Earthquake jars Santiago, preceding a turnover in government and anticipating a paradigm shift in the nation’s values
Will Piñera fool us all or is Chile about to be peppered by intensified neo-liberalism?
On March 11, less than two weeks following a devastating earthquake that rocked Chile’s south-central region and even reached its capital 200 miles away, rightwing President-elect Sebastián Piñera is set to take office. This earthquake and the devastation it has caused will create an immensely difficult time for even Chile’s billion-dollar man to take on the leadership of a country immersed in such devastation. Barring the earthquake, Piñera was already facing controversy prior to taking office. On February 8, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced that her Concertación government would restart truth commissions to continue investigating human rights abuses compiled during the reign of Dictator Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990.