March of democracy

Interview with Jaime Gazmuri, Vice-President, Chilean Senate.


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How are Chile's relations with its neighbours? Have the disputes been resolved?

A top-level delegation from Chile was present at the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected President of Bolivia, Evo Morales. Morales indicated a strong desire to improve relations. The rapprochement process had started much earlier. A task force has been set up to look into bilateral issues. As you know, Bolivia has territorial claims on Chile. Bolivia has a key role to play in the subcontinent because of its location. Many countries in the continent want to export through the Pacific Ocean. Their goods have to pass through Bolivia to enter Chilean ports.

We have a close relationship with Argentina now. All our differences were resolved in the 1990s. President Lula da Silva of Brazil and our former President Lagos are close friends. Chile has been playing an important role in United Nations peacekeeping operations in recent times. In Haiti, the U.N. force was under a Chilean general. The peacekeepers ensured fair and free elections in February.

Peru is unhappy with the recent defence acquisitions of your government.

There is no arms race with Peru. We replaced four old frigates and four old submarines with new ones. We have a very transparent defence budget. We have an agreement with Argentina to create a system to analyse each other's defence budget. We have proposed the same to the Peruvian government.

How are your relations with Venezuela and Cuba?

Our President was in Venezuela. We want to have good relations with President Hugo Chavez. However, his national priorities are different from ours. With Cuba we have normal relations. It could be better perhaps. We oppose the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

How would you characterise the political orientation of your government?

It is a centre-left government, a contemporary version of a social-democratic government. We have a very open economy. The opening of the economy started during the Pinochet regime. We decided to continue with this but it was our democratic choice. A small economy cannot survive in a globalised world. The free trade agreements we signed are very favourable to us. We do not say that we are an example for all countries, but we may be an example for small countries.

We follow fiscally conservative policies but at the same time we implement very active social policies in health, housing, education, poverty reduction and income distribution. We are aware that the state has an important role to play.