Chile Returns to Center-Right Politics With Piñera Inauguration

FEATURING FRANCISCO LETELIER – Chile’s first and only woman president Michelle Bachelet, who served two separate terms, just handed over power to newly elected President Sebastián Piñera. Piñera, a Harvard-educated center-right figure, who starts his second term as President, vowed among other things to cut taxes, strengthen pensions, and reduce the national deficit. Piñera won a run-off election in December.

Speaking the language of neo-liberal capitalism, Piñera said upon his inauguration on Sunday, “Growth is fundamental, not only to create good jobs, improve salaries and create opportunities for small companies, but also to generate the resources needed to finance public spending.”

Piñera’s term appears to be part of the contemporary rightward swing of the Latin American political pendulum.

Francisco Letelier, Chilean-born artist, muralist, writer, and activist based in Los Angeles. He was 17 when his father, Orlando Letelier – an economist who was part of Salvador Allende’s cabinet – was assassinated in Washington DC.