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Chilean President Gabriel Boric listens during the closing ceremony of the Constitutional Process in which he received the text of the newly proposed Constitution, in the Hall of Honor of the National Congress in Santiago on November 7, 2023. Photo: Pablo Vera/AFP via Getty Images.
By Misión Verdad – Aug 10, 2024
The stance of the Chilean government led by Gabriel Boric has escalated to high levels of hostility towards Venezuela in line with the coup agenda that was activated after the presidential elections on July 28.
This attack has been led in Venezuela by Edmundo González and María Corina Machado, who ignored the official results, claimed victory without verifiable evidence, and made calls for insurrection that created a picture of criminal violence in the streets of Venezuela.
In his latest statements, Boric insisted on the alleged fraud in the elections without presenting evidence, stating, “I, personally, and this is the position of the Chilean government, have no doubt that the Maduro regime has attempted to commit fraud. If it were not so, they would have shown the famous voting records. Why haven’t they done so? If they had won, they would clearly have shown the voting records.”
Boric’s rhetoric has been aligned with that of the extremist sector of the Venezuelan right-wing. However, to maintain an appearance of balance, the Chilean president has tried to qualify his position by refusing to recognize Edmundo González as the self-proclaimed presidential-elect, stating, “We cannot, as an international community, make the same mistake that was made at the time with Guaidó,” while expressing confidence in the mediation of third party countries through dialogue.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil, in response to Boric’s statements, accused him of supporting the far-right, comparing him to Argentinian President Javier Milei and the United States’ Department of State, and described his government as “Pinochetist and coup-monger.”
Governability in Chile
The Chilean political scene, marked by fragmentation and polarization, influences the way Gabriel Boric addresses the situation in Venezuela. The breakdown of the governability pact in the Senate during March of this year, where the opposition won the election of the new president, shows the strenuous relationship between the ruling party and the opposition.
For political scientist Marcelo Mella, consulted by Sputnik, this fact translates into “the rupture of the governability pact between the two large political sectors: the center-right and the center-left,” encouraged by the proximity of the 2025 elections and the regional and municipal elections of October 2024, the latter emerging as a thermometer for the former.
Political analyst Guillermo Holzmann agrees with Mella and diagnoses that Boric is “isolated from the opposition, but also from his own coalition,” which is marked by internal disputes.
Both conclude that the president faces a dilemma between defending the identity-based commitments that brought him to power or seeking to broaden his support toward the political center.
In this sense, Boric’s hostile approach towards Venezuela has become a bid to recover governability and fractured internal consensus in Chile. Pressure, mainly from the right and the far-right, has forced him to abandon an initial attitude of caution and adopt a more active and aggressive stance towards the government of Nicolás Maduro.
Boric has decided to accept the pressures coming from all sides of the Chilean political spectrum.
José Antonio Kast, leader of the Republican Party and a prominent figure of the Chilean far-right, demanded that Boric break relations with the Chilean Communist Party (PC), accusing him of incoherence for criticizing Venezuela while keeping the left-wing party in government stating, “If the President wants to ratify his statements, because they are statements, he should ratify them with actions.”
In addition, the right-wing coalition of former presidents belonging to the Liberty and Democracy Group asked Boric to recognize Edmundo González as the legitimate winner of the Venezuelan presidential elections. An additional group of 27 Chilean senators opposed to the government joined this request, urging Boric to follow the example of Argentina, the United States, Peru and Uruguay in recognizing González.
The Chile Vamos parliamentary groups (a coalition of centre-right and right-wing parties), together with the Republican Party and Democrats, joined in the pressure exerted towards the president.
The tensions also have repercussions on internal divisions within the Communist Party. Initially, the party’s president, Lautaro Carmona, declared on July 28, “I have no alternative but to accept the results,” referring to the official results issued by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE).
However, this acceptance was not unanimous within the party. The secretary of the organization, Bárbara Figueroa, expressed a position of observation regarding the process and the actions of other countries, without explicitly stating the legitimacy of the votes. She emphasized that the PC supports the government’s foreign policy and that the main spokesperson on this issue are the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Other members of the party have distanced themselves from this line and have openly supported Boric’s more hardline position. This is the case of Irací Hassler, mayor of Santiago (a commune of the city of the same name, capital of Chile).
When questioned by a Chilean media outlet, she said : “I share the President’s vision,” and remarked the need for a “transparent process” in the Venezuelan elections, and highlighted the “clear leadership” of the Chilean president. “He has our full support,” she concluded.
US influence
Chile and the United States share a close trade relationship that has strengthened in recent decades. After 20 years of free trade agreement, Chilean exports to the North American market have experienced exponential growth, from US$3,793 million in 2003 to US$14,948 million in 2021.
The US is the main destination for Chilean products, especially in sectors such as agribusiness, seafood, vegetable oils, and bulk wines.
US investments in Chile exceed US$27 billion, representing 8.7% of the country’s GDP.
Energy is the sector that concentrates the main foreign investment thanks to Chile’s comparative advantages in solar radiation and wind resources. Currently, US companies such as AES Andes, Prime Energía, and Grupo Cerro are developing large-scale renewable energy projects.
Recently, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the “Systems Approach” for Chilean table grapes, which will allow this product to access the US market without the need for fumigation with methyl bromide, a negotiation process that took more than 20 years between the phytosanitary authorities of both countries.
On July 17, the Foreign Affairs Ministerial Meeting of the Alliance for Economic Prosperity in the Americas (APEC) was held, where Chile joined ten other nations under the leadership of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
⭕️Subsecretaria @clausanhueza participó en Reunión Plenaria Ministerial del Pilar Político de la Alianza para la Prosperidad Económica en las Américas (#APEP) en EE.UU. Entre los temas se discutió cómo fomentar la competitividad y el crecimiento equitativo en la región (1/2🧵) pic.twitter.com/s9BsQRjfle
— Subsec. de Relaciones Económicas Internacionales (@subrei_chile) July 17, 2024
This initiative, promoted by the Biden administration in the context of the Summit of the Americas in June 2022, seeks to strengthen the economic and commercial influence of the US in the region, while trying to undermine the growing influence of China, especially in critical sectors such as the semiconductor and lithium industries, in which China has consolidated its dominance.
In the race to control global supply chains, Chile, with its strategic mineral resources, is keen to strengthen its place as a key partner for the US.
Will Chile repeat past mistakes?
Gabriel Boric’s belligerent statements reflect an intricate dance between internal and external factors that shaped his approach to the situation in Venezuela.
On the one hand, the political fragmentation in Chile, characterized by a right wing that tries to delegitimize the government by accusing it of being “indulgent” towards Venezuela, pushes Boric to seek internal support and rebuild fractured consensus and pacts. In this polarized climate, the president aligns himself with the trend against Venezuela in order to regain sympathies in the run-up to the 2025 presidential elections.
On the other hand, Chile’s close trade relationship with the United States and its desire to position itself as a key player in the region in strategic sectors such as semiconductors and lithium, lead it to subordinate its international policy to US priorities and interests.
Chile Submits to Fascism: Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Gil Responds to President Boric
This combination of elements influences Boric’s decision to adopt a confrontational stance towards Venezuela, which gives him relevance in the region.
However, the experiences of previous governments in the region that adhered to irrational initiatives such as the “Guaidó project” indicate that it is not an effective resource to resolve internal political problems.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/MCM
Misión Verdad is a Venezuelan investigative journalism website with a socialist perspective in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution
