American countries that have incorporated these rights, such as Brazil and Colombia, have come to have justice as an ally of indigenous peoples for the recognition of their constitutional rights — such as territorial issues, access to health, among other rights.

The deadline for a proposed constitution in Chile to be ready is a maximum of one year since the official start of work on Sunday. In 2022, a plebiscite, with compulsory voting, will define the approval or rejection of the proposal.

The current Chilean Constitution, inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship, is repudiated by many sectors of the country for its neoliberal model in which basic services such as water, education and welfare were privatized.

WUNRN

BBC