Beware of the Cry of Expropriation
Santiago, October 2019, thousands of people occupied the streets asking for economic structural reforms. A demonstration that started with students complaining about an increase in the metro fare escalated quickly in a national movement demanding significant changes in education, health and pensions. These three essential public services have been in the hands of the private sector for decades, a consequence of the neoliberal model implemented after the coup against the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende in the 1970s. This cry for structural reforms is not unique to Chile. It has been heard in the Global North and the Global South, most recently in Colombia. We are witnessing a call for change and the decay of a neoliberal consensus, including a legal consensus. In the United States, a new administration implements a historical economic package that reminds many of the New Deal. In Chile, people have voted to replace the constitu