The Constitutional Convention handed President Gabriel Boric his proposal for a new constitutionthe same day that its one-year term to prepare it ended.
It had its origin in the massive street demonstrations gathered in many Chilean cities, during October and November 2019, under the common cry of ‘until dignity becomes customary’. They generated a social crisis that provoked intense negotiations between political leaders, which culminated on November 15 of that year with the ‘Agreement for social peace and the new Constitution’ signed by 12 leaders of political parties from the right, center and left, excluding the Communist Party and others from the current government coalition. Gabriel Boric, current president of Chile, was one of the signatories, being questioned from his sector, for doing so.
Towards a new Constitution
That agreement paved the way for drawing up a new Constitution, which ratified in the plebiscite of October 25, 2020 with 78% support of the largest number of voters up to that moment in the history of the country.
There is a long history of seeking to replace the current Constitution promulgated in 1980 during the Pinochet military dictatorship, criticized from the beginning for its anti-democratic nature, drafted without citizen participation and approved in a plebiscite denounced for its irregularities. Several of these efforts establish a process for a new Constitutionculminated at the end of the term of President Michelle Bachelet, in 2018, with a project that she sent to Congress, which was later rejected by her successor, Sebastián Piñera.
This was added to a variety of social demands (environment, pensions, health, education…). The time bomb exploded in October 2019 with street demonstrations that, in Santiago, gathered more than a million people and many in other cities. This is how the Agreement and the plebiscite that started this process were reached.
The Constitutional Convention
In May 2021, the 155 members of the Constitutional Convention were elected, first with gender parity in the world, who had a maximum term of one year to write the proposal that must be plebiscitated on September 4 and that they are now submitting, at the end of their work.
At the time of the election of the conventional members, the country experienced a strong distrust and criticism of politicians and parties, which was reflected in the composition of the Convention: many independents, members of social organizations and regional leaders highlighted in specific demands. Few well-known names in the political or academic field and in its political composition the representatives of the right do not reach 30%, being two thirds the number of votes necessary to approve a motion in plenary.
With a clear Catholic identity
Elected to the Convention among the Non-Neutral Independents, Benito Baranda Ferranis known for his outstanding work as director of the Hogar de Cristo, for 20 years; its social commitment and solidarity in various national activities; and his clear public Catholic identity.
QUESTION.- How do you feel at the end of a year of intense work in the Convention?
RESPONSE.- I feel inner consolation for the work done. The vast majority of the constituents have left an important part of our lives, projects, loves, desires for justice, dreams and aspirations, in this constitutional text. And these have responded substantively to what we have been collecting, listening to and living, in the territories we inhabit and in which we work.
Q.- What is your appreciation of the work of the Convention?
R.- It has been a deeply collective work, with some stages more decentralized than others, all interrelated, both within the Convention and from and outside. I knew 20% of the chosen ones and had a close bond with very few. It had never happened to me. Was a learning process, forming a community and creating spaces of trust. I allocated my best energies and my greatest prayer, so that in this period of one year we establish respectful, constructive relationships and look at the good of the entire country.
Q.- What were the main inputs for this work?
R.- The first is the impulse of a country that has been digesting a social crisis with broad expectations of change; what’s more hundreds of diagnoses and proposals that were born under the aegis of citizen councils, popular initiatives of norms and proposals of study centers, political parties and the constituent teams themselves. Once the process began, these inputs and the speeches and conversations that accompanied them mutated, shared, improved, receiving criticism or observations that came through the press, through public hearings and parallel conversations within the political groups and between the political groups of the Convention, in the commissions and the Plenary of the Convention. He was a unique exercise, with all its complexities and virtuesbut undoubtedly ours.
Q.- Changes were perceived in the most exaggerated initial postures, if so, what do you attribute this change to?
R.- Democracy also operated as a result of mutual knowledge, deliberation and reflection. Those who came with proposals, for example, to dissolve the powers of the State or intensify the subsidiary neoliberal role of the State, typical of the Constitution of 1980, did not manage to have enough votes even to overcome a thematic commission; and in the case in which some of them reached the plenary session, where they needed two thirds of the Convention, they did not achieve it. It was a process that did not come to veto any political position, but rather gave space to visions that normally do not reach the spaces of power; It is a process that sought the majority. This encouraged abandoning many of those positions, and building from consensus.
Spirit of service for a greater good
Democracy will never be exempt from tensions, as is also the case in ecclesial, sports and cultural organizations, but a mature society faces these conflicts and differences with openness and respect for diversity and majorities. We did not come to write a personal Constitution but a collective one, at least I was not there to make political points, but to reach agreements that allow a new more equitable and democratic social pact, more just and participatory. We have learned something of that in this process and a different attitude has been forged within us, a common spirit of service for a greater good.
Q.- How was your experience of contributing from values not always shared with other conventional ones?
R.- Enriching and challenging, like all sincere dialogue. In a country like Chile whose diversity, in the words of the New Constitution, is “geographical, natural, cultural and historical”, where “diverse peoples and nations coexist within the framework of the unity of the State”; where “families, in their various forms and ways of life” are recognized and protected, and where “diverse worldviews coexist, with dignity and reciprocal respect.” Furthermore, in a State that declares itself “social and democratic by law”, “plurinational, intercultural and ecological”, and that it is constituted as a “solidarity Republic”.
I had relationships of respect, listening and dialogue, so I believe that the difference in values or political positions never prevents good treatment and invites, instead, to understand the life experiences of each one, or of those who represent. In fact, despite the differences, this Constitution it will be a Constitution of principles, with definitions of broad mandates the State, the legislator and society in general, where to go and what should be respected, which we could consider as shared values.
Spirituality as an essential element
In several cases, there was no consensus on more specific provisions, so ample room is left for democracy, the legislator and public policies to materialize these principles. For example, a right to decent work and its protection is recognized, which includes fair working conditions, health and safety at work, equal pay for work of equal value, etc. An extraordinary event was the very majority agreement on the article on “freedom of thought, conscience, religion and worldview” which also states that “The State recognizes spirituality as an essential element of the human being”.
Q.- And what do you think of the result obtained?
R.- The final text collects many of the collective struggles and desires that preceded and accompanied this process. Represents the diversity of the country, makes visible and grants rights to excluded groupsoffering a stronger concept of equality and inclusion.
It’s a text that decisively advances in decentralization, offering a “regional state”; offers a new deal with Nature and the environment; responds to the climate crisis and emergency in which we find ourselves and proposes bases for sustainable development that reaches everyone, but not at the expense of the following generations.
It is the path of human dignity that we are progressively building, it will be a time of transformation so that we can collectively shape a society where we treat each other with justice and lovelet’s take care of ourselves and develop in an integral way.
Q.- What positive changes do you highlight in this text, with respect to the previous Constitution?
R.- In relation to the previous Constitution, it makes a substantive leap in the catalog of fundamental rights: rechoes a good part of the constitutional tradition, but updates, strengthens and incorporates new rights: freedom of conscience is complemented by respect for spirituality, as an essential element of the human person and the worldview; the sphere of protection is extended to other related rights such as personal autonomy, identity and the free development of the personality. The classic right to equality before the law is complemented by protection against all types of discrimination and mandates the State to correct or overcome disadvantages in order to achieve substantive equality in the exercise of rights. Social rights and not mere rights of choice are enshrined: education, health, social security, work, access to water. Cultural rights are recognized, freedom of expression is complemented with the right to participate in social communications, freedom of the press; and digital rights, data protection and access to digital connectivity.
Finally, I emphasize the right to decent and adequate housingwhich goes hand in hand with right to the city and the right to live in environments free of violence and territorial planning duties. This approach of rights that are exercised in the territory is a perspective that we required a long time ago, so I believe that this “landing” of the right to reality can only bring us virtuous consequences in our political and social life.
This is a Constitution that deepens respect for the human person and that contributes to having a better society, more cohesive, safe and happy.
Benito Baranda: “Chile needs a new more equitable and democratic social pact”