Karol Cariola


Karol Aída Cariola Oliva is a Chilean midwife, and former president of the Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Concepción for 2010. She was elected General Secretary of the Juventudes Comunistas de Chile, abbr. JJ.CC., at the organizations XIII Congress held in October 2011. Cariola is the second woman to hold this post in the Communist Youth of Chile after the late communist leader Gladys Marin.
On August 4th, 2013, Cariola emerged as the leading congressional candidate in the New Majority coalition's primary elections for the electoral district of Recoleta and Independencia.
Subsequently, during the Chilean general election held on November 17, 2013 she won 38.47% of the votes and became the deputy-elect for the 19th electoral Santiago district of Recoleta and Independencia. She commenced to serve a four-year term in the Chilean Congress on 11 March 2014.

Student movement for public education

Cariola was elected General Secretary of the JJ.CC. amidst one of the most significant mass social mobilization in recent Chilean history – referred by the media as the Chilean Winter. This mobilization saw students across Chile refuse to return to school or university, from April 2011 to the end of the academic year, in protest and to demand an end to the privatization of education. Cariola has stated that the student mobilization, protests and strikes had a political nature and she refuted the statement made by the Chilean government spokesperson Andrés Chadwick that the CONFECH has been taken over by extremist elements.
In an interview with CNN Chile Cariola stated that it was a grave mistake to refer to the student movement in that manner:
“I think our country is at a historic moment, that it is necessary to generate structural changes….We have had a process that has led this country to develop a new consciousness. Chile today is not the same that it was 6 months ago, there is an eagerness to generate changes and the need to do so.”

Parliamentary candidature and general elections

Cariola has stated that "Chile and its people have to draft a new constitution" and has said that within the Nueva Mayoria coalition she intends to fight for a Constituent Assembly to oversee a change to the existing Chilean Constitution. Cariola - in line with the leader of the Nueva Mayoria, Michelle Bachelet - believes that the Chilean Constitution is illegitimate because it was introduced in the absence of political democracy by the Pinochet regime on September 11, 1980. Cariola also states that if she wins a seat in the Chilean Chamber of Deputies she will work to see a fair labour code implemented with an institution to protect workers' rights and the automatic unionization of all workers in or entering the workforce.

New Majority coalition's primary elections

The primary elections for the New Majority coalition commenced on August 4, 2013. These parliamentary primaries were set to determine which two candidates from the Nueva Mayoria pact in a given electorate will stand for the Chilean elections in November 2013. In the primary election for the 19th Santiago electorate of Recoleta-Independencia Cariola received the highest number of votes from the local constituents.
DistrictElectoral DivisionCandidatePartyVotes%Results
19RecoletaÓscar SantelicesPPD143918,3Candidate
19RecoletaMaría Francisca ZaldívarPDC120615,3
19RecoletaFrancisco DíazPS112514,3
19RecoletaKarol CariolaPCCh410052,1Candidate

Chilean general elections 2013

CandidatePactPartyVotes%Results
Karol Cariola OlivaNew MajorityPCCh35.60438,47Deputy
Claudia NogueiraAllianceUDI22.99224,84Deputy
Óscar Santelices AltamiranoNew MajorityPPD13.92915,05
Eduardo Cuevas RosselotAllianceRN6.9347,49
Roberto Cofré PintoNew Constitution for ChileInd.4.2144,55
Galvarino Sazo BolbaranIf You Want It, Chile ChangesPRO3.0053,24
Juan Francisco Valdés ValenciaIf You Want It, Chile ChangesPRO2.4242,61
Claudio Méndez RojasHumanist PartyHP2.0512,21
Eduardo Patricio Purán PuránHumanist PartyHP1.3781,48

Criticism

Karol Cariola is currently a candidate for the Chilean parliamentary elections to be held in 2013. This strategy to reach political power by Cariola and other members of the Communist Youth and ex-leaders of the educational social mobilizations such as Camila Vallejo and Camilo Ballesteros, has been bitterly questioned by some student factions who consider it a betrayal to the principles of the mobilizations. Other critics point to her explicit support for the governments of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.

Interviews and talks