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Chileans rejected the new constitution, but they still want progressive reforms
This failure is a blow and a thorny path lies ahead, but the will to replace Pinochet’s hated constitution remains strong
Iconfess that I am in mourning.
- Ariel Dorfman
- The Guardian
On Sunday, a resounding 62% of the voters in Chile, my country, rejected the adoption of a new and progressive Magna Carta; leaving in place, for now, the fraudulent constitution imposed by dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1980 that has acted as a straitjacket to indispensable reforms.
Like many of my compatriots I believed that the new constitution, born in response to a popular revolt three years ago, would be ratified.
It was the most ecologically advanced such founding document in…