President Boric in Mexico

The Chilean president spoke at length “of the importance of maintaining jobs and the different measures to accelerate investment.”

At the end of 1972, the government of Luis Echeverría gave all imaginable prominence to the state visit made to Mexico by the socialist president of Chile, Salvador Allende. But according to reports, the immense propaganda support for that visit contrasted sharply with the parsimony with which the recent one by the new Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, was treated. Why the parsimony, if it is the case of a Latin American president who identifies himself as “leftist”?

One of the reasons possibly had to do with protocol issues. President Boric came to Mexico together with the leaders of Ecuador and Colombia, with the idea of ​​participating in the summit board of leaders of the Pacific Alliance mechanism. As this event could not be held due to the absence of the President of Peru, the visit was forced to be bilateral.

But during Boric’s visit to Mexico, there were also diplomatic frictions, impossible to hide. The Chilean president delivered a speech in the Senate of the Republic in which he made some accusations that must have caused sting in the high circles of power in Mexico. Perhaps the most controversial was when he referred to the problem of femicides in Mexico, which he described, literally, as “brutal.” And in the same vein of touching local sensibilities, the president denounced the attack on political freedoms in Nicaragua, insinuated that Mexico had also suffered a “violation of human rights” and advocated the defense of democracy in the world, ” who is at risk.”

Boric flaunted himself in Mexico as a “leftist”, but, according to all indications, it is a very different left from the local one, judging by his ideas and approaches. In this sense, it is worth mentioning the meetings he attended with business groups. In them, the Chilean president spoke at length “of the importance of maintaining jobs and the different measures to accelerate investment.” Also of the advantages that Chile offers to attract capital from abroad and the importance of making changes and carrying out reforms taking into account, in advance, the possible reactions of the business class. Reforms should not be carried out based on surveys, but on carefully studied proposals. “The important thing for the private sector is to know in advance what the direction of the changes will be, to avoid surprises.”

bdonatello@eleconomista.com.mx