Chile moves towards decentralization with the inauguration of new governors

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The governors of Chile’s 16 regions took office on Wednesday in a historic step towards decentralization. Until now, the regional authority was appointed by the Executive.

Until the last elections in June (the first round was held in May), Chile was one of the two countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), together with Turkey, that did not elect its intermediate positions, as neighbors such as Argentina or Peru do.

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The new governors, whose terms will be for four years, will become obvious authorities and, in many cases, territorial counterpowers to the centralized Santiago, where public and business power is concentrated.

The center-left, which had been losing adhesion for years, especially after its defeat in the 2017 presidential election, won 10 regions, including the Metropolitan Region, where the capital is located and where 8 of the country’s 19 million inhabitants live.

“We can have different visions, we can have different ideas, but I hope, and I ask for your help, that never in the heat of the debates, we lose the north, which is the most humble, which are the poorest and the discriminated people in this region,” said during his investiture the brand new metropolitan governor, Claudio Orrego, of the Christian Democracy (DC).

The ruling Chile Vamos coalition, made up of four right-wing parties, only managed to win in the conflictive Aracuanía (south), which was a major setback for the Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera who will have to deal with a strengthened opposition during the last months of his term.

“This government and the previous ones have not had the capacity to face the problems in the region. The State was not up to the task”, said the new governor of La Araucanía and member of the liberal Evópoli, Luciano Rivas, on a local radio station, about the bitter conflict for decades that has pitted indigenous people against large forestry companies and cattle ranchers in the area.

For their part, the independents without party affiliation and the leftists of the Frente Amplio (FA) have three regional governments and two.

“Our purpose is to fight intensely to combat unemployment, to get the region moving, to put equity at our core and to make Valparaíso a region of rights,” said the new governor, Rodrigo Mundaca, an activist in favor of the right to water in the epicenter of the drought in Chile, at his inauguration.

The entry into operation of the new regional governments has not been without controversy. After a wave of criticism, the government reversed on Monday and reversed a decree that cut almost 1.5 billion from their budget to transfer it to the delegates.

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