For many within Chile and in its diaspora, the Chilean imagination is defined by memory: how it is created, how it is disappeared, and how it is passionately rekindled. This was thrown into stark relief during the October 2019 to March 2020 estallido social, or “social explosion,” when record-breaking anti-government protests overtook the country. Demonstrations were triggered by a 30-peso ($0.04) hike in metro fares and grew to target economic inequality, corruption, and systemic human rights abuses that date back to the era of dictator Augusto Pinochet.
For many protesters, those 30 pesos symbolized 30 years’ worth of social discontent that had been brewing since the end of Pinochet’s rule in 1990, when the country transitioned to democracy but kept many vestiges of the old authoritarian regime in place—including the Pinochet-era constitution and neoliberal economic policies, which entrenched many of the socioeconomic inequities seen in Chile today.
The uprising, which involved up to 1.2 million protesters at its peak, prompted Chile’s conservative president at the time, Sebastián Piñera, to institute a state of emergency and curfew as well as to deploy the military and police to quash the protests. Amnesty International documented human rights violations committed by Chile’s police during this time, including the deliberate use of excessive force against protesters. Weeks after imposing the state of emergency, Piñera called an October 2020 referendum asking Chileans to vote on whether the country should draft a new constitution. A resounding 78 percent voted yes.
