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Hello and welcome to Behind the News.

My name is Doug Hinwood.

The anomalies of the holiday calendar have conspired to produce an anomalous show.

One new interview and one from last year.

It's hard to get guests this time of year, and it's even harder when you're trying to work up to the holiday feeling yourself.

The relapse of COVID is hard in all of us.

Let me come and convince there's no way to avoid the damn thing that I have so far.

Anyway, today's topic is Chile.

First we'll hear from Antonio Mardona's Marshall on the recent election there.

And then we'll hear from the socialist activist Antonio Atria speaking about last year's constitutional referendum in that country.

On December 19th, Chile held a runoff between the two top candidates from the first round of elections a month earlier.

With a former student leader, Gabriel Bort, defeating the right-wing Pinochet-loving Jose Antonio Cust by an impressive 56-44 margin.

Bort ran as the candidate of a new party, social convergence, which was part of a broader left coalition, a Pueblo Dignidad which translates as approved dignity.

I don't normally feature political candidates or people who work for them, but I'll make an exception in this case because she's knowledgeable and honest.

Antonio Mardona's Marshall, who is also a sociologist, handles international relations for Bort's party, Antonio Mardona's Marshall.

Were you surprised by the results?

Yeah, honestly, we were. I was. I want to say I knew we were going to win, but we were so sure that we were going to be the first majority in the first round of elections.

And it was such a big frustration when Cust came two points over us that I think we were all trying to manage expectations.

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