The political information from all latitudes that the mass media bring us these days generates emotional contradictions, the truth is that we do not know whether to cry or laugh, because of the monstrous and ridiculous contents that are integrated in them. They are obviously symptoms of the political decomposition of the times, in which editors are no longer even used to cover up stupidity, impudence and corruption.
Electricity price hikes in the middle of winter in Chile
To understand the electricity price hike, let’s go back to 2019, with a social uprising and the government of the day, plus the Congress destabilised by millions on the country’s streets, suspends the current 9.2% increase.
The price freeze was extended by COVID 19. The current executive decided to maintain the freeze until the debt and interest reached 6 billion dollars. Faced with this situation, the Minister and Parliament come up with the alternative of “staggered repayment”, in three instalments between July 2024 and January 2025.
Who worked out the formula? Members of the electricity consulting companies. Why defrost at this time of year? Because bills are higher in winter, and if we are talking about percentage increases, they are lower. If we were talking about summer bills, we would be talking about increases of 150%. In any case, families will be hit by the increases.
On the other hand, the government would provide a subsidy to 40% of the most vulnerable population, as determined by the country’s social household registry, through a digital application. On the other hand, from 1 July 2024, the minimum monthly income will increase to 500,000 pesos (534 dollars). From 1 January 2025, the minimum wage will be adjusted according to the cumulative variation in the CPI between 1 July 2024 and 31 December 2024.
Compulsory vote, will you vote?
Strange logic of the Chilean legislator: if citizens do not want to participate in the electoral process, we will force them by law to vote without condemnation.
After years of discussing the neglect and lack of interest of the citizens, the political parties have finally agreed. This is how the discussion is going so far, we will see what the honourable ones will surprise us with.
Justice to suit the pocket.
The case of the father of the senator and leader of the UDI party has caused a backlash throughout the population, which is sensitive to cases of abuse of children under the age of 14. In addition to the millions of pesos in bail imposed by the criminal court in the city of San Fernando, which the senator paid.
The “failures” of justice, which went unnoticed at the beginning of the trial, can now be used as a legal mechanism to declare a mistrial for the perpetrator.
To understand, at the beginning of a trial three judges are appointed and even a fourth judge (this mechanism is provided for) was mysteriously not used on this occasion. One of the judges has gone on medical leave for the second time, leaving only two judges for the trial; the regulation allows the trial to continue, the risk being that the judges must agree on the four charges in order to convict (the law requires agreement). Any disagreement or discrepancy between the 2 judges is grounds for a mistrial.
This is what will happen next week. This is how the legality of justice is delivered.
The fact that the absent judge’s husband is a former UDI militant, a close collaborator of the senator, has no influence whatsoever.
US elections
The CNN presidential debate is breathtaking. The country with the largest military deployment and the leader of NATO is offering as a possible leader a criminal with 34 ongoing cases (who manipulates his chosen ones in the Supreme Court to disrupt their trials), a mythomaniac, xenophobe, misogynist; protected by an institutional framework that even allows a prisoner to be a candidate, if, incidentally, he has the support of one of the two only parties and enough millions of dollars for the campaign. And the opponent, a warmonger (who, as vice-president, made all the non-violent promises of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mr Obama, fall by the wayside), totally protected by the US elite and its military-industrial complex; and who, with great difficulty, can barely follow the course of the situations around him, with mental symptoms of senescence. Both old men are likely to be elected to define world geopolitics (because at the national level in the US, policy is defined by each governor in his own territory).
New NATO President
The new “election” of the Secretary General of NATO (a political definition as opaque and elitist as that of the President of the European Commission) is taking place in the midst of the war between the West and Russia on Ukrainian territory, which is being denied a diplomatic solution to achieve a ceasefire and agreements to take charge of the conflicts on the basis that gave rise to this crazy, violent form of resolution.
The new man at the head of NATO is presented as having ‘colourful’ personal characteristics and a ‘colourful’ CV, from being described as a countryman who lived in the family home past his fifties and used a bicycle to get around (could he be the alter ego of our President?). In his term as president of his country, he started with a coalition that went into crisis, and in that context, he managed to continue governing with the opposite wing, his former opposition; very much in line with the well-known saying: “These are my principles; if you don’t like them, I have others”. The sympathy of this description is drowned out by the declaration of the direction being promoted for NATO, beyond its unbridled inclusion of new members in Europe, but now with its expanding circle of “friendships” in Asia (Japan and South Korea), plus intentions in Africa and the Middle East, with the slogan of “containing” China’s geopolitical advance, from this instance of conglomerate military power.
Chile’s presidency cashes in on Europe
Our sorcerer’s apprentice is touring Europe to drum up support (from investors) for Chile’s position on NATO in the European conflict. As a lone voice, not only in Latin America but also in the global South, he knows that there is a price to pay. Especially when he has broken with the Latin American position of not taking sides in armed conflicts in order to allow mediation and support for diplomatic solutions to achieve a ceasefire, which in concrete terms means saving human lives, especially those of civilians who have been massacred. And to all the forces and agents of the Chilean executive who claim to be “loyal to the president and his dangerous and disastrous decisions”, we call on them to put loyalty to the people first.
We end here with this small selection of “current memes” from an abundant and permanent flood of “real politics”. In such a context, we insist that the current anti-humanist system is not perfectible and that its power can only be deactivated by a majority world citizenship, which means taking sovereignty into its hands, becoming aware of the crisis, overcoming discouragement and giving the best of itself for the construction of a new epoch, of collective character, valuing diversity and with a growing affection for human life and its planet with all its wonderful vital expressions. May it be so.
Contributors: Ricardo Lisboa Henríquez; M. Angélica Alvear Montecinos; Guillermo Garcés Parada; Sandra Arriola Oporto and César Anguita Sanhueza. Public Opinion Commission