Chileans Are Not Happy and the Polls Show It

A new poll is out from Centro de Estudios Públicos (CEP) in Chile. Chileans are not positive about the economy, but not entirely negative either. They used to trust the military and the police, but no more. Now they don't trust much of anything (the media gets the highest, but not terribly high). 72% have no stated political identification, the highest ever. A majority supported the October 2019 protests, but not an overwhelming majority (55%). And no, they don't think the protests were foreign-inspired. 67% support writing a new constitution. Sebastián Piñera has a 6% approval rate and an 82% disapproval, which might be the worst I have ever seen in Latin America.

What you see in the numbers is that Chileans see their country in a rut, not stagnant but not improving. They see the new constitution as a way to improve things a bit at least.

The good news is that the belief in democracy over authoritarianism is the highest it's ever been.

Especially these days, this is something we should celebrate and not take for granted.