Contesting authority in the crisis of neoliberalism: The Chilean Spring and the mobilization of human rights frames

In this paper we analyze the communicative process by which social movements and local elites negotiated their identity and spread their message during the massive wave of protests and riots in Chile between October 2019 and December 2019 (the Chilean Spring). We analyze a sample of media reports in two mainstream and four alternative newspapers in a setting with a high level of conservative media control. We found a strong initial emphasis on anti-neoliberal and anti-establishment discourse in alternative media and an initial emphasis on the threat to the rule of law in mainstream media. Over time, framing around notions of human rights based on criticism/defense of policing overshadowed all other communication. This indicates that even though the contestation of economic policy and social justice played a strong role in structuring the landscape of social movements and igniting protests, policing issues ended up resonating and playing a more relevant role in opening gaps in hegemonic notions of authority during the Chilean Spring. This paradoxical result highlights the pragmatic uses of rights frames in acute episodes of confrontation.