When it rains, it pours

CHILE - In Brief 06 Sep 2023 by Robert Funk

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Since central Chile has been enduring decades of drought, when it rains the results can be catastrophic. And so they were in mid August, when some 200 mm fell in Santiago and the south-central region where agricultural exports come from. The damage, according to the National Farmers’ Association, approaches US$ 1 bn. That’s not taking into account damage to infrastructure, which will affect processing and transport during the spring harvest. Firms producing nuts, vegetables and wines were most affected. With the economy in a slump –and unemployment on the rise– the hit to agriculture exports is bad news for President Gabriel Boric. Then again, he must be used to bad news. In a major funding scandal, the government is accused of having transferred at least USD 16 million to foundations linked in one way or another to government parties, especially Revolución Democrática (RD). Such was the outcry after the first case was discovered (a foundation headed by the then-partner of the then-president of RD), that Boric was forced to shuffle his cabinet, removing his close friend Giorgio Jackson, a founder of RD, who has accompanied Boric through his political ascendancy from student leader to the presidential palace. Boric also replaced the ministers of Culture, Education and Mining. While Education went to Nicolás Cataldo, a member of the Communist Party who controversially supported the students who jumped the turnstiles in the 2019 protests and called police officers “torturers”, the Mining portfolio went to Aurora Williams, an experienced administrator who successfully led the ministry in Michelle Bachelet’s second administration. In mid-August the government announced a 10...