Chile: the story of Elisa Loncon, Mapuche elected president of the Constitutional Convention | He overtook ruling party candidate Harry Jürgensen

This Sunday the Constitutional Convention of Chile has been installed, in a first session which was marked by the suspension, for two hours, of the reading of the payroll of the 155, for the police repression of the demonstrators who approached the former National Congress. Once the session restarted, the first vote began: that of the president of the Convention. There, in the second round, the Mapuche was selected Elisa Loncon, which had the support of the Broad Front, the Socialist Party and the “non-neutral independents”.

“Mapuche scholar” was the most common identification in local media these days to refer to Elisa Loncon, the polyglot (she speaks seven languages) who specializes in in the analysis of Mapudungun, the language used by the Mapuche. According to his career path, Loncon advised the Ministry of Education of Chile and dozens of organizations in Chile, as well as international entities, such as UNESCO and the Latin American Institute for Educational Communication.

In the first round, Loncon did not obtain the 78 votes necessary to be elected president of the Convention. He gathered 58, beating the ruling party’s candidate, Harry Jürgensen, who collected 36, and Isabel Godoy who, supported by the Popular List, other indigenous peoples and the Communist Party, obtained 35.

However, between the first and the second round, those who had supported Godoy agreed to give their votes to Loncon, who had 96 supporters, above 33 for Jürgensen, 18 for the independent Patricia Politzer and the five that Godoy retained (of which who voted blank, is not included).

Loncon’s speech

Once the vote was over, Gloria Valladares – rapporteur secretary of the Election Qualifying Tribunal – summoned Loncon to chair the session, which would have a suspension and then continue with the election of the vice-president.

Loncon, dressed in traditional Mapuche clothes, began to express himself in Mapudungun, then thanked “the support of the various coalitions who have placed their trust and placed their dreams on the appeal launched by the Mapuche nation to vote for a change.” the history of this country “.

“We install here a way of being plural, democratic and participatory. For this reason, this convention will transform Chile into a plurinational Chile,” said Loncon, emphasizing one of the points that will generate tensions in the debates. the next few months.

“It is a dream of our ancestors, it is coming true, it is possible, brothers, to rebuild Chile, to establish a new relationship between the Mapuche people, the nations of origin that make up this country,” he said. -he adds.

Live, how the Convention continues