This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Suzy Weisman. September 11th, the 49th anniversary of the infamous

Chilean coup of 1973, when General Augusto Pinochet put a ferocious end to the revolutionary

experiment and promise of the popular unity government of President Salvador Ayende. Last

week, on September 4th, Chileans held a referendum to approve or reject a new progressive constitution

drawn up by very diverse constituents, specifically excluding the traditional political class

in order to create a new constitution to replace the reactionary Pinochet constitution that

was imposed in a fraudulent plebiscite in 1980. Sadly, it was rejected. In fact, trounced.

We spend the hour with Chilean's Pablo Agufalm and Oscar Mendoza to get their analysis

of the process, the scope, and meaning of the Rechazo or rejection, and their view of what

happens next. All this, when our program returns, in just a moment.

This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Suzy Weisman. We're going to begin our discussion today on the

monumental defeat in Chile last Sunday, September 4th, of the proposed constitution, and we're

going to be speaking to Pablo Agufalm. He's a translator, a member of the Movimiento Soledario

Valle. He's the editor of the Strategic Debate magazine, or Révis de Posiciones, and he's

also part of the editorial collective of Jacobin Americalatina. Pablo took part in the massive

social protest movement of October 2019, that won the demand for a constituent assembly

to write a new constitution. He has written widely on that movement and this process, which

he sees as the highest expression of the popular revolt. Just last month, Pablo wrote

a significant analysis of the problems of the campaign for the new constitution and what

it entails, which we're going to be discussing. But first, today is September 11th, the 49th

anniversary of the brutal coup that put an end to the promise of the revolutionary process

in Chile under a popular unity from 1970 to 1973, and, of course, under the president

...