Broad Front (FA) Deputy Jaime Bassa said the demands of the October 2019 social uprising remain relevant. He spoke four days before the seventh anniversary of October 18. "The population's material living conditions remain basically the same or worse," he said in an interview with Emol.
As reported by CNN Chile, Bassa was vice president of the Constitutional Convention, the body that drafted the first proposal for a new Constitution after the uprising. He is now a legislator, and his assessment focuses on discontent within households, even though mass protests have ceased.
"The uprising, of course, is probably no longer in the streets, but it lives on in every home," he said. He mentioned debt, inadequate pensions and families unable to meet their basic needs. In his view, the conditions that mobilized citizens in 2019 are still there.
The deputy also discussed violence during demonstrations, a debate that returns with every anniversary. "I am not here to grant absolution, to condemn, to forgive. I am here to represent," he said. According to BioBioChile, he added: "I am not a priest."
Bassa linked street violence to what he called structural violence against the majority of the population. He argued that until the origins of the former are understood, the latter will not end.
The interview included an exchange with Providencia Mayor Jaime Bellolio. In September, Bellolio criticized him for insisting on calling Plaza Baquedano, the epicenter of the protests, "Plaza Dignidad." The mayor accused him of showing contempt for institutions and flirting with violence. He also urged him to move beyond "nostalgia for the October uprising."
Bassa responded sharply. He accused Bellolio of belonging to a privileged political class that attended school in Barrio Alto and has never experienced material hardship. "This is not nostalgia. This is the present," he said.
The sources record no response from the government or the governing parties to these statements. Nor is there any record of a reply from Bellolio.
The deputy closed with a call for social organizing. He said such coordination is key to resisting José Antonio Kast's government, which, in his view, is "doing things very badly." The anniversary of the uprising falls this Saturday, October 18.
