THE second presidency of Sebastián Piñera, a billionaire businessman turned politician, will begin on March 11th in seemingly auspicious circumstances. Mr Piñera won a resounding victory in a run-off election in December, with 55% of the vote. Chile’s economy is growing at its fastest rate for two years and the price of copper, its main export, is rising. The 11-country Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal from which Donald Trump opted out, is due to be signed in Santiago on March 8th. And a Chilean film has just won an Oscar.
Yet the sunny appearance may deceive. Mr Piñera, who was a successful but unpopular president of the centre-right in 2010-14, must deal with the conflicting pressures of restoring rapid economic growth by boosting private investment while trying to meet the demands of a society undergoing far-reaching change.
For two decades after the end of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in 1990, Chile offered a successful model of an open, free-market economy and...Continue reading
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