Centre-left New Majority candidate Michelle Bachelet yesterday secured 46.7% of the vote in Chile's presidential election. This amounts to 21 percentage points more than rightist candidate Evelyn Matthei (25%), but anyway requires that the two leaders face a runoff to be held on December 15th. Bachelet will then have every chance of winning, even if only because it is presumed that the majority of voters to another leftist candidate, Marco Enríquez-Ominami (third, 11% of the votes) will grant her their support.

As Nationalia wrote on Saturday, Bachelet proposes several reforms which include the drafting of a new Chilean Constitution that breaks with the political heritage of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Among the proposed reforms, the constitutional recognition of Chile's indigenous peoples is included. According to the latest census, 11% of Chileans define themselves as members of an indigenous people.

But things will not be easy for Bachelet, as constitutional reforms require enhanced majorities in Parliament. Chile's Chamber of Deputies was renovated yesterday,  and the rightist coalition Alliance won enough seats as to prevent New Majority to carry out constitutional reforms unilaterally. This means that the centre-left will need to agree with conservatives so that the Constitution can be amended.

Counterterrorism law remains in force

Beyond their constitutional recognition, another focus of attention in relation to indigenous peoples is the continued implementation of the Counterterrorism Law, which has been in force since the time of Pinochet. When Bachelet was President of Chile from 2006 to 2010, not only the law was not revoked, but was applied in several occasions. That was a decision that Bachelet described as a "mistake" last month.

Her political manifesto, however, does not provide for the repeal of the law, as required by several Mapuche organizations. In exchange, the centre-left manifesto says that the law will not be apllied "to members of indigenous peoples" who participate in "actions of social demand". The text also promises to "investigate" "allegations of police abuse and violence" against Mapuche and Rapanui communities.

The Mapuche movement also calls for a thorough land reform since it argues that the Mapuche are the rightful owners of many lands that are now in the hands of large landowners. In this regard, the manifestao proposes the "generation of Special Autonomy Statutes" for indigenous peoples and the "study" of alternative ways to purchase land in order to fulfil "pending requests" by indigenous peoples.

(Picture: Michelle Bachelet / Image by Gram Slattery / Santiago Times.)