We were the world’s neoliberal laboratory,
The protests over inequality in Chile
are not spontaneous.
If we go back in history ...
Chile is considered the world’s
because, during the dictatorship of
it was one of the first countries in which
Milton Friedman’s economic policies were applied.
He was the guru of neoliberalism.
This earned Chile the title of
But not all Chileans are in agreement.
We want to change this capitalist system,
a sick system that has people dying.
The keys to this experiment were the
They were a group of Chilean students awarded scholarships
by the United States Government between 1957 and 1970
to study postgraduate economics
at the University of Chicago,
the cradle of neoliberalism.
There, they learned from Friedman himself.
Neoliberalism is a capitalist political model
that believes in the free market.
This means that the less the government gets involved
with the economy, the better.
And so, without the participation of the state,
the market can regulate itself.
What are the results?
But let’s go back to the Chicago Boys.
Before Pinochet’s coup d’etat in 1973,
the Chicago Boys wrote
a document of over 500 pages
that detailed a neoliberal economic plan
for Chile post-Salvador Allende.
The CIA was implicated in the preparation of this plan.
After the coup, the military junta
used “El Ladrillo” as its economic guide,
and the Chicago Boys actively participated
in Pinochet’s cabinet.
They and their students continued to participate
in the political and economic life of Chile in important government positions.
During the dictatorship, Pinochet applied
neoliberal policies with an iron fist:
He sold state enterprises
and drastically reduced public spending.
In just one year, and by force, it was cut 27%.
This created a lot of discontent.
As a result, inflation reached almost
in 1974,
and more than 1.5 million Chileans
were unemployed.
While the majority of the population
was becoming more impoverished,
the country’s elite and foreign companies
got rich.
I believe that in Chile there’s a very clear notion
that this economic system was imposed
by arms during the dictatorship
and that otherwise it could not have been imposed,
because the consequences it had for the people
were very severe.
After much recession and inflation,
the economy managed to stabilize by 1988.
The cost?
45% of the population had fallen
below the poverty line.
It’s said that Chile's economy
has grown at a macroeconomic level.
That means that companies are doing well,
but the people are not seeing this economic boom.
The Chicago Boys believe that the neoliberal model
was successful because it led us
to have the highest gross domestic product in Latin America.
And that’s how we got to the present day.
The different governments weren’t - or we weren’t able
to recognize this situation in all its magnitude.
This situation of inequity, of abuse.
Today, the percentage of people
who live in extreme poverty in the country
decreases year after year.
But, inequality is still there. For example,
And when we asked the Chicago Boys
about that inequality, the answers were
quite impressive.
They told us that they did not understand
why people were protesting, because in Chile
they are all very well,
especially the middle class.
Others told us that they believed that inequality
was not the important thing, but that they believed that the important thing
was to get people out of poverty,
and that, in reality, inequality was a problem of envy.
But not all Chicago Boys think the same.
Economist Ricardo Ffrench Davis believes that the
the macroeconomy of Chile was only good
during the presidency of Patricio Aylwin
and the years of [Eduardo] Frei,
but not during the time of Pinochet.
I try to destroy - there are various myths:
One is that the dictatorship did it very well.
The opinions of experts are divided,
but on the streets the discontent is clear.
I would like equality for all Chileans
born in this country and not just for the political elite.
Decent healthcare for everyone, decent education for everyone
and employment.
One cannot just stay at the margins
of a system so unjust.
We are collapsed.
Now Chile has awakened, and this will not stop.
It won’t stop.