Francisco Caamaño: Territorial Network of Assemblies will give birth to new policies with binding participation in Chile

«We do not want representative politics, we want popular mandates, law plebiscites, recall plebiscites, increase citizen participation, we, as List of the People (People’s List), are going for an egalitarian, participatory and environmental State»,  affirmed the Conventional constituent Francisco Caamaño.

After obtaining 26,797 votes and positioning himself as the most voted on the People’s List, the first step of the Conventional constituent Francisco Caamaño is to start generating a Territorial Network of Assemblies, so the call is for citizen participation, in respect of the popular sovereignty.

«We want to make this process the most participatory, the most transparent, trying to reach those who have felt marginalized because citizen participation has been denied», and change the current political system where the people do not feel represented or heard, and through popular law initiatives and binding participation.

In an interview for El Ciudadano, conducted by Francisco Marín, the constituent assured that with the debate “we are going to raise again the councils and assemblies at the district level with different local actors from the environmental, cultural, feminist and social world, to summarize communal level of all the demands for the Constitutional Convention and also for all the different local organisms”, in response to those who trusted in this political project and saw the hope of being Conventional constituents of the social movements.

Although he claimed to be open to dialogue, he emphasized that he will not compromise on demands and principles. «We are not going to negotiate with political parties until they release the prisoners of the revolt and less with political parties that are not able to bring the demands of the citizens to the Constitutional Convention», he added.

«We do not want representative politics, we want popular mandates, plebiscites of laws from the people, we are going for an egalitarian, participatory and environmental State», in the construction of a new society and economic system, stated Caamaño.

New policy making

Caamaño refers that a participatory policy does not mean that it is totally binding and explains that until now, the only participation of the people is the vote, which takes place every few years “and it is not binding. There is no greater possibility of participation, people do not follow up on the authorities”. They (the people) fully trust the politicians they elect, who disconnect themselves from the citizenry and look out for personal interest, not for the common good, turning decision-making into “brotherhoods».

“The political parties desperately agree behind the back of the people to protect this institutionality that has been collapsing, for, I do not know whether to support the government of Sebastián Piñera, but that is something that in my opinion is a betrayal of the people, of popular sovereignty, of the different demands”, he said.

In this sense, he assured that the ‘doors are closing’ on this political class – which he described as a «shame» – because they do not represent anyone. What they are doing is fighting to dispute power, instead of being authorities that really reflect values and examples for a new society we aspire to build.

In his opinion, Chileans are very disillusioned with politics, so “we want to make a new policy, generate dialogue with respect and those who represent us are showing the ugliest face of current politics in Chile that has been collapsing for some time. decades”, not only since the social explosion of 2019, but long before.

Territorial work

Regarding his political career and the resounding electoral victory he obtained, he pointed out that although he never had political or electoral ambitions, and having been the target of a media blockade in which he was denied spaces in the press, radio and television «because some were run by political ‘operaters’ from certain traditional parties», he has done grassroots work for several years with different social, cultural and environmental organizations in District 14, the largest in the Metropolitan Region and whose social characteristics are quite rural.

“The electoral scenario was quite complex, knowing that my district was competing with a very famous person and a former deputy. In turn, also in my district, is one of the ‘Coloma’, one of the large landowners not only in the district but also at a national level. It was a fairly clean campaign, as an environmental activist I did not put up ‘pigeons’, I only handed out flyers (…) Years of territorial work supported me as a territorial activist ”, he indicated.

«This centralism of the media also affected pluralism, the people who want to participate and who do not feel represented by political parties, therefore, this campaign was raised with people who actually informed themselves to vote», he said.

Likewise, he confirmed that he is an ordinary person of the people and knows the reality, for which he exalted that «without recourse, without the support of the media, we did the fight and the people trusted us». «Right now, the chilean right wing is afraid because it did not expect the progressive left to be more represented, even though they spent enormous resources, it was not efficient with its millionaire campaign», he added.

Decentralization

One of the points highlighted by the constituent is the search for decentralization, since – as for his district – has some shortcomings such as lack of public transport, some necessary basic services, they do not feel identified with the capital of Santiago. «In addition to being marginalized by the government, we are marginalized by the Metropolitan Region».

“A large part of this problem was this Constitution, which is the culprit of this large part of the inequality that has been generated in Chile, which has perpetrated this neoliberal economic model, which has allowed the same old people to be in politics. and that the wealth is concentrated in practically 1% and that they live in the most affluent sectors of Chile ”, he explains.

Along these lines, he assures that «people live in a bubble and do not know the reality of the ‘neighborhoods’ (barrios)», a factor that must be changed within the framework of this new society demanded by the majority.

Ecological approach

For Francisco Caamaño, as an environmental activist, this should be one of the main topics of focus for all Chilean authorities, since it is closely linked to the economic system, which is extractivist, based on the destruction of nature without giving it any added value and examples of this is mining, agro-export, meat industry, metallurgy, among others.

In his opinion, the creation of a commission is necessary to rethink the economic model because the current one is no longer viable. Nature is being increasingly devastated by private property, and he warns that the system is destroying important ecosystems throughout the country, and, in turn, the population and future generations are being deprived of socio-environmental and cultural enjoyment.

“The Constitution prioritizes private property and generates certain ecosystem imbalances. Water is not only used by businessmen, they pollute it and deprive the population of it (…) This Constitution, if we give it an ecological approach, harmonizes the behavior between what is nature and human beings ”, he stressed while indicating that the current Constitution does not speak of animals as ‘sentient beings’.

Therefore, it is important that Chilean legislation includes laws on animal abuse, «we also live with other natural beings. They all play a fundamental role in this universe, we have to know how to live harmoniously with the other natural beings on our planet» .