 On March 11th, Gabriel Boric was sworn in as a president of Chile. He had won the second round of the election held in December against far right-wing candidate Jose Antonio Cast. He succeeds the right-wing Sebastian Pinera, whose rule was marked by a host of neoliberal policies and a massive people's uprising against it. Boric's victory was widely hailed as bringing about the possibility of change in the country's policies. But Boric also faces many challenges both domestically and internationally. Vijay Prashad of Globetrotter talks about some of these challenges and the positions Boric has taken on domestic and international issues. Look, firstly, he's 36 years old. He celebrated his 36th birthday a month before he was inaugurated as Chile's president. That's pretty amazing. Youngest president in this country. Youngest also in Latin America. And I have a feeling one of the younger world leaders at age 36. He is straddling a complicated place because on the one side there is an elite which is pretty closely integrated into US circuits of culture and finance and commerce. This is an elite that part of it at least had been quite comfortable with the Pinochet dictatorship period and has never had to really be found accountable for those linkages. Boric has to straddle that with a popular uprising that has been going well to some extent for a decade, much more closer started again in 2019. There is a big popular set of movements, a big kind of grouping of these movements, whether it's the feminist movement or it's the movement against police brutality movement for better housing conditions movement on pension reform. The movement of the Mapuche movement of the migrants and so on a range of movements. He's under pressure from both sides. Looks like to some extent he's put his early bets into the more conventional kind of politics. He has of course, I think unnecessarily come out and criticize the governments of Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba. In fact, he's not invited them to his inauguration. What's stunning is, of course, that his predecessor, a man of the right, Sebastian Pinera, who left office yesterday did invite these countries to his inauguration. In fact, when Chavez died, when Castro died, Pinera went to pay his respects. Mr. Boric perhaps leaning a little more even in the other direction seeks to please the United States just as he comes into office. While Boric's victory was a historic moment, a landmark process has also been going on in Chile for years. The people's uprising of 2019 led to the demand for a new constitution, which would undo many of the structural flaws of the one written during the era of Augusto Pinochet. The process of framing a new constitution is currently underway. How has that process progressed and how will this election affect this? There was a coup d'etat in 1973 against the government of Mr. Salvador Allende, who led a popular unity government on behalf of the Socialist Party. That coup was conducted by a military officer, Augusto Pinochet, backed fully by the United States government and by the big multinational corporations, telecommunications companies, copper companies and so on. In 1980, Mr. Pinochet and his coup legislature pushed forward a constitution. That constitution of 1980 should have been invalidated 10 years later when the coup government had to hand over the reins of power to an alliance in the newly, to some extent, democratic legislature producing a presidency that was elected and so on in the 1990s. But the constitution lingered, it lasted. In fact, today Chile is still governed by the Pinochet era, 1980 constitution. There is a constitutional process, writing process going on now. That process will submit a constitution, looks to be quite a progressive constitution on many fronts, not every of course because it is after all a country with a different array of political forces in it. But the constitution will be voted on next year, 2023, which is the 50th anniversary of the coup data against Salvador Allende, it's extraordinary symbolic. You'll have a center, center left government, a government which has three communists in the cabinet. You'll have that, you'll have this new constitution and so on at a time when the 50th anniversary of the coup will be commemorated. I have to say the constitution itself will have good things and bad things but on balance it looks to be on the path to being a very progressive constitution as progressive as any on this continent at least. The election of Borich may also provide fresh space for people's movements, whose mobilizations were a big factor in his victory. How are people's movements planning to mobilize during this period? And what is on their agenda? Isn't it always the case that when a relatively progressive government comes to power and people should be under new illusions? This is not a left wing government, it is a relatively progressive government, it's progressive on a lot of social issues, it's progressive on some economic issues as well. People's movements voted in the election against the opponent of Mr. Borich, who was Mr. Kast. Mr. Kast was a far right wing candidate, promised a lot of things that were deeply unappealing to the major social movements of this day, social movements that were women's rights movements and so on. They voted against Mr. Kast, they didn't always vote for Mr. Borich. Mr. Borich was the beneficiary of a wave of anti-Kast voting but there is a lot of enthusiasm for having a young leader, a leader who understands that the culture of the country is not what it was. Yesterday he wore a blue suit to be inaugurated but this is not a blue suit wearing cabinet. As I said, it's a majority women cabinet, first time in this country at least, first time in many countries in the world. Don't see very many majority women cabinets. All these things are important. You cannot underestimate the power of cultural symbolism. In the Senate, for instance, was sworn in, a senator who was blinded in the police violence, she came into the senatorial hall, took the oath of office, took her seat, you have a trans member of the Senate and so on. These are actually important moves in culture, in the culture of a country. Also, Mr. Borich has said that he is going to seriously tackle the pension question. If you're going to tackle pensions, you need resources. To need resources, you're going to have to challenge the copper monopoly companies. All of this is going to put pressure on his government from the United States and others. It will be there to see if the people's movement will defend his government when pressure comes from the United States, from the multinational corporations and so on. If he's going to rely on the assistance from people's movements to give him strength, he's going to have to deliver something for them. All of that is to be seen. There are a few promises on the table, but a progressive constitution, pretty active citizenry, the contradictions which will face Mr. Borich, there's a lot of potential here. Can't rule things out yet.