Dozens of candidates for community leaders, councils and regional councils in the Metropolitan Region met to reinforce their campaigns ahead of next October’s elections. It was reported that these days the Communist Party will define the candidates for governors throughout the country. Lautaro Carmona, president of the community, indicated that the “launch of candidacies for the next elections occurs in the midst of social mobilization that is catching on.” Regarding the negotiations that are underway to define candidacies, the leader pointed out that “if someone wants us to support their candidate, they must also be willing to support ours, some say it is time to be generous, we have the best disposition for that, but that is for everyone, not just for some.” List of communist candidates for mayor in the Metropolitan Region.
Ursula Fuentes Rivera. Journalist. “The century”. Santiago. 4/5/2024. A meeting with its candidates and pre-candidates for mayors, regional councilors (CORE) and councilors of the Metropolitan Region, held the Communist Party (PC) at the headquarters of the Alejandro Lipschutz Institute of Sciences (ICAL), in view of the next municipal elections and of regional governments in October this year.
In this regard, the president of the PC, Lautaro Carmona, stressed that these territorial leaderships must be framed “in a unitary process of electoral agreement and have a more transversal installation in the knowledge of part of the population, to then win accessions. We have to make the population know that we are candidates, otherwise what happens many times happens: ‘I never knew you were a candidate, otherwise I would have voted for you.'”
The list of mayoral candidates proclaimed by the Communist Party is made up of Ariadne Conte, who is running for Curacaví; José Hernán Cárcamo, for Peñaflor; Cristian Jofré, for San Bernardo; Carlos Maureira, for Maipo Island; Tamara Aguilera, by Buin; Camila Donato, for Macul; Pedro Araya, for Providence; Alberto Ramírez, for La Granja; Bastián Soza, for San Ramón; Nelson Cornejo, by Pedro Aguirre Cerda; Daniela Tapia, for Cerrillos; Grace Arcos, by Conchalí; Natalia Cuevas for Independence; Matilde Pérez, for Quinta Normal; Lucas Morales, for Lo Prado; Nicolás Hurtado, for La Florida and Fares Jadue, for Recoleta.
Meanwhile, Irací Hassler will run for re-election for the mayor of Santiago, Javiera Reyes for Lo Espejo and Ítalo Bravo (Independiente) for Pudahuel.
The PC also gave its support to the independent candidate for Puente Alto, Matías Toledo, who is part of the Recuperemos Puente Alto Movement.
In the Communist Party there is optimism about increasing the number of mayors it has throughout the country (currently there are five), due to the electoral results in recent processes, such as those for constitutional advisors. Together with the applicants in the Metropolitan Region, the PC has been presenting names in communes throughout the national territory.
Negotiation by regional governments
Regarding the nomination of PC candidates for the position of regional governor, Lautaro Carmona warned that it is a “complex election and the issue is more drastic for us because we do not have governorships and these are important for left-wing politics.”
He reported that there is a team headed by the general secretary of the PC, Bárbara Figueroa, that is working to define the regional candidacies of the community.
Carmona also pointed out that a meeting that will be held this week by “the bench of the five metropolitan regional councilors of the PC (made up of María Eugenia Puelma, Claudina Núñez, Danae Prado, Danae Ávalos and Beatriz Albornoz), collectively and with the presence from the Party Leadership, a shortlist proposal should emerge to compete in what is the Regional Government.”
Social Movements and position of the PC
Alluding to the recent demonstrations by port and Huachipato workers, and the active strike called by the CUT for April 11, Lautaro Carmona highlighted that the launch of the candidacies for the municipal and regional elections, “occurs in the middle of a social mobilization that is catching on, that is starting (…) and the upcoming electoral campaign takes place in the space that must be assumed to be the best for our ideas. It is like water to the communist fish in the middle of the mobilization, because the strange thing for us would be to participate in a debate in the cabinet, locked within four walls, talking among ourselves or on WhatsApp,” he indicated.
Carmona called for the candidates for mayors, councilors and Cores who are elected to make “every effort to constitute a group that sees which parts of the communes have not been attended to, what is the demand of that sector that has not been attended to.” It has been studied and they have no proposals in this regard. And this is not a carnival of demagoguery. It’s just knowing how to find a proposal that is real and then being ambassadors or workers to process it with the authorities and to go with the residents to the ministries to show management,” he explained.
Agreements
Regarding the construction of agreements between the ruling parties and the Christian Democracy to face the next elections, Lautaro Carmona said that “there is still a space in which they are usually achieved, which is when there are less than four days left to close the agreement. This should be closed on April 8, because if there are primaries, they must be registered and for this an agreement must be made that has protocols through (…) And if one wants to have the right to review, this must be ready on April 8 , to review number 9 and then deliver it to the Electoral Service (SERVEL),” he clarified.
“We hope that political understanding will occur, since we are 11 parties, and that we will be able to build agreements. We are available for a construction and so that in each place the person who represents us is the most gifted, most qualified leadership, with the most roots in the community, the one who meets the conditions to assume the task with a high probability of success as far as to the electivity that defeating the right implies. (…) And if someone wants us to support their candidate, they must also be willing to support ours. (…) Some say it is time to be generous, we have the best disposition for that. But that is for everyone, not just some,” he emphasized.
However, Carmona stressed that “unity allows us to enhance the people’s struggle and that is why we will not make this a race, neither with sectarianism, nor with disqualifications, but with positive proposals and knowing that we respect all parties and that we assume that no one is superfluous.” and they are all necessary, but with the idea that this has feedback among all. We respect, but we also demand that they respect us, we contribute and collect other contributions and thus we promote a project that Chile greatly needs.”
PC Congress
Lautaro Carmona also pointed out that simultaneously with the electoral campaign and social mobilization, the Communist Party will begin its XXVII National Congress.
“The policy of the Party is a policy of a mass party that must be a contribution to the popular movement. It is a policy that makes a proposal for social justice and democracy and our own debate is an instrument to enhance capabilities and wage the political-electoral battle. That cannot be separated. It has to be a synthesis and we are going to do that around April 13,” he announced.
“We really want to help, humbly and without arrogance, and make a contribution to the politicization of the popular movement, which is exaggeratedly depoliticized. But for that you have to have patience, conviction, perseverance and clarity that it is a path that the popular movement must follow,” he observed.
Anti-communist pattern in national politics
Carmona pointed out that the animosity against the PC candidates for the next elections began with the disqualification of Irací Hassler in the commune of Santiago. “In the national debate, there were no more communes in Chile, and we only had to discuss that and not the qualities of the alternative, but the lack or disqualifications of the management carried out by Irací. We made the point known, we had a debate, it did not contribute to any climate of unity, because furthermore it was not done by people new to politics, but by people who knew perfectly well – because they had been at other negotiating tables before – how much it costs to build unity. “, he claimed.
“Other types of disqualifications followed, including the debate regarding the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies and the issue of the democratic legitimacy of the expression of the social movement. And so, there will always be something in the agenda,” he warned, adding that there is also the debate about the candidacies that the PC supports, of those who are not active in the party. “This is not the first time that we have had a positive value judgment from leadership that goes beyond our ranks,” he indicated.
He also noted that “we are facing a fierce anti-communist campaign, which has to do with a climate that surpasses even Chile. We have to look at what is happening in Italy, France and Argentina, with the difference that in the case of Chile they find a party that has an establishment, that they have where and with whom to defend themselves.”
In that sense, he recalled that in the last election of constitutional councilors, the Communist Party candidate, Karen Araya, obtained the first national majority in women and the second majority at the total national level in those elections. “In that election, among the 11 parties that we are negotiating today, Karen was the first force. And that was the most recent election and similar to what is going to be now, because there was mandatory voting there,” Carmona highlighted.
Likewise, he stressed that the Communist Party “is already the leading parliamentary force” by obtaining 12 deputies and two senators in the last election of legislators. It is, therefore, a force that has ascendancy at the level of politics and expression via elections.”
Formalization of Daniel Jadue
Regarding the announcement of judicial formalization by the mayor of Recoleta, Daniel Jadue, Lautaro Carmona said that “it is an open and clear intervention by a fiscal power to get involved in the debate that we are having at the negotiation table. And they are going to be wrong, because far from intimidating and inhibiting us, another current is going to emerge that is going to mark the corresponding parts.”
“Faced with the facts stated, Daniel Jadue is innocent and will prove it in court, which he has never evaded and has cooperated with all the procedures that have been requested of him. He has been in this same process for about two and a half or three years and we are going to somehow propose an ‘I accuse’ in the face of a judicial expression and a political campaign, which he should have others on top of,” he stated.
Constraints on CUT leaders on the outskirts of La Moneda
In relation to the attacks by Carabineros against leaders of the Unitary Central of Workers (CUT), when they were going to the La Moneda Foreign Exchange Office to deliver the “Social Manifesto” with the demands regarding the National Strike called for the April 11, the president of the Communist Party indicated that his community is demanding that there be a reparatory measure.
“The workers organized in the CUT, not in the Communist Party, decide to share their demands with the Government, with their Government, because they made a public commitment to adhere to the candidacy of our project. And they are going to deliver a letter, on paper, to the Office of Parties and they are repressed. (…) We have reached an unpresentable fact, because the workers deserve the respect of all institutions, including our Government, simply because they have earned it and because they (union leaders) dedicate themselves to this by vocation, not by income,” he stated.
Photos: The Century.
2024-04-19 03:22:15
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