Chile Heads to Elections: The Left Faces Its Toughest Test

 

By Rodolfo Varela
Professional broadcaster, political exile, and conscious leftist

Chile's left-wing coalition heads into the November presidential elections in a weakened and challenging position. Jeannette Jara, former minister under President Gabriel Boric and a member of the Communist Party, will be the candidate of the progressive bloc. 

Presidents Boric, Bachelet, Lagos, Frei, and Piñera sign the "For Democracy, Always" pledge

But she will face tough competition from well-positioned figures in the polls like José Antonio Kast (far right) and Evelyn Matthei (center-right).

I am a man of the left. But not of the so-called “renewed” left that bows to power. I am a conscious leftist, with memory and conviction. I was a victim of the dictatorship. I lived through exile. I know what it means to fight for real democracy. And that’s why what I see today pains and angers me.

The left is not strong — because it has failed to deliver on the promises made since the end of the dictatorship. Chile still carries a heavy debt to its people: the victims of the military regime, the exploited workers, the abandoned retirees, the indebted students, the ignored Indigenous communities.

Communist to be the left-wing coalition's candidate for the Chilean presidency

The current government promised structural reforms — such as ending the abusive private pension system (AFP) — and meaningful historical reparations. But what happened? Nothing. The AFPs remain untouched, now with another 30 years to profit from workers’ labor. Pensions remain disgracefully low. And the historical debt to teachers, political exiles, and victims of the dictatorship remains unpaid.

Meanwhile, traditional parties —right and left alike— continue to trade power through pacts, silence, and privilege.

This raises a fair question:
Why not open space for new voices? There are young, independent candidates with modern ideas and clean hands — not bound to the old deals or the same ruling elite. Marco Enríquez-Ominami, for example, represents a different kind of left: bold, unafraid to debate, and ready to break with old molds. I don’t know him personally, but why not give a chance to those who haven’t yet betrayed us?

Marco Enríquez-Ominami: "The left lacks more imagination"

Democracy Always… but for whom?

President Boric has recently launched an initiative titled “Democracy Always,” alongside progressive leaders from the region. But there’s a brutal contradiction between that international discourse and Chile’s domestic reality.

What kind of democracy is it where former presidents receive over 30 million pesos a month, while millions of Chileans live in poverty and neglect?
How can we speak of equality when some retirees live on pensions of only 100,000 pesos? How can we claim to defend human rights, while dictatorship victims still await justice and compensation?

Politicians —both from the right and the institutional left— speak confidently from positions of privilege, as if they had ever known true hardship. But the people have not forgotten. The people are still waiting — not for speeches, but for action.

This is not the democracy we fought for. A democracy without social justice, without active memory, without real reparation, is just a polished mask for the same abuses as always.

Chile deserves better

I don’t speak from theory or comfort. I speak from experience. As a broadcaster, as a dictatorship survivor, as an exile, as a man of the left who never sold out or stayed silent.

Neither the right nor the old left has lived up to the Chilean people. Chile deserves more. It deserves coherence, truth, and justice. It deserves a left that returns to its roots: defending the weak, uplifting workers, giving voice to the silenced.

There is still time.
But only if we wake up.