Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 December 2021: The South African Communist Party congratulates Gabriel Boric (35) in Chile on his presidential election victory. This Left electoral victory came against the background of almost four decades of neoliberalism and the systemic failure of its policy regime, with a severe impact on the Chilean people, including astronomical levels of inequality and mass poverty. Chile held general elections on 21 November 2021, including presidential, parliamentary, and regional elections, and a second round of the presidential election on 19 December 2021.

Gabriel was endorsed by a broad patriotic front including Left formations which campaigned to secure his victory, over 55 per cent of the valid votes cast. The broad front includes, most notably, the Communist Party of Chile (Partido Comunista de Chile). The SACP wishes Gabriel all the best and the Communist Party of Chile success and growth in strength.

When neoliberal globalisation took off, in 1973, Chile suffered a military coup against the socialist government of Salvador Allende. This was followed by cruel dictatorships, including organised criminality, kidnappings, disappearance of people, and suspensions of human rights and freedoms. Imperialist intelligence agencies from North America and elsewhere actively promoted the barbarism with their approval and complicity.

Chile was plunged into many capitalist system and consequent political crises and problems. The key challenge is to roll back the impact and its legacy amidst the intransigence by its underlying forces and their networks of patronage, including oligarchs and other counter-productive and negative forces, and amidst continuing imperialist machination and new destabilisation and subjugation strategies.

United States imperialism, in particular, has caused many problems not only in Chile but in other countries in Latin America, such as Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, to name but a few, and in other global regions, including here on our continent, in Africa. This must stop. It must end. We need a just and peaceful world, in which every nation’s democratic sovereignty and fundamental right to self-determination is sacrosanct.

ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | SACP

EST. 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA | CPSA
 
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