Chile’s new head touts democracy

Opinion: February 16, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Chile’s president-elect Sebastian Pinera, the right-of-center billionaire who is scheduled to chair the 23-country Rio Group of Latin American nations, sounds like he will not be shy about pushing for the collective defense of democratic freedoms in Venezuela, Cuba and other autocratic countries.

In his first interview with a foreign journalist, Pinera told me that once he takes office on March 11, he will follow Chile’s traditional foreign policy of noninterference in other countries affairs, and said his priority will be seeking closer ties with Argentina, Peru and Bolivia.

But when asked if he will be more vocal in speaking out for fundamental freedoms in Venezuela and Cuba, he responded with a resolute “Yes.”

“Prudence is a virtue that presidents must practice, but so is frankness,” Pinera said. “I believe that Cuba is not a democracy, and I also think that human rights are not respected in Cuba. ... That’s why, as president of Chile, I aspire to do as much as I can to seek that the Organization of American States Charter and the OAS mandate to defend democracy and human rights be made more effective.”

Pinera, a Harvard doctorate in economics who opposed the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, noted the OAS Democratic Charter does not effectively allow member countries’ legislative or judicial branches to seek regional support when under assault by autocratic leaders.

He vowed to push for these changes within the Rio Group, which Chile will chair for two years starting later this month.

Asked about the Venezuelan government’s recent move to shut down RCTV television’s cable station, Pinera said, “I can have my opinion, but I won’t interfere with other countries’ internal affairs. But I will always defend, very forcefully, the values of democracy, freedoms and human rights.”

It sounds like you are defending two principles that contradict one another, I told him. When forced to choose between noninterference and the collective defense of democracy, where will you stand? I asked.

Human rights

Pinera: “Definitely, I will always be on the side of the defense of democracy and human rights, which by the way, is a commitment that all Latin American countries have made in the OAS Charter, which specifically states that it is the responsibility of all countries to defend democracy and human rights across the hemisphere,” he said.

Asked whether he would travel to Cuba and not meet with members of the peaceful opposition, as outgoing President Michelle Bachelet did last year, Pinera said, “Diplomatic relations are neither conducted among people nor governments, but are conducted among countries. One doesn’t only go to countries that share all of one’s points of view. One can also visit countries with which one has differences. But if I were to go to Cuba, I definitely would have an enormous interest in being able to also meet with people who don’t share the Cuban government’s views. I have visited Cuba on some occasions, and I have always met with the dissidents.”

Asked about his priorities on the domestic front, he said that “the big goal we have set for ourselves is that within eight years, by 2018, Chile becomes perhaps the first country in Latin America that with great pride, but also with humbleness, will be able to say, ‘We have defeated underdevelopment. We have defeated poverty.’ Chile today has a per capita income of about $14,400 (a year), and we hope to reach to $24,000 by 2018. ... If we manage to grow at 6 percent a year, which is our goal, we will be able to become a developed country by 2018.”

My opinion: I have always admired the center-left leaders that have ruled Chile for the past 20 years. They have been democratic, and they have proven to be much more effective in reducing poverty than the narcissist-Leninist demagogues of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia.

The secret of Chile’s success has been that its left-of-center presidents, instead of turning everything upside down and leading autocratic “revolutions,” have stayed the course.

Pinera’s biggest challenge as Chile’s first center-right president in two decades will be doing precisely that: building upon what has worked, instead of coming with a bulldozer and trying to reinvent the wheel.

X Oppenheimer is a Latin America correspondent for the Miami Herald. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.