Who is Jeannette Jara, the communist who obtained a historic triumph in the primaries of Chile and will be a candidate of the left to succeed Boric

Jara's victory is thus a blow to the traditional center and, also, to the Frente Amplio, political cradle of President Gabriel Buric.

But who is it and what will be its main challenges before the presidential elections, where the Chilean right runs as a favorite?

Born on April 23, 1974 in a population of the commune of Conchalí -popular zone of Santiago Chile -, Jeannete Jara is the oldest of five brothers.

Daughter of a homeowner and a mechanic technician, she was the first professional of her family, when studying public administration at the University of Santiago and then right at the Central University.

He entered the military at age 14 to the communist youth, assuming roles of student and social leader. He married young and was widow after his 20 and then becoming a mother of a son who is now 19 years old.

During the first government of Michelle Bachelet, he served as Undersecretary of Social Security and in March 2022 he assumed as Minister of Labor of President Gabriel Boric, a position he held until April to assume the challenge of reaching the presidential palace of La Moneda.

His humble origin and his personal legend was something that Jara stood out during the primary campaign, an element that differentiated her from her opponents.

Carolina Tohá, daughter of the former Minister of Salvador Allende, José Tohá, who was killed after the coup d'etat of 1973, is considered part of an elite in the left center, as well as the candidate of the Broad Front, Gonzalo Winter, whose family comes from influential and accommodated sectors.

A factor that also played Jara in favor was that, as Minister of Labor of Gabriel Boric, several wins were scored. On the one hand, he managed to approve a historic reform of the pension system and, also, other initiatives such as the law that reduced the working day to 40 hours or the increase in the minimum wage to more than 500 thousand Chilean pesos (US $ 530).

In addition, while their contenders dedicated themselves to making a campaign in which they made their differences with her while climbing in the polls, Jara always showed charismatic, close and conciliatory. Some even compared it to former president Michelle Bachelet.

Jara's candidacy was created against the leadership of the Communist Party.

The differences that marked with the president of the community, Lautaro Carmona, revealed that distance during the campaign.

While Jara admitted that in Cuba there are political prisoners (although he had initially said it was a different democratic system), the leader came out to contradict her publicly.

The friction also presented themselves in the constitutional issue. The PC has defended the idea of ​​reimprorating it, despite the rejection of two previous processes. “There are other citizen priorities,” Jara said.

The sample of a certain autonomy of his party is something that in Jara's own command they saw as something crucial for their triumph.

Now, it remains to be seen if the relative distance he has shown towards his party will be sufficient for the enormous challenges that are opened as a candidate for the entire sector.

Jara's main task is now to expand its support base in the most moderate sectors of the electorate, including the political center, from where they have not yet ruled out presenting their own alternative for the November elections.

“Jara faces the challenge of transforming his triumph into a competitive candidacy nationwide. His greatest challenge will be to expand the electoral roof of the PC without losing identity, calling the political center and ordering the ruling party after a common project,” said political analyst Marco Moreno to the newspaper El Mercurio.

The center and even the Centroizqiuerda has had historical tensions with the Communist Party.

During the campaign, in fact, its own opponents – which must now support it – warned that a government led by a communist was not the best for Chile.

“I am not in favor of the PC governing the country … the communist model has not been successful in the world; it has had adverse results,” said Carolina Tohá, who was a candidate of the Socialist Party, the Party for Democracy, the Radical Party and the Liberal Party.

Although the Communist Party managed to have a representation again in Congress in 2010 and formally entered a government in 2014, as part of the new majority coalition, the idea that the communists cannot reach the presidency calmed down in the debate of this process. Jara always said that he came from a “logic of the cold war.”

At some point it was even speculated that it could freeze its militancy as a gesture of amplitude for the first round in case of winning primary school, although she has ruled out.

Anyway, Jara knows that to go on the second round and beat him to the right, he must summon a wide arch. While it was imposed with slack, the low participation in primary assured only 825,835 votes for the first round.

That is why his main message this Sunday was a call to unit.

“I call them not to release our hands, to have them together, to face from the broader political and social unit possible to the Chilean ultra -right and stop it. That is our task for what is coming,” he said.

Another no less task for progressivism from now on will be to rebuild the tensions left by the competition.

“I greet and hug Jeannette Jara for the tremendous support obtained today. He immediately goes to lead the forces of progressivism towards the future, who has clearly chosen her as a leader,” President Buric said yesterday after his triumph.

“What is coming is not going to be easy, but Jeannette knows about difficult battles … now all together to work for unity, with love and amplitude to summon most of our compatriots to continue building a more fair, safe and happy country,” he said.

Despite his victory Jara's challenges seem huge.

The last survey of Public Plaza Catem, reaffirmed the advantage of the radical rightist José Antonio Kast, of the Republican Party, with 24% of the spontaneous preferences, while the communist rose to 16%, being in second place.

In a third place, with 10%, the traditional right candidate appears, Evelyn Matthei, whose citizen support has been in Declive in recent months, being reached by populist Franco Parisi.

It remains to be seen if Jara will have the ability to agglutinate the necessary support in a Chile whose main concerns are security and economy, issues that have traditionally been associated with the management of the right.

In some sectors of the Social Democrats, in fact, they believe that the result opens a greater uncertainty for progressivism and reinforces the possibility of being out of ballot.

But there is still a lot to know.

The general picture will be completed in mid -August, when the presidency candidacies are formally registered and the final will be known at the polls on November 16.

Subscribe here To our new newsletter to receive every Friday a selection of our best content of the week.

And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and act.