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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, president March 11, 1994-
Courtesy Embassy of Chile, Washington, and El
Mercurio, Santiago
The compromises struck in the 1980 constitutional
reform
discussions between the military government and the
opposition led
to the limitation of President Aylwin's term to four
years, half of
the normal term contemplated in the constitution. This
meant that
by mid-1992 parties and leaders were already jockeying to
prepare
the succession. Leaders of the Aylwin government,
including
prominent cabinet members, made no secret of their desire
to put
forth the name of Alejandro Foxley Riesco, the minister of
finance,
as a man who would guarantee stability and continuity. A
Christian
Democrat, Foxley had presided ably over the delicate task
of
maintaining economic stability and promoting growth.
Within the CPD, however, there was considerable
disagreement
over a Foxley candidacy. Christian Democrats controlling
the party
organization, who had not been favored with prominent
governmental
positions, pushed the candidacy of Eduardo Frei
Ruiz-Tagle, the son
of the former president, as an alternative. Frei's
candidacy was
given an enormous boost when he succeeded in defeating
several
Christian Democratic factions, including the Aylwin group,
by
capturing the presidency of the PDC. In the first open
election for
party leadership among all registered Christian Democrats,
Frei,
drawing on the magic of his father's name, scored a
stunning
victory.
While most observers presumed that from his position as
PDC
president Frei would be able to command the nomination of
the
center-left alliance, elements in the Socialist Party and
the PPD
argued that the nomination in the second government should
go to a
Socialist, not a Christian Democrat. This was the position
of
Ricardo Lagos, a minister of public education in the
Aylwin cabinet
and the most prominent leader of the moderate left. Lagos,
who was
defeated for a Senate seat in Santiago by the vagaries of
the
electoral law, remained one of the most popular leaders in
Chile
and was widely praised for his tenure in the Ministry of
Public
Education.
A Lagos candidacy, however, implied the serious
possibility
that the CPD would break up. Christian Democrats pointed
to their
party's significant advantage in the polls and noted that
the
country might not be ready for a candidate identified with
the
Socialist Party. Lagos faced opposition within the PPD and
the
Socialist Party among leaders who thought that risking the
unity of
the CPD could only play into the hands of forces that
would welcome
a victory of the right or an authoritarian reversal.
Lagos, in
turn, argued that the Socialists could be relegated to the
position
of a permanent minority force within the coalition if they
did not
have the opportunity to present their own candidate. The
constitutional provision for a second electoral round, in
case no
candidate obtained an absolute majority in the first
round, would
permit the holding of a kind of primary. The CPD candidate
that
failed to go into the second round of the two finalists
would
simply support the CPD counterpart. Lagos, however, was
not able to
persuade either the Christian Democrats or his own allies
to launch
two center-left presidential candidacies spearheading one
joint
list for congressional seats. Instead, he had to settle
for a
national convention in which Frei handily defeated him
with his
greater organizational strength.
The right had even more difficulty coming up with a
standardbearer . The National Renewal party was intent on imposing
its own
candidacy this time and sought to elevate one of its
younger
leaders to carry the torch. Bitter opposition for the UDI
and the
destructive internal struggle within the National Renewal
party
precluded Chile's largest party on the right from
selecting the
standard-bearer of the coalition. After a bitter and
highly
destructive process, the parties of the right, including
the UCC,
finally were able to structure a joint congressional list
and turn
to Arturo Alessandri Besa, a senator and businessman, as
presidential candidate.
Several other candidates were presented by minor
parties. The
PCCh, which had reluctantly supported Aylwin in 1989,
endorsed
leftist priest Eugenio Pizarro Poblete, while scientist
Manfredo
Max-Neef ran a quixotic campaign stressing environmental
issues. In
the election held on December 11, 1993, Eduardo Frei
scored an
impressive victory, exceeding the total that Aylwin
obtained in
1989. Frei's victory underscored the strong support of the
CPD's
overall policies, bucking the Latin American trend of
failed
incumbent governments. Frei obtained 57.4 percent of the
vote to
Alessandri's 24.7 percent (see
table 42, Appendix). The
surprise in
the race was Max-Neef, who, exceeding all expectations,
obtained
5.7 percent of the vote, surpassing the vote for Pizarro,
which was
4.6 percent. Max-Neef was able to translate his shoestring
candidacy into the most significant protest vote against
the major
candidates.
The election of the fifty-one-year-old Frei marked the
coming
of age of a new generation of political leaders in Chile.
Frei, an
engineer and businessman, had avoided the political world
of his
father until the late 1980s when he agreed to form part of
the
Committee for Free Elections. Subsequently, his party
faction
challenged Aylwin for the leadership of the party prior to
the 1989
election. Although Frei lost, he laid the groundwork for
his
successful bid for party leadership in 1992 and,
eventually, the
race for president.
Frei's election signals the intention of the CPD to
remain
united in a coalition government for the foreseeable
future. The
designation of Socialist Party president Germán Correa as
minister
of interior and Ricardo Lagos's acceptance of another
cabinet post
underscore the broad nature of the regime. Its challenge,
however,
will be to maintain unity while addressing many of the
lingering
social issues that still affect Chilean society without
upsetting
the country's economic progress.
Data as of March 1994
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