Constanza San Juan is feeling optimistic. She sits on a committee of Chile’s constitutional convention that on Feb. 1 voted to nationalize the country’s mineral wealth—its deep veins of copper, lithium, magnesium, and silver—a notion that has mining companies and markets hyperventilating. The idea is sufficiently radical that few believe it will be endorsed by the required two-thirds of the full convention. But San Juan, a 36-year-old historian, not only hopes it will—she wants it to go further.
In her view, the problem isn’t that Chile, dubbed the cradle of neoliberalism, is contemplating state control of resources. It’s that people still envision its future as based on mining rather than green endeavors. Her wish list also includes better pensions, health care, and education. Asked during a break between sessions where the money for all that would come from, she said, “We’ll have to see. The reason I came here is to bring structural changes to our economic model.”
Chile has embarked on a nearly unparalleled voyage of self-discovery that will serve either as a template or a warning for countries trying to tackle climate change and inequality. It’s elected 155 delegates to write a new constitution, and some three-quarters of them lean left—though perhaps not as much as San Juan.
