Why the US Doesn’t Care About Chile
As Chile continues to experience civil unrest, the US and the rest of the world turns a cold shoulder. Why isn’t the Chilean crisis receiving more press coverage?
Ask the average US citizen where Chile is on a map and they will likely point in South America’s general direction, with the saying that Chile is the “skinny one”. Americans (a painfully vague moniker United States citizens have granted themselves) usually only learn geography when considering who and who not to bomb into submission. Americans can pin point Iraq, describe Afghanistan in general terms, and Americans over the age of 50 can give you a few key aspects of the Vietnam War. American mastery of elementary level geography is largely based on our military hubris.
It is unlikely that the US is going to bomb or invade Chile any time soon, so most Americans are not going to worry themselves with Chile’s current crisis of economics, political power, and identity. For the nearly 19 million Chileans who are questioning what kind of country they want to be, America’s apathy is both a blessing and a curse. God forbid outside meddlers became involved in Chilean politics, but it is truly a shame that more people across the globe don’t know what is going on in the “skinny country”. Why does the apathy towards Chile’s crisis exist in the first place? And why has international press coverage of the on going protests in Chile slowed to a trickle?
Why is there so little US coverage of Chile?
During my time in Chile I’ve spoken numerous times with US, Canadian and European ex-patriots and travelers about how their families back home have not seen much news coverage of the continuing protests in Chile. My contacts back home in the US have only received scant information on Metro fare hikes and vague descriptions of economic inequality from the major US news outlets. Friends ask: Are you safe? Why are they rioting? Who’s upset and what’s going on? While I was at a language exchange in the Chilean capital of Santiago this week an important question was posed: Why do you think there is so little news coverage outside South America about the protests in Chile?
The assembled group of Chileans, Americans and Venezuelans offered two hypothesizes. The politically left-leaning Chileans and Americans blamed right-wing forces in US politics and media for downplaying the ongoing violence in Chile, along with the now popular Chilean opinion that the country needs to scrap its current constitution. Several people believed that the wealthy and powerful in the US would not want to deal a blow to the relatively successful, free-market capitalist economy of Chile. Why remind people that Chile’s problems stem from a dictator the United States CIA helped to install? The powerful elite and monied classes would not want to further educate the world on the United States’ moral and political failures.
Venezuelans at the language exchange reminded the Chileans that the police violence they have experienced in the last 60 days pales in comparison to the sustained state sanctioned corruption, abuse, and deliberate killing experienced over the last 20 years under the Chavez and Maduro regimes. The Venezuelans did not wish to trivialize the abuse Chileans have endured recently, but they did want to remind them that a Chilean would never trade places with a Venezuelan; for many Venezuelans the Chilean protests are child’s play. No matter how violent the protests in Chile appear (and they have been terrible) they have not yet reached the truly horrifying levels experienced in Venezuela in recent years — why would Chile’s relatively calmer crisis garner sustained international attention?
Distraction and A Lack of Knowledge
I have a slightly different view of why Chile’s crisis is having trouble sustaining headlines in the US and international press. The first reason for the lack of press coverage is distraction. Americans are in the middle of thier own political crisis — Presidential Impeachment. The US president’s attempt to involve a foreign country (Ukraine, this time) into the 2020 Presidential Elections via a poorly executed, yet now undeniable bribery scheme has overtaken the US news industry. The flood of news coverage around the impeachment is insurmountable even for a massive protest movement such as the one now occurring in Chile. On top of the US impeachment proceedings there are more than a half-dozen major events involving civil unrest currently taking place across the globe, including months long protests in Hong Kong, a likely military coup in Bolivia, protester deaths in Colombia, a crisis involving fuel prices in Ecuador, political strife in Peru, and long simmering frustration in Haiti. The list goes on and on. To US audiences the crisis in Chile can feel like just another island of protest in a sea of anger.
The second and chief reason why I believe US news is not providing the Chilean crisis with the attention it deserves is that Americans simply don’t know very much about Chile. With a population under 20 million, Chile is less than one-fifteenth the size of the US. Americans or other international citizens can name few, if any, Chilean leaders, artists, or historical figures. Most Americans don’t know the extent to which the US helped establish the Pinochet dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s. What they also don’t know is how much Chile has changed for the better since the return to democracy. As a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Chile is one of the most economically stable and developed nations in Latin America. Poverty has dropped dramatically in the last 30 years and now less than 9% of the total population are considered poor. The average monthly wage in Chile (although much lower than the US and Canada) is among the highest in the Western hemisphere.
Even with impressive levels of progress over the last 30 years, Chile is still one of the most economically unequal states in the OECD, tied with Mexico in terms of inequality. Beyond the thousands of Chilean citizens tortured or murdered by the Pinochet regime, the economic and political damage caused by the military junta cannot be discounted. The social impact of the Pinochet regime is cemented into Chilean life and has yet to be fully dissected 30 years after the return to democracy. The current protests are a referendum on both Pinochet’s legacy and the failure of his democratically elected successors (including current President Sebastian Piñera, a multi-billionaire) to adequately address both the morally horrifying and economically harmful aspects of Pinochet’s time in power. The shadow of the dictatorship looms large over Chilean society.
After the regime formally ended in 1990, the current national constitution (proposed and ratified under Pinochet) was heavily altered to allow for democracy’s return. But it appears that revision was not enough. “It’s not 30 pesos, it’s 30 years” is a popular protest slogan referencing both a 30 pesos metro fare hike and the 30 years since Pinochet’s exit. Much more work needs to be accomplished in order to reach the goal of a more equitable and truly democratic society — work that will almost certainly need to be aided by a new constitution, one crafted by the very people it will guide and not a monied elite clinging to Pinochet’s morally compromised economic gains.
Chile Isn’t Special to Americans, but it should be…
The notion that Chile is somehow special because it is economically first among equals in South America rings hollow when you consider that most people around the world don’t consider Latin America a culturally and politically diverse region. To many in the US and elsewhere, the land south of the Rio Grande is a simply a collection of Spanish speaking banana republics helmed by strongman leaders. When you tell US citizens that the people of Chile are upset with their corrupt and abusive government and that’s why they are protesting, the American response is likely to be: “yup, that makes sense.” — then they change the channel.
The protests in Chile fit a predetermined narrative for Latin American nations that many in the US already decided on a long time ago. Unless the news drastically changes your previous understanding of a situation or a particular part of the world, any new information (however consequential to those it impacts) will be unlikely to motivate you to learn more. It is going to take a great amount of audience educating for Chile and other South American countries to gain legitimate sympathy during this volatile moment in their histories. Chilean singer Mon Laferte posed partially nude at the Latin Grammy’s in November in order to gain attention for the Chilean crisis. The words “En Chile torturan, violan y matan” were written across her chest in marker — “In Chile they torture, rape and kill”. The simple, but surprising protest displays the lengths Chileans have to go to be recognized.
The greatest argument for receiving a US audience which Chilean protest leaders, politicians, and average citizens can make is that the US has more in common with Chile than most Americans think. By OECD figures the US ranks third in inequality between Turkey and the UK. According to the US Census the official poverty rate in the US for 2018 was 11.8%, higher than that of Chile. The protests in Chile set a precedent that US citizens should be mindful of; mass demonstrations over income inequality in the US no longer seem like such a remote possibility. US citizens typically think of racial inequality as the main motivator for civil unrest in America, most recently exhibited in the aftermath of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in heavily segregated Ferguson, Missouri. Now is the time for American eyes to be focused on Chile and other countries challenging inequality, because the US could see itself in similar circumstances sooner rather than later.
Fortunately, Americans can find some quality coverage and commentary on the police violence and political awakening unfolding in Chile. Two particularly valuable pieces come to mind. Earlier this month The New York Times and journalist Brent McDonald published a powerful video report on the severe eye damage inflicted by Chilean police pellet guns. Not only are the victims of the police abuse heavily featured during the video, but McDonald also provides valuable context for the uninformed viewer. Lili Loofbourow’s excellent piece for Slate is perhaps the most thoughtful and culturally considerate piece I have read from a North American outlet. Loofbourow’s perspective as a Chilean provides international readers with a window into the mental state of the nation. Besides major US and UK news sources (The Washington Post, The Guardian, etc.) there are a only a few independent English language outlets currently working on the ground in Chile. The coverage from ChileToday has been particularly consistent. With only a handful of writers and photographers, ChileToday is putting in the difficult, but necessary work to tell Chile’s complex story.
As the examples above show, there may not be a severe drought of international coverage, but viewers and readers aren’t necessarily clamoring for more. Chile isn’t being ignored just because the “right-wing” media doesn’t want you to wake up (they likely don’t), or that the violence gripping its streets is not sufficiently cataclysmic (it is). Those views hold a degree of truth, but they ignore a far more difficult problem that must be overcome: Chile needs a loud and clear voice in order to be heard. I encourage Chileans and anyone with knowledge on Chile to speak up. Maybe it will take baring it all to gain attention. Maybe it will take burning down an entire metro system — again. I do not know exactly what it will take for a global audience to care, but what I do know is that Chile will need to be louder and clearer than ever before to convince Americans and the rest of the world to tune in.
