Gabriel Boric Is Struggling to Boost Chile’s Meager Pensions
Left-winger Gabriel Boric became Chile’s president two years ago on a wave of popular mobilization. But with a constitutional rewrite in tatters, plans to reform the country’s privatized pension system pose a tough test of his ability to make lasting changes.
Chilean president Gabriel Boric gives a speech in Washington, DC, on September 23, 2023. (Pedro Ugarte / AFP via Getty Images)
When Jacobin first reached out to Rosario Ramirez Zuñiga for an interview, she responded that she’d be free after work. “I’ll stop by after my job, because I will have to work until I die, the pension is not enough,” she wrote in a WhatsApp message.
Zuñiga currently works as a salesperson for a Santiago window cleaning company called Clean Eastwood. During her over forty years in the workforce, Zuñiga has held various odd jobs, including in sales and political campaigning. At sixty-three years old, she’d like to retire, but can’t: her pension comes out to 190,000 Chilean pesos (just under $200) per month, less than half the minimum wage.
“That’s below the poverty line,” she says. “No human being can live off of that.”
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