Una Charla with Ominami

Sorry for the delay. Our upcoming alumni reunion has me swamped with work. On Wednesday, June 23, we went to an elegant part of the city by the name of Vitacura to have a short session with ex-presidential candidate Marco Antonio Enríquez-Ominami. During the election, he ran for presidency with the socialist party. He received 20% of the vote, which was a new high for the socialist party. Ominami has now left the socialist party and is in the process of starting a new party by the name of Partido Progresista (Progressive Party).

We expected our conversation with Ominami to be skewed to favor him since he is a politician. Regardless, we learned about the various social issues that trouble Chile and how he plans to tackle them. For instance, he told us how LGBTs have more problems in Latin America and how he wants to make Chile a more receptive society towards them. In addition, Ominami mentioned Chile’s growing drug problem and how he plans to attack the problem by eliminating the source that is coming from the outside and enforcing the Chilean/Bolivian border.

Just like with any politician, some people are impressed with his policies, others see him as a threat, and others just laugh and don’t take him seriously. Whatever your opinion is about him, you can tell he’s a great speaker and also very bright, and It’s evident why he was able to run for presidency and reach new highs for the socialist party.