Church and State
Time marches on. President Ricardo Lagos belongs to the Socialist Party,
traditionally anti-clerical. Now the Catholic Church has moved to the left
and relations with the Socialist Party have become cordial. Coquimbo is a
port north of Santiago. A huge concrete cross has been built there
overlooking the sea to mark the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ.
Presumably it was a local initiative, but President Lagos went to Coquimbo
to give the dedication address before an audience which included many
senior clerics. He later addressed the Christian Democratic Party
convention. That party, like the Socialist Party, belongs to the
Concertación, an alliance of democratic parties.
The state faced another problem related to our postings about the moving of
capitals (cf. Brasília). The parliament has moved to Valparaíso, while the
executive as well as the Supreme Court remain in Santiago. Valparaíso has
built a large structure to attract the executive and the Supreme Court from
Santiago, but no decision has been reached. President Lagos says the move
would be too expensive.
The present situation is unique. In no other country is the parliament in
one city, the executive in another. Santiago is an unpleasant, smoggy city,
while Valparaíso is an attractive seaside community, next to the resort
Viña del Mar. La Moneda, the presidential palace in Santiago, where
Salvador Allende fought it out with the army, is the symbol of national
authority.
There would be more to the move than the cost, of which President Lagos
spoke. To move the whole government to Valparaíso would be like the French
monarchy's moving the court from Paris to Versailles. The government would
free itself from mob harassment, but the French people objected to the move
to Versailles. Does Socialist Lagos want to be closer to the mob than the
previous government? What about the army? Would Socialist Lagos feel safer
having the Santiago mob as a possible defense against the Army? Shades of
Allende!
Ronald Hilton - 5/21/00
| Webmaster |