Jeannette Jara, the candidate of the left bloc, chose Plaza de Maipú, Chile’s second most populous municipality, to close her campaign for La Moneda on Tuesday. It is a strategic territory: its mayor is the Broad Front Tomás Vodanovic, the most popular politician in the country and the most voted in the last local elections in October. The final act, with several musical groups on stage, began on a hot afternoon, the kind in which it was really necessary to wear a hat and maybe even an umbrella. Those present, who according to the command were 20,000, were summoned at 6pm, but the standard bearer arrived almost two hours later. He did it while listening to cumbia and in the midst of a standing ovation.
While the participants were waiting for Jara, several traders also took the opportunity to sell products linked to the profile of the public: T-shirts of Víctor Jara, Ché Guevara, Gladys Marín – the first president of the Communist Party (PC) – and another with the face of the Italian singer Rafaella Carrá with the phrase: “I always vote communist”.
The candidate will face the elections on Sunday 16th as first in the polls. It seems a given that he will go to the second round, probably with the radical right Republican José Antonio Kast, who ended his campaign on Tuesday. According to most polls, however, Jara’s big challenge is to beat the ultras on December 14, in the run-off.
Jara is the first communist since 1990 to reach the presidential election in a competitive position and supported by a bloc of eight other parties. Precisely this fills María Angélica, 85 years old, with emotion, having come to support Gabriel Boric, who was also Minister of Labor in the Broad Front government: “For us communists, having arrived today is already a nameless pride”.
The square was filled with people of different generations, even schoolchildren in uniform who were not old enough to vote. A catchy cumbia was heard from the speakers, the chorus of which was “the people’s minister”. Many Chilean flags were flying and others where the candidate appears illustrated in Kawaii style. On the other hand, as was the trend of his campaign, the CP flags could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
The poster man
Under the sun, Renato Vivanco (87) holds a large sign in his hand from which his head and feet can just be glimpsed. The phrase “history is ours and is made by the people” is written on it, as is a large photograph of Salvador Allende (1970-1973), an image of Jara and another taken with Boric in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup. “Politically I am exempt and I lived my exile in the GDR for 35 years,” he introduces himself as if it were his CV. “I am on the left in principle. I am a socialist and today we must support a communist comrade,” he says.
Vivanco and his manifesto arouse curiosity. People ask him for photographs and queue up to have a photo with him. One of them is Orlando Contreras, a 66-year-old retiree. She says she supports Jara because of her nieces: “I want things to change. She’s from the city, she’s simple, she’s a normal woman.” Then he paraphrases Allende: “The large shopping centers will open on Sunday 16th”.
Several mayors accompanied Jara, including Matías Toledo, from Puente Alto, the second most voted after Vodanovic: “Hope will always be ours, colleagues,” he said from the stage, and Karina Delfino, from Quinta Normal, who highlighted several projects promoted by Jara as minister: the law that reduces the working day to 40 hours, the increase in the minimum wage and the pension reform, among others. Vodanovic, who preceded Jara, was applauded before even speaking. In his very passionate speech, he alluded to the radical right, but without naming it: “Sowing fear can help win elections, but it doesn’t help build countries.” And he added: “Today they say that the winds are against us, and that progressive ideas are losing ground, but countries are not built with the direction of the winds, but with the work and will of their people, and these people will give victory to Jeannette Jara.”
Also with Jara were several parliamentary candidates, including Gustavo Gatica, who was blinded during the social epidemic and is in the midst of a trial with an accused police officer. He was the most applauded, after Jara and Vodanovic.
Away from the stage were waiting for the PC leadership, president Lautaro Carmona and the general secretary, Bárbara Figueroa, who danced with her counterpart from the Frente Amplio Andrés Couble and with Constanza Martínez, president of the FA.
When a warm night fell on Maipú, Jara gave a speech in his style, without reading it and with some spontaneous interruptions for laughter. And she recalled her story: “I never imagined that I would be a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic. Not because I believed I couldn’t make it, but because it is unusual for someone who comes from El Cortijo, from Conchalí, and who then lived in El Abrazo in Maipú, to open the doors of the Government Palace.”
The public, aware of the electoral panorama, in addition to applauding her (Look, loud, President Jara!), also shouted: First time, first time!, alluding to the fact that she will be elected this Sunday and not in the second round.
The standard bearer underlined that in these elections what is at stake is not only a presidential candidacy, but also “a country project that looks to the future, very different from other projects that focus on hatred, fear and desperation”. “Chile is not falling apart, it is a great country,” he said.
Furthermore, alluding to Kast, who protected himself in his latest speeches, he said: “We are not the ones who promote hatred, on the contrary, this is why I don’t hide behind any glass, because I’m not afraid of the Chilean people.”
