Gabriel Boric: “Thanks to Camilo Escalona and his generation, we are here”

“Camilo Escalona has died. I imagine him at 16, aware that young secondary-school students had to defend the popular government,” former Chilean President Gabriel Boric wrote after the longtime Socialist leader died at 71.

Escalona died Friday at Clínica Indisa. Boric’s tribute, posted on his official X account, traced the politician’s public life from his youth through Chile’s dictatorship and the return to democracy.

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Camilo Escalona has died. I imagine him at 16, aware that young secondary-school students had to defend the popular government.

Boric remembered Escalona as a young activist who understood the risks of organizing under military rule. “I think of him during the dictatorship, in Chile, doing the most difficult thing, which was organizing when doing so put one’s life at risk,” he wrote.

He also highlighted Escalona’s role in the democratic transition, describing him as a figure who pushed against the limits imposed by entrenched powers he had always confronted. The tribute presented Escalona’s political career as part of the history that shaped Chile’s democratic period.

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I think of him during the dictatorship, in Chile, doing the most difficult thing, which was organizing when doing so put one’s life at risk.