A New Chilean Revolution

In these pages, one of Latin America's leading writers analyses the recent victory of the left in Chile, the country where he spent his adolescence and the setting for his famous play, made into a film Death and the Maiden .Progressives have been enjoying a banner year in Latin America with left-wing leaders winning elections across the continent. Of particular significance is the recent election in Chile where massive protests led to both the writing of a new Constitution and the election to president of a 36-year old charismatic former student agitator, Gabriel Boric.If Boric succeeds, as promised, in "burying neo-liberalism" in Chile he will have established a model for progressive movements across Latin America and around the world. Doing so will require a forging of a new respect for human rights combined with major advances in gender equality, radical income redistribution, ecological militancy, the empowerment of indigenous peoples, the reining in off police brutality, and sweeping changes in health, education and pension funds.A New Chilean Revolution is no mere panegyric to Boric and the forces that brought him to power. In these pages Dorfman looks with a sharp, realistic focus at the obstacles facing this young President, asking hard questions as to whether such a revolution is possible given the conservative forces arrayed against it and divisions on the left about the necessary spped and depth of reforms.