“Chile, la alegría ya viene?”: la Ley de escaños reservados para pueblos originarios e la composizione “plurinazionale” della Convenzione costituente cilena

Abstract

Abstract: “Chile, la alegría ya viene?”: the Ley de escaños reservados para pueblos originarios and the “plurinational” composition of the Chilean Constitutional Convention – The constitutional history of Chile has been characterized by a peculiar feature: despite an indigenous population amounting to 12,8%, all seven constitutions in Chilean history have never mentioned its indigenous peoples. With the Acuerdo Por la Paz Social y la Nueva Constitución of November 15, 2019 and the Plebiscito Nacional 2020 of October 25, 2020, Chileans have approved the establishment of the Constitutional Convention, in order to rewrite its basic law. The approval of the Ley de escaños reservados para pueblos originarios in December 2020, ensures that 17 seats (out of 155) in the Convention will be attributed to representatives of the Chilean indigenous peoples. This will be the first step towards the constitutional recognition of Chile’s plurinationality, claimed for decades by the indigenous movements. This paper intends to reconstruct the demand for recognition of the indigenous peoples of Chile, in the perspective of its constitutional history. It also proposes a theoretical framework of the plurinational state, outlining its main features with reference to the comparative experiences of Bolivia and Ecuador. Lastly, the paper will analyse the Ley de escaños reservados para pueblos originarios and its potential impact on the constitution-making process.