Chile’s left-centrist political alliance is losing ground

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‘When democracy returned to Chile nearly two decades ago after the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, rivals on the political left and center realized they needed to work together to make sure the bad old days of political polarization didn’t return,’ writes Jack Chang of the McClatchy News Service.

‘That is when four parties formed what has become the main political force over the past 18 years -- the Concertacion coalition, which has given the citizens of this nation of 16.3 million the political stability and consensus it desperately needed.

‘But halfway through its fourth straight government, the coalition now appears to be falling apart. The common belief is that the administration of President Michelle Bachelet could be the last one of the Concertacion.’

-- Reed Johnson in Mexico City