Chilezuela is a pejorative Chilean term to describe a dystopian version of Chile with negative attributes similar to those of Bolivarian Venezuela.
The term gained traction in the 2017 Chilean presidential election when supporters of right-wing candidate Sebastián Piñera applied it to what they claimed was a path towards crisis and underdevelopment.
[1] During the campaign rumors of Nicolás Maduro supporting Chilean centre-left candidate Alejandro Guillier spread through social media of groups of exiled Venezuelans.
[2][citation needed] The term is part of a wide trend in the Spanish-speaking world of doing negative references to Venezuela during political campaigns.
[2][citation needed] This and similar terms such as, Argenzuela, Peruzuela and venezuelización are used during political campaigns to claim what will supposedly happen if the left-wing candidate wins.