Angela Davis, Nobel Prize winner Pérez Esquivel and Chomsky call to “defend democracy” and vote for Boric

A group of personalities including the American writer Angela Davis, her compatriot Noam Chomksy, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the Mexican writers Ángeles Mastreta and Juan Villoro and the former Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin, made a public call to vote for Gabriel Boric in next Sunday’s elections, in the face of what they describe as a challenge to democracy posed by candidate José Antonio Kast.

“In support of democracy in Chile, in support of Gabriel Boric” is the title of the note that indicates that “Chile will face on December 19 not only a second electoral round. Faced with the surprising advance of the extreme right, this election has become a crucial challenge to democracy and Human Rights in the South American country, with global consequences ”.

The letter also signed by the former president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, Nora Morales de Cortiñas de Madres de Plaza de Mayo, the Mexican diplomat Porfirio Muñoz Ledo and the Argentine journalist Stella Calloni, highlights the main criticisms of Kast’s program.

“The far-right candidate has not only rhetorically vindicated the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, he has explicitly proposed the release of criminals against humanity, the return of incommunicado regimes and clandestine detention facilities for dissidents, and on the social plane has raised a reduction of taxes to the richest and reduce the State ”, they indicated.

For the signatories, this candidacy “entails a setback in terms of civil and social rights, a threat to women, the LGTBIQ + population, migrants and the most discriminated groups, as well as a return to one of the darkest periods in the history of Chili”.

“We call on all those who care about the future of the country and Latin America, to unite in support of Gabriel Boric in the next elections, to prevent this tragedy and open the way to a more free and just society, just like the Chileans deserve it, ”the twenty signatories finally pointed out, including intellectuals, human rights groups and political leaders.

They sign:

Noam Chomsky, Linguist and writer (USA)

Angela Davis, writer and activist (USA)

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize (Argentina)

Nora Irene Morales de Cortiñas Mothers Plaza de Mayo Founding Line (Argentina)

Angeles Mastreta, writer (Mexico)

Juan Villoro, writer (Mexico)

Buscaita Roa, Grandmother of Plaza de Mayo (Argentina)

Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, educator, and writer (USA)

Adam Shapiro, Documentalist and Human Rights Activist, Front Line Defenders (Ireland)

Profirio Muñoz Ledo, former Mexican ambassador to the United Nations (Mexico)

Fernando Armindo Lugo, former president (Paraguay)

Celso Amorin, former Foreign Minister (Brazil)

Ricardo Valero former ambassador of Mexico in Chile (Mexico)

Ifigenia Martínez, Senator Morena Party (Mexico)

Leo Gabriel, Green Party (Austria)

Dora María Tellez, Unamos (Nicaragua)

Sergio Ramírez (Nicaragua-Madrid)

Stella Calloni, journalist (Argentina)

Victor Hugo Tinoco, Unamos (Nicaragua)

Iram Moreno, Progressive Studies Foundation (Mexico)

Jorge Mujica, Deputy Morena Party, (Mexico)

Carlos Arango, Front of Mexican Immigrants (Mexico)

Marta Tagle, Mexico Citizens Movement (Mexico)

Walter Mignolo, anthropologist (Argentina)

Dora Barrancos, feminist sociologist, historian and researcher (Argentina)

Sixto Pereira, senator, Guasu Front (Paraguay)

José Bengoa, anthropologist (Chile)

Álvaro Ramis, rector of the Academia Humanismo Cristiano University (Chile)

Tomás Moulian, sociologist, writer (Chile)

Ofelia Fernández, legislator of the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina)

José Ernesto Schulman, president of the Argentine League for the Rights of Man (Argentina)

Eduardo Tavani, lawyer and member of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, APDH (Argentina)

Itai Hagman, former president of the University Federation of Buenos Aires, economist and national deputy (Argentina)

Paulo Maldos, former National Secretary of Social Articulation of the General Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic (2010-2014) and National Secretary of Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (2015-2016) (Brazil)

Jordan Flaherty, journalist and writer (USA)

Carlos Bedoya, coordinator of the Latin American Network for Economic and Social Justice (Peru)

Alicia Sánchez, journalist (Chile)

Roberto Manríquez, journalist (Chile)