A divisive bestseller: copies of Chile's new constitution hit the streets

Books of proposed new constitution are displayed at a hawker's street stall at downtown Santiago, Chile July 14, 2022. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - In cities around Chile, bookstores and street vendors are touting a new, purple book that promises – or, depending on the reader's view, threatens – to reshape society in the Andean nation.

The book outlays the country's proposed new constitution. Its 388 articles touching on social rights, gender, politics and the environment aim to close the door on the current text, drawn up in 1980 under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.