Chile's Bizarre Presidential Election

The November election quickly approaching in Chile has the potential to expose fresh wounds in one of the most politically-divided nations in Latin America. On November 17, Chileans will head to the polls to choose between Michelle Bachelet of the left-leaning Partido Socialista de Chile and Evelyn Matthei of the right-wing Unión Demócrata Independiente. Both candidates have compelling personal histories that make the election extremely interesting to the outside observer.
Michelle Bachelet is a trained physician who is fluent in five languages. She became President of Chile in 2006 and served until 2010 before being forced from office by Chile’s single-term limit. Ms. Bachelet has a history that is oddly reminiscent of past socialist candidates in a time when modern leftist candidates across Latin America have fewer and fewer ties to Soviet-style Communism. Bachelet lived in exile during Pinochet’s reign behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany. In addition to her irregular past, Bachelet is an outspoken agnostic, divorcee, and single mother — a rare combination for public figures in the deeply Catholic country.
On the other side of the ballot is Evelyn Matthei, an economist and former conservative labor minister who is relatively new on the Chilean political scene. Her father Fernando Matthei served as Minister of Health, Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Air Force, and member of the military Junta under General Augusto Pinochet.
Besides the interesting histories of the candidates themselves, their shared history dating back to the pre-Pinochet days is even more noteworthy. Both Bachelet and Matthei’s fathers were Air Force generals in the Marxist Allende government. As girls, Bachelet and Matthei lived at the same Air Force base in Northern Chile with their fathers as friends. When Pinochet took power by coup in 1973, Alberto Bachelet stayed loyal to the Allende government while Fernando Matthei joined Pinochet.
After the coup proved successful, Alberto Bachelet was arrested for treason and placed in detention at the Air War Academy. After experiencing horrible treatment including continued torture, Bachelet died of cardiac arrest in 1974. In 1975, Michelle Bachelet and her mother were detained and subjected to rigorous interrogation and torture. Bachelet was eventually exiled from Chile to Australia and then moved to the Soviet bloc countries of Eastern Europe. She lived and studied medicine in East Germany for years before returning to Chile after four years in exile.
The candidates have mostly downplayed their shared history in the election — a wise decision considering how divided the country remains over the coup and ensuing Pinochet years. Since Chile’s return to democracy in 1989, the left-leaning Concertación coalition has won four of the five elections. The right-wing Alianza coalition had its first electoral victory in 2010 over Ms. Bachelet’s allies.
Chileans look to be ready to revert back to Concertación leadership after the country’s first experiment with center-right politics since Pinochet. As the Washington Post explains, Bachelet will likely win back control of the executive branch for the Socialists. The more important contests in the election will occur over seats in Parliament where critical votes will occur on Ms. Bachelet’s stated main electoral goal of revising the Chilean Constitution. The Constitution hasn’t been revised since its inception under the late military dictatorship of the ’80s. To do this, Bachelet needs majorities of at least two-thirds in both houses of Parliament.
Very few countries in Latin America, or around the world, are as politically polarized as Chile. The left and right wings are fiercely opposed on most major issues, but the political discourse is generally nonviolent. It is therefore remarkable that a country with such a bloody and revolutionary recent past hasn’t descended into civil strife. Some attribute this to Chilean political culture while others contend it is related to the country’s historical acceptance of technocratic leadership. In many ways, the current election is appropriately emblematic of Chilean politics.
Photo credit: Infolatam