A fairer Chile': protest generation aims to reshape country in divisive election
During the long, grey winter of 2011, thousands of Chilean university students occupied their campuses for months to demand free, high-quality education for all.
Now, a decade after they brought their demands to the top of the national agenda, that same generation is heading into the most divisive presidential election in years.
The former student leader Gabriel Boric, 35, has a serious chance of becoming the country’s next president, on a pledge to overhaul the neoliberal economic model left behind by the dictatorship of Gen Augusto Pinochet.
“The ‘Chilean miracle’ was just for the outside world, not for us,” says Boric sternly, the tattooed band around his forearm flashing beneath his sleeve. “But when you talk to people in low-income neighbourhoods, they will look around and ask you where this progress can actually be found.”
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/18/a-fairer-chile-ex-student-leader-bids-to-reshape-country-in-divisive-election