A Changing Country

ReVista HARVARD REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICA • SPRING 2004 Chile A Changing Country DAVID ROCKEFELLER CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES, HARVARD UNIVERSITY EDITOR’S LETTER I was hesitant to do an issue on Chile when I had other topics broader and richer in content. Although in a way Chile seems like an obvious choice because of the DRCLAS Regional office there, I felt there were other priorities in terms of substance. But on the invitation from the regional office, I prepared to go to Chile, where I had not visited since the dark days of the dictatorship in 1977. ReVista, you may have noticed, emphasizes the work of visual artists who capture the spirit of the people and places we write about. So I called my friend Susan Meiselas, who edited a moving book of Chilean photography, Chile from Within (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1990). It was Susan who set my memory in motion, and Susan who connected me with many of the excellent photographers featured in this issue. After our conversation, I realized how much Chile had already been a part of my men- tal landscape, from the creative Chilean exiles whom I met in Panamá in 1975 on a Tica Bus trip to the entreprenurial Chileans I met during my years in Berlin (West) who intro- duced me to the concept of Pan-Latino through their imaginative restaurants with Argen- tine steak and Mexican tacos, along with the Chilean pastel de choclo. Arriving in Chile I expected to find a polarized nation, divided between those who insisted on remembering the past and those who insisted on forgeting it. What surprised me was how polarized the nation was around the issue of identity. It was almost as if there were two Chiles, a modern, multicultural, prosperous and culturally avant garde country inserted into the larger region and world—and a conserva- tive, inequitable country resistant to immigration and change. The truth, it seemed to me, was somewhere in between. But almost noone seemed to be in the middle. I feared Chile would be boring and mired in its past—instead, I found a country of people eager to debate about their future. With its annual per capita income of $5,000, Chile is considered almost a developed nation by UN standards. The mall culture and the local Starbucks sometimes made me forget I was in Latin America, but the thoughtful conversa- tions always made me remember that I was in the middle of a changing country. Chile, I found, is a country with a newfound responsibility to its region and to the world. A non- permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, Chile opposed the United States on the issue of Iraq, and yet is prepared to sign a free trade agreement. The more I heard, the more I was intrigued. I stood looking at the cordillera among the Chilean stars in wine country one December night with my friend Marcela Renteria from the DRCLAS Regional Office. I had just returned from visiting a civil society project which turned vacant lots into landscaped public space. As I was explaining to her what I had seen that day, I realized that among the seemingly polarized voices of the citizens, of the photographers, of the intellectuals and all the other Chileans I had met, they shared these mountains and stars, this "little Chile." This ReVista shares with its readers many aspects of this changing country. After my trip, I realized, there were no certain answers about this changing country. But one thing was certain for me: I want to go back. HARVARD REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICA • Volume III, Number 3 ReVista Published by The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies DRCLAS: John H. Coatsworth, Director (on sabbatical) Thomas B.F. Cummins, Acting Director EDITORIAL STAFF: June Carolyn Erlick, Editor-in-Chief Amanda Austin, Editorial Assistant Neida Jiménez, Creative Consultant Marcela Renteria, Special Collaborator Kelly McMurray/2communiqué, Design P+R Publications, Printer 61 Kirkland Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Telephone: (617) 495–3366 Facsimile: (617) 496–2802 Cover photograph TO SUBSCRIBE: Email: <[email protected]> Website: <http://drclas.fas.harvard.edu> by Luis Weinstein READER FORUM: <[email protected]> Copyright © 2004 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. ISSN 1541–1443 “Paseo Ahumada,” Santiago Street Scene 2 ReVista • SPRING 2004 Chile’s Role in the World Independence and the Rule of Law BY JUAN GABRIEL VALDÉS ow can the foreign policy of a small tutional forms has permitted a successful open rules. That both decisions could be reconciled nation have a credible impact on economy to function since the restoration of with each other is undoubtedly positive because Hglobal politics? democracy. It has allowed for a market that it confirmed the value of a policy based on Chile’s February 2003 refusal to support has produced high growth rates without cor- principles. the war in Iraq in the United Nations Security ruption and without creating a social abyss I believe that it is important to value this Council surprised many and irritated quite a among its inhabitants as has happened in other policy, as we begin this new turbulent phase few. How was it possible that a small coun- developing countries. This success is not sim- in the history of our region. Chile belongs to try preparing itself to sign a free trade agree- ply a matter of adherence to a certain eco- Latin America, not just culturally and politi- ment with the United States, a measure to nomic model, as some have readily asserted, cally, but because we share some unresolved which it had aspired for almost a decade, was but also a reflection of Chile’s insistence on problems of underdevelopment such as taking the risk of nay-saying in a matter so institutionality. poverty and shameful income distribution. important to the world’s leading power? What In the light of these constant Chilean char- However, after a decade and a half of sus- national interest could justify saying no to the acteristics, our foreign policy has no other basis tained development in which the country has United States about a topic apparently so far than to regulate our insertion into the inter- combined democratic recuperation, the off from regional interests? The debate briefly national system and to contribute at the same strengthening of institutions, economic growth shook up Chileans, but the need to examine time to the collective creation of norms that and visible social progress in the reduction of this question seemed to lose relevance with govern political and economic globalization. poverty, we ought to be capable of a greater the signing of the trade agreement a few Has it not been our institutional—not just com- contribution. months later. mercial— determination that has pushed us to What are the principle courses of action? Today I find it imperative to take up this sign these free trade agreements that we have Chile should deepen its associations with its theme once again. Chile cannot remain indif- successfully negotiated with all of Latin Amer- neighbors, particularly with MERCOSUR, to ferent to the precarious situation in the Latin ica, the European Union, the United States and spur with imagination and audacity new pro- American region. It must examine the basis of South Korea? posals for the physical and economic inte- its international projection. Only in this way A country with a small population like ours gration of our countries in a framework that can it act consistently. desires a world with stable and recognized also includes civil society actors. I believe that Chile should also contribute to assuring that the states in the region assume more collective A country with a small population like ours desires a responsibility in the realm of democratic sta- world with stable and recognized rules in which bility, security and standardization of international trade. The risk of the decomposition collective action, subject to majority consensus, takes of the state and national disintegration in some of the region’s countries can be prevented by precedence over unilateral action. collective regional action sooner rather than later. One cannot help but notice that the pre- The only solid bases for Chile’s foreign pol- rules in which collective action, subject to sent signals in the face of the recent crises in icy are those tied to the country’s very identity, majority consensus, takes precedence over uni- Haiti and Bolivia indicate the opposite ten- what Montesquieu referred to as “the spirit lateral action. For the same reasons, in the dif- dency. However, it is more and more evident of the nation.” The genius of Chile has his- ficult moments we experienced a year ago, that it is unacceptable for Latin American coun- torically resided in its institutions. From the could Chile refuse to recognize the authority tries to evade their responsibilities in the face Republic’s founding, the talent of its political of the United Nations and international law? of crisis in their own region. elite has been to persist in making state insti- Could Chile evade its deliberative and deci- If indeed the road toward regional co- tutions function well to become capable of self- sive role in the Security Council in which we responsibility is a long one, Chile today can regulation and of self-correction in the were elected members? The answer is clearly count on the consistency of its own history to framework of a political order that has been no. The grounds for this answer leads us to a help move that agenda forward. embued with legitimacy.

Load more