The visit of Chile’s millennial and leftist President Gabriel Boric Font abroad is no ordinary sojourn. It excites the academia and the media alike as he has reimagined the left and sought to reinvent politics. The radical spark still kindles his personality. He is the most prominent face of the new generation of Latin American leaders and leads one of the most inclusive and gender-sensitive governments in the world.
Chile has a history of powerful student movements, and Boric was part of the student movement that rattled Chile in the 2010s. In 2006, the secondary students led the “Penguin Revolution,” followed by the university students who launched the 2011 “Chilean Winter.” As a student leader, Boric spearheaded a campaign against the privatization of college education.
Since the secondary students wore the black and white uniforms, it was called the “Penguin Revolution.” The “Chilean Winter” was thus called as it coincided with the “Arab Spring.” Boric started his political career by becoming the president of his law school’s student council and later became the representative for college students in the Chilean parliament.
He entered politics through a social movement, having been connected to struggles for rights, notably rights to health and education, women’s rights, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and environmental rights. Boric’s worldview is essentially post-Marxist. He is Camusian by belief.
To him, politics is less about left vs. right and more about rebellion vs. establishment. Boric’s tattoos depict environmental themes. As academic and media commentator Antonio Castillo notes, Boric’s Twitter account paraphrases Camus’ Algeria Chronicles: “Doubt must follow conviction like a shadow.”
Boric said in an interview with Time magazine that “doubting doesn’t mean being erratic or insecure, but being able to improve your own position by listening to those in front of you.” Boric often says, “We’re going slowly because we’re going far.”
Boric is an avid reader of poetry and fiction. Argentine-Chilean-American novelist Ariel Dorfman has gone so far as to maintain that the former student leader could very well have created “an oeuvre of literary work before entering the political arena” like many before in Latin America.
As Gabriel Garcia Marquez says, Latin America is a world “where politics and prose are entwined.” Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa wrote way back in 1967 that writing great literature was “a political radical act, one that would bring revolution” in Latin America.
Argentina’s Domingo Sarmiento and Venezuela’s Rómulo Gallegos were both accomplished literary figures who became presidents of their respective countries. Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa nearly became the president. Chile’s Pablo Neruda and Mexico’s Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes also served as diplomats.
He is young and charismatic, but he is also bold. He attracts a large crowd. Being a former student leader, Boric carries expectations of change. As a firebrand student leader, Boric articulated demands of students to have free, high-quality education for all. He articulated their demands to change the system from the bottom. To him, politics isn’t a business; it is a passion.
Robert L. Funk of the University of Chile says that Boric has sought to place himself firmly “in the epistemic community of a romantic, revolutionary left.” But that doesn’t mean he ever saw himself as a romantic revolutionary. He has all along been ideologically pragmatic. He is critical of the center-left, accusing it of being timid and “neo-liberal.”
Boric is critical of the Marxian class struggle that overlooks other forms of oppression based on race, gender, sexuality, and environmental issues. The reason why the young leader has attracted people is his view that the left must embrace belief in moral progress and international solidarity and fight oppression by appeals to universal values.
His is as much a feminist government with more women than men in his cabinet as an ecological government. He has taken steps to make people and nature first. Protecting biodiversity and animal well-being is central to the government program.
The rejection of the constitution in a referendum by a margin of 62% to 38% made a sobering impact on him. He has accepted the painful truth that today, Chile is not as revolutionary and post-modern as he thought and the proposed constitution envisaged. He changed his cabinet and lowered his goals. Today, a pragmatic Boric rules Chile.
Boric is greatly inspired by former president of Uruguay and legendary Tupamaro guerilla leader Jose Mujica. Boric said after meeting him last February that it is important to move step by step to avoid going off course.
As the Chilean president says, one can’t achieve everything one likes at once, but to the extent that one advances—not just ideologically, but also in improving the quality of life for the people—one knows this is the right direction. What keeps Boric well-grounded in politics is Mujica’s famous statement that “I dedicated myself to changing the world, and I didn’t change a damn thing.”
Approach towards radical left
Like President Lula of Brazil and President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, Boric has kept a distance from Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, Miguel Diaz-Canel of Cuba, and President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua. Unlike traditional leftists, Boric has dropped flaccid victimology.
Where Boric has been harshest is in his comments on Maduro’s rigged election. President Boric has condemned his electoral manipulation despite assuring to the contrary. He said, “I have no doubt this election has been stolen.” On another occasion he said, “We are dealing with a dictatorship that falsifies elections.”
Foreign policy
As far as foreign policy is concerned, President Boric has moved in three major directions—environment, Latin American integration, and multilateralism. Under his leadership, Chile has portrayed itself as a Latin American leader in the fight against the climate crisis. Boric has been a protagonist of the so-called “turquoise” foreign policy. It is green policy to combat climate change and “blue” policy aimed at protecting the oceans.
Chile follows a feminist foreign policy. It is a world leader in promoting women’s rights. Gender equality is a key part of its international relations through its feminist foreign policy.
Another radical foreign policy measure has been to sign the Escazu Agreement. The agreement aims to contribute “to the protection of the right of each person, of present and future generations, to live in a healthy environment and to sustainable development.”
It also seeks to address various environmental rights, such as access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision-making processes, and access to environmental justice. This agreement represents a milestone on the way to a new relationship between the state and its inhabitants in environmental matters.
China’s presence
President Boric has followed a conscious policy towards greater engagement with China, India, and other major powers of Asia.
Chile has extensive ties with China. It was the first country in South America to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1970. President Michelle Bachelet, President Sebastian Pinera, and President Boric have all participated in the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
As Jorge Heine, former ambassador of Chile to India, says, “Chile was the first Latin American country to support China’s bid to join the WTO; the first to recognize China as a market economy; and, in 2005, the first individual country anywhere to sign an FTA with China.”
Political commentators, however, view the strengthening of the military cooperation between Chile and China with some concern. They have reservations about the increase in military cooperation, especially joint military exercises, and China’s providing military equipment to Chile. Many countries in Latin America are aware of the dangers of the debt trap.
As an analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations says, China is a major investor in Latin America’s “energy, infrastructure, and space industries.” China has “surpassed the United States as South America’s largest trading partner.” Beijing has “expanded its cultural, diplomatic, and military presence throughout the region.” What has caused a major concern is the opening of “a new mega port in Peru as part of its global Belt and Road Initiative.”
Boric’s India visit
President Boric’s 5-day visit to India early this month can be seen as a conscious effort to diversify Chile’s engagement with the fastest-growing major economy. India’s footprint in Latin America has grown over the years.
India requires strategic minerals, and Chile is part of the lithium trio along with Argentina and Bolivia, which currently controls more than 50% of global lithium resources. India’s Antarctic outreach requires a credible partnership. President Boric has undertaken five visits to Antarctica.
Chile is a gateway to Antarctica because of its geographic proximity. India-Chile trade and Chile’s overall image in India have dramatically improved. President Boric conveyed to India that New Delhi is a priority partner for Chile in the global economy. Much of the credit goes to Chile’s dynamic ambassador to India, Juan Angulo Monsalve. The two sides are all set to begin discussions on a mutually beneficial Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
India has a lot to offer in sectors like IT, health and pharmaceuticals, space, ICT, agriculture, green energy, traditional medicine, science & technology, and management of natural disasters, among others.
The China factor has also navigated the two countries towards each other. India is seen as a benevolent factor in international affairs. India is also seen as a credible voice of the Global South. As President Boric said in an interview with the Indian Express, “We don’t want to depend on China. We are not going to change one dependency for another.”
Conclusion
The 21st century is an age of expectations. Democracy isn’t enough; economic growth doesn’t suffice. Despite experiencing stable democracy and high economic growth, in 2019, Chile saw a social explosion on the streets. Boric has been taking steps to address inequality by expanding social rights. He is practicing what Helene Landemore of Yale University calls a combination of representative democracy and open democracy.
While President Boric hasn’t lost his international aura, reality has taken its toll on him. Today the former student leader governs with low approval levels, though they are better than those of the last two governments.
Constitutional reforms have failed at the ballot box. The coalition that supports the government was forged in the second electoral round and, therefore, lacks a culture of working together.
President Boric’s biggest challenge is in parliament, where his coalition doesn’t have a majority. He knew his plan to have a new and modern constitution wouldn’t pass muster. But he did it to keep his supporters enthralled.
All said, if the coalition hasn’t made President Boric a “general without any troops” yet, as Chilean academic and political commentator Andres Scherman maintains, it is thanks to his dynamism and social dreaming as well as his ability to reimagine his government.
