Chile held a runoff presidential election yesterday. Have you heard? The electorate, either through ignorance or historical shortsightedness, selected Sebastián Piñera, candidate of the National Renewal Party.
Piñera is a billionaire who owns 100% of the national television channel Chilevisión, 27% of the Chilean national airline Lan Chile, and 13% of the football team Colo-Colo. He also has stock interest in companies such as Quiñenco, Enersis, and Soquimich.
He was accused in 1982 of violating the Chilean Banking Law while serving as manager of the Bank of Talca but was ultimately acquitted by the Supreme Court. In 2007 he was fined for insider trading, a charge he claimed was unwarranted but which he did not dispute, claiming that it would interfere with his political ambitions.
All in all, just the kind of billionaire you'd want running your country.
He ran as a center-right candidate but, despite claiming to have voted NO against Pinochet in the 1988 plebiscite, a video has surfaced of him speaking out in support of Pinochet at a rally in 1998. Notice the young woman cheerfully holding the poster displaying the General in full military regalia.
Even more disturbing though, are the post election sentiments and photos displayed in La Nación. Gloating posters promise retribution to those who had been trying to heal Chile from the dark years and lead her into a democratic future. The photos include another image of Pinochet (photo 12.) This time its a bust.
Did Piñera learn the lesson of our Republican Party's stealth candidate strategy and ride it to victory? Running as the Candidate of Change, Chile's own con-populist, will he now reveal his true agenda. Does it help your presidential campaign if you're a billionaire TV channel owner? Are Chilean voters forgetting and not teaching their young what it was like to live under a military dictatorship? Will the opposition be able to prevent a total disaster? Watch and learn.
Oh, and interestingly, Piñera's opponents refer to him as Piraña.