The new Chile
Elliott, Andrea
where the suffering are, and suffered the idea of trying to live an honest and with them." When Jesus says, "He...
...They reflect the reality we see Gospel, he has gathered them on the ish-not even if Christians begin to act as in Christ crucified, and in the hope of mountain: "And when they saw him if they took the gospel seriously...
...On the surface, Lagos, sixty-one, rassment and censorship...
...It was not strated...
...The only contact that they worshiped him...
...but some doubt- lief that life has any inherent meaning is we will have with this reality, on this ed...
...pundits pointed out, Chileans don't want to be equal...
...The conservative candidate's proposed policies matched his American campaign style...
...Commonweal 1 0 April 7, 2000...
...London arrest would benefit the Chilean human- Lavin, a "Chicago Boy" economist who once worked in rights movement while dealing a serious blow to Pinochet's government, took advantage of the former genthe general's political power base...
...sential aspect of the risen Christ applies It is fascinating that Jesus is, in a sense, that whatever we do for the least of also to us, and to our own lives this side hidden, following the Resurrection...
...the disciples on the road to Em- mountain, including those who doubted, we pray, appropriately, in words the maus do not know the one to whom he says, "Go therefore and make disci- Lord gave us, "Do not put us to the they are talking until they recognize him ples of all nations...
...Lagos, who was often called the "royal far-Right candidate capitalized on this indifference by de- candidate" for his abstract and formal speeches, will have to scribing Lagos as stuck in the divisions of the past...
...He is politically astute, has a doctorate in democracy, Chileans are ready for change and unafraid to economics from Duke University, played a key role in the vote for it...
...By Better Chile...
...We are largely hidden from Mary Magdalene mistakes him for the fulness-our ordinary half-hoping, half- ourselves...
...Furthermore, despite Lavin's image of change, many seems to have lost touch with today's Chile, which is marked of his inner circle played a key role in Pinochet's regime and by a fast-emerging middle class with strong entrepreneurial would likely assume posts in a Lavin administration...
...where the suffering are, and suffered the idea of trying to live an honest and with them...
...When Christ of the end, we can't be absolutely sure...
...Though he lost to SocialTHE NEW CHILE ist Ricardo Lagos in a tight January run-off, not since 1970 The Right after Pinochet have conservatives come so close to gaining power through the ballot box...
...live with the faith and hope that things "For you have died, and your life is will turn out wonderfully, but, this side hid with Christ in God...
...Though Lagos versities, media, and businesses...
...The hiddenness that is an esthan to try to trust the one who tells us...
...Sincere or not, for human-rights abuses during his rule...
...But under house arrest revamped his campaign and changed his slogan to "A Much in England, the general remained powerless and mute...
...When he aired a television commercial with significant lessons with him to his presidency...
...In sharp contrast to previous conservative presidential hopefuls who advocated budget-cutting, Lavin proposed more than "The honest man thing didn't work out...
...Those who have been forced to in the breaking of the bread...
...a dozen new spending programs...
...ness journalist, whose only elected office was as mayor of the He vowed to run again in 2006-and win...
...and nets...
...A Lavin Pinochet overthrew in 1973, his politics are vastly different...
...Lavin-freed by the absence of Pinochetre-invented the Right and may have changed the course of he prediction was obvious...
...The Right owns most of Chile's uniruled Chile since Pinochet stepped down...
...the results or the end of the story, other sians 3:3...
...they Lavin's sudden interest in human rights would have been want to get ahead...
...But the Coalition spread...
...And with the economy in the middle of a recession, he offered a Clintonesque vow to create jobs...
...El wealthy Santiago township of Las Condes, Lavin had fewer credentials than Lagos but a much better ear...
...line dotted with gleaming new buildings-while hanging Lagos, who was jailed under Pinochet and rose to politi- on to the message of social equality...
...The hiddenness calls us to cerely thinks this way, a bit like a child trust, to a living, and therefore risky, re- with an imaginary friend...
...Following Lavin's lead, Lagos quickly unthinkable with Pinochet in Chile...
...The be- his Resurrection...
...This hiddenness may be the way but rather that the news is too good to from any agnostic, which should make in which he initiates us into the reality be true...
...Our hope for lationship...
...focus to other issues of political freedom such as police haThe man had a point...
...Lavin told me on the campaign trail that he wanted "to hear Commonweal 9 April 7, 2000 by business-never before seen in Chile...
...The rest is hidden, and is Christian looks, to someone who sinmeant to be...
...who is our life appears, then you also It isn't our place, at this point, to know "It's only fair to warn you- will appear with him in glory" (Coloshe's omniscient...
...Obvious, but eral's detention to do what no conservative has done since only half right...
...And he must remember the other was unquestionably the person to bring Chile into the twen- great lesson from the elections: after a decade of secure ty-first century...
...The Coalition is Chile's belongs to the Socialist party of Salvador Allende, whom only counterweight to this conservative stronghold...
...Chesterton says, somewhere, that face of anyone suffering-anyone, fiobvious that this was the risen Lord the problem many agnostics have with nally, born and on the way to death...
...But few would have guessed the other great beneficiary of Pinochet's arrest: the Chilean Right...
...Some doubted: it is clear that some- itself an act of faith and can't be demon- side of our resurrection, is found in the thing was not entirely clear...
...While Pinochet was Andrea Elliott away, Joaquin Lavin of the far Right ran for president and nearly took the country by storm...
...Lavin almost footage of Lavin speaking at a Pinochet rally, instead of re- succeeded because he spoke plainly, and took the pomp out acting with horror, Chileans reacted with indifference...
...Lavin went so far as to meet with relatives a hunted man at home...
...Pinochet himself is named in sixty-one lawsuits saw as a disingenuous ploy to get votes...
...test...
...He captured Andrea Elliott, a reporter with the Miami Herald, recently covChile's attention by distancing himself from Pinochet, and he ered the Chilean elections...
...A former busi- triumph because nearly half the country had voted for him...
...He promised harsh crime-fighting measures similar to those of New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani...
...cal prominence by opposing him in the late 1980s, was While Lagos's tactics finally worked, he must take some stumped...
...In his values and fading memories of the past...
...Jesus, the same one who had been cru- Christianity is not that it is good news, The rest is as hidden from us as it is cified...
...When Jesus says, "He who moral life in a universe where honesty has seen me has seen the Father," he and morality are fragile but essential tells us both that this is the kind of God human traits, played out against an inwe have, and also that this is all we can different background...
...Augusto Pinochet's Chilean politics...
...Now I'm just looking for a good lawyer...
...His conservative opponent had made it sound election time, he had faded from the headlines...
...As in any serious relation- these people is that in the end they will ship-like marriage or parenthood-we be wonderfully surprised...
...And most The criticism of atheists and agnostics, witness, and have come through, give significantly, at the end of Matthew's mentioned above, is not about to van- us hope...
...And our doubt- of death...
...After being declared physically unfit to stand the country's return to democracy in 1990: he declared that trial on charges of human-rights abuses, Pinochet's return to Pinochet could be tried for human-rights violations if he reChile last month made clear the once unthinkable: he is now turned to Chile...
...these, we do for him...
...He dressed in Tshirts and khakis, drove a Jeep from town to town (taking cues, he said, from former Florida governor "Walkin' Lawton" Chiles) and snapped Polaroids of himself with supporters, which he then handed out...
...Borrowing from Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America," Lavin signed a contract with each of Chile's thirteen regions...
...We do not know how we gardener...
...She is currently working on a book about held it with an American-style campaign-heavily financed Chile's transition to democracy...
...In poll after as if Chile were falling apart when in fact the country had poll, Chileans placed Pinochet low on their list of concerns, had the best decade of peace and prosperity in its history...
...In his absence the courts were em- of some of the three thousand people killed or disappeared boldened, ordering the arrest of more than a dozen top mili- under Pinochet's sixteen-year dictatorship, in what many tary officials...
...The Right, with Lavin, showed it can look demcountry's transition back to democracy, and twice served ocratic, young, and promising...
...concession speech, Lavin told Chileans his loss was really a Lavin, forty-six, appealed to this Chile...
...The of Chilean politics...
...He spoke to people 1 casually, never from behind a podium...
...There is something bracing about us understand our brotherhood...
...He should confor me," he said again and again, "and you'll have a presi- tinue to champion human rights, but may also shift the Left's dent of the future, not the past...
...Vote get off the podium and roll up his sleeves...
...government would mean conservatism across the board-a He often said he would be not "Chile's second Socialist pres- scary prospect in a country where censorship is still wideident, but its third Coalition president...
...Aside from being hopelessly abthe problems of all Chileans," not just those problems stract, it seemed out of step with the spirit of the times...
...and seemed not to care that Lavin, who rose steadily in pop- Lagos took pains to show this prosperity-the Santiago skyularity, had links to the general...
...Meanwhile, Lagos campaigned with the message: "Growth with Equality...
...the disciples on the shore do doubting, faith-is not an excuse to might react if put to the test, though we not recognize him until they fill their avoid the mission: to all of those on the may imagine we would be noble...
...as a minister in the four-party, center-left Coalition that has The stakes are high...
...As deemed politically correct by a traditionally intolerant Right...
...Even the noblest know of him...
Vol. 127 • April 2000 • No. 7
