Movement seeks to scrap Chile's private pension system.
| Autor | Witte-Lebhar, Benjamin |
Less than a month after seizing the political spotlight on July 24 with massive and simultaneous protests held nationwide, opponents of Chile's dictatorship-era pension system returned to the streets for an encore performance that pumped even more momentum into their burgeoning movement.
Like the July rallies, the follow-up demonstrations on Aug. 21 drew hundreds of thousands of people into the streets of Santiago and other Chilean cities under the banner "No+AFP" (no more AFP). The acronym refers to the private companies, called Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones (AFPs), that manage the retirement savings of most Chilean workers (NotiSur, Feb. 11, 2005). No+AFP organizers are planning to hold further protests on Oct. 16, followed by a nationwide general strike on Nov. 4.
The AFP system dates back to 1981, when it was imposed by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) on the advice of his economic advisers, the so-called "Chicago Boys," who saw it as a way to relieve the state of a huge financial responsibility and at the same time provide a steady source of capital for investment in national companies and banks (NotiSur, Aug. 12, 2016). The so-called "architect" of the system is Jose Pinera, a Harvard educated economist who served as Pinochet's labor minister between 1978 and 1980. Pinera is the older brother of ex-President Sebastian Pinera (2010-2014).
Critics have long questioned the decidedly undemocratic origins of the system. But as more and more of the original contributors reach retirement age, there is growing frustration as well with the poor payouts it provides. Chilean pensioners, on average, receive approximately US$300 per month, not even half the average salary in Chile (US$720, according to data drawn in 2015 from the Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas, INE) and less even than the legal minimum salary (US$380), Chilean media outlets report.
"What we saw in the streets is a massive expression of the legitimate fear people have of falling into poverty in their old age, when they're naturally more vulnerable and in need of special care. Nobody wants to become a burden on their families after years of working, be it in a formal setting or not," Sebastian Depolo and Marcela Sandoval, party officials with the leftist Revolucion Democratica (RD), argued in an essay published late last month by the independent news site El Mostrador.
Deeply divided
The August demonstrations also represented a rebuttal of sorts to...
Para continuar leyendo
Solicita tu pruebaCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
