Lithium and Constitutional Change
On 20 April 2023, Chile’s President Gabriel Boric addressed the nation to announce the highly anticipated National Lithium Strategy. Boric announced the creation of a National Lithium Company (which must be enacted by Congress) and the establishment of public-private joint ventures, with a prominent role for the government. His speech began by referencing the nationalization of copper in the late 1960s and its completion in 1971 under President Salvador Allende. The new lithium strategy has to be understood as something more than merely an economic proposal. It is part of a larger and elusive effort to reconfigure the State.
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