Aldo Retamal, mayor of Los Lagos, prioritizes participation and social organization

Student leader at his high school and part of the penguin revolution of 2006, this Language teacher, environmentalist and communist activist aims for a renewing effort to improve the conditions of his commune in the Los Ríos Region. This is Mayor Aldo Retamal, who explains in an interview the environmental work, the fight against domestic violence, the care of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder, the work with peasants, which is carried out in their commune. He emphasizes that “it is the neighbors who participate in the diagnosis and implementation of the projects.”

Ana María Olivares. Journalist. “The century”. 11/21/2023. He was a councilor for two terms before becoming the youngest mayor of his commune in 2021, but his political resume dates back to 2006 when he was elected vice president and later president of the Student Center at the Liceo Alberto Blest Gana de The lakes. At that time, already being a member of the Communist Youth (JJCC), they organized as students participating in the Coordinator for the Defense of the San Pedro River to stop the dam that the Colbún hydroelectric plant would install.

There were more than 15 years of mobilization with neighbors, where many organizations joined together to become one of the most important milestones in the area. “The identity issue of the commune with the San Pedro River was so great that it was said: if you do not defend the river, you are not laguino” recalls Aldo Retamal, current mayor of Los Lagos. Last year the Colbún company decided to withdraw the project. “It was very important to see that victory as mayor, since we began that fight when I was a student leader of a high school and later spokesperson for the Coordinator. “It was a tremendous achievement by an entire organized community.”

For all of the above, the environmental issue is one of the characteristics of this local government. Today, together with other state institutions, organizations and neighbors, they are working to declare the San Pedro River as a Nature Sanctuary “to protect the ecosystem and generate possibilities for sustainable tourism that encompasses much more than the commune because this river is the birth of Calle-Calle de Valdivia river,” he explains. Likewise, they have implemented recycling workshops in the community and last year they recycled 10 tons of garbage and this year 15 tons have already been recycled, which is an advance in environmental awareness that is taking strong root.

Participation as the central axis of its management

One of the complex issues to solve in Los Lagos is the high rates of domestic violence (VIF). As a result, as soon as she assumed her mandate, she created the Office of Women and Gender Equality to provide help to female victims. However, it was necessary to delve deeper into the different problems that families faced. lagoons because the approach had to be more complete and linked to the community.

As a result, Aldo Retamal points out that citizen participation is a substantial pillar of his management, so much so that today the neighbors not only participate in community projects and initiatives, but they claim it as an acquired right in all spaces. municipal. “This way we have been able to improve many areas such as education, health, and infrastructure, because it is the neighbors who participate in the diagnosis and implementation of the projects.” An example of this is the formation of the Communal Roundtable for Good Living where various areas are worked on, articulating existing networks to better address work with communities. “When we came to this administration, only two psychologists worked for the entire commune, where children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were not considered. Today we have a Children’s Mental Health Support Program and we work together with the Group of Parents, Families and Friends of People with ASD in therapies aimed at more than 40 boys and girls in the commune,” explains Aldo Retamal.

For the mayor, his professional training as a teacher favorably influences his management since children and young people have been and are a focus of vital importance. He points out that the creation of the Friendly Space Child-Youth Health Center and the Local Children’s Office are clear signs of this prioritization, the same in education where they have achieved a high attendance and enrollment rate.

“Our community always had many difficulties attending classes, due to distance, poor connectivity, etc. Now the municipality has a free school transportation system for all its students and that has generated a high attendance rate; despite the fact that, in the same way, we are harmed by the school subsidy that is calculated based on attendance. The subsidy system is so standardized that it evaluates those who attend school in cities in the same way as those who are in rural areas. It does not account for the different realities of the country,” he points out. Even so, he highlights that while municipal education everywhere has less and less enrollment, in his commune it is on the rise due to the improvements they have implemented.

Strengthening collective logic over individual logic

An element that stands out in the municipal management of Aldo Retamal is its concern to strengthen organizations of all types to work on the problems of the population. Together with the Community Union of Seniors of Los Lagos, the situation of those over 60 years of age was diagnosed, such as loneliness, lack of therapies, mental health, among other problems.

As a result of this, the Day Center for Seniors was created, where more than 30 people are cared for by kinesiologists, social workers and psychologists to provide support and generate spaces for exchange between them. “People on the street have thanked me because their mothers and fathers today have a space to share and be listened to without being infantilized, but rather treated with great affection and dignity, being able to get out of states of depression, which is very gratifying,” he comments.

Another issue that is being worked hard on with the organized community is the lack of housing in the commune, where some 1,300 families are organized, but due to the social registry of households there can be around 10,000 affected people.

“As a municipality we created a Communal Housing Board, which integrates 24 community committees. It is a difficult issue, but we have already made progress in appraising and purchasing land. For example, we won the only Fair Price Rental project in the region – a project designed by Mayor Jadue – that will generate apartments for that purpose and will benefit about 15 families, which we hope to increase later,” says the community leader. .

The mayor explains that he has tried, since his administration, to get out of individual logic and implement solutions from collective logic. “In Los Lagos, many farmers in the commune needed to obtain a health resolution to be able to sell their processed products such as preserves, jams, among others, and get better prices, but the investment to condition their spaces was very high,” he comments. The municipality’s response was to prepare the headquarters to process the products and, with this, acquire the health resolution. Today this pilot project has the possibility of being extended, since many producers today work communally in the corporate headquarters and have certain possibilities of marketing their products with more economic advantages.

“We have many challenges still pending in the commune and a state bureaucracy that does not help us much, where we have to make up for it with our own funds. In this regard, decentralization is a necessity and also a greater debt from the State,” he concludes.