Two neighborhoods and two versions of Santiago: postcards of inequality in Chile

There is no more party on the streets of Santiago. There is time since Monday, rush to work, to school or to shop at fairs, markets or supermarkets offering offers to beat inflation. It is that, even here, the increase in prices is the big topic that we hear about every day.

The euphoria of the Rejection voters, which was seen Sunday evening in some streets of the Chilean capital, with flags, horns and music, was left behind. But in the city center, amidst the stalls selling chinstrap, natural juices, cell phone chargers, towels or t-shirts – they call them – you can still see graffiti and “Approval” posters.

It was here, along several blocks of Bernardo O’Higgins Avenue, known simply as La Alameda, that supporters of the “yes” vote to the proposed new constitution in this year’s plebiscite closed their campaign on Thursday evening.

It was an impressive act, in the same place where Gabriel Boric’s followers went out on December 19 to celebrate his electoral victory. Many believed that in this area he would win the option that supported the controversial constitutional text submitted to the verdict of the polls.

After the outbreak

The center of Santiago still shows, almost three years later, the remnants of the 2019 explosion of fury. There are some broken windows, many spray-painted walls, calling for “change” or insulting the police.

Almost all the commercial premises are still hidden behind the fences placed then to avoid destruction in the midst of the anger that has erupted in the streets, in the framework of a great clamor for social and economic reforms.

You see accumulated garbage, men or women asking for help to eat, many places closed with “rent” signs.

But not even in this area was “Approval” imposed. Many political analysts expected that downtown Santiago and other neighboring municipalities would be in favor of the text drawn up by a Constituent Assembly composed mainly of representatives of independent political and social organizations.

In this municipality the difference was much smaller, but even so it won the rejection, with 53.7% of the votes against 46.3% of the approval.

The hosted east

Yes, the victory of the Rejection was sensational in the more affluent areas of the capital. In the municipality of Las Condes, towards the “east” of the city – here we do not speak of east and west, but east and west – the No to that text withstood the victory with 78.34% against 21.66% approval.

The inhabitants of this area of ​​large office and residential towers, of large construction sites on Apoquindo or Vitacura avenues, were among the first to come out to celebrate when the results began to consolidate on Sunday.

The weather was relaxed this Monday in Apoquindo, around the El Golf metro station and the Municipal Theater of Las Condes. In the late afternoon, men and women who seemed to come out of their offices gathered in one of the bars with tables and umbrellas on the sidewalks. It’s “Happy Hour” time and some are sharing a beer. In these parts you don’t see graffiti with political slogans. Nor fences that protect the windows.

Not far from there, in the immense Costanera Center shopping mall, on the border between Las Condes and Providencia, the climate is much more active. And consumption. The food court has few free tables, the clothing stores have a good number of customers – they must keep a certain capacity, according to the signs on the doors – and in the corridors you can see shoppers with bags.

Many, it is true, are tourists. Mostly Brazilians. But many others are the same Chileans who this Sunday shouted in a loud voice that they do not want the Constitution that the Boric government defended.

Santiago. special Correspondent