Jose Maria Cordova © 2012 Wikimedia Commons
Preliminary results on Sunday show a far-right presidential candidate, Rocio Zamora, losing to Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile from 2006 to 2010, in the first round of elections.
Unlike conservative candidates in the United States, however, Zamora’s campaign has been built largely on anti-Bachelet rhetoric.
The front runner for President of Chile in the first round of presidential elections in Chile, Norberto Yacaman has a new proposition: what if we paid the tax bill for America, the biggest country on Earth, and paid it to Latin America. It is a catchy line, but the relationship between Yacaman and his own backers has been rocky: Confrontational and distinctly small-minded, it appears very much with an eye on exploiting dissatisfaction with Bachelet’s left-wing coalition by appealing to the historically abstinent middle-class, ignoring the left of center voters and pointing out that she voted against his signature law, the free trade agreement with the United States.
And so, Yacaman is proposing the repatriation of any income tax in America. He described this as being paid back to Chile, but it’s clear where this sentiment comes from. It has been Yacaman’s own issue for many years — he has proposed this practice as recently as 2006, an attempt to stem the drain of production and jobs from Chile to the lower and poorer states in the world. It is one of many conundrums involving the right wing during the 20th century and still being sorted out today. In our experience, these fantasies are non-starters.