Neoliberalism and crisis: El Mercurio de Valparaíso and industrial decline in the region (1981-1983)

From the mid-20th century, the editorial line followed by the media group El Mercurio was a defence of economic liberalism as an alternative to the development model based on imports substitution industrialization. When Pinochet’s dictatorship applied the ‘shock therapy’ to restructure the Chilean economy, the diaries of the group praised this policy, termed as an “economic miracle”, as one of the regime’s greatest successes. However, the neoliberal policies of the Chicago Boys had a negative impact on various industrial sectors, especially in the region of Valparaíso, which had a long industrial tradition. The inflection point was the bankruptcy of the sugar company CRAV, one of the country’s most important firms, which had close links with emerging economic groups and high government officials. Devaluation, the financial crisis and the effects of this crisis on Latin American external debt, progressively undermined the economic situation of the region’s entrepreneurs and the newspaper group’s wide readership. This work examines the way El Mercurio de Valparaíso managed the contradiction resulting from its adherence to the dictatorship and its economic model and the effects of the region’s industrial decline, adapting its editorial line to regional conditions to avoid support to the government’s economic policies undermining the regime’s social support base. The editorial and informative coverage of the crisis in this an others media, both for and against the government, is examined in detail. © 2022 Universidad del Norte. All rights reserved.