Episode 104 - Geronimo Ruiz

On episode 104 of Punk Rock Pariah, Greg and Grendel return to the topic of Chile and interview Geronimo Ruiz about what's happening on the ground in the country. They hit on the history of Chile, what sparked the current unrest, protesters being gravely injured and disappeared, and so much. This is an important listen for every American to get a better understanding of the develpoments in Chile.

Along with this episode, Geronimo wrote an essay for our listeners to better explain the ongoings there. We present it to you in it's entirety here: 

Beforehand, I think is important to generate a political context of Chile in order to understand a little what is happening here. Chile is a South American country, the longest in the world, and with very varied climates, its capital is Santiago de Chile, it is in a valley in the central area of the country, basically it is the city where 80 percent of the population lives. Is country with an economy based on raw materials, mining, agriculture, services but industry destroyed over the past 30 years. A country where immigrants from different sides are conjugated, mostly descendants of Spanish and native people, with some important migratory waves, English, German, Italian and Croatian and new ones coming from the same American countries as Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Haiti and Venezuela, who escaping from the their contingencies or looking for better life opportunities. Believing this is a kind of social-economic paradise but founding many problems and dichotomies of a neoliberal system where the basic needs of people are not met.

Historically, had a dictatorship imposed in 1973 with the help of the administration of the United States shift and ended in 1990 through vote. This regime consisted of the overthrow of a legitimately elected socialist government imposing the foundations of what we know today as a neoliberal model. I have the impression of Chile; it was and potentially until today a field of experimentation and social laboratory for neoliberalism. So, from 1990 to date, we have had several governments with different political prisms that have only perpetuated the social differences between a political-economic class and the base and middle classes.

While it is true throughout these years there have been concrete experiences of social improvements that can meet the basic demands of the people. Simultaneously and in parallel, the perpetuation of the benefit of a few over many is present, where we have millionaires to the German standard and poor to the Mongolian standard.

Where the middle class lives to solve their problems through the capacity of indebtedness for life We have the worst statistics related to mental health, the highest rates of suicide in adults older people in the world, because they cannot pay their cost of living with the current pension system

In summary, we have a constitution established in dictatorship in 1980 and the perpetuation of benefits to a privileged class supported by a benefactor state that does not make relevant investment in socially relevant sources of concern.

Currently, as a result of a popular uprising that began with the demonstrations of secondary students who massively began to evade the payment of the subway ticket, It began a spark of a general social uprising, full of demonstrations that has spread by almost four weeks and that has a percentage of the population manifesting in the streets for different demands, but with a common denominator a system that for 30 years has failed to meet or meet the basic demands of the people: Quality Health, Decent Wages, corruption  cases of the political class have real sanctions, the usurpation of natural resources, among others.
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For more amazing photos from Chile like the one above, visit GaryGo on Instagram at @garygophoto or click this link here