CHILE : THE TERRITORY OF ALL EXTREMES | M6 | Enquête Exclusive

Today, Chile is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America. This legacy is largely that of General Pinochet. When he seized power by force in September 1973, he not only imposed an authoritarian regime, but also introduced a deregulated economy. This new power took advantage of US support to impose industrial clientelism. The general privatized entire sectors of industry, cut back the media and banks, and offered copper ore, the country’s main resource, to relatives.

From 1973 onwards, many oligarchs from the traditional right grew up in the shadow of the dictatorship, before prospering through contact with politicians, often on the right. Their influence was the driving force behind their immense fortunes. With copper as the symbol of the monopolization of wealth.

Today, 75% of Chile’s copper mines, the jewels of the Chilean economy, are still privately owned. In terms of value, this mineral accounts for half of the country’s exports. Since 2021, when the far-left won the presidential election, copper has been at the heart of economic and political reforms. Barely installed in the Moneda Palace, Gabriel Boric, 35, wants to renationalize the mining sector in order to increase budgetary resources and combat inequality.

The product of a popular revolt, the young president enshrined his reforms in a new constitution, which he put to the vote of the Chilean people. In September 2022, 62% of voters rejected the text, a sign of the fierce resistance of a large part of the Chilean bourgeoisie and oligarchs, still very influential in the country.

In November 2023, Gabriel Boric intends to return to the Chilean people with a new text. The forthcoming campaign is an opportunity for us to immerse ourselves in this immense country, polarized to the extreme.

How does the army see the deployment of a power seen by many officers as a Communist stronghold? How does the government deal with this resistance? And who are the oligarchs who built their fortunes in the shadow of the dictatorship ?

They see Gabriel Boric as the embodiment of an anti-Chilean power, likening the young president to Salvador Allende, who was overthrown fifty years ago. The issue of renationalizing the copper mines is one of the driving forces behind the story. It allows us to anchor the film in the present, while evoking the origins of Chile’s economic and social situation in Chile.

In this country, General Pinochet is never far away. And resistance to reform usually comes from those who claim his legacy, in the name of order and tradition.

To take an interest in this movement is therefore to document one of the Chilean realities that worries the powers that be and makes human rights activists nervous. As anyone who has lived under Pinochet knows, a coup de force can never be ruled out in Chile.

This film is based on characters who embody a highly polarized Chilean society. Whether oligarchs, ministers, community activists or landowners, they all tell the story of a Chile in turmoil.