Zelensky's been the world's superhero lately, but I want to point out that there are other young new heads of state with a strong progressive agenda.
Gabriel Boric became Chile's president on Friday. Here's some video and below an English translation of his inaugural address.
Here's an Al Jazeera video that gives some background on the new president.
The video below shows him addressing the nation from the presidential palace in Santiago.
Here's a link to the speech in Spanish. And below is a Google translation. [Google translate has improved enormously over the years, but still has some quirks. It starts out in Spanish "S.E. el presidente ..." which Google translated as "I know the president . . ." OK, 'se' means I know, but that makes no sense. My consultant said it means "Su excelencia" or "His excellency." I'll let you make your own adjustments along the way.]
I KNOW. the President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric Font, makes his first presidential message and greets the citizens present in the Plaza de la Constitución.
Chilean men and women, inhabitants of our country, people of Chile:
This afternoon, for the first time, I speak to you as President of the Republic, President of all of us who inhabit this country that we love so much and how much we love Chile, which has suffered so much and has given us so much joy.
Infinite thanks for giving me this honor to you, to those who are seeing us in their homes throughout our country. Also, to my unconditional family, to our Cabinet, our teams and, also, personally to Irina.
This Chile made of diverse peoples and nations, installed on a cornice of the continent between the imposing mountain ranges and its magical ocean, between the desert of life and the Antarctic ice, enriched and transformed by the work of its people.
It is this Chile that in just a handful of years, and you have lived through it, has had to go through earthquakes, catastrophes, crises, convulsions and a global pandemic and human rights violations that will never be repeated in our country. But in which we always, always dust ourselves off, dry our tears, rehearse a smile together, roll up our sleeves and continue, Chilean men and women, we always continue.
The emotion that I have felt today when crossing the Plaza de la Constitución and entering this Palacio de La Moneda is deep and I need, existentially, I need to share it with you. You are a leading part of this process, the people of Chile are leading in this process, we would not be here without your mobilizations.
And I want you to know that we did not come here just to fill positions and entertain each other, to generate unattainable distances, we came here to give ourselves body and soul to the commitment to make life better in our country.
I want to tell you, compatriots, that I have seen your faces touring our country, those of the elderly whose pension is not enough to live on because some decided to make pensions a business.
Those of those who get sick and their families do not have how to pay for the treatments. How many of you have spoken to us, we have looked into each other's eyes.
Those of the indebted students, those of the peasants without water due to drought and looting.
Those of the women who care for their children with ASD that I find in every place in Chile. To their bedridden relatives, to their defenseless babies.
Those of the families who are still looking for their disappeared detainees, which we will not stop looking for.
Those of the dissidences and gender diversities that have been discriminated against and excluded for so long.
Those of the artists who cannot live from their work because culture is not valued enough in our country.
Those of the social leaders who fight for the right to decent housing in the populations of Chile.
Those of the native peoples stripped of their land, but never, never of their history.
Those of the harassed middle class, those of the children of Sename, never again, never again, the faces of the most isolated areas of our country like Magallanes where I come from, those of those who live in forgotten poverty.
With you is our commitment.
Today we begin a period of great challenges, of immense responsibility, but we are not starting from scratch, we are not starting from scratch. Chile has a long history and today this day inserts us into that long history of our Republic.
Starting my mandate as Constitutional President of the Republic of Chile is to become part of a history that exceeds us all, but at the same time gives it shape, gives meaning and direction to our gaze.
Thousands of people passed through here before us who made possible the expansion of public education, the progressive recognition of the rights of women and dissidence in the country and at home, the democratization of the country, the recognition of social rights .
Here, in this place from where I speak to you today, Balmaceda and his Chilean dignity passed, Pedro Aguirre Cerda and his "to govern is to educate" quoting Valentín Letelier.
Eduardo Frei Montalva and the popular promotion, comrade Salvador Allende and the nationalization of Copper, Patricio Aylwin and the recovery of democracy, Michelle Bachelet opening unexplored paths with social protection also passed through here.
Here you can also hear the echoes of those who have anonymously risen up against oppression, defending human rights, demanding truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.
The feminist cry and its fight for equality resonates here.
And some will also remember the 1,800 hours running around La Moneda for education.
But these walls have also witnessed the horror of a past of violence and oppression that we have not forgotten and will not forget.*
This Palace, this Square, this city, this country have history and we also owe ourselves to that history. Today, on this important day in the difficult, difficult path of changes that the citizenry decided to start in unity, I repeat, important, in unity, the days come to my mind and my heart when, together with many of the Here present, and surely those who are seeing us in their homes too, we marched together for a worthy future.
Where were we going, compatriots? where were we going?
This Government is not going to be the end of that march, we are going to keep going and the road, without a doubt, is going to be long and difficult, but today the dreams of millions of people are here pushing us, giving us meaning to bring the changes that society demands.
Chileans and Chileans:
My dream is that when we finish our mandate, and I speak in the plural because this is not something individual, this is not about me, this is about the mandate that the people gave us to this collective project, when we finish this mandate we can look at our children, our sisters, our parents, our neighbors, our grandparents and we feel that there is a country that protects us, that welcomes us, that cares for us, that guarantees rights and fairly rewards the contribution and sacrifice that each one of you, of the inhabitants of our country, do for the development of our society.
I would like, compatriots and in the examples one always falls short, but I would like, compatriots, that the people of Puchuncaví and Coronel can look to the future and know that their children are not going to grow up surrounded by contamination, something so basic.
That the people, the workers of Lota are not going to continue living in poverty.
That the communities of algueras and artisanal fishermen of the province of Cardenal Caro will be able to continue developing their traditional activities.
Let the boys and girls of Alto Hospicio, up there, know that they too will be able to access decent housing.
May the neighbors of Antofagasta, Maipú, Hualpén feel calm when they return from their jobs and have time to live with their families. That is why we will promote, as we have promised, the 40 hours.
That the young people of Juan Fernández, that isolated, insular place, will be able to have a decent school to study.
We know, compatriots, that meeting our goals will not be easy, that we will face external and internal crises, that we will make mistakes and that we must correct those mistakes with humility, always listening to those who think differently and relying on the people of Chile.
I want to tell you that we are going to live in challenging and tremendously complex times. The pandemic continues its course, with a balance of pain and loss of life that will accompany us for a long time, surely all of you know someone who has left as a result of the pandemic.
Let's think, let's think for a second, for a second about who has gone and who has left us, let's think about the pain that each family has in their intimacy because of who has left and who will not return. We have to embrace each other as a society, love each other again, smile again, this beyond speeches and beyond what is written, how important, how different it is when in a town we love each other, we take care of each other, we do not distrust each other of the other, but we support each other. We ask our neighbor how he is, we support the worker next door, we love each other, we get ahead together. That is what we have to build, compatriots.
We also know that the economy continues to suffer and that the country needs to stand up, grow and fairly distribute the fruits of this growth, because when there is no distribution of wealth, when wealth is concentrated only in a few, the pay is very difficult. We need to redistribute the wealth produced by Chilean men and women, produced by those who inhabit our country.
We know that to all these difficulties is added, in addition, an international context marked by violence in many parts of the world and today also by war. And in this I want to be very clear, Chile, our country, will always promote respect for Human Rights, everywhere and regardless of the color of the government that violates them.
From Chile, in our Latin America, because we are deeply Latin American and enough of looking at our neighboring countries from a distance, we are deeply Latin American and greetings to our brother peoples, from here, from this continent we will make efforts so that the voice of the south becomes to listen firmly in a changing world.
There are so many challenges, the climate emergency, migration processes, economic globalization, the energy crisis, permanent violence against women and dissidence. We have to work together with our sister nations, as we discussed today with Presidents of other countries. Never again look at us in less, never
Dear inhabitants of our land:
I assume today with humility, aware of the difficulties the mandate that you have entrusted to me, I also do so with the conviction that only in the collective construction of a more dignified society can we found a better life for all. In Chile there is no one left, we build democracy together and the life we dream of can only be born from coexistence, dialogue, democracy, collaboration and not exclusion.
I know that in 4 more years the people of Chile will judge us by our works and not by our words and that, as an old poet used to say, when the adjective does not give life, it kills. Today it was necessary to talk, tomorrow all together to work.
As Salvador Allende predicted almost 50 years ago, we are again, compatriots, opening the great avenues through which free men, free men and women pass, to build a better society.
We continue. Long live Chile!
*Here's a link to a post I did in July 2019 from Santiago which includes a picture of the palace he spoke from with two women picketing outside. This is the building that the Air Force bombed in Pinochet's coup and where Allende committed suicide rather than be captured and tortured and possibly betray others. I'd note that Allende's wife attended Boric's inaugural.
Below is another analysis of this significant change in Chilean politics.
Gabriel Boric gets to work remaking Chile
