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Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)

2026-06-13T15:03:28Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ryan testimony */

[[File:Junta Militar de Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|The Junta.]]
The '''Augusto Pinochet regime''' or '''Military Government''' (''Gobierno Militar'' in [[Spanish language|Spanish]]) is the period on the Chilean History in which the Armed Forced governed the country after a the removal of a Socialist Regime. On September 11, 1973, the [[Chile]]an Armed Forces staged a military intervention. President [[Salvador Allende Gossens]] committed suicide during an infantry-tank assault on the ''[[La Moneda]]'' presidential palace, and a [[junta]] composed of the four leaders of the Armed Forces and Order (Army, Navy, Air Force and Police) took power. [[Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]] was sworn as president in 1974.

The Military Government managed to broke the communists, who were heavily armed and trying to start a civil war; rebuilt an economy destroyed by the previous regime; Pinochet's administration grew the middle class until it became the majority of the country, and eradicated extreme poverty; built a health care system that was affordable, efficient, and available to all; created a private retirement pension account system that gave people free choice while at the same time amassing a huge pool of capital that could be invested in the growth of the country; expunged corruption at all levels, most especially among the oligarchs, whom the government broke on in 1980–82; and created a legal and [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|constitutional framework]] that has given Chile peace, order and prosperity since.<ref>{{cite book|title=Pinochet: las "incómodas" verdades|author=Mario Spataro|date=2006|url=https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/2023/01/pinochet-las-incomodas-verdades-mario.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=CHILE ESCOGE LA LIBERTAD LA PRESIDENCIA DE AUGUSTO PINOCHET UGARTE|author=Gonzalo Rojas Sanchez|publisher=Zig Zag|date=2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://t.me/realCRP/1701|publisher=Telegram|title=Telegram Statement about Pinochet}}</ref>

As the historian Sebastián Hurtado summarizes it "The United States ([[CIA]]) had no direct participation in the coup (itself), neither in its planning nor in its coordination, and I would dare to say that not even in its incitement [...] but it did want Allende to fall (and did actions to promote that with no relation with the successful coup itself)."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latercera.com/la-tercera-sabado/noticia/sebastian-hurtado-historiador-estados-unidos-no-tuvo-participacion-directa-en-el-golpe-pero-si-queria-que-allende-cayera/3UXITS4IUNB3RPPB57ILMYDO64/|title=Sebastián Hurtado, historiador: “Estados Unidos no tuvo participación directa en el Golpe, pero sí quería que Allende cayera”|date=August 26, 2023|publisher=La Tercera|language=es}}</ref>

==Military intervention (So called coup d'état)==
[[File:Intervención militar de 1973.jpg|315px|thumbnail|Military intervention, [[La Moneda|La Moneda Presidential Palace]], 11th of September 1973.]]
The Chilean military reported having suffered 34 killed in stiff fighting in Valparaiso and Santiago on 11–12 September: two army sergeants, three army corporals, four army privates, 2 marine lieutenants, 1 marine corporal, 4 marine cadets, 3 marine conscripts and 15 carabineros (policemen). In mid-September, the military junta claimed its troops suffered another 16 dead and 100 injured by gunfire in mopping-up operations against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|left-wing guerrillas]] Allende civilian supporters, and Pinochet warned: ''"sadly there are still some armed groups who insist on attacking, which means that the military rules of wartime apply to them."'' On 23 October 1973, 23-year-old army corporal Benjamín Alfredo Jaramillo Ruz, who was serving with the ''Regimento Cazadores'', became the first fatal casualty of the counterinsurgency campaign in the mountainous area of Alquihue in the Valdivia Province after being shot by a guerrilla sniper. The Chilean Army suffered 12 killed in various clashes with MIR and GAP guerrillas in October 1973.

On 20 September 1973, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) was given permission to set up an administration office in Santiago, which helped find countries to accept 20,000 Chileans who had been detained or who feared military prosecution.<ref>"On September 20, 1973, just nine days after the coup, the UNHCR opened an office in Santiago and mobilized many efforts to facilitate the withdrawal from Chile of those politically persecuted by the regime and their reception in different countries. More than
20,000 were assisted by UNHCR in those years." Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective, Kathryn Stoner, Michael McFaul, p. 218, JHU Press, 2013</ref> According to an official report by the United States government, 80,000 Chileans were living abroad in the 1970s.<ref>"Since the overthrow about 80,000 Chileans have moved out of their country." U.S. Refugee Programs: Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 96th Congress, Second Session, April 17, 1980, p.398, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1980</ref><ref>"Since the events of September 1973, about 80,000 Chileans have fled their country." World Refugee Crisis, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1979</ref>

During the first three months of Pinochet's military regime, the Chilean armed forces and supporting police units suffered 162 killed in clashes with left-wing guerrillas and civilian supporters in the form of MIR and Chilean Communist Party militants.<ref>Latin America's Wars: The Age of the Professional Soldier, 1900–2001, Robert L. Scheina, p. 326, Potomac Books, 2003</ref>

Since the Allende Regime was declared illegal by the Congress and Judicial Branch, the first one calling the Armed Forces to take action, the actions of September 11, 1973 cannot be a "coup" that would be from outside the State, but it was a Military Intervention (''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciamiento Pronunciamiento] Militar'' in Spanish) called by the institutions to restored themselves.

Historian Richard Pipes (former Dean of History at Harvard University) studied the subject in depth and concluded that, when on September 11, 1973, the Armed Forces removed Allende, they only "obeyed" the Congress Agreement of August 22, 1973. (Book "Communism: A History").<ref name=josepinera>{{cite web|url=http://www.josepinera.org/articles/articulos_verdadhistorica_twitter.htm|title=LA TRAGEDIA DEL QUIEBRE DESDE ADENTRO DE LA DEMOCRACIA CHILENA|language=es|publisher=[[José Piñera]]|date=2010}}</ref> The Military Intervention was not only justified, but unavoidable.

===The truth about CIA involvement===
So many people refuse to accept that the [[CIA]] had no involvement in the 1973 military intervention, the CIA interference was centered on the killing of General René Schneider in 1970.

There was a nationalist small group called ''Patria y Libertad'', they were definitely financed by CIA. And somehow, they got the idea to kidnap the commander-in-chief of the Chilean Armed Forces, General René Schneider.

He was and a man who was extremely well-respected throughout Chilean society, especially in the military. After the 1970 election, there were calls to ignore the democratic process and prevent Allende from taking power. Gen. Schneider publicly articulated what became known as the Schneider doctrine: The armed forces would always support and protect institutional democratic authority, and would never go against a legal outcome duly passed by Congress or the courts. In other words, Schneider was refusing to stand in the way of an Allende presidency. This enraged Allende's hardest opposition, so ''Patria y Libertad'' came up with the idea of kidnapping Schneider, possibly, at the instigation of the CIA. This has never been very clear.

The kidnapping was botched, Schneider defended himself with his side arm and in the process was killed by the kidnappers. This led to the accession of Carlos Prats to the post of commander-in-chief. It was also deeply traumatic to the Chilean military as a whole. A few senior officers outright blamed the Americans for the Schneider killing. Most took a more nuanced view. But the net effect was the same, no one in the Chilean Armed Forces would have anything to do with the CIA or the people from the US Embassy after this incident. Outcasts from the Chilean military, like Roberto Viaux, or marginal people in Chilean politics, gravitated to US Embassy personnel and the CIA, who gave them money.

But their involvement with the Americans made them even more suspect, and marginal, in Chilean society. Later, the CIA in order to justify itself and show that they had been effective in Chile, elevated these marginal or unimportant people as “key to the successful removal of Allende!” Leftists and historians ran with this notion. But it was just to hide CIA incompetence.

Because of the trauma of the Schneider killing, it's absurd to think that the Chilean armed forces would cooperate with the US [[Deep State]] for the 1973 military intervention, especially when they didn't need them to pull it off successfully. It was only after the military intervention, and only out of national economic necessity, that the Military Government got closer to the Americans.

But institutionally, the Chilean military never trusted the Americans, and never allowed themselves to be dependent on them. The American government was never happy with the Pinochet government, because it never gave back the lucrative copper mines that Allende had expropriated.<ref>{{cite web|author=[[Gonzalo Lira]]|url=https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1542742748188606466.html|title=Chilean history thread|date=July 1, 2022}}</ref>

The book "''La CIA en Chile''" published in 2013, also demystifies the role played by the agency in the preparation of the military intervention plan. In a CIA document from 1973, it is pointed out that the CIA office in Santiago was proposing to encourage the military to carry out a ''coup d'état'' against Allende, an option that seemed difficult since the commander in chief of the army, Carlos Prats, did not seem willing to move forward with such an objective.

Ray Warren, the CIA director of the Chilean office, insisted to Washington about the possibility, but the CIA headquarters closed the door: "let's see how history develops, let's not do it", he was told. The US situation was no longer the same as it had been in 1970. The CIA interference had already come to light before Allende's inauguration, the [[Watergate]] affair had already broken out and the [[Vietnam War]] was culminating.

According to the book, "the CIA was so aware of the eyes on it that in a report from its Directorate of Operations, dated September 1972, it said that 'the temptation to assume a positive role in support of the military coup is great', but that they should restrain themselves, since they would be accused of 'engineering the collapse of the Allende government'".
<ref name=CIA_KGB>{{cite web|url=https://ellibero.cl/actualidad/la-mano-de-la-kgb-y-la-cia-en-el-quiebre-democratico-en-chile/|title=La mano de la KGB y la CIA en el quiebre democrático en Chile|September 11, 2015|language=es|publisher=El Líbero}}</ref>

====Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ryan testimony====

[[Lieutenant Colonel]] [[Patrick Ryan]], a member of U.S. naval mission here between 1972 and 1976, wrote an article in November 1976 entitled "The Allende's Chile and the 1,000 lost days", in which he stated:

"For ten years, the United States fought against communism in Vietnam, a country located some 7,000 miles off the coast of California, with a tragic loss of 55,000 American lives, six times the previous number in casualties, without taking into account the tremendous cost of $150 billion. (...) We lost the war!
"On the other hand, the Republic of Chile, located in our hemisphere, fought against communism in the backyard of the United States, without the help of the B-52s, of the VII Fleet and without the visit of [[Bob Hope]]. No American fingers pulled M-16 triggers, no horrifying parade of wrapped coffins wrapped in the American flag was airlifted daily from Santiago de Chile to be buried in the United States. What's more, without our help and without being overwhelmed with our 'calculated response' tactics, the Chileans defeated communism.

"The United States government has not applauded this brilliant defeat of communism, but, incredibly, our Senate and Congress, by means of the Kennedy Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, have terminated all military aid to the new anti-Communist government of Chile. Why?"<ref>{{cite book|url=https://unofar.cl/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/FINAL.-Libro-de-Adolfo-Paul-Latorre.pdf|title=Reflexiones en torno a la Revolución Militar Chilena|language=Spanish|pages=39-40|date=2023|author=Adolfo Paúl Latorre}}</ref>

The supposed right-wing Times of London told lies to its readers about Chile. The same aforementioned Lt. Col. Ryan was, in one case, a victim of it, and he tells us:
"Of personal interest to the author was an article in the 'Times' of London (27.10.73), written by Godfrey Hodgson and William Shaweron, which noted: 'In the planning of the coup d'état Admiral José Toribio Meribio Ryan was in personal contact with Lt. Col. Patrick J. Ryan, of the Marine Corps of the U.S. Naval Mission in Valparaiso, Chile'. Although I found the report about my personal daily contact with Admiral Merino very flattering, I also found it to be very false! During the eight months preceding the coup my desk calendar reveals only two appointments with Admiral Merino and they relate to strictly mundane matters. These appointments were typical vice-admiral to lieutenant colonel contacts. He spoke and I listened and promptly carried out his orders. The report in the Times of London about my contact duties with Merino in reference to the coup was absolutely false and typified disinformation and 'fabricated' facts that were disseminated in connection with the coup in Chile".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2020/04/miserias-de-la-chilenidad-actual-iii.html|title=Miserias de la Chilenidad Actual|date=2020|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|language=Spanish}}</ref>

==Initial support==
[[File:A. Pinochet Stamp (cropped).jpg|250px|thumbnail|Pinochet in 1974.]]
At the beginning the junta received the support of the oligarchy and of a sizable part of the middle class. This support by moderate political parties, including many Christian Democrats, can be explained by their belief that a military government represented a transitional stage necessary to restoring Chilean democracy as it had been before 1970.

Four days after that removal, The Economist magazine (15.9.73) editorialized: "The transitory death of democracy in Chile will be regrettable, but the direct responsibility clearly belongs to Dr. Allende and...followers who constantly trampled on the Constitution.... the Allende government violated the letter and spirit of the Constitution...The Armed Forces had to intervene because the constitutional means to stop a government that behaved in an unconstitutional manner failed...The transitory death of democracy in Chile will be deplorable, but it should not be forgotten who made it inevitable".

Four weeks after that removal, [[Patricio Aylwin]], President of the Christian Democracy and future President of Chile, publicly stated: "Allende's government was preparing to carry out a self-coup to establish a communist dictatorship by force. The Armed Forces did nothing but anticipate this imminent risk".

Two months after that removal, the former President of the Republic Eduardo Frei Montalva defended the military internvention with extraordinary strength and lucidity in this extensive letter to Mariano Rumor, President of the International Christian Democracy, in which he said "the military saved Chile!".<ref name=josepinera/>

Very soon they were to discover that the military had their own political objectives, including the repression of all left-wing guerrilla forces. The Christian Democratic, National, and Radical Democracy parties were declared to be in “indefinite recess,” and the Communists, Socialists, and Radicals were outlawed. In 1977 the traditional parties were dissolved.

==Mission of the Junta==
[[File:Government Junta of Chile 1973.jpg|300px|left|thumbnail|Government Junta of Chile in 1973.]]
Since taking office on September 11, 1973, the Military Government Junta did not rest a single day working on regulations, decrees and laws that would allow the normal functioning of the country, mainly in order to recover the economic activity seriously damaged by the Allende government.
As President of the Military Government Junta until 1981 and as President of the Republic until 1990, General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte worked every day on his great ideal: "To make Chile a great nation". On foot, by car, plane or boat, he traveled almost all over Chile, inaugurating numerous development works. While traveling with his ministers or wife, he did not rest. He attended the opening of new companies, inaugurated houses, kindergartens, schools, health centers and hospitals, visited ports, mining companies and works of the ''Carretera Austral'', bringing his smile and words to every Chilean.

His political work did not make him abandon his military work in the Chilean Army. He attended military exercises in the desert, gave lectures at the Military School and regiments, and modernized his institution.

In the face of terrorist actions he had a "iron fist" (''mano dura''), the only way to protect Chile and its people from the communist violence that continued to seek to alter national life.

He confronted the national and international communist propaganda, did not rest until he managed to sign the Peace Treaty with Argentina, harshly criticized foreign boycotts, mainly from the US, and fearlessly continued on his way after the bloody terrorist attack against him.

His horizon was clear: "No one will stop the road to full democracy". As a soldier and a gentleman, he handed over power on March 11, 1990.

Another member of the Military Government Junta, Admiral José Toribio Merino Castro, was in charge of the economic sector of the country and presided over the Economic Committee of Ministers, where the economic measures that the Executive Power implemented were born, as the first economic measures of the Military Government: the liberation of prices of goods and services, a single exchange area was fixed, fiscal spending was reduced and interest rates were freed to start a capital market, the State companies were reorganized, normalizing the intervened companies.

It was Admiral Merino's initiative to study the Statute for foreign investors, which led to the subsequent enactment of Decree Law No. 600. He promoted the study and subsequent enactment of a decree law for the promotion of Chilean exporters, which gave rise to PROCHILE. During this period he promoted the Decree Law to subsidize forestation, establishing incentives to develop plantations of this nature in the country. He represented the military government in negotiating contracts with Pegaso in Spain and before the U.S. government, meeting with President Carter. With a great sense of social justice, he initiated the enactment of Decree Law No. 3,480, to allow debtors of the Housing Savings and Loan System to repay their debts, which favored workers in the middle sector.

In 1980, Decree Law No. 3,500 was issued, which created the new provisional system, and Admiral Merino was a great supporter of this legislation. 1980 saw the approval of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|new Constitution]] that governs the country with 67% of the vote, separating the Executive and Legislative powers in a definite manner. Admiral Merino went on to preside over the Government Board, whose objective was to constitute the Legislative Branch, which governed us until March 1990. He also presided over the first Legislative Commission. In 1982 the country was affected by the world recession and the Government had to take economic measures to alleviate the developing crisis.

Admiral Merino, from the Legislative Branch, promoted laws on the modernization of the financial sector, the State guarantee for deposits and savings, the lowering of import tariffs and, in general, the normalization of the sectors most affected by the crisis, giving maximum support to the Executive Branch, which allowed the country to get out of the crisis. During this period, he promoted the initiative of the Law for the Promotion of the Merchant Marine, contributing significantly to the growth of this sector and also to the shipyards and naval industry through the enactment of Law No. 18,454. He presented motions to replace the Third Book of the Code of Commerce; to adapt the Chilean maritime limits to the Jamaica Convention, through the corresponding reform to the Civil Code, and to repeal the legislation that allowed therapeutic abortion, all of which were approved through the corresponding laws dictated during that period. Likewise, he promoted the enactment of all the Constitutional Organic Laws, which allowed the Military Government to comply with the constitutional itinerary of handing over power to the civilian population.

In 1989, it proposed to the Executive Branch the enactment of a Fisheries and Aquaculture Law, which was achieved after much discussion in the sector. This put an end to the disorganization of the sector and created the conditions for the conservation of renewable marine resources. Finally, he presided over the Joint Legislative Commission to reform the Political Constitution, whose text, approved by the Government Junta, was ratified by the plebiscite held on June 30, 1989. During the period of government of the Armed Forces, 3,660 Decree Laws and 1,090 Laws bearing his signature were promulgated under his supervision.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==First stage of the Military Government (Recovery Stage)==
[[File:President Pinochet and his wife Lucía Hiriart.jpg|250px|thumbnail|President Pinochet and his wife Lucía Hiriart.]]
[[File:Augusto Pinochet 1975.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Augusto Pinochet in 1975 on an Act on the Diego Portales Building (now called Gabriela Mistral).]]
With the military intervention of September 11, 1973, Chile began a 17-year period of government initially assumed by a Military Junta headed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, and composed of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral José Toribio Merino Castro; the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh Guzmán, and the Director General of the Carabineros, General César Mendoza Durán.

The first show of support for the new government came from the Supreme Court, which, represented by its president, Enrique Urrutia Manzano, received a visit from the Junta one day after the pronouncement.
For its part, the [[Catholic Church]] stated that it was pained by the blood of civilians and soldiers that reddened the streets and asked for moderation towards the defeated and that no reprisals be applied.

Meanwhile, the political parties opposed to Salvador Allende -National, Christian Democrat, Social Democrat, Radical Democracy- issued statements of support and justification for the intervention. In the DC, twelve militants signed a communiqué in the opposite direction, but stating the responsibility of the Popular Unity (UP) in the institutional breakdown.

Three were the most pressing objectives set by the military: to provide the country with a new institutional framework, to recover the economy and, above all, to pacify Chile, putting an end to the armed action of violent groups.

The objectives set for the first stage, "Recovery", were:

* To reestablish order and tranquility, seriously threatened by the attempt of irregular Marxist forces tending to destroy freedom and democracy.

* To rebuild the economic and social order, which had been unhinged as a consequence of the systematic degradation of individual guarantees.

* To study and establish a new truly democratic institutionality, protected from totalitarian sectors, respectful of personal liberties, with balanced powers and tending to promote the existence of large, moderate political organizations capable of giving the whole system stability and permanence.

On the same day, September 11, the Honorable Government Junta communicated to the citizens, in Bando No. 5, its firm will to reestablish the economic and social normality of the country, the peace, tranquility and security that had been lost.

The Military Government, from the beginning, was fully aware that the progress of the country required a new social reorganization. This initially forced it to limit a series of political liberties as a way to gradually overcome the deep wounds that had been inflicted.

In September 1974, the Honorable Government Junta issued a solemn declaration, called Declaration of Principles of the Government of Chile, in which, contrary to the value neutrality that had characterized the preceding stage, the principles that would govern its restorative mission were enunciated, while the objectives of its governmental management were made explicit.

By means of military orders and decree laws, the government began to operate under emergency regulations that restricted the individual liberties of the population.
Once the State of Siege and the Emergency Zone were decreed, the circulation of some newspapers, including "El Mercurio", and the operation of Channel 13 and some radio stations were allowed, all under prior censorship.

From the beginning, Pinochet stated that the Armed Forces had taken over the government to return Chile to its democratic system; but first the country's integral recovery had to be achieved through the application of economic, social and political plans that the nation needed.
For this reason, the President of the Junta postulated giving priority to the fulfillment of goals over deadlines.
In the first months of his administration, Pinochet reiterated that the mandate of the military would not constitute a momentary transition between two political governments, but would be the initiator of a great absolute and permanent civic-military movement that would maintain a good administration of the State.
He insisted in affirming that the Armed Forces were not prepared to govern and that they had to assume the task as a result of the prevailing chaos. Gustavo Leigh.

The itinerary of the new Chilean institutionality was made known by Pinochet in July 1977, in an address that is remembered as the "Chacarillas Speech" and which established the parameters of the new democracy.<ref name=GobMilitar>{{cite web|url=https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/p/gobierno-militar.html|title=GOBIERNO MILITAR|publisher=Chile Pinochet Nuestro}}</ref>

==Breakings in the Junta==
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|300px|thumbnail|The new Junta with Fernando Matthei and Rodolfo Stange and without Gustavo Leigh and César Mendoza.]]
An interview given by the Commander-in-Chief of the FACh to the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" was repudiated by the cabinet. After meetings in La Moneda and in the Ministry of Defense, the Junta declared that Leigh was unable to perform his duties, and he was replaced by General Fernando Matthei. The decision caused the resignation of the entire institutional high command.

On March 11, 1981, Pinochet began the second stage of his government by taking the oath of office as President of the Republic. The investiture modified the composition of the Government Junta, which was joined by Lieutenant General César Benavides, representing the Army.

Pinochet served as president until March 11, 1990.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Economic recovery==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
The military government took over a country with a disintegrated economy and virtually bankrupt, since its assets were not enough to meet its obligations. With great efforts of the population, the process of reorganization began, opting for the implementation of a free market model.
One of the most urgent tasks that the Junta de Gobierno set itself when it assumed the leadership of the country was the economic recovery. For this purpose, professionals from the Catholic University who had been part of the academic exchanges with the University of Chicago were consulted. Thus began the era of the "Chicago boys", a group led by the dean of the School of Economics at UC, Sergio de Castro, and composed of Jorge Cauas, Miguel Kast and José Piñera, among others.

The plan of the "Chicago boys" was baptized as "The Brick" and became the foundational basis of the new Chilean social market economy, which left behind the socialist type of centralized and planned economy.

Pinochet approved privatization plans, the return of requisitioned companies, the normalization of agriculture and a new economic and financial conception.

The treasury had to guarantee the population equal opportunities and mass access to the advantages of modern society.

If ten major modernizations materialized by the military regime in the economic sphere were to be highlighted, they would be the following:

Price liberalization: Decree Law 522 of October 15, 1973 eliminated historic price fixing in Chile, with the exception of 33 items that maintained their prices determined by the State and 18 in which businessmen were required to report their values to the authorities. By 1976, all prices were free.

Modernization of the capital market: In 1975, a free interest rate was established, banking was reprivatized and the capital market was liberalized.

Access to higher education: At the end of 1980, private universities made their debut in Chile, significantly increasing the number of young people who could have access to higher education.

Targeting of social spending: A policy that made it possible to allocate State funds to improve the economic situation of the poorest, without producing the injustice of having people receive part of these resources who do not need them.

As a result of these changes, the country's economic growth went from -4.3 percent in 1973 to 10 percent in 1989. Inflation, meanwhile, fell from 106 percent to 21.4 percent in the same years.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Trade liberalization===

By the end of 1973, the Chilean economy was closed to the exterior with import tariffs that averaged 105% and the prohibition to import many products. By 1977, the tariff had already been standardized at 10%, which meant that the productive apparatus began to face external competition, a situation unknown for the country for several decades. Although this confrontation was difficult, today important sectors of the economy are leading this process, being the main generators of foreign exchange and have placed Chile in the leadership in the world with exports of fruits, salmon and wine among several other products. This opening process culminates in the 90s and 2000s in a situation where Chile established free trade agreements with the main economies of the planet.

It allowed the massive arrival of imports that forced national industries to become more competitive and thus export to conquer new markets. In this sense, a single exchange rate was established and a very simplified trade regime was created, without trade barriers and with an even 10 percent tariff since 1979.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Ordering of Fiscal Accounts===

The fiscal deficit reached more than 30% at the end of the Allende government. Public expenditures, which amounted to 41% of GDP in 1973, were reduced by 20% in 1989. Thus, while revenues were recovering, the fiscal imbalance decreased to 2% of GDP in 1975.

However, this reorganization process not only involved cutting unnecessary expenditures, but also required changing the institutional framework governing this sector, which resulted in a rule in force to this day that requires all public spending to have a corresponding financial component, which cannot come from loans from the Central Bank.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Autonomy of the Central Bank===

Its creation made it possible to prevent the government of the day from managing monetary policy at its discretion and thus "triggering" inflation "by turning on the machine to make banknotes" in order to increase fiscal spending.

The Central Bank was granted autonomy in monetary and exchange rate policies, and was entrusted with ensuring price stability and the normal functioning of internal and external payments. This independence from the President of the Republic prevents the political management of the institution for electoral purposes or to support the economic policy of the Executive. This model of autonomy, quite old in the industrialized world, is relatively new in South America and Chile put it into practice before other countries of the continent. It is worth noting that from its inception, the Central Bank's board of directors was formed in equal parts by representatives of the Government and the opposition, thus achieving a balanced and independent performance, in which technical criteria prevailed over partisan ones.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Privatizations===
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|150px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], Finance Minister.]]
A process promoted preferably in the 1980s, under the administration of Finance Minister [[Hernán Büchi]]. It was one of the most unpopular measures taken by the military government, since it resulted in the dismissal of a good part of the companies' workers and, at times, in their liquidation at below market value. However, it allowed the State to divest itself of loss-making companies and to have more resources to invest in areas such as health and education.

The implementation of these reforms was of enormous importance in that they contributed to achieving the productivity increases necessary to sustain economic expansion in the long term. Privatizations are very relevant in this process, since they not only transferred ownership, but also the companies were transferred to people who had the right incentives to maximize their productivity. This resulted in the creation of new companies and new jobs, and allowed Chilean consumers to have access to better quality goods and products at lower prices thanks to the existing competition.

Numerous productive sectors have benefited and strengthened thanks to these microeconomic reforms, as can be seen in the following lines, which mention those that have achieved the greatest development and contributed most strongly to the country's growth.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==World economic recessions (1975 and 1982)==

Since the military government took over the leadership of the State, the disinformation campaign described above was accompanied by the economic attempt to isolate the country from the rest of the international community. These purposes were repeatedly supported from within by different sectors, since the aim was to foster and, ideally, establish a climate of insecurity and unrest, which would facilitate an attempt against the normal evolution of the process underway.

The most difficult challenges that economic policy had to face, in addition to the disastrous situation existing on September 11, 1973, referred to the world oil crisis, the foreign debt, the drop in copper prices and the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]", situations that provided a very unfavorable environment for an economy that had to start by normalizing the productive apparatus and stabilizing the inflation rate, which was close to 500%.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===1st economic crisis of 1975===

In an erratic manner, the origin of this crisis is often analyzed under a supposed and deliberate shock policy, which would have had as its objective to put an end to the inflationary phenomenon, which was still at worrying levels in 1974 and 1975.

The causes are based mainly on the need to adjust the balance of payments, which resulted in a significant economic adjustment, and on the scarce international currency reserves, basically due to the sharp fall in the price of copper during the same period. By way of illustration, the following graph shows the sustained decline of this metal, a vital commodity for the country's economy during those years.

This situation quickly led to a drop in productive activity and high unemployment.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

However, this emergency was quickly overcome, since, in mid-1976, as a result of the adjustment of fiscal accounts, the reorientation of the tariff and exchange policy aimed at promoting the country's integration with the outside world, together with the management of the monetary policy, allowed the situation to be overcome and the population was able to gradually benefit from it.

Another fact that is fully inserted in the context of the international campaign against Chile refers to what was called the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]".

In 1976, [[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] presented before the U.S. Senate a bill to modify the Foreign Military Assistance Act in order to exclude Chile from the military aid that his country provided to the Latin American republics that had signed the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR). The restrictions were approved and began to apply to Chile in October 1977, comprising in summary:

* The prohibition to provide Chile with any form of military assistance, including the education and training of its Armed Forces personnel.

* The prohibition to grant credits for the same purposes.

* The prohibition to all private suppliers to sell and export military equipment to Chile.

The adoption of the amendment was especially relevant, not necessarily because of its economic effects, but basically because of its inopportunity, since at that time Chile, as we will observe later on, had to face highly complex neighboring conflicts. Collaterally, this fact determined a sustained development of the Chilean military industry, which increased its productive capacity and systematized an accelerated and efficient reconversion process. Most big U.S. companies were now restricted in what they could sell to the regime.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-05-10-tm-2620-story.html|title=WEAPONS FOR THE MASSES : SOME PARIAH NATIONS ARE FINDING THERE’S A NEW WORLD ORDER FOR THEIR CUT-RATE ARMS|date= May 5, 1992|publisher=LA Times}}</ref>

Other countries also embargoed Chile, first came the British Labour government in 1974, soon followed by Jimmy Carter's United States in 1979 and Mitterrand's socialist France in 1982. Years earlier, Rolls-Royce workers in East Kilbride (Scotland) had refused to work on Avon engines for the Chilean Air Force's Hawker Hunter fighter fleet.

Chile bought weapons to [[Israel]], [[Spain]], [[Rhodesia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1987/04/12/espana/545176811_850215.html|title=Las armas que España vendió a Pinochet|date=April 11, 1987|language=es|publisher=El País}}</ref> and [[South Africa]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-11-28-declassified-apartheid-profits-pals-with-pinochet/|title=Declassified: Apartheid Profits –Pals with Pinochet|date=November 28, 2017|publisher=Daily Maverick}}</ref><ref>[https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-relationship-between-Chile-under-Pinochet-and-Apartheid-South-Africa]</ref> as well as making their own mainly in FAMAE and made by Carlos Cardoen. Chile sold weapons produced by Carlos Cardoen to [[Saddam Hussein]] from [[Irak]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nacla.org/article/pincohet-arms-merchant|title=Pincohet, Arms Merchant|date=March 6, 2008|publisher=Nacla}}</ref><ref>[https://rebelion.org/recordando-los-pinochet-e-irak/]</ref> and supposedly to China.

China was one of the few in the socialist orbit that did not break diplomatic relations with Pinochet's military junta. The Asian country granted a credit of 62 million dollars to the Chilean military government presided by General Augusto Pinochet in 1977.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1977/08/16/internacional/240530424_850215.html|publisher=El País|date= August 16, 1977|language=es|title=Crédito de China a Pinochet}}</ref>

With the [[Reagan Administration|Ronald Reagan Administration]] in the United States, things improved quite a bit for Chile, even though the State Department bureaucracy ([[Deep State]]) was still biased to the left and very much penetrated by anti-Chilean slogans originated in [[Moscow]] ([[KGB]]) which have been a constant feature of public opinion in Chile, most of the media and U.S. officials.

In February 1981, the prohibition imposed by the [[Carter Administration]] on the subsidized Eximbank loans to finance U.S. exports to Chile was lifted in February 1981. U.S. export ban to Chile was lifted in February 1981. The negative vote that Washington had maintained in relation to World Bank and Inter-American Bank credits was also modified. World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank loans was also modified.

Unfortunately, the Democratic senators were able to win the support of some "moderate" Republicans ([[RINOs]]) and the Kennedy Amendment remained. The Republican "centrists" were always greatly influenced by Soviet disinformation on Chile and acted accordingly, against Reagan's good will.

===2nd economic crisis of 1982===

On this occasion, the adjustment had an immediate origin in the need to face the reality of a lower flow of external resources. Savings fell in 1981 and 1982 as a result of the world debt crisis. The authorities had to devalue the dollar by 18 percent and take other measures related to foreign exchange, which hurt dollar debtors.

It is true that Chile had resorted on numerous occasions to external credit, which had naturally produced misalignments in relative prices. However, the fall in savings was due to high international interest rates, the high price of oil and the ease of access to foreign credit by the world's debtors. However, when this crisis broke out, Chile had already adopted internal corrective measures, which were intensified in the face of the emergency that arose.

A clear demonstration of the soundness of the economic scheme applied in Chile was the notorious difference in the effects caused by the international economic crisis in the country, compared to other countries in the region.

In such events, the Military Government, based on a new economic model that was being developed, and due to the management of its variables, managed to gradually overcome them and continue in a sustained development.

The economic recovery plans translated into the use of an active monetary policy, an increase in the quantity of money with a view to recovering liquidity, a free dollar and a limited use of reserves.

The severe measures to achieve reactivation supported a renegotiation of the foreign debt and other actions that allowed for financial and banking reorganization.

On January 13, 1983, the dissolution of the ''Banco Hipotecario y de Fomento, Banco Unido de Fomento and Financiera Ciga'' was announced. In addition, the banks ''Banco de Chile, Banco de Santiago, Banco Concepción, Banco Internacional and Colocadora Nacional de Valores'' were intervened, and delegated administrators were appointed.

Eighteen of the 22 mutual fund companies operating at that time were suspended. And special credit modalities and terms for the sale of new and old houses were put into effect, which stimulated the real estate market.

From 1984 onwards, the adjustment process was based on an expansive policy to reactivate growth. But it was from 1986, when economist Hernán Büchi was at the head of the Ministry of Finance, that a period of sustained growth developed, culminating in a GDP of 10.6 percent in the last year of the Pinochet administration.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

Oligarchs were imprisoned in the ''Capuchinos'' Prison, which is why many of them started to conspire against Pinochet.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://youtu.be/vlCJ9n7YU28|title=The Pinochet Problem - CRP|author=[[Gonzalo Lira]]}}</ref>

==1980 Chilean Constitution==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Chilean Constitution of 1980.jpg|200px|left|thumbnail|The Chilean Constitution of 1980.]]
[[File:Pinochet as Commander in Chief with his wife Lucía.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Pinochet as Commander-in-Chief with his wife Lucía.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the 1980 Constitution and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
The new political and institutional order that the country needed was embodied in the drafting of a Fundamental Charter that would replace the Constitution in force in 1973. The latter, in force since 1925, had been insufficient to face the problems the country had suffered for many years and even more inoperative in the face of the outbursts of the socialist regime that led the country to the greatest moral, political, social and economic chaos in its history.

The configuration of a new Magna Carta should, in the first place, consecrate the freedom of the people as the axis of its norms and principles. Approved by a large majority in 1980, the new Political Constitution of Chile defines a new political order and a new economic order, based on free private initiative and a subsidiary State, while reinforcing the family as the nucleus of a free society where respect for individuals and their active participation prevail.

The main characteristics of the new Constitution of 1980 are:

* Recovery of the rule of law, which implies the hierarchy of constitutional norms and the separation of public powers.

* Consolidation of individual liberties.

* Subsidiarity of the State.

* Strengthening of individual and social freedoms.

* Recognition and constitutional consecration of rights that were not duly safeguarded.

* Regulation of constitutional states of exception. And creation of a new recourse of protection to defend constitutional guarantees.

* Organization of a strong Executive Branch, rationalization of the Legislative Branch and strengthening of the Judicial Branch.

* Creation of bodies that reinforce institutionality and give people new instances to defend their rights, such as the Constitutional Court, the National Security Council. The General Comptroller of the Republic was elevated to constitutional hierarchy.

* Constitutional consecration of regionalization

Since its enactment on March 11, 1981, the 1980 Constitution regulated the political, economic and social life, transforming the country into an orderly and solidly democratic nation.

In this area, the most important initiative of the military government was the drafting of a new Constitution for the country, which would support the new order it sought to impose in Chile. In this sense, the Declaration of Principles of the Government of Chile, issued in March 1974, served as the basis for the new Magna Carta.

The rights of man (prior and superior to those of the State), the principle of subsidiarity, the recognition of private property and free initiative in the economic field, were assumed as pillars of the foundational work.

The drafting of the new constitutional text was entrusted to a commission chaired by Jorge Alessandri's former Minister of Justice and the Interior, Enrique Ortúzar. The group -whose work was permanently guided by the Executive also included constitutionalists such as Sergio Diez, [[Jaime Guzmán]], Alejandro Silva Bascuñan and Raúl Bertelsen.

The new Political Constitution was voted on in a plebiscite held on September 11, 1980, in which 67.04 percent of the population voted "Yes" and 30.19 percent "No". Six months later, the document came into force.

The regulation contemplated new conceptions of the person, society and the State. In this sense, the important definition that the rights of men are first and prior to those of the State laid the foundations of the institutional framework that would govern the nation.

Likewise, the new Constitution detailed the functioning and role of future institutions.

The election of parliamentarians by constituencies strengthened the regionalization of the country, initiated during the first stage of the government.

The binominal electoral system set the basis for a two-party system that would guarantee the balance of political forces represented in Congress.

It also introduced appointed senators, the second round in presidential elections and the obligation to obtain more than 50 percent of the votes in order to accede to the presidency.

The most revolutionary and resisted innovation of the new Charter was the establishment of the Armed Forces as guarantors of institutionality, a precept that led to the creation of the National Security Council (Cosena).<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Second stage, Road to Democracy (Transition)==
[[File:Pinochet in La Moneda.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President Pinochet in [[La Moneda]] in 1984.]]
[[File:Augusto Pinochet 1986.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Pinochet in a church during the "Tedeum" Ceremony in "Fiestas Patrias" of 1986.]]
As of March 1981, the new Constitution was conceived to come into force, which would define the framework of a full democracy. Its objective was to produce a gradual and sustained advance towards institutional and democratic fullness, which was to be completed by March 1990 at the latest. It is also important to note that this date marked the beginning of the 1981-1988 presidential term, following a plebiscite. Since then, different sectors of society were increasingly incorporated into the responsibilities of the political leadership of the nation, which was reflected in the formation of the cabinets, in which the integration of civilians and the military was a permanent reality.

During the second stage of the military government, the opening of dialogue with the political parties was entrusted to the then Minister of the Interior, Sergio Onofre Jarpa, who drew up a timetable for developing a political plan and established that it would be up to the citizenry to approve a constitutional reform that would allow a democratically elected Congress to take office.

However, the government-opposition dialogue was cancelled by Pinochet, which led to Jarpa's resignation.

In May 1983, a day of protest called by copper workers initiated a series of similar actions in the country, which led to the renewal of the State of Emergency the following year and the decree of a new State of Siege.

Faced with the situation, the Catholic Church took action and Cardinal Juan Francisco Fresno began to meet with different political leaders, meetings that culminated in the signing of the "National Agreement for the Transition to Full Democracy" aimed at guaranteeing future democratic institutions.

For his part, Pinochet reiterated that the institutional path was in the Constitution and should be respected.

In 1987, the country entered a different period with the six-day visit of [[Pope John Paul II]]. That same year, Pinochet approved the transfer of Congress to Valparaíso and ten political parties began their legal registration with the Electoral Service.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==International Relations and Conflicts with Argentina==
[[File:Pope John Paul II and President Augusto Pinochet.jpg|thumbnail|President Augusto Pinochet with [[Pope John Paul II]] visiting Chile in 1987, previously he played a big role on bringing peace to Chile and Argentina avoiding a war because of the Beagle Conflict.]]
Relations with other countries were not easy for the government of Augusto Pinochet, since from the beginning the military regime aroused worldwide concern for having overthrown the first democratically elected Marxist President.

Recognition of the new authorities came only from Latin American countries, with the exception of [[Mexico]] and [[Venezuela]].

The rest of the world repudiated the pronouncement and, with the exception of [[China]], all socialist nations broke off relations. Even European countries, such as Italy, withdrew their ambassadors, leaving the chargés d'affaires in the diplomatic representations.

Likewise, the Armed Forces had to be attentive to the situation with neighboring countries. Especially the relations with Argentina experienced a very conflictive period towards the end of the 70's, due to the dispute over the jurisdiction of the Beagle Channel and the different islands and islets, among them Picton, Lennox and Nueva.

In this sense, Augusto Pinochet continued with the task initiated by the governments of [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] and Salvador Allende, with the aim of diplomatically resolving the differences.

However, on May 2, 1977, relations between Santiago and [[Buenos Aires]] changed when the arbitration award of [[Queen Elizabeth II]] was announced, a ruling that confirmed Chilean sovereignty over the islands and established the dividing line of the Beagle, subjecting it to the orientation that, according to Chile, this waterway has.

In early 1978, the [[Argentine]] military junta declared the arbitration award "insanely null and void". For this reason, it was decided to appoint two commissions to analyze the conflict. After meeting in Santiago and Buenos Aires, the delegates drafted a document stating that the governments would avoid "actions or attitudes contrary to the spirit of peaceful coexistence" between the two countries.

However, after the Argentine Navy rejected the idea of resorting to Vatican mediation to solve the conflict, the military began to carry out maneuvers on both sides of the mountain range. Meanwhile, the Chilean and Argentine cardinals, Raúl Silva Henríquez and Raúl Primatesta, respectively, made high-level efforts to stop the conflict.

The fleets of both countries were only hours away from meeting at sea, but a storm prevented this from happening.

In 1982 during the [[Falklands War]], Chile helped the United Kingdom since Argentina was a real threat for the country, and if they won the war they were going to attack Chile after. [[Margaret Thatcher]] thanked the Chilean support when Pinochet was captured in London in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/mar/26/pinochet.chile2|title=Thatcher visits her old friend Pinochet|date=March 26, 1999|publisher=The Guardian}}</ref>

Samoré died before the successful completion of his mission on May 2, 1985, when the foreign ministers of Argentina and Chile exchanged the instruments of ratification of peace before John Paul II.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Education reform==

===College===
The average years of schooling of Chileans had a significant increase, which went from 4.5% in 1970 to 8.7% in 1987, and the incorporation of the poorest into the system, aspects that would contribute to significantly improve equality of opportunities and equity in the educational system.

INACAP, an institution granted on loan to the Confederation of Production and Commerce, deserves special mention. It has become the main higher technical training center in the country with nearly 50,000 students and branches in Arica, Iquique, Calama, Antofagasta, Copiapó, La Serena, Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Santiago, Rancagua, Talca, Chillán, Los Angeles, Concepción, Talcahuano, Temuco, Valdivia, Osorno, Puerto Montt, Coyhaique and Punta Arenas.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Schools===
Until 1980, the Chilean educational system was characterized by a great intervention of state education, which reached more than 80% of the enrollment and a strongly centralized administration, showing serious problems: insufficient coverage, low quality and scarce capacity to absorb the poorest excluded from the educational system.

Teachers' salaries were very low because the bureaucracy consumed a large part of the resources and the state was the main employer. There was no competition among the different types of schools and a rigid curriculum was designed, conditions that promoted neither efficiency nor quality.

The urgent need to correct these shortcomings gave rise to a system of modernization of education that pursued the following objectives

* Improve the quality of education

* To increase its coverage

* Establish equal opportunities and

* Promote freedom of education

In order to achieve these objectives, a new incentive system was proposed that established a demand-side subsidy scheme based on the service provided, which gave a strong boost to subsidized education. Complementing this policy, it was decided that the State would no longer administer schools through the Ministry of Education and therefore would no longer be the main direct employer of teachers.

To this end, all elementary and secondary schools that had been administered by the Ministry of Education and some technical schools were transferred to the municipalities and transferred to private non-profit entities. Likewise, curricular reforms were increased as of 1980. Thus, the establishment of this framework of incentives and equitable rules of participation that favored competition allowed for a notable increase in coverage at these educational levels, aided by the considerable development of private sector participation in education. At the elementary level, the private subsidized sector went from a 14% share of total enrollment in 1980 to 30.4% in 1988. In secondary education, during the same period, the private subsidized sector almost tripled the number of students, from 15.9% to almost 40%.
Between 1971 and 1973, higher education, with 4.8% of the country's total enrollment (including elementary and secondary education) absorbed 39.7% of total fiscal spending on education. This figure is eloquent, especially if one considers that according to the 1970 Map of Extreme Poverty, 43% of children in extreme poverty did not attend school. The first measures adopted were aimed at reducing the higher education budget in order to prioritize and increase spending on basic and secondary education. Thus, between 1978 and 1980, spending on higher education dropped to 29%.

However, the problems that afflicted this type of education, which went far beyond excessive spending, required a drastic reform that began in 1980, when legal regulations began to be enacted that would correct the closed and virtually monopolistic nature of the university system, reinforce the freedom of teaching and introduce competition in order to improve academic quality.

A first legal text defined what a university was, the degrees and titles it could grant and the modalities of constitution and dissolution. The creation of new private establishments was allowed and the emergence of Professional Institutes was favored. Simultaneously, regulations were issued to force a rationalization and institutional restructuring of the universities. In addition, one of the priority lines of action was to promote the development of scientific and technological research, for which purpose the National Science and Technology Fund was created in 1981.

However, the reform that would have the greatest impact in the following years concerned the financing system. The new regulations defined funding from the public budget as consisting of three components.

* A direct contribution, which was distributed exclusively among the universities existing before the reform and which was reduced with respect to what was previously provided, in order to avoid inefficiency, save fiscal resources and reduce the possibilities of state institutions to compete unfairly with the new institutions that appeared under the new legislation.

* An indirect contribution based on the best scores in the selection and entrance exams.

The tax credit granted to low-income students to be repaid during their professional life.

Although there are still deficiencies in the system, the modifications introduced with the reform allowed for a strong increase in both private universities and intermediate education establishments and a corresponding increase in the number of students graduating from this educational level. There are currently 64 universities, 60 professional institutes and 116 technical training centers throughout the country that collaborate in the formation of the human capital required by a highly competitive and technified world.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Pension system reform==
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|150px|thumbnail|[[José Piñera]], father of the Private Pension system.]]
The reform of the pension system was one of the most profound and transcendental transformation experiences carried out by the military government. The new mechanism replaced the old pay-as-you-go system with a capitalization or individual savings system, privately administered and backed by regulations that ensured a minimum pension level from the State.

Enacted on November 4, 1980. Through this reform, the government changed the old system of distribution of workers' funds for a system of capitalization in individual accounts. To this end, it established private fund management institutions, the AFPs, leaving workers free to choose.

Under the old system, the active workers financed the pensions of the passive workers through their contributions, and both the pension benefits and the obligations of the active workers were fixed by law, with no correspondence between what they contributed and what they received as retirement benefits. This lack of relationship between the amount contributed and the pension received resulted in an incentive to under-declare contributions together with pressure from certain groups to obtain better or additional benefits, forcing the Treasury to make increasing contributions and causing the system to become underfinanced.

In addition, there was a total lack of uniformity in the system. At the time of the reform, there were 32 Pension Funds and more than one hundred different pension systems, which produced great differences in the mechanisms for calculating pensions and in the requirements for retirement, and open discrimination against the most disadvantaged groups and those with the least lobbying power.

In 1981, DL 3,500 was enacted, creating the Pension Fund Administrators, AFP, which introduced a radical change to the pension system and presented the following advantages:

* Pension levels directly related to individual effort.

* Freedom of choice and active role of members.

* Competitiveness of the system

* Independence from the public budget.

* Equity

* Application of the pay-as-you-go system for disability and survivors' pensions.

* Lower costs for members.

* Less negative impact on employment.

* Greater accumulation of capital in the economy as a whole, since the pension funds are operating and yielding returns through the capital market.

With more than twenty years in force, the new system now has more than 1,700,000 affiliates in the AFPs, which operate with a high degree of competitiveness. Its good performance has turned it into a successful export product to many countries around the world.

What was once a bold experiment in pension reform and a reckless privatization of social security, is now an experience that has been emulated in several Latin American and Asian countries. The results observed in Chile first motivated its neighbors to reform their pension systems. In the first half of the 1990s, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay did so.

Subsequently, Bolivia, Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic did so. Others are working on implementing the system, including Ecuador, Nicaragua, Lithuania, Slovak Republic, Ukraine and Romania.

Throughout the world, people's life expectancy has been increasing. In the United States, more than 100,000 people are 100 years old or older and there are studies that indicate that by the middle of this century, human life expectancy will reach 150 years. On the other hand, families are becoming smaller and the possibility for the State to pay decent pensions will become impossible, which is why the solution adopted by the Military Government is of enormous importance.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Health reform==

In order to improve the health status of the Chilean population, the Military Government initiated a series of actions aimed at modifying the impoverished situation of the sector by expanding private participation. In 1979, the existing discrimination between workers and employees was eliminated and the possibilities of choice were increased for a vast sector of the population thanks to the enactment of DL 2,575, which gave workers access to the Free Choice System and allowed the establishment of agreements with private institutions for hospital care. That same year, the Ministry of Health and the SNS were restructured, creating the National Health Services System, SNSS, made up of 27 autonomous entities responsible for providing preventive and curative services in specific geographic areas, each directly dependent on the Ministry.

Since 1980, the financial function of the National Health Fund, FONASA, has been centralized, which is responsible for distributing the resources coming from the Treasury, the contributions of the affiliates to the system and the direct payments of the users of the free-choice modality. In addition, FONASA is responsible for the administration of the health benefits system in the free-choice modality. Another very important step was taken in 1981 with the transfer of primary health care facilities to the municipalities. At the same time, some of these entities delegated their administration to non-profit private corporations. This allowed the administration to be deconcentrated and gave greater decision-making capacity to the local level. The transfer process was completed in 1988.

In 1981, the private social security health institutions, ISAPREs, were created. With this, the compulsory health contributions that until then had been paid into the state health insurance system could be freely transferred to one of these institutions and, within them, to one of the health plans offered by them.

Isapres: They were created with Law 18.933. With them, people can choose between being treated by the public health system or contribute to private health institutions that assure them a coverage determined by the chosen plan.

The additional contribution of 2% by the companies, now abolished, allowed a greater number of workers to have access to this system and improve their health plans, which today they are unable to do.

Subsequently, in 1985, the Health Benefits Regime was created, which stratifies all SNSS beneficiaries according to their income, assuring them a minimum level of health care compatible with their contributions, establishing free health care for the poorest.

The actions described above have made it possible to increase sectoral resources, achieve greater efficiency, increase people's responsibility for their health, improve the quality of care and steadily improve the population's level of health. However, the great challenge still lies in ensuring that all Chileans have the possibility of choosing where to receive health care, whether in the public or private system, with both operating in full competition.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Labor reform==

One of the most important reforms introduced by the military government was the labor reform contained in DL 2,200, which gave rise to the current Labor Code and replaced the legislation in force since 1931. The latter had clearly favored the ideologization of the relationship between workers and employers, which had become a permanent source of conflict.

Attributed to former Labor Minister [[José Piñera]], this was one of the economic changes with the greatest impact. Its objective was to forcefully transfer the principles of individual freedom to the labor market, which would be reflected in the rights of employees and employers established in a balanced manner in labor contracts.

The main elements that constituted the new legislation were the following:

* Legal equality before the law, which eliminated the distinction between workers and employees.

* Freedom of unionization, which put an end to compulsory membership and put an end to the excessive politicization of the organizations.

* Collective bargaining by company. This put an end to a type of bargaining that operated as an expression of class conflict and vindicationist approaches to the power of capital. From now on, collective bargaining takes place within the company, based on productivity and efficiency, with clear economic benefits for the workers.

* Right to strike used as an instrument of negotiation and not of political pressure.

* Freedom to form workers' confederations, eliminating the political monopoly over unions and the single centralized scheme.

With almost a quarter of a century in force, labor reforms have favored a climate of tranquility and productive efficiency, contributing to the growth of the country and the welfare of workers, notwithstanding some recent modifications that may have generated the feeling of going backwards in some specific aspects.

All these activities had a strong impact. Between 1970 and 1990, the population living in extreme poverty decreased from 21% (1.9 million) to 11% (1.4 million). Between the same dates, life expectancy at birth increased from 62 to 72 years and the infant mortality rate fell from 79.3 per 1,000 live births to 16. The average schooling of the population increased from 4.5 years to 9 years, while the percentage of poor children without basic education decreased from 43% to 5%. Illiteracy decreased from 11.8% to 5.4%. With respect to housing and infrastructure between the aforementioned dates, urban drinking water coverage increased from 67% to 97%, while rural coverage increased from 34% to 86%. Urban sewerage increased from 31% to 83%.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Poverty reduction==
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
In 1970, according to the Extreme Poverty Map, 21% of Chileans (almost two million people) lived in conditions of extreme poverty. In view of this reality, the military government had to concentrate its efforts on eradicating this scourge through a set of policies aimed at increasing and improving social programs.

In the first place, policies aimed at investing in human resources and improving the human capital of the population were addressed. Among the programs aimed at these purposes are: primary maternal and child care, supplementary food, preschool care, increased coverage in basic and secondary education, job training and care for children in an irregular situation.

A second group of policies focuses on efforts to improve the targeting of spending, directing it to the most vulnerable segments of the population.

In addition, policies were implemented to redistribute and invest in physical assets, on the understanding that by accessing them, the poor could permanently improve their income conditions and thus overcome their poverty. The programs were developed in the following areas: housing, drinking water, sewerage and title deed clearance.

At the same time, assistance policies were developed to provide mechanisms to supplement the income of the most destitute families in order to satisfy the minimum needs in keeping with the dignity of the human being. Among these were the creation of the single family subsidy and unemployment subsidies and special employment programs designed during periods of economic crisis. In 1975, the welfare pension system was also established for invalids and the elderly who were excluded from the social security system.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

In 1989, the groups belonging to the Mapuche "Regional Councils" appointed Augusto Pinochet as "Ulmen Füta Lonko" or "Great Authority".

With the application of the aforementioned regulations, from 1978 to 1990 the State delivered, in total, 69,984 individual domain titles to the indigenous people, and by virtue of the other provisions of this legal text and the new lands transferred, 72,931 domain titles were completed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://panampost.com/marcelo-duclos/2017/09/04/el-pasado-mapuche-que-incomoda-a-la-izquierda-el-dia-que-nombraron-gran-autoridad-a-pinochet/|title=El pasado mapuche que incomoda a la izquierda: el día que nombraron “Gran Autoridad” a Pinochet|language=es|date=September 4, 2017|publisher=PanamPost}}</ref>

==Local governments==
[[File:Pinochet inaugurando cinra.png|thumbnail]]
Local governments represent one of the areas in which it is possible to appreciate with greater clarity the transformation of the public sector structure initiated by the military government.

Municipal reform and modernization began with the enactment in 1976 of DL 1,289, which addressed improvements in the administrative and internal organization areas. Subsequently, in 1980, more profound changes took place with the enactment of DL 3,036 on Municipal Revenues, which decentralized the adoption of decisions in the financial field, and a set of norms that, together with the organizational restructuring of the municipalities, empowered them to assume the administration of services in areas that until then had been centrally administered, fulfilling the role assigned to them by the 1980 Constitution.

One of the most important innovations defined by the legislation is the Municipal Common Fund, formed with contributions from the municipalities themselves and fiscal resources that are subsequently distributed to the communes according to pre-designed parameters that consider the socioeconomic situation, the number of inhabitants and other territorial factors. This redistributive instrument put an end to the difference between poor and rich communes.

With regard to the administration of social services, the municipalities began to play a fundamental role as the government bodies closest to the community. Among the many services that were transferred to them, the most important were educational services, with the transfer of public elementary, middle and technical-professional schools, and health services, with the transfer of primary health care clinics.

Other relevant aspects in the process of municipal modernization refer to modifications in the technical-financial area. Among these innovations, the following stand out: the creation at the level of each commune of the Communal Secretariats of Planning and Coordination; the delegation to the private sector of works and services that were traditionally carried out directly by public officials; the promotion of efficiency by stimulating competition among municipalities to apply for financing of development projects; the rationalization and mechanization of the systems for the collection of fees, patents and other municipal revenues; and the creation at the national level of uniform and modern financial mechanisms.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

=== Easter Island ===
{{Main article|Easter Island}}
[[File:President Pinochet on Easter Island, Chile.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Augusto Pinochet]] on Easter Island, Chile.]]
Under the Presidency of the Republic of Captain General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, [[Easter Island]] is elevated to a level of importance and dedication from the Chilean authorities previously unthinkable, and one of the most important measures in this regard was the creation of the province of Isla de Pascua, which culminated with the appointment of the eminent Rapa Nui archaeologist and international university academic, Mr. Sergio Rapu Haoa, With an austere administration and charismatic leadership Sergio Rapu Haoa generated a paradigm of local administration that has been maintained by all subsequent governments, which although it has lost prominence as a paradigm, due to political quotas and lack of support from the central government, has definitely established that a member of the Rapanui ethnic group is the representative of the central government in the territory.<ref>[https://polinesia-chilena.blogspot.com/2007/11/independentismo-secesionismo-y.html Independentismo, Secesionismo y Autonomia - Polinesia Chilena]</ref>

On January 24, 1975, television arrived on the island, with the inauguration of a station of Televisión Nacional de Chile, which broadcasted its programming on a deferred basis until 1996, when live satellite transmissions to the island began.

In 1979, by decree, the Rapa Nui were able to legally register their ancestral properties in their own name. Something stipulated in the 1966 Pascua Law but not implemented until Pinochet's decree.

In 1986, a special fuel subsidy was created for Easter Island. In addition, through the then U.S. Ambassador to Chile, Harry Barnes, it was decided that, due to its strategic location and low air traffic density, the Mataveri airport runway was ideal to be used as an emergency alternative for the landing of space shuttles. Thus, the runway was repaired and extended to its current length and equipped with advanced electronics for air navigation. Thanks to this project, tourism on the island increased explosively and a LAN Chile plane began to operate every 15 days with supplies and thanks to this infrastructure, there is the possibility of daily trips in official planes.

Before they had contact every so often, from that moment they began to have more contact, to be able to make surgical interventions. In addition, there began to be subsidies for houses on the island.

===Chilean Antarctica===
[[File:Villa Las Estrellas.jpg|thumbnail|Villa Las Estrellas, the Chilean town in the South Shetland Islands at night. ]]
[[File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Pinochet]] inaugurating [[Villa Las Estrellas]] in the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
The most significant act for Chile, however, perhaps corresponds to the inauguration of Villa Las Estrellas, by [[President of Chile|President]] [[Augusto Pinochet]] on April 9, 1984, on King George Island, in the South Shetlands. It is located next to the President Frei Meteorological Center and three kilometers from the Lieutenant Marsh Base. Pinochet visited the continent more than once, the first time in 1977. Today there is the "Cerro Lucía" named after his wife Lucía Hiriart, the Augusto Pinochet Massif (also known as Dufek) and the Admiral Merino Channel (also known as Plata).

Initially with only six families, in a few months it had already doubled to 12 families and was already the first and only population of civilian settlers established in Antarctica, with no other similar experience in history. The success of this project allowed the registration of some of the first human births in Antarctic territory, which up to 1985 totaled three:

*Juan Pablo Camacho Martinez (November 21, 1984)
*Gisella Ester Cortés Rojas (2 December 1984)
*Ignacio Alfonso Miranda Lagunas (January 23, 1985).
In practice, this means that Chile has allowed the birth of another of the first men with Antarctic gentilage, among the first authentic "Antarctics" in the world, after a registry apparently initiated at the Argentinean base "Esperanza" on January 7, 1978 (Emilio Marcos Palma), but which has been put in doubt by some technical and historical criteria, such as the much earlier birth of a girl in South Georgia Island, United Kingdom: Solveig Gunbjörg Jacobsen, born on October 8, 1913. The case is recorded by Robert K. Headland in his work "The Island of South Georgia" (Cambridge University Press, 1984). Moreover, in the Argentine case, the parents were not resident civilians, but rather officials of a temporary base, although they had been living in specially arranged cabins since that same year. It should be noted that in the case of the Chilean births, they were also residents, since they belonged to families who were members of the settler community. The confusion of the Argentine case and its registration as the "first" in the world, which has even been accepted by the Guinness Book of Records, seems to derive from the campaign carried out during the last Argentine military governments as propaganda in favor of their aspirations over the southern territory.

At present, villa "Las Estrellas" has a large population of its own, including an inn, a nursery, a school, a mini hospital, a small supermarket, a post office and a bank, which make it a real human colony, and not an imitation or a set-up of one, to the point that it has become an important enclave of logistic support for the other eight nations that have installations on King George Island and its surroundings.

Supplies are periodically flown in by air, a task carried out by the Chilean Air Force. The colony's houses are built with great comfort, in a hundred square meters and with lenga wood on a solid steel chassis, with special adaptations in roofs and windows to insulate the cold environment.

The success of villa "Las Estrellas" has not been unique for Chile. In July 2000, another good scientific news took place, after a Chilean research group discovered a natural sanctuary for Antarctic Minke whales, which developed their own habitat on the frozen continent, adapting to its extreme climatic conditions. The whales' refuge was defined by the scientists as "a new population and species of Minke whales for the southern hemisphere". Apparently, the cetaceans developed an extraordinary adaptation that allowed them to permanently inhabit Antarctic waters without having to migrate in the austral winter.

This type of progress is also fundamental for the defense of Chile's Antarctic rights, protected by the Antarctic Treaty, since the country has achieved remarkable advances and discoveries on the white continent, knowledge and foundations that will later be vital for the validation of its rights, since discoveries such as these demonstrate that Chile is one of the few countries with a constant Antarctic relationship. Numerous scientific and geographical studies thus support Chilean sovereignty over the area.

In April 2001, a project to transfer Chilean jurisdiction over Antarctica and the village of "Las Estrellas" from Punta Arenas to the Municipality of Navarino, on the island of the same name, which would be renamed the Municipality of Cape Horn, was approved in April 2001. This measure, although it has some critical remarks, makes a great administrative approximation of the Chilean Antarctic alien to any inductive projection as is the case in other countries, demonstrating another instance of the true close relationship that exists between continental Chile and its polar territory.

In this sense, it may constitute a great advance, but it will be of no use if the serious problem derived from the reduction of the number of people who live in Chile's Antarctic territory persists.<ref>[http://www.soberaniachile.cl/derechos_soberanos_antarticos_de_chile.html]</ref>

==Sectorial Improvements==
===Agriculture===

Chile's great export potential for agricultural products was nullified by the protectionist policy followed since the 1930s. The end of the agrarian reform, together with the process of land titling and, above all, the opening of the economy, were decisive for the development of the sector. Thanks to this, Chile has become one of the largest exporters of fresh fruit in the world by taking advantage of the comparative advantages of the Chilean climate. In 2003, fruit exports reached US$1,667 million (FOB) with a planted area of 214,485 hectares in 2002.

The same has happened with the forestry sector, which also saw its potential curbed by the export restrictions that existed before 1974. Thanks to the opening of the economy, there was a rapid expansion of plantations and subsequently of export volumes, not only of raw material, but also of value-added by-products.

The US adopted sanctions to Chilean Fruit exports for 'human right abusses' and pressured Chile to introduce a series of economic reforms, a process that escalated sharply in the eighties.

One of the ministers of Agriculture was [[Alfonso Marquéz De La Plata]].<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Mining===
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|250px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
When the military government took office, it was faced with litigation arising from nationalization, which had consisted of a virtual stripping of foreign companies of their investments in the mining sector. Nor was there any clarity in the rules for those who wished to exercise the right to explore and exploit mineral deposits, so that the development of the sector was in sharp decline.

Initially, the authorities, aware that the country lacked sufficient capital to support this development, reached agreement formulas with the expropriated companies, taking the first step to restore seriousness in the treatment of foreign investment.

Subsequently, through the 1980 Constitution and the Constitutional Organic Law on mining concessions, the pertinent norms were established, providing the concession with the essential attributes for the right to explore and exploit the deposits. This legislation was later joined in 1983 by the Mining Code.

The Organic Constitutional Law on Mining Concessions reaffirmed the ownership of mining concessions in private hands. The Mining Code established clear and precise definitions, its main objective being to guarantee the stability and security of the concessions.

This legislation, which is applicable to nationals and foreigners, has now borne fruit, thanks to which the sector has benefited from strong investment, which to date amounts to US$18 billion. Copper exports have reached US$7,502.5 million (FOB), while non-copper metallic and non-metallic exports reached US$958 million (FOB) in 2003.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Electricity Sector===

As a result of the price freeze established in 1971, both state-owned and private companies in the electricity sector suffered serious financial difficulties. In the first years after 1974, the Military Government began a process of rationalization and normalization of the sector that sought to correct the preponderant state participation, the imposition of political price regulations and inefficient tariffs, defining a strategy consistent with the general development policy postulated by the country. That is, seeking the maximum welfare of the population within conditions of efficiency in a framework of State subsidiarity.

In 1978, the systematic process of institutional reorganization began with the objectives of decentralization, the search for efficiency, competition and private participation. Privatization itself was conducted with caution and a great deal of pragmatism as to its speed. The first privatizations did not take place before 1980. It should be noted here that this process favored not only institutional investors, but also numerous private individuals and the workers themselves through the so-called "popular capitalism".

Both privatizations and policy changes in the electricity sector have been of great importance for the country's development. First of all, it should be noted that the companies soon showed that their financial situation was in a healthy state. A second positive element was the overall efficiency of the sector, which was reflected in lower tariffs worldwide, benefiting consumers. To this must be added an increase in service coverage. Thirdly, the stability of the rules of the game has favored investment in the sector.

Currently, the energy generation activity operates as a competitive market and transmission and distribution are regulated by tariffs because they are considered natural monopolies. Both the regulatory institutional framework and the tariff law developed during the military government have been key in the development of this sector.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Telecommunications Sector===

The new National Telecommunications Policy that the Military Government elaborated at the beginning was legally materialized in the General Telecommunications Law enacted in 1982, which established the free and non-discriminatory access of individuals to the development of telecommunications services in the country. It also established the technical control of the development of these services through authorizations granted by the Undersecretary of Telecommunications SUBTEL. In relation to the tariffs of the services, the law established a general freedom, but empowered the authority to regulate them in case of monopolistic situations.

Meanwhile, as early as 1974, a process of normalization of the large state-owned companies in the sector (CTC andENTEL) began, which would make their privatization possible after 1985. In this sense, in an attempt to decentralize the sector, the CTC was subsidized.

In 1982, the state monopoly of national telegraph and telex services was abolished and Teles Chile S.A. was created as a subsidiary of CORFO. This company was 100% privatized in 1985.

Another important milestone in the modernization of the sector was to allow the transfer of telephone contracts between private individuals, which meant recognizing the holders of these contracts a property right over them and provided a market solution aimed at economically distributing the severe shortage of lines existing at that time.

In 1981, the first two private telephone companies were created: CMET and Manquehue.

In 1985, in view of the great investment needs, the sector was opened to national and foreign private participation. Since then, the development of telecommunications in Chile has been rapid and successful, which has placed it at the forefront in Latin America and with respect to many countries in the world. On the other hand, the country has been able to successfully introduce state-of-the-art technologies such as cellular telephony, network digitalization and the use of fiber optics, among others, and to introduce greater competition in the development of long distance through the multicarrier system.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Transportation Sector===
[[File:Carretera Austral Augusto Pinochet.jpg|250px|thumbnail|''[[Carretera Austral]]'' of 1240 km long in [[Aysén Region]], built during the Military Government and unofficially named after him by his supporters.]]
[[File:Pinochet en avión con ministros.png|thumbnail]]
In the cases of shipping, air transportation and port operations, modifications were made to the legal system in order to establish a competitive system and open up participation to the private sector.

The modernizations carried out in the port sector have been of great importance as a complement to foreign trade activities. In 1973, Chilean ports were extremely overcrowded. The main cause of this inefficiency was found in the low yields of the port labor sector, a product of its monopolistic position. From 1973 onwards, small reforms were carried out which made it possible to incorporate a greater number of casual workers and private entrepreneurs into port operations by freezing the registration system, preventing EMPORCHI from acquiring new equipment and rationalizing personnel. However, the main change was the end of the labor monopoly, with the enactment in 1981 of Law No. 18,032, which opened access to the port labor market to the entire labor force of the country. Beginning that same year, EMPORCHI's tariff system was rationalized and port work was increased to three shifts, thus improving the efficiency in the occupation of the existing infrastructure.

With respect to air transportation, the following important modernizations were carried out during the Military Government:

* Beginning in 1977, although only administratively, restrictions for foreign operators in cargo movement began to be lifted. Shortly thereafter, the Civil Aeronautics Board decided to approve all requests to provide passenger services unless Lan Chile demonstrated within one week that this was detrimental to it, thus laying the foundations for the deregulation of the air market.

* Freedom of tariffs for scheduled air cargo transportation between Chile and other countries was decreed in December 1978, together with another Supreme Decree approving the same freedom for international scheduled air passenger transportation. In June 1979, freedom of access to the market and freedom of tariffs were established, giving the authority, in accordance with international standards, the power to apply, on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, restrictions to third country companies on routes where Chilean companies are restricted by another state, and to set tariffs on those routes where, by provision of another state, such freedom does not exist.

* Subsequently, in November 1981, Law No. 18,063 was enacted, which gave the JAC the powers it still has today and provided it with the tools to better negotiate Chile's air rights with the authorities of other countries, thus seeking a greater degree of openness in the air markets.

* These implemented policies generated competitive conditions that resulted in increased frequency, lower costs and greater air coverage from the country.

In railroad transportation, progress was made by rationalizing the state-owned company, focusing it on its own tasks and on those in which it had comparative advantages. To a small extent, private participation was introduced, especially in maintenance and repair of equipment and infrastructure.

The ''[[Carretera Austral]]'' (Southern Highway) was built between 1976 and 1989 and connects several rural towns in the far south of Chile that previously didn't had direct transportation, it is 1240 km long, starting in [[Puerto Montt]] and ending in Villa O'Higgins. Today the highway is a touristic destination of Chile because of the beauty of the landscape. This huge and important geopolitical megaproject was built by military personnel, many died because of the rough climate.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Fight against Left Wing Terrorism (Irregular War)==
{{Main article|Left Wing Terrorism in Chile}}
[[File:FPMR Chile.SVG|250px|thumbnail|left|Manuel Rodríguez Front Flag.]]
[[File:Flag of the MIR - Chile.svg|250px|thumbnail|left|MIR Flag.]]
[[File:Miguel Krassnoff.jpg|250px|thumbnail|[[Miguel Krassnoff]] executed the leader of the terrorist organization, MIR. Nowadays he is unjustly in the [[Punta Peuco Jail|Punta Peuco prison]] for that.]]
The Armed Forces, through their intelligence agencies, had to face a difficult element to combat. Terrorism is an activity in which the means override the ends, in which the ultimate objective is above all value considerations, making it an immoral and delirious activity that stops at nothing.
Cowardly attacks, the blowing up of pylons, the detonation of explosives and robberies were the daily bread. The following are some newspaper reports of the time.

In June 1974, the National Intelligence Directorate, DINA, was created to continue the work against terrorism and subversion. The achievements of the DINA were real. But it was also between 1973 and Pinochet's abolition of DINA in 1977 that the most inexcusable abuses were committed, sometimes by senior DINA personnel.
Such abuses are, no doubt, deplorable. But there is no evidence of General Pinochet's involvement in them. Moreover, there should be no doubt as to the reality of the threat facing the country, and that it was essentially this continuing threat that guaranteed a degree of impunity to skeptics of the security apparatus.
The facts speak for themselves. For example: in 1974 fifty-two members of the armed forces and the police were killed or wounded in terrorist attacks.
In the same year [[Miguel Krassnoff]] killed the terrorist Miguel Enríquez, leader of the MIR, the maximum leader of Chilean terrorism, and the secretary general of the Coordinadora Revolucionaria para el Cono Sur (Revolutionary Coordinating Committee for the Southern Cone) while he was in a housed with the main members of the MIR. Krassnoff saved his wife who was pregnant of his son who later became a Socialist politician called Marco Enríquez-Ominami.

In 1975 there were 25 similar cases. Then there was a lull in terrorist activity, but not in the determination of the Marxists to overthrow the regime.

In 1979, the secretary of the Chilean Communist Party, Luis Corvalán, threatened that Chile "could become a second Nicaragua".

In 1980 he envisioned a new era of "acute violence". And indeed the early 1980s saw a major resurgence of terrorist attacks, as the communist forces of the "Manuel Rodriguez Popular Front" regrouped.
The action was organized mainly in Cuba, as the U.S. State Department acknowledged in a report to the Senate Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on December 14, 1981. Again the attempt to destabilize the country was put down.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|450px|thumbnail|Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.]]

In the period after 1980, the recorded terrorist deaths total 389 persons. (The information corresponds to the [[Rettig Report]])
We can observe how between the period 1973-1979 the extremist war power was drastically diminished, which correlates with the number of deaths in those years in frank decrease and in the number and type of attacks perpetrated.
From 1978/79 until the mid-1980s, the terrorist escalation was notorious. This was the beginning of a decade in which the Chilean State designed the outline of a new institutional framework based on a legal system in accordance with national values and with an evidently integrating intention.
The Communist Party took advantage of this moment to reinforce and optimize the "Propaganda War", from where it disseminated its doctrine and action plan.
The MIR restructured itself both politically and militarily. It received support from extremist leaders such as Pascal Allende who came to Chile to consolidate the movement and set objectives. A violent work plan was set up to be applied in 1979, called "offensive of the resistance" which consisted in programming 3 major armed propaganda actions and 10 explosive sabotages per month, in the central zone of Chile and an equivalent number in the rest of the country.
The repressive action of the Military Government was always directed against subversion and terrorism and although it managed to neutralize their action, it never achieved the total defeat of the extremist groups. Between 1982 and 1983, the creation of the Manuel Rodriguez Front marked a new era of violence and terrorism, which was reflected in an increase in the number of terrorist deaths.
Among the most violent attacks were the deaths of military and carabineros in the exercise of their duties, carried out by combat groups of the MIR.

* July 15, 1980: Murder of the Director of the Army Intelligence School, Lieutenant Colonel Roger Vergara Campos and two companions.
* August 30, 1983: Murder of Santiago Intendant General Carol Urzúa and 2 escorts.

Significantly, it was around the same time that Pinochet had already begun to put Chile back on the road to democracy that the most serious attempt to destroy him occurred.
In early 1986, Chilean security forces discovered a huge arsenal of Cuban weapons, enough to arm 5,000 men, although it was apparently only part of a larger quantity whose hiding place remains a mystery.
Some of this weaponry, hidden in the hands of 70 terrorists, was used in a carefully planned assassination attempt against Pinochet.
Fortunately he escaped unharmed but 5 of his bodyguards were killed. Nor were his security personnel the only victims that year; in all of 1986, 23 people died in terrorist acts, including subway passengers, bus passengers and pedestrians.
In the face of so much Soviet-backed and Cuban-sponsored terrorist action perpetrated by communists, it is not surprising that the military government stepped up the fight, and when a government steps up its fight, abuses occur. But the fact remains that order is better than disorder, and legality is better than illegality.
Pinochet's action restored legality and order in Chile.
Had it not been for the timing and effectiveness of the Military Intervention, the death toll could have reached millions. Plan Z could have been carried out and we would have become the second Cuba. That Cuba that today boasts 48,000 executed, 400,000 prisoners and one and a half million exiles and where there is a death penalty for those who try to leave the island.
On July 13, 1995, a tugboat with 72 Cubans trying to flee was intercepted killing 41 people among them 22 children.

The level reached by different paramilitary groups and the culture of destruction that guided their actions did not disappear with the presence of the military government. It only determined a change in the way they acted, since, apart from going underground, it meant a recomposition of their cadres, both from the outside and from the inside, making their actions more violent.

In 1978 close to a thousand terrorists were pardoned, commuted and amnestied according to the Amnesty Decree Law of 1978.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2014/07/este-pobre-pais-desmemoriado.html?m=0|title=Este Pobre País Desmemoriado|date=July 19, 2014|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

The Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), which was the most efficient expression of the extremist groups, sent its main members for guerrilla training to various countries of the Soviet orbit, mainly to Cuba and, from the first quarter of 1974, began to bring them in clandestinely.

Thanks to the action of disinformation, they achieved the desired economic support and, at the end of 1979, they began the self-styled "Operation Return", which allowed them to resume terrorist action in the country, which resulted in constant assaults on bank branches and financial institutions in general, as well as sabotage to road infrastructure, public service buildings and police facilities. A series of attacks against Carabineros and authorities took place, including the assassination of the Director of the Army Intelligence School, which marked the beginning of selective terrorist actions.

This movement managed to expand to rural areas and set up guerrilla stations and pockets, which sought to attract adherents among the peasantry and, at the same time, to organize arms and supplies depots. The best known was discovered in Neltume, in the [[Araucanía Region]].

As a result of the constant arrests to which they were subjected, this group was losing strength, although this did not mean the end of their war logic, since, for example, the year 1980 ended with a disastrous toll of deaths of civilians and police officers, who were in sectors called "armed propaganda". In line with these criminal acts, the murder of the Intendant of Santiago, Major General Carol Urzúa, and his two escorts in 1983, was also a crime.

As an illustrative example and according to existing statistical research, it can be stated that in the period 1974–1984, the MIR carried out more than 1,200 armed actions.

Apart from this movement, there were other armed subversive movements, among them the Manuel Rodriguez Front, which is the armed wing of the Communist Party, and the Lautaro Movement.

The Communist Party, obeying a party doctrine, continued with a public position, while reorganizing its paramilitary instance, which in 1975 was given an organic conformation at national level. Its first actions were registered in Antofagasta and Valparaíso, but it acquired greater strength and dynamics from 1983 onwards in the existing political-social agitation and effervescence, in which the so-called "Peaceful Protests" stood out, which generated support from popular sectors, due to the economic crisis that had to be faced. Gradually their presence became more aggressive and in 1984 alone they carried out 130 attacks with explosives.

Between 1984 and 1986, statistics show that more than 600 Chileans were affected by terrorist acts of the Manuel Rodriguez Front.

Their actions were normally centered in urban areas, but they used coastal sectors for the internment of weapons, the most notorious being the one discovered in the sector of Carrizal Bajo, in the [[Atacama Region]]. Of the material captured by the police and security agencies, which represented only 50% of the weapons seized, the following stand out:

Automatic, semi-automatic and anti-armor weapons in an amount close to 4000 units and a wide range of anti-personnel grenades, diverse and substantial ammunition of different calibers, plus explosives and other elements of war material and engineers.

On September 7, 1986, President Augusto Pinochet suffered a terrorist attack perpetrated by the Front Manuel Rodriguez (FPMR) in the Achupallas sector, Cajón del Maipo, when the motorcade in which he was traveling from his resting residence was attacked with rockets and machine guns. Pinochet suffered minor injuries to his left hand, but five of his escorts were killed. The attack used weapons from the war arsenal found in the [[Atacama Region]] on August 15, 1986, in a cove located in Carrizal Bajo, south of Copiapó, weapons sent by [[Fidel Castro]].<ref name=Biografia>{{cite web|url=https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/p/biografia_21.html|title=BIOGRAFIA|publisher=Chile Pinochet Nuestro}}</ref>

The head of the attack on Pinochet, was César Bunster, and the communist military chief who has publicly confessed to having been the mastermind of that attack, was Guillermo Teillier, both have never been prosecuted because the courts have held that prescription does operate for them.<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019}}</ref>

The men who were killed were:
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Miguel Angel Guerrero Guzmán.
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Cardenio Hernández Cubillos.
- Carabineros 2nd Corporal Pablo Antonio Silva Pizarro.
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Gerardo Rebolledo Cisternas.
- 2nd Corporal of the Army Roberto Rosales Martínez.

The most important criminal acts up to 1990 were:

* Repeated explosive attacks against municipalities and offices of public, private and international companies, including the one perpetrated against the National Defense Fund in Valparaíso, which left 17 wounded and one dead.

* Attacks on towns such as those in Contulmo, Los Queñes and Cabildo.

* Kidnappings of Gonzalo Cruzat, Sebastiano Bartolomé, Carabineros Corporal Sergio Ovando, Army Colonel Mario Haberle Rivadeneira and Army Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera.

* Massive illegal arms shipment.

* Murders of Army Colonel Miguel Rojas Lobos and Army Lieutenant Julio Zegers R. at the Army Aviation Command.

* Frustrated attempt against the Army Military Prosecutor, Brigadier General Fernando Torres Silva.

* Attempted assassination attempt against the President of the Republic, CGL. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, where 5 bodyguards were killed and countless wounded.

With regard to the Lautaro movement, known by various similar names, its most important actions began in 1982 with robberies, assaults, attacks on Carabineros and distribution of the products obtained in this way, in marginal populations and student centers.

In synthesis, this reality was a harsh interference to the spirit and proposal of the Military Government, to reach the different goals in harmony and stability, according to the itinerary that had been previously established. During the period analyzed, and as a result of the action of these extremist groups, the depressing balance, unknown by most of the public opinion, determines that more than 300 Chileans were murdered among civilians and military; they were the object of despicable actions until today forgotten or disfigured by the action of disinformation.

The facts have been distorted by various segments and sectors of Chilean society and the international community, due to disinformation as well as ideological or partisan positions. Unfortunately, it has reached such biased and unilateral levels that the image that is preserved is that of defenselessness and innocence of the actors representing pro-Marxist or paramilitary groups or sectors, and an image of intolerance, abuse of power and guilty acts of those who served in the military government prevails.

It is true that in the action against extremist movements since September 11, 1973, as well as in the periods of social effervescence and political polarization between 1982 and 1986, there may be responsibilities of officials of State agencies in the face of events labeled as human rights, but we must not forget and take into consideration the logic and reality of subversive warfare prevailing in those periods. On the other hand, in no case does this possible reality distort or minimize the responsibility of those who systematically used violence to achieve their ends.

The Government, in combating these devastating terrorist behaviors, was inspired by the common good of the country's citizens and never encouraged, systematized or organized forms of action to increase the spiral of violence that reigned.

The historical truth that must be kept in mind is that these irrational conducts were conceived and practiced by political and subversive sectors that today appear as victims alien to the real scenario that they themselves created.

It is worth mentioning, as an illustrative fact, that after 1990, both the Manuel Rodriguez Front and the Lautaro Movement continued to assassinate military and police personnel and kidnap national personalities. The judicial processes and those responsible for these serious crimes also seem to have been forgotten by public opinion.

343 of the people who died in this period were narcos eliminated along with the destruction of 33 cocaine processing laboratories.<ref>[https://youtu.be/PstCXq6xO-A https://youtu.be/PstCXq6xO-A?t=141]</ref>

==Civilian unrest==

Large-scale popular protests erupted in 1983 organized by the Left, and several opposition parties, the Christian Democratic Party being the largest, formed a new centre-left coalition, the Democratic Alliance (''Alianza Democrática'' or AD). The Roman Catholic Church also began openly to support the opposition. In August 1984, 11 parties of the right and centre signed an accord, worked out by the archbishop of Santiago, Raúl Cardinal Silva Henríquez, calling for elections to be scheduled before 1989. Additional pressure came from the [[Jimmy Carter]] presidency and other countries that had supported Chile economically but now showed signs of impatience with Pinochet's regime and with the numerous reports of so-called 'human rights violations' attributed to his military crackdown and his persecution of Left Wing Guerrillas.

The economic and political climate continued to be volatile in the late 1980s, with increasing pressure for governmental change by the opposition, acts of terrorism multiplying, and the economy suffered from two external crises as well as strikes and protests from the labor sector.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==National plebiscite and third stage (Normality or Consolidation)==
{{Main article|1988 Chilean national plebiscite}}
[[File:Logo Sí & No Pinochet Plebiscite 1988.png|thumbnail|''Sí'' and ''No'' logos of the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite]].]]
[[File:1538674148-pinochet.jpg|thumbnail|The [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]] was held to decide if Pinochet continued being [[President of Chile]] until 1997. Congress was planned to be reopened in both alternatives of the plebiscite.]]

This last phase would be materialized with the transfer of the government to the new authorities.

One aspect that cannot be overlooked is the fact that, while the military government was in power, there was special concern for not confusing or mixing the role that legally corresponded to the Armed Forces with the work of leading the country carried out by some of its members, which prevented a process of politicization of these institutions and allowed a full and expeditious return to their usual functions.

The country's complete political liberalization came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite. To organize opposition to Pinochet, who was chosen as the junta's candidate, 16 centrist and leftist parties formed the Command for No (Comando por el No). On October 5, 1988, the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes won, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. As the country prepared for its first free presidential and legislative elections since 1973, Command for No—renamed the Coalition of Parties for Democracy (Concertación de los Partidos por la Democracia; CPD)—and the government negotiated constitutional amendments that were approved in a national referendum in July 1989, among them the revocation of Article Eight, which banned Marxist parties. Two months later the leftist Chileans living abroad returned to the country. Presidential elections were held on December 11, 1989.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=186894|title=Ministro desclasifica vínculo de George Soros con Chile: apoyó campaña del No, ayudó a Ricardo Lagos con los empresarios y hoy respalda inversión en el país|language=es|publisher=Economía y Negocios|date=September 27, 2015}}</ref> and the [[National Endowment for Democracy]], which originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, and helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2020/12/se-me-cayeron-los-estados-unidos.html|title="Se Me Cayeron" los Estados Unidos|date=December 30, 2020|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref><ref name=aniversarioSi>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/09/otro-aniversario-del-si.html|title=Otro Aniversario del "Sí"|date=Septemebr 30, 2020|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref> Soros is a friend of the Chilean politician Máximo Pacheco who thanked the him for "his contribution in the recovery of our democracy, and we do not forget that in Chile" and also said that Soros was crusial "in conducting studies and obtaining data that gave us information that had been hidden from us for 17 years." "What we learned there was crucial for the preparation of the famous television program of the No campaign and for the victory in the plebiscite".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html|title=El multimillonario que apoyó la campaña del No y ayudó a Ricardo Lagos con empresarios (Soros helped the "No" campaign)|publisher=Emol|language=es|date=September 27, 2015}}</ref>

The "Sí" option would have probably won if the election was in 1987, but the majority verdict changed due to the enormous flow of money from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy and the millionaire European subsidies for a majority of anti-government print media that subsisted thanks to the prevailing freedom of the press (although each year the Inter-American Press Association maintained that there was none, which wasn't true due to the existing opposition magazines containing the worst criticisms to the military government).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/10/hoy-votaria-si-con-mayor-razon.html|title=Hoy Votaría "Sí" Con Mayor Razón|date=October 3, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

The NED financed numerous leftist entities like trade unions, academic and journalistic organizations. Pinochet knew this and described it as "an act of intervention that cannot be viewed with pleasure by the majority of Chileans, including broad sectors of the opposition".
The US ambassador, [[Harry Barnes]], who systematically contradicted the good omens that [[President Reagan]] expressed to the military government, pointed out that the aid to the opposition does not imply an intervention in Chile's internal affairs, but rather "to promote participation and civic education, processes that correspond to any real democracy".<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/05/historia-de-la-revolucion-militar_20.html}}</ref>

The international organizations ignored the historical truth to the same degree as the majority of Chileans, who did not know, because of that deceitful propaganda, that democracy would return the same whether the "Sí" or "No" vote won, because there were going to be the same elections, the same institutions and the same individual guarantees for all, after 1990. Because the "Sí" government so provided in the Constitution, which improved the country for all, including those who voted "No".<ref name=aniversarioSi/><ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Democracy restored==
[[File:Transmision de mando Aylwin-Pinochet.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Augusto Pinochet giving the Presidency to Patricio Aylwin, March 11, 1990.]]
[[File:Pinochet and Aylwin.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Pinochet as Commander-in-Chief and Aylwin as president.]]

In the December 1989 presidential election, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin|Patricio Aylwin Azócar]], leader of the [[Concertación|Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia]] (Concertation of Parties for Democracy), won by a large margin over his closest opponent, Hernán Büchi, a former finance minister and the government-endorsed candidate. The coalition also gained a majority in the lower chamber and nearly half the seats in the upper chamber.

On March 11, 1990, the President of the Republic, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, handed over the Presidential sash to his successor Patricio Aylwin Azócar in a sober ceremony presided over by the newly elected President of the Senate, Gabriel Valdés.
Everyone congratulated each other for this transfer of power full of symbolism.

The Armed Forces and the Forces of Order, which had had to take charge of the nation in 1973, were completing their work, faithfully fulfilling their word.
The country was once again on the democratic path after the military government had made the profound corrections that Chile required.
A thriving economy and a country confident in its future was the legacy that the Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of Order handed over to President Aylwin so that he could continue, for the good of Chile, the path that Chileans had traveled with so much effort and sacrifice during the last two decades.

This correct transition had unique and original features. He who had served for 17 years as President of the Republic continued as Commander-in-Chief of the Army for the next 8 years, that is to say, the entire presidential term of Patricio Aylwin and a good part of his successor's term.

President Aylwin did not feel comfortable with this situation and told the Commander-in-Chief of the Army that his government did not think it was good for the country or for the Army that he would continue as Commander-in-Chief, but that he recognized and respected his right to remain in office.

At the end of his term, former President Aylwin, in an interview with the newspaper ''[[Le Monde]]'', reproduced by the Santiago newspaper El Mercurio on April 30, 1994, praised the figure of Augusto Pinochet as a sort of guarantor of the transition: "If Pinochet had not been there during the transition, we would have had in Chile attempts of insurrection carried out by subordinates, "painted faces" as was the case in Argentina".
Later, in Japan, he declared that "during my government, General Pinochet fulfilled the task of Commander-in-Chief of the Army, subordinate to the President and respectful of the constitutional order" (La Época, July 9, 1994).

Aylwin, who took office in March 1990, supported Chile's free-market system but also emphasized social and political change. Before stepping down, Pinochet was able to appoint several new Supreme Court justices and to claim a lifetime senatorial seat; he also retained significant power as commander of the armed forces until his retirement from the military in 1998.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Smear campaign against the Military Government==
From the first day of the Military Government, a growing campaign of disinformation and criticism began from abroad, inspired and financed, mainly at the beginning, by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and to which, as has been said, other States gradually joined in. Priority support came from leftist sectors working in relevant information, communication and publicity centers at world and national level. In this context it is necessary to remember that disinformation seeks to psychologically destroy an image through the systematic propagation of lies or the dissemination of a half-truth.

The former Secretary of Defense of the United States of America, Robert Mc Namara, in reference to this point, explained in the context of the east–west conflict and exemplified with some postulates of the Soviets:

"The repeated lie is a method of propaganda; if the lie is spread by using all means of publicity, it concludes by being accepted as truth or at least half-truth".

The campaign remained relentless and uninterrupted throughout the Military Government and obviously, it increased after it. The persistence, consistency in the way of acting, together with a systematic use of lies, has its genesis in various meetings held abroad, with the participation of Chilean, Soviet and other nationalities' leaders, where ways were articulated to achieve the political, economic and moral isolation of Chile, with the intention of overthrowing the Military Government and reinstalling a socialist regime.

To achieve this, National Centers of Solidarity with Chile were created, which, through the spaces generated, carried out extensive disinformation campaigns. Since those years, the leftist sectors have used all academic, political and union instances, achieving, among other effects, the gradual incorporation of international, political, economic and governmental organizations to their aims, following the "Gramscian" line referring to the need to provoke a change in the existing social conditions on the basis of changing mentalities.

The level of coordination allowed them to carry out campaigns in most of the international forums, so that, together with denouncing the Military Government, even the economic policies of the country were interfered with, not to mention the high level of support they generated for the ideological opponents and mainly for the subversive apparatuses that operated clandestinely in the country.

This action had as a central axis the accusations related to human rights, which had a special receptivity in the United Nations Organization and other organizations of similar importance. This point was undoubtedly the one that caused the greatest interference and hindrance, significantly damaging national coexistence, as well as affecting the transition process conceived.

The peaceful and rational transition to democracy was slowly eroded by several factors. The main and most negative was the action of the left, which could never forgive President Augusto Pinochet for ending the chaotic government of Salvador Allende, sending a clear signal to the world that a socialist-communist regime, even if it was described as one of "empanadas and red wine", was clearly harmful and undesirable.

[[Leonid Brézhnev]] said in September 1973, "There should never be another Chile!"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2021/10/el-18-de-la-infamia.html|title=El 18 de la Infamia|date=October 17, 2021|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref> and the [[KGB]] started to make propaganda against the Chilean Military Government in collaboration with the Chilean Left claiming that in Chile there were "systematic Human Rights Violations".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2014/11/renegacion-nacional.html|title=¿Renegación Nacional?|date=November 21, 2014|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

===Guilt unjustly attributed===
When people in Chile and abroad speak of "Pinochet's crimes", they are referring mainly to what happened during the passage of General Arellano's retinue through the north, the details of which General Pinochet did not even know in advance and of which, subsequently, he was very badly and contradictorily informed.
And for the effects of the national and world image of the regime, the simultaneous case of Lonquén, which was only discovered five years later, in 1978, aggravated the situation created by an officer of Arellano's retinue, acting on his own, by killing numerous people without any form of trial.

This discovery was decisive, and although the Junta also bore no responsibility for the deaths, it constituted a "turning point" that was very poorly resolved by the Junta.
This case was originated by the unilateral and unauthorized action of the Carabineros, accompanied by civilians, who wanted to take justice into their own hands and also to take revenge on people who had committed abuses during the Allende Regime. They killed 16 leftists and tried to hide their remains in an abandoned oven in a mine in Lonquén. But these were discovered five years later, the news went around the world and the Chilean government found that it had nothing to say, because it ignored everything.

The Junta realized that there could be other similar situations undiscovered and that this could lead to a succession of macabre discoveries that would only accentuate its national and international discredit. He then ordered a confidential internal investigation, throughout the whole territory, so that those who knew of executions that had taken place without trial and without a superior order, would reveal them under the promise of secrecy and impunity. But, instead of ordering the delivery of the recovered remains to the respective families, he ordered them to be thrown into the sea. This was possibly the most unfortunate and clumsy decision of the Junta in its 1973-1981 period of government, and it has paid dearly for it.

As a result, throughout the country, the remains of 327 people killed in 1973 and 1974 and clandestinely buried were exhumed in an equally confidential manner, taken to airfields and thrown into the sea.
I know this because an officer who had to carry out this procedure in Calama, after the Lonquén discovery, told me all about his experience.
But the number of dead was determined and, by subsequent inquiries, the identities were determined. Strictly speaking, they were no longer people whose whereabouts were unknown, i.e., missing.

The [[Rettig Report]] made latter in Aylwin Government, and made to harm the perception of the Military Government, admits that in the case of Arellano's entourage "there was no talk of executions without trial; moreover, the message of the traveling delegate contained an express and repeated reference to facilitating the right of defense of the defendants".<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/05/historia-de-la-revolucion-militar_4.html}}</ref>

===Human right abuses were not a Government policy===
It is not true that the Military Government, as such, abused systematically on human rights. Its government policy consisted of trying to avoid such abuses.
Disproving the [[Rettig Report]] made latter in Aylwin's Government, which inculcates such a notion of "systematic policy of human rights abuses," the Junta made efforts to avoid them.
From the beginning, when it issued a resolution that was distributed to the Armed Forces and the Carabineros, delivered to the latter, transcribed to the personnel by its General Directorate, it expressed its concern to avoid abuses and excesses.
{{quotebox-float|"O. S. 3, Circular No. 1 (H. Junta de Gobierno: Dicta normas de conducta en procedimientos empleen Fuerzas Armadas y Carabineros). Santiago, January 7, 1974.
Our stage in the government of the Nation cannot and should not be characterized by inhuman acts that have to be hidden from the citizens and that only engender a reaction of violence, hatred and revenge. (...)
6.a.- The attitude of the Armed Forces and the Carabineros towards any Chilean or foreigner who is caught wielding arms, in criminal acts against the troops and civilian population or sabotage that affects our forces or the civilian population, must be oriented towards the annihilation in combat of these extremists or violent individuals or, by means of the quickest judicial procedure, if they have surrendered.
6.b.- Those who are caught promoting subversion, must be submitted to trial and punished according to the quick procedures granted by military tribunals in time of war.
6.g.- The concept of 'iron fist' does not authorize the use of procedures banished from civilization; the iron fist is rather a 'just fist', in order to better interpret the spirit of the Government Junta in the conduct of the country (...).
8.- The present Circular shall be disseminated, read and commented to all the commanders of the Armed Forces, Carabineros and Investigations, and the corresponding responsibilities, sanctions and penalties shall be established for any non-compliance with the provisions contained therein. AUGUSTO PINOCHET UGARTE, General of the Army, President of the Governing Board.<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion>{{cite book|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2013/09/el-libro-de-las-verdades-olvidadas.html|title=El Libro de las Verdades Olvidadas NI VERDAD NI RECONCILIACIÓN|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog|date=2013|language=es}}</ref>}}

In 1974 another document was distributed among all military and police units:

{{quotebox-float|(2) Decree Law No. 228 of December 24, 1973, published in the Official Gazette of January 3, 1974, Article 1°, which establishes that all the powers conferred by Article 72, No. 17, third paragraph, of the Political Constitution of the State to the President of the Republic by the declaration of the State of Siege, shall be exercised by the Board of Government by means of Supreme Decrees signed by the Minister of the Interior, with the formula "By order of the Board." (...)
(B) CONSEQUENTLY, THIS MINISTRY PROVIDES:
(1) The detention of persons in use of the powers of the State of Siege is solely and exclusively privative of the Military Government Junta and shall be exercised through Decrees of the Ministry of the Interior.
(2) The detention of persons by the Military Justice may only be carried into effect by virtue of an order issued by a competent Court and in accordance with the legal norms in force.
(3) No authority is authorized to make arrests outside the present provisions; the same applies to the Military Intelligence Services of any institution, which must also be subject to these rules. The above is without prejudice to compliance with orders issued by the competent authority and in cases in which the Criminal Law authorizes the detention of persons caught in flagrante delicto. (...)
(6) The Ministry of Defense shall provide that all C.A.J.S.I. (Justice and Internal Security Grouping Commanders) shall send a complete list of the persons who are detained to date, pursuant to this constitutional power, indicating the date on which they were detained. This list shall be sent to the Ministry of National Defense within ten days after receiving the instructions of that Ministry, which shall be sent through the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees to the Ministry of the Interior. (...)
(10) The Ministry of National Defense shall give the pertinent orders for the immediate fulfillment of these instructions. Sincerely yours faithfully,( sd.) OSCAR BONILLA BRADANOVIC, Major General, Minister of the Interior.<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/>}}

The DINA was abolished in 1977 precisely because supporters of the Junta pointed out that while it was very effective in controlling terrorists, it committed frequent human rights abuses. If the military government had had a "systematic policy of human rights abuses" it would not have disbanded DINA, but would have strengthened it. It was replaced by the CNI, under the command of General Odlanier Mena, a military officer admittedly respectful of legality and the rights of individuals. However, regulations had already been issued to prevent abuses.
Indeed, in January 1976, Supreme Decree 187 was issued, which prohibited secret places of detention and according to which all arrests had to take place with an order signed by the head of the responsible security agency, stating the names of the person who ordered it and of the person executing the order, as well as the place of detention, guaranteeing that family members should obtain a copy of this.<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/>

Historian Gonzalo Rojas Sánchez, in his work "Chile Elige la Libertad", Zigzag, 1998, volume I, p. 232, says about this visit:
"For his part, Duvauchelle personally reports burn marks on the hands of some detainees and hygienic conditions that allow the proliferation of fungus. Pinochet calls Contreras and speaks harshly to him. To Duvauchelle he simply adds: 'These things happen because there are people who do not understand. The DINA director waits for Duvauchelle at the exit and, in a threatening tone, refers to the undersecretary's family, to which Duvauchelle demands that he repeat these comments in front of the President, who reacts angrily with a 'that's not done, next time it's over'. In his recrimination to Contreras, Duvauchelle simply states that 'Pinochet served him'".<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/>

===Truths about the disappeared detainees===

The other major theme of the slogans of the left, which most believe, is that of the so-called "disappeared detainees".
To begin with, the number of the same that the opposition to the military government denounced until 1990 was in the publications of the Vicariate of Solidarity, in seven volumes entitled "Where Are They?", and totaled 600 cases. That was the real extent of the problem.
Another uniformed officer and in particular of an officer who joined General Arellano's retinue on his tour to the north. Without the latter's knowledge, he proceeded to order the unconsulted execution of about 56 people, who in at least two places (Antofagasta and Calama) were buried in the desert, followed by the attempt of other officers, innocent of the executions, but without due judgment, to hide the remains afterwards.

The Military Junta did not know how to deal with this problem in the 1970s and relied on the CAJSI (Area Commanders of Justice and Internal Security), the highest authorities of each zone in a state of exception, who, if they had each fulfilled their duties properly, applying their own military regulations, would have minimized the number of disappeared detainees. There were CAJSI that after 2000 had problems with the justice system and there was one that had none (Washington Carrasco, III Army Division based in Concepción). This means that he always adhered to the regulations. On the other hand, General Joaquín Lagos Osorio, under whose command the worst things happened, after 1990 "went over to the enemy" and tried to blame everything on Pinochet and the Junta. But in 1973 he had the authority to have sanctioned everything that happened unduly under his jurisdiction, he knew it perfectly well and in time, and he did not do it.

The "disappearances" that had been denounced in the 70's and 80's, totaled, as of October 5, 1988, 600, contained in a publication of the Archbishopric, whose authors were Claudio Orrego and Patricia Verdugo. Later, the 1991 [[Rettig Report]] raised them to 979 and the Reparation and Reconciliation Commission increased them to 1,102. The Government claimed to have no information on these cases. But then it has been proven that the remains of people whose whereabouts are known, plus those who have been "reappearing", which are six (that is, they are not technically "disappeared") is greater than 1,102. As this has not been done in decades of Center-left governments, is it politically more profitable to continue talking about "the disappeared".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/11/manos-y-sangre.html|title=Manos y Sangre|date=November 1, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

There is so little interest in identifying remains that a bag with unidentified skeletal remains was discovered in the headquarters of the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared. And an Investigative Commission of the Chamber (which forms them under any pretext) has never been formed to determine the identity of the remains in the AFDD, the Forensic Medical Service and the General Cemetery; and to clarify the cases of "disappeared" who appear to have traveled abroad or have been seen alive by witnesses who so declare before a notary and also those who lack legal existence according to the Civil Registry, but are listed as disappeared. Blaming the Pinochet supporters for these omissions that have been going on for years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/10/el-exito-final-del-kgb.html|title=El Éxito Final del KGB|date=October 7, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

===Exile was not a government policy===
There is also talk of "thousands of exiles" during the Military Government, but that is another hoax. There never were. There were temporary expulsions of political figures who were harshly critical, but they can be counted on the fingers of one's hands and were very exceptional: Renán Fuentealba, Eugenio Velasco Letelier, Jaime Castillo Velasco, Manuel Bustos and the prohibition to re-enter for Andrés Zaldívar. Eventually, those who wanted to return to the country returned.
There was one notable one, former Minister Bernardo Leighton, who left of his own accord at the beginning of 1974. We will see later the case of the assassination attempt against him, after which he returned to live in Chile in 1977. There were other opponents who also left because they had attractive offers abroad.

They usually call themselves "exiles", but they were never exiles.
What is often confused with exile is the commutation of prison sentences for those convicted of terrorist behavior, that is, the possibility of completing their sentences abroad. As the external links of the left and the Christian Democracy were very good, especially in [[Europe]], there were 999 Mirists, communist and socialist prisoners who left prison and traveled to freedom with good jobs in Europe and [[Canada]], thus serving the sentence of exile.
In addition, parole was granted to 96 convicted by the Military Courts and to 22 convicted by special laws who also traveled abroad. These were not sanctions, but benefits for these convicts.
A private study made by General (r) Gastón Frez, details all these cases, which totaled 1,117.
This is what is called "mass exile" which, in reality, never existed but today strengthens the anti-Military Government slogans.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2020/04/miserias-de-la-chilenidad-actual-ii.html|title=Miserias de la Chilenidad: Ciudadanía renegó al gobierno militar, el giro traidor de la derecha y la prevaricación judicial|date=2016|publisher=El Roble|language=es}}</ref>

===Torture denounces===
The extreme left has always done, once its own violence has provoked an armed conflict it turned to the Catholic Church, in which, of course, and particularly in those years, there was no lack of priests and prelates sympathetic to the Popular Unity and the MIR.

Denouncing police torture is a well-known and long-standing tactic of terrorism, whether they exist or not. In a guerrilla instruction seized from the Uruguayan Tupamaros and reproduced in an article by the former President of Uruguay, Juan María Bordaberry, it is stated:
"The reports received (...) mark the stages of the interrogations in which the repressive force has to be attacked, using for this purpose real facts or mounting a great scandal by means of versions that shock the opinion of the people. This campaign must be mounted by indoctrinating our comrades for when they are arrested (...) The greatest number of denunciations must be used, as a system (...) Use the press as the main means, forcing it to publish what we want.
"The methods of torture that are denounced should be generalized to all the cities in order to demonstrate a whole system of illegal coercion and punishments (...) The stories should go into the greatest detail, trying to make them repugnant. One must always try to mention those military men whose surnames are better known by the population (...) One must always be attentive so that any casual event, illness, accident or death is exploited so that the blame falls on the repressive force". (Magazine "Gladius" N° 50, B. Aires, 2001).

Torture was a common practice in the police before the Military Government, even in the Frei Montalva and Allende's Government, but most of the alleged tortured of the Military Government were leftist following the manual exaggerating interrogatories (or nothing) in order to damage the Army's reputation.

Cardinal Silva Henríquez, whose inclination for center-left ideas was well known, but who in the last days of the UP government had evolved and saw that a military solution was inevitable, in spite of this could not but agree to establish an organization to defend the people massively detained by the military authorities under the State of Siege.

Thus was born the Pro-Peace Committee, which was later succeeded by the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago. Then, by natural gravitation, the extreme left, which formed the environment of the armed groups existing in all the parties of the Popular Unity, was integrated to the Vicariate, without, probably, this one could avoid it nor, perhaps, to warn it, but this last one only at the beginning...

Then the Vicariate provided, first, judicial assistance to the detainees. Explainable. But with time it even provided medical assistance to wounded terrorists, as happened under the responsibility of Monsignor Valech, in the 1980s. And some communists reached positions of command in the Vicariate. We saw the case of José Manuel Parada. This was indeed objectionable, since this division of the Church partially became a logistical wing of terrorism, as was demonstrated in the courts.

With this ecclesiastical support, the FPMR became, between 1985 and 1986 (as indicated in reports from the U.S. Embassy) the main cause of violent deaths in Chile. The link with the FPMR of the "Chief of Analysis" of the Vicariate became evident after the arrest, in 1986, of the guerrilla Alfredo Malbrich Labra, who referred in the following terms to his incorporation into the guerrilla through Parada:
"On May 1, 1979 I was arrested by Carabineros in the Alameda Bernardo O'Higgins and taken to the 1st Police Station. My wife went to the Vicaría de la Solidaridad and filed a writ of amparo in my favor. When I was released, I went to the Vicariate, where I made friends with José Manuel Parada, who asked me to collaborate by lending my home telephone as a mailbox and carrying small messages. Later he asked me if I would like to collaborate in a more systematic way; when I accepted, he told me that he would give me a link with Enrique".
From then on, Malbrich refers to his activities in buying and transporting arms, his trips to and from Argentina, Bolivia, Panama and Germany, as a courier for the Communist Party; his participation in the great arms landing of Carrizal Bajo, "to establish a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary government, following the example of Cuba and Nicaragua", according to his words in "El Mercurio" of August 28, 1986.

Then, the files of testimonies of people detained in the anti-terrorist fight of the Vicariate were in charge of a high terrorist leader who followed what Bordaberry's article indicates and what the Brazilian guerrilla theorist, Carlos Marighella, author of the "Marighella's Manual"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://punto-final.org/PDFs/1970/PF_103_doc.pdf|title=Mini-manual de la guerrilla urbana|language=es|author=Carlos Marighella|publisher=Punto Final|date=April 28, 1970}}</ref> advises: to induce the declarant to declare himself always, but absolutely always, tortured by his captors.
Thus, over the years thousands of pages of accounts of torture were accumulated, real (we saw that it was an immemorial and habitual practice in Chile) or fictitious, because many people were not tortured during their detention.

There were approximately thirty-four thousand declarations received by the Valech Commission, which is Valech Commission received, which is not excessively numerous for a subversion made up of ten thousand Chileans and some twelve thousand foreigners who clandestinely entered the country; and in the face of the prize of a lifetime pension for only declaring.
Well, but what happened to these thousands of pages of testimonies deposited in the Archive of the Vicariate of Solidarity? They remained in storage. They had to wait until the country was "mature." Until the brainwashing had been sufficiently prolonged and repeated. And the moment came in 2004, when the Commission for Political Prisoners and Torture was formed, presided over by Monsignor Valech.

He was a person trusted by the Concertación, especially by the left.
Then President [[Ricardo Lagos]] announced that all those tortured under the Military Government, and only under the Military Government (obviously, they were not going to encourage those tortured under their governments, that is, those of the Popular Unity of Allende and the Christian Democrat Frei Montalva's one), would be given economic compensation. All they had to do was to present themselves and state their case. And if the information provided was reliable (and more than 28,000 of the 34,000 who presented themselves were reliable), they were given a pension for life, which initially amounted to around $120,000 pesos a month.

The wide publicity of the Valech Commission's work operated as the most effective brainwashing practiced by the Concertación. But this has little to do with the truth, since the fact of having described tens of thousands as victims of "political imprisonment and torture" and having lured them to testify through a pecuniary retribution does not stand up to any requirement of valid proof within a due process.

===Quemados Case/Julio Castañer Case===
The ''Quemados'' Case (Burnt People Case), (or Quemadores as it should be properly named) was an incident occurred on July 2, 1986, in Santiago where the leftist activists, Carmen Gloria Quintana and Rodrigo Rojas de Negri who were participating in marches against the Military Government, ended out burned after they had materials to burn buses and their passengers and they failed in the process. A former conscript, through an involuntary clumsiness, hit some bombs while they were searching the two detainees, who were carrying smaller bombs in their clothes, which caught fire. They were devices made with aluminum powder, beeswax and kerosene; the wax was the insulator between the reagents. They were not the Molotovs made with benzine and guaipe. The soldiers in the statements contradict themselves grossly.

Julio Castañer Gonzalez is falselly accused by the left as the burner of the leftists. Former conscript Fernando Guzman acted as a fake informer to the judicial system, who was the first and only one to accuse Colonel Julio Castañer Gonzalez (and all the rest of the soldiers contradict Fernando Guzman), arrived at the scene of the events after the arrest of the two young communist terrorists, because he was in the truck driven by Ivan Figueroa. Colonel Castañer was brought, by order of Carroza, by PDI personnel from Punta Arenas, where he lives. Then the judge prosecuted him and he is still being held at the Army Telecommunications Command in Peñalolén.

Immediately after, the current Army command reported that he was dismissed from the position he held as a civilian in his former institution, in Magallanes. However, in his statements to Minister Carroza, Fernando Guzmán has given him details of the arrest of the two communists.

It is impossible that it could be true, since he was not an eyewitness of what happened. On the other hand, it is now known that, since last year, the former conscript Leonardo Riquelme Alarcón confesses that he was the one who accidentally hit the bomb that the extremists were carrying and that, at that moment, he was on the ground. This was declared by former soldier Riquelme himself to Minister Carroza. He would be the involuntary author of the accident.

The trial for the burned burners would be the most scandalous of all those initiated by the Judicial Dictatorship of the Left that reigns in the country, with the co-authorship and complete complicity of the Piñera Administration.

Castañer was completely oblivious to the outcome suffered by the burned burners, Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana, but he has been sentenced to ten years in prison, which he must soon begin to serve. The important thing is that he has managed to publicly prove his innocence in the facts, with which the discredit of Minister Carroza, who imposed the sentence, has fallen to the lowest level, because not only has it become evident that he has prevaricated by passing over ''res judicata'' and the statute of limitations, but also for having contravened the truth of the facts: as Colonel (r) Cristián Slater has proven, Carmen Gloria Quintana declared that she had been sprayed with fuel by a soldier in camouflage uniform and painted face. ... and Castañer has proven that on that day he was wearing civilian clothes, without face paint and was twenty meters away from the events.

Jeannette Reyes de Castañer has conducted, in the social networks, the defense of her husband with a tenacity and courage that every men would like and has provided documentary evidence that by itself removes any basis for the fundamental argument of Minister Carroza to reopen a case that was closed: he has proven that the only conscript (among those who participated in the events) who, 29 years after his 1986 declarations, has contradicted himself and changed his version, lurked in 2015 with center and leftist politicians and has a psychiatric background that detracts from his credibility.

Minister Carroza's actions ''contra legem'' have been of great cruelty with modest people who live from their work, such as the conscripts involved in the case in 1986, who have been subjected to prison by him and some of whom have lost their jobs, being people of scarce resources. But among them Leonardo Riquelme Alarcón has stood out, who in this illegal process voluntarily revealed something that nobody knew: that it was him who, in the episode of 1986, when the bus and people burners were caught carrying highly combustible elements, in a casual way stumbled with a container, breaking it and causing the flames that burned both extremists. This testimony alone further exculpates Colonel Castañer.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2019/07/castaner-duro-de-roer.html|title=Castañer Duro de Roer|date=July 15, 2019|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

One of the former conscripts, Pedro Franco Rivas (who lives in a street condition) and for that same situation, they set up a special figure to leave him in night confinement. All the above facts of this illegal investigation carried out by Carroza are manipulated by people from the Human Rights program of the Ministry of the Interior. Clearly this comes from the Government itself. The one who accused Colonel Julio Castañer is the former conscript Fernando Guzmán, who was prepared for a year to play this role.

Guzman is also a relative of Mayor Sady Melo, a socialist of the most left wing. To the former conscript soldier who spoke on TV about the "pact of silence" in the Quemados case, I would like to comment that: The Communist Party paid him $15,000,000 Chilean Pesos, took him off the streets as a beggar and kept him for two weeks, to detoxify him for alcohol and drugs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/1494510130786585/photos/el-vuelco-no-contado-por-el-juez-carroza-en-el-caso-quemadosescribe-aldoal-ex-so/1657118881192375/|title=EL VUELCO NO CONTADO POR EL JUEZ CARROZA EN EL CASO QUEMADOS|date=August 12, 2015|author=Aldo|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://inocentesinjusticia.cl/|title=Inocentes Sin Justicia|quote=La Verdad del Caso Castañer|language=es}}</ref>

===Orlando Letelier, Carlos Prats & Bernardo Leighton Cases - the CIA uses Chile as a scapegoat===
{{Main article|Orlando Letelier, Carlos Prats & Bernardo Leighton Cases}}{{See also|Central Intelligence Agency}}
[[File:Michael Townley.jpg|thumbnail|150px|Michael Townley, the CIA agent who attacked Chilean Citizens and an American one to discredit Pinochet's Administration worldwide by commandment of the CIA.]]
[[File:Orlando Letelier's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack.jpg|left|250px|thumbnail|Orlando Letelier's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack. Letelier and his American secretary, Ronnie Moffit were killed, Pinochet is falsely accused of ordering the attack.]]
On 21 September 1976 the assassination of Orlando Letelier and his American secretary Ronni Moffitt happen in [[Washington, D.C.]], in which it has been proved that President Pinochet did not participate. It is reported by the [[fake news]] that [[CIA]] information has been "declassified" blaming Pinochet for having supposedly ordered the attack. President [[Michelle Bachelet]] while in Washington lay a wreath at the site of the attack and "thanked" the CIA for the "declassification". The media published that "Pinochet ordered Letelier's assassination". This is another set-up, because the CIA did not investigate the case and its "declassified" documents are mere opinions of fourth level US officials, which do not provide any proof of Pinochet's responsibility.

"La Tercera", the only local newspaper that, apart from publishing the headline, went into a little more detail about the alleged "declassifications", only presents the opinions of subordinate officials. Among them there is only one direct testimony, that of former Chilean lieutenant and deserter, Armando Fernandez Larios, who is in asylum in the U.S. in exchange for a "compensated confession", that is to say, in exchange for revealing everything he knew about the "Letelier case". He contradicted the headline of "Pinochet Ordered Letelier's Assassination", since he affirmed that "he did not know if Pinochet was involved in the preparation of the assassination".<ref>"La Tercera", 24.09.16, p. 14</ref> Then, the only valid witness that appears in the "declassification" denies the title of the information.

Senator Juan Pablo Letelier, son of the assassinated, who declared in "El Mercurio" of the 4th of June 1995 the following: "What I have said again and again, because I was taught to speak with the truth, is that there is no evidence that flows from the process of thousands of pages that allows sustaining that there is participation of the Army nor of its commander in chief in the assassination of Orlando Letelier".

In fact, the CIA had no part in the US investigation of the assassination, which was always and from the beginning in charge of the [[FBI]]. In Chile, it was investigated by the courts of justice and no conviction against Pinochet emerged from them, as he was not involved in the case. He was so oblivious that, when it was discovered that the person who had planted the bomb was the North American resident in Chile, Michael Townley, Pinochet commissioned the CNI, led by General (r) Odlanier Mena, to find out who that person was, because he knew nothing about him. Naturally, the first person Mena interrogated was General Manuel Contreras, former director of the dissolved DINA. Contreras also denied knowing Townley. But Mena took him to Pinochet.

"El Mercurio" of April 2, 2000 reported the following, in a chronicle titled "And He Denied It Three Times": "Pinochet asked Contreras: 'Categorically, tell me if you have any distant relationship, or that you do not know, with this individual'. 'No, none, General,' Contreras replied. Three times he asked him the same question. At most he could have been an informant, but never a DINA agent,' Contreras reiterated. Then Pinochet asked: 'You mean we have to expel Townley. Do you oppose that?' 'No, for any reason, if he has nothing to do with us,' Contreras said.

Hermógenes Pérez de Arce had a personal testimony of Pinochet's ignorance about the assassination attempt a year after it, since he was invited in 1977, together with other newspaper editors (he was from "La Segunda") to attend with the Head of State the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty in Washington. One morning Pérez de Arce readed in the "Washington Post" a column by Jack Anderson according to which there were "Chilean officials involved in Letelier's assassination". It was the first time something like that had been published. That afternoon we met with the President at the Chilean embassy, and he made him see what Anderson was saying, which infuriated him. He said to me something like this: "How can you even repeat that, which is an outrage! You don't know the damage caused by that attack, which interrupted the granting of loans to Chile that were being processed in those very days". When Hermógenes insinuated that it could have been a DINA action of which he had no knowledge, he told me (evidently mistaken): "I know everything that DINA does and I could never have been involved in that".

After Townley's asylum in the U.S. following his plea bargain, he stated that, upon learning from General Contreras that nothing had been reported to President Pinochet about the attack, he would have replied: "Such a decision should not have been taken without his knowledge".

[[File:Carlos Prats's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Carlos Prats's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack in [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]].]]
What will never be clarified is the role of the American Deep State in that attack and in that of General Carlos Prats. It will never be clarified, because there is no interest or means to investigate it and because the main witness and protagonist of the events has died, the American General Vernon Walters, a notorious secret agent who was a close friend of General Contreras.

Letelier was an active and uncomfortable (for the U.S.) agent of Fidel Castro in Washington. And the contents of his briefcase, recovered by the Americans after the attack, have never been found out.

In short, this new set-up by leftist CIA underlings, lacking all seriousness and substance, will be added to the list of others, such as "Pinochet's gold" in the Bank of Hong Kong and Shanghai, a complete fabrication; Pinochet's "fortune of 27 million dollars", which never appeared anywhere, as it is limited to the two million seized by the Chilean courts and some properties owned by him whose contributions his widow pays four times a year asking the court to release funds to be able to pay them and prevent the judicial auction of the properties; and the alleged torture of a young man, in 1989, in a remote police station in Curacautín, which was the only thing the British "high lords" found, to maintain his detention in London in 1998.

There is a historical irony in all this: historian Paul Johnson, in his book "Heroes", designates Pinochet as such, but acknowledges that the Soviet KGB, "before being thrown into the dustbin of history", managed to demonize the general in the eyes of the world. The irony is that the role of the KGB is now assumed by the CIA.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2016/09/mi-mision-imposible.html|title=Mi Misión Imposible|date=September 24, 2016|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann is falsely accused of being the author of the assassination of Letelier, the leftist judges try to link the DINA with the assassination and Iturriaga as part of the DINA to the incident, but nor the DINA was the author, and Iturriaga Neumann was not on the DINA in 1976 since he left in December 1975 to study.<ref>[https://youtu.be/pD-0zDKtndw Declaración de Eduardo Iturriaga por su juzgamiento en el caso de Ronni Moffitt]</ref> Iturriaga is in the [[Punta Peuco Jail]] for this kind of accusations and is one of the [[Military Political Prisoners of Chile]].

Townley arrived in Chile with his father, Vernon Townley, in 1957. Five years later, his father was appointed general manager of General Motors Chile. That same year, 1964, his father Vernon began to serve as head of the CIA Station in our country and Michael was sent to work in Chile. As head of the CIA Station in Chile was sent to work at Ford Motors Peru. In 1966 he returned to Chile and from here he went to Miami, where he worked at the "AMCO Transmission Center", repairing automatic transmissions of automobiles. He did this job for Felipe Riveros, who was head of the Cuban Nationalist Movement (MNC) in Miami. Townley's contacts with that movement date back to that time.

On November 25, 1970, in Miami, Townley contacted a representative of the CIA in that city to offer a CIA representative in that city to offer his services. This is stated by Robert W. Gambino, Director of Security of the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, on November 9, 1978, in a sworn affidavit. This affidavit was filed with federal fi scal Earl J. Silbert, and his deputy, Eugene M. Propper, in the proceedings of "The United States of America vs. Contreras, Pedro Espinoza, Guillermo Novo, Ignacio Novo and Alvin Ross...", by the United States of America against Ross...", for the assassination attempt on the former Chilean ambassador in Washington, Orlando Letelier. There is also information on the extradition process to the U.S. of General Manuel Contreras and Brigadier Pedro Espinoza. Point 4 of this affidavit states, textually: "4. The result of the investigation mentioned in the previous paragraph 3, has been communicated to me by
The result of the investigation mentioned in paragraph 3 above has been communicated to me by the employees of the Security Office in charge of it. The investigation revealed that, in December 1970, in response to the Directorate of Operations, a check was carried out in
a name check was carried out in December 1970. Security Office records also revealed that in February 1971, the Directorate of Operations requested preliminary security approval to use Mr. Townley in an operational capacity. The investigation revealed that, in response to the Operations Directorate, a name check was conducted in December 1970.

There is another affidavit, also dated November 9, 1978, submitted by the same Silbert and Propper affidavits. This second affidavit is signed by Marvin L. Smith, head of the CIA Operations Group, who in item 4 states the following:
"... The employees of the Directorate of Operations in charge of the investigation referred to in in paragraph 3 above, have communicated to me the results of the investigation. The investigation revealed that Mr. Michael Vernon Townley contacted a declared representative of the agency, on November 25, 1970, in Miami, Florida, to offer his services to the agency...". Next, in item 5, Marvin L. Smith states: "On June 14, 1973, Mr. Townley telephoned a declared agent of the agency in Miami, Florida, to notify the agency of his presence in the U.S. in in case they wished to question him.

And with the same date there is a third affidavit, also filed by the ficials. This is the affidavit of F.W.M.
Janney, Director of Personnel of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who, at the point
(CIA), which in item 4, says: ".... The employees in charge of conducting the investigation referred to in paragraph 3 above
above, have communicated to me the result of the same. The result is that the Personnel Office records do not contain the name of Michael Vernon Townley.

The defense counsel for the Cubans, the brothers Guillermo and Ignacio Novo, and for Alvin Ross, attorney Goldberger, testified on page 1.797 of Volume IX: "I will tell the court one thing. This will not be the first time that the CIA denies in a trial in this country that a certain person is working for them. U.S. trial judge Barrington Parker replied to attorney Golderberg: "I'm not going to allow you to put the CIA on trial in this case".
On pages 1,811 to 1,814, among other similar statements, the same Judge Barrington Parker says he is "upset that there appears to be CIA and of Townley, Propper and Barcella. They should communicate to the CIA that I am concerned about this [...] I will not permit cross-examination of him (Townley) regarding incidents in Argentina, South America, Italy or Europe. This is the decision of the Tribunal. And it is justified by the fact that, as to other offenses, they cannot contemplate a situation which would can contemplate a situation that would go beyond the bounds of what happened in the District of Columbia.

[[Image:CIA Logo.gif|thumb|right|The U.S. government used the Chileans and the DINA as scapegoats. The Annual Assembly of the United Nations, in its 1977 session, approved a condemnation of Chile for violation of human rights mainly because of Townley's actions. From that year on, the string of assassinations and attacks perpetrated by the agent also came to an end. The goal of the CIA was to replace the Military Government with an Open Liberal Democracy.]]
Very revealing was what was expressed by the defense attorney, Goldberger, and which was incorporated in the respective file in Volume XXI A, at pages 4,576 to 4,577, in 1981: "'''The U.S. government used the Chileans and the DINA as scapegoats in this case'''".

In Volume XV, pages 1,644 to 1,653, of 1981, the defense attorney, Goldberger, states that according to Townley's statement, Townley "joined the DINA in December 1974 and does not see why he was denied the possibility of interrogating him about the trip to Argentina when it is presumed that he went to assassinate General Carlos Prats". Judge Parker said: "Listen: I don't want to hear anything about the investigation of the Prats and Leighton murders". Attorney Goldberger reactsto Judge Parker's prohibitions by saying, "You are not allowing this jury to know who the real Michael Vernon Townley is and I think, if there has ever been a witness in this country that the jury really ought to know the whole story about, it is certainly this one" (Volume XXVII).

In Volume XXII, on pages 4,780 to 4,788 and pages 4,797 to 4,798 of 1981, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Paraguay, and later Ambassador to Chile, George Walter Landau, declares in the process making clear that: "Not being able to communicate with the deputy director of the CIA, General Vernon Walters in the year 1976, visas were extended to the Paraguayan passports of Williams and Romeral"... Michael Townley and the Chilean Captain Armando Fernández Larios traveled to Washington D.C. with those names and passports in the year 1976... "ordering that the passports be photocopied from the first to the last page, including the photographs of the persons, which he sent by diplomatic pouch to General Vernon Walters and together with an explanatory message". Ambassador Landau further states that he "received an ordinary message, acknowledging receipt of the shipment, but that it had been delivered to Mr. [[George Bush]], director of the Central Intelligence Agency, because General Walters was no longer working with the Agency."

It is interesting to note the statement of former Ambassador Walter Landau, made in Miami, in an interview given in that city to the newspaper La Segunda, on May 31, 1995. Question: "With all due respect... may I ask you a question that is part of Chilean public opinion...? It has been said that you are from the CIA.

Landau answers: "The CIA never confirms or denies if someone is a member of it, as is normal in any intelligence office".

It all relates to Townley's joining the CIA in 1971. That same year, Townley returned to Chile with his family. Already had married Mariana Callejas Honores. For him, it was his first marriage. For Mariana Callejas, it was her third.

After the Military Pronouncement of September 11, Townley set out to return to Chile, for which he adopted a different identity, falsifying his identity documents adopting the name of a deceased American citizen. Thus he obtained the American passport No. 5 D2287732, in the name of Kenneth Enyart, under whose name he entered Chile.

On September 30, 1974, there was an attack against the former Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army, General Carlos Prats, and his wife, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Townley had entered Argentina under the name of Kenneth Enyart and the same passport number mentioned above. He arrived in Buenos Aires on September 10 and left on September 30 for Montevideo, Uruguay, with the same name and passport number.

The attack was carried out with the help of Mariana Callejas, who was traveling under the false name of Ana Luisa Pizarro.
Avilés.

On October 1, 1974, both entered Chile from Montevideo, always under the names of Kenneth Enyart and Ana Luisa Pizarro.
Pizarro. The data are registered in the respective international police.

At the end of November, or perhaps in December 1974, Townley made contact with the DINA through through Major Pedro Espinoza, to whom he made his technical-electronic skills known. Espinoza put him in contact with Major Daniel Valdivieso, in charge of that area in the organization. Townley himself testified to this in several declarations. In some of them he says that his contacts with
the Chilean DINA began at the end of November and in others in December 1974. Both dates, after his attempt on
attempt on the Prats husband and wife.

Minister Jorge Rodríguez, appointed by the Supreme Court to study the extradition of Chilean citizens to, accused of the attack on the Prats couple, in his ruling of July 12, 2002, details seven statements made by Townley. In all of them he states that his first contacts with the DINA were at the end of November or in December 1974, that is, more than two months after the Prats murders.

In December 1974, Townley traveled to the U.S. for the purpose of acquiring electronic items for the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA). He contacted mainly the AID company, whose president was John Holcoms, a well-known member of the CIA. Upon his
return, he brought a series of electronic items of special use for intelligence services.

It was around that time that General Raúl Iturriaga Neumann met Andrés Wilson, which was the name used by Townley at the time. From the end of 1974 and during 1975, Townley combined his activities as an informant and electronic technical collaborator of the DINA with a series of trips. Among other countries he visited Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, USA and several European countries, using different passports and names, among them Andrew Brooks and Kenneth Enyart. On some of these trips he was accompanied by Mariana Callejas, who traveled with him under the name of Ana Brooks.

In September 1975 his tracks appeared in Rome, where he made contact with the neo-Nazi movement ''Avanguardia Nazionale'', and mainly with its leader, the Italian Stéfano delle Chiaie.

On October 6, 1975, some members of ''Avanguardia Nazionale'' attacked the former minister of Chilean President [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] in Rome. Bernardo Leighton was seriously wounded along with his wife, Anita Fresno. Following this attack, Townley smuggled Stéfano delle Chiaie out of Italy, who was pursued by car by the police on his way to France. In Rome, especially in his registration in hotels, Michael Vernon Townley used his real name.

In 1976, Townley made further trips abroad, using different identities. In the Dominican Republic he used the name
name of Juan Torres; entered and left Paraguay under the name of Juan Andres Wilson; entered the U.S. on September 8, 1976, under the name of Juan Andres Wilson; he entered the U.S. on September 8, 1976, with a passport in the name of Hans Petersen Silva, a document that was made and forged by Townley himself, in his workshop.

On September 21, 1976, in Washington D.C., Michael Townley electronically detonated a bomb in the car in which the former foreign
former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his secretary Ronnie Moffit, resulting in the death of both. This attack was carried out with the with the collaboration of some members of the Cuban Nationalist Movement, MNC.

Thus, Townley carried out three attacks against Chilean citizens:
He assassinated the Prats couple in Buenos Aires; he made a criminal attempt against the Leighton couple in Rome, through the Italian neo-Nazi movement ''Avanguardia Nazionale''; and he assassinated Orlando Letelier and his secretary, Ronnie Moffit, in Washington D.C.

Three attacks in a row, in the first three years of the Military Government, and immediately prior to the Annual meeting of the United Nations in New York.

In the first of them, against the Prats couple, he had not yet established contacts with the DINA, according to his own statements, recorded in seven declarations statements collected by Minister Jorge Rodriguez Ariztía and existing in the file of the
in the file of the Argentine extradition request.

Until 1976 it was not known who had carried out these attacks. As soon as the Military Pronouncement took place, there were national and international political sectors that expected that, as soon as possible, the Military Junta would hand over the Government or call for democratic elections.

Neither happened. On the contrary, the Military Government issued the "Declaration of Principles of the Government of Chile", stating that goals were set, but not deadlines. The U.S. Government and the CIA, as a consequence, were against Allende's socialist government, they did not want that in the southern cone of South America to establish a "dictatorship of the proletariat" in a Marxist spirit. Without directly supporting the Military Pronouncement of September 11, the U.S. government welcomed the end of the Popular Unity Government. But,
according to them, a "military dictatorship" could not be allowed to hold sway for long in South America.

When the CIA documents corresponding to those years were declassified, we learned that during the Popular Unity Government, the US agency collaborated economically with several Chilean organizations, opponents of the government, and with several Chilean organizations, opponents of Allende. This aid, especially in dollars, even reached members of the Christian Democratic Party, who acknowledged the fact. This political party, which agreed with the Military Pronouncement, was the most interested in having the Government of the Nation handed over to it as soon as possible.

General Pinochet recalls in his memoirs that: "A certain well-known personage, from a well-known political party, has called me several times, telling me where he is, leaving telephone numbers and stating that he is available for whatever is offered...".

The then Colonel Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda was sent by the Junta to Washington at the beginning of 74, in order to meet with General Vernon Walters, deputy director of the CIA.

The purpose of the interview was to explain what in its beginnings was our intelligence service, to inform about the situation in Chile and, in particular, the work to be done to dismantle the subversion in Chile.

In the interview, General Walters expressed the wishes of his government. They wanted that, in the course of that year, open elections be called and political parties be allowed to function again.

In 1975, the Junta arranged for the Director of National Intelligence to meet, again in Washington, with the vice director of the CIA, who was still General Walters. At this time it was particularly important to detail the situation in the country in order to counteract the opinion of numerous U.S. officials and representatives of other countries at the United Nations, who were calling for the expulsion of Chile from the United Nations.

On that occasion, Walters stated that Kissinger was opposed to this type of measures against our country, but not Senator Frank Church, a declared opponent of the Chilean government junta and the main promoter of the idea of expelling Chile from the United Nations.

General Walters also expressed the CIA's desire for DINA to collaborate in establishing contacts with European nationalist groups... for the benefit of its own intelligence agency. The CIA was in question because Senator Church himself had denounced several CIA activities as criminal and the former CIA director, Richard Helms, had just been sentenced to two years in prison.

Colonel Manuel Contreras explained to General Walters that Chile and the DINA did not have the capacity to carry out what was being asked of them, and that he did not want to be involved in events that could be questionable, precisely because the Chilean Government was under diplomatic attack by several countries.

The two trips to the U.S. by the National Intelligence Director are detailed in declarations and reports delivered by him in the extradition process requested by Italy as a result of the attack against the Leighton couple.

The [[Kennedy Amendment]], specially sponsored by Democratic Senator [[Edward Kennedy]], was published in February 1976, by means of which the U.S. hardened even more its position against the Chilean government, suppressing military aid and even prohibiting the sale of arms to the country.

The Annual Assembly of the United Nations, in its 1977 session, approved a condemnation of Chile for violation of human rights.
There were 96 votes against 14. From that year on, the string of assassinations and attacks perpetrated by Michael Townley also came to an end.

In March 1978, the national press published the photos of Michael Townley and Captain Armando Fernandez Larios, identifying them as the characters Williams and Romeral, both involved in the assassination attempt that took the lives of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his secretary, Ronnie Moffit, in Washington D.C.

The FBI was convinced that Townley was directly implicated in the events that led to the death of Orlando Letelier; it had, among other evidence, the originals of the forged passports issued in Paraguay. Walter Landau, former U.S. ambassador in that country, had sent them to the CIA. To this must be added the denunciation, addressed in writing to President Pinochet, by the director of the CNI, retired General Odlanier Mena, reporting the various purchases of electronic material in the U.S. made by Townley, of his trips to the U.S. and of his trips to Paraguay and of the use of false passports; among others, those obtained in Paraguay.

This denunciation was the one that gave rise to the process for passport forgery initiated in the Chilean military courts, known later as the Letelier Case.

These events caused great commotion in the country and, in particular, within the CNI. Due to the pressure exerted by the U.S. Government, the Chilean Junta, relying on certain articles of the Immigration Law, expelled Townley from the country.

In his activities in Chile, Michael Vernon Townley Welch used more than 15 false names, registered more than 100 trips abroad and committed a series of criminal acts, such as forging documents, identity cards and passports. A brief calculation of the money needed to cover all his activities, especially his trips and stays abroad, adds up to a stratospheric amount, impossible to be covered by the Chilean National Intelligence Directorate. Nor was it the DINA that taught him to make remote-controlled bombs or the sophisticated electronic techniques he displayed, or to be a specialist in document forgery.

Townley was never a DINA agent, only an informant and collaborator in electronic matters. The officials of the National Intelligence Directorate came in their totality from the institutions of the National Defense, the Carabineros de Chile, the Investigative Police or the Gendarmerie.<ref>En las Alas del Cóndor, 2021, Eduardo Raúl Iturriaga Neumann</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2022/03/caso-prats-juzguelo-usted.html|Caso Prats: Júzguelo Usted|date=March 5, 2022|publisher=Blog de Hermógenes|author=Hermógenes Pérez de Arce|title=Caso Prats: Júzguelo Usted}}</ref>

===Eduardo Frei Montalva Case===
[[File:Patricio Aylwin & Eduardo Frei Montalva.jpg|250px|thumbnail|[[Patricio Aylwin]] and [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] in 1965, both [[Christian Democrat]] Presidents of Chile and icons of their party.]]
A typical example of how a baseless story is the Frei case. At the end of 1981, the former president underwent surgery for an esophageal obstruction performed by Augusto Larraín. An error in the operation caused an infection and peritonitis, which led to another operation. The former president could not survive this one.

No one then said anything about "poisoning" or third party intervention or even less about "assassination", because Frei lived his last days protected and surrounded by those closest to him, especially his closest friends and former ministers, Patricio Rojas and Patricio Silva, and the former senator Dr. Osvaldo Olguín.

The doctor who performed Frei's first operation, Augusto Larraín, suffered the consequent discredit as a result of the poor outcome, but for more than twenty years he never said anything about the intervention of third parties in the outcome. On the contrary, when shortly after the death of the former president he had a daughter and received a bouquet of flowers from his widow, Mrs. María Ruiz-Tagle de Frei, he took care to send a letter to "El Mercurio" making public this gesture that vindicated him and highlighting the nobility of Mrs. Maruja in expressing her no resentment for the fatal outcome of her husband's operation.

It was only about fifteen years after Frei Montalva's death that his daughter, Carmen, began to voice suspicions of third party intervention in her father's death. It had become fashionable to blame everything on the Pinochet regime without proof. And the totalitarians had already become "democrats", the aggressors had become "attacked" and the perpetrators who were preparing the 1973 self-coup, denounced by Aylwin in October of that year, had become "victims", declared and compensated as such by Aylwin himself.

But nobody took Carmen Frei's suspicions seriously, so much so that the then director of "El Mercurio", Juan Pablo Illanes, told us in a meeting of editors that, after asking President Frei Ruiz-Tagle about his sister's denunciation, he had replied: "These are Carmen's things". His government never took part in them or investigated anything, because there was nothing. But in Chile, if you get the support of the left, you can fabricate a case out of nothing, especially against Augusto Pinochet.

In 1997, Dr. Augusto Larraín also operated on Isabel Allende for the same thing that had affected Frei and when she, like him, was at death's door with a generalized infection, he went to Dr. Arturo Jirón, former doctor of La Moneda under Allende, who operated correctly, cleaned and sterilized her and, partly thanks to the younger age of the patient, saved her. Isabel Allende had had no problem in declaring publicly that she did not believe in the "Frei assassination" because she had had the experience with Dr. Augusto Larraín and knew that his procedures had left her on the verge of death. But a few days ago I saw in a tweet of hers, in "La Tercera", that she has changed her position, as she now expressed her support to the Frei family in their thesis of the "assassination".

At the same time, [[Sebastián Piñera]], already in his first presidency climbed on the Frei's bandwagon and promised them help to get an American expert opinion to prove the poisoning, but the expert from there did not find any traces of poison.

Before that, the country had been shaken when, under the first Bachelet government, the Frei's lawyer announced that there was a report from the University of Ghent, in [[Belgium]], confirming the poisoning. Then the ineffable president summoned the national and international press to La Moneda to denounce the assassination of Frei Montalva, an occasion in which her minister Vivianne Blanlot launched a phrase that made headlines: "The horror does not end". The bad thing was that "La Segunda" called the University of Ghent and they replied that there was no such report on Frei's poisoning. But the family's lawyer replied: "There is a report, there is a report! However, he never showed it. Finally, he resigned his sponsorship of the case.

Almost a quarter of a century after the ill-fated operation, Dr. Augusto Larraín, who had never said anything, appeared on Chilevisión and the following day, August 19, 2006, in "El Mercurio", saying that he had been summoned by Judge Madrid to testify in the case opened at the initiative of Carmen Frei: "I kept for 25 years the secret of my impressions regarding the reasons that had complicated the health of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva", he said. I ask myself: what doctor who has had a patient poisoned stays silent for 25 years and does not denounce it? Well, Dr. Larraín told "El Mercurio" that he had kept his doubts secret and had only expressed them to his cousin and DC senator, Andrés Zaldívar, who did not say anything either.

In that version of "El Mercurio" of August 19, 2006, Dr. Larraín appears adding that Judge Madrid asked him "if there could have been any external contamination", to which Larraín responded in the affirmative. "He also said that Madrid gave him information that he did not know". And the newspaper goes on to say: "Regarding the way in which this external contamination could have been produced, Larraín admitted that there could have been no intentionality, since it could have been caused by a bad sterilization".

The Christian Democracy has closed ranks behind its "flagship family" in the dubious crusade it has undertaken, they pretended that the second government of Sebastián Piñera took part, since he was known for yielding to all pressures and was characterized, just like his first presidency, by columnists and opinion makers changing his ministers. The Christian Democrats demanded the resignation of his Undersecretary of Health Care Networks, Dr. Luis Castillo, who held the same position during his first administration, but then the Frei family had not realized that he had been in charge of Frei Montalva's pathological anatomy samples at the Catholic University. Now when they found out, they decided to accuse him of having hidden them and, therefore, of being an "accessory" to the assassination, all of which is false, because those samples were taken at the request of the former president's medical team (there is a document), the results were delivered to that medical team (there is a document) and until October 2002 (twenty years after the operation) no one from the family or the medical team requested that information, according to what the former dean of Catholic University Medicine, Dr. Gonzalo Grebe, expressed in a letter to the newspaper. He added that when Mrs. Carmen Frei asked for it, it was given to her ("there is a document that can be made public", he affirms). In other words, zero cover-up and zero blame for Dr. Castillo, but the DC continues to pressure Piñera to defend him, something that no one, knowing Piñera, can dismiss.

In addition, one of Frei Montalva's closest friends, his former minister Patricio Silva Garín, who wanted to help him in the infectious aftermath of Augusto Larraín's operation, has been indicted as the author of the "assassination"; and another, Patricio Rojas, former Minister of the Interior, who also said he did not believe in the "assassination" thesis, suffered such an onslaught of insults from within the Christian Democracy that Patricio Aylwin had to come out in defense of his good name.

All of which proves that in Chile, if you want to blame Pinochet, you can put together any story and transform it into a judicial process in the hands of a leftist judge, with good prospects.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/08/el-caso-frei.html|title=El "Caso Frei"|date=August 21, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=PRESIDENTE PINOCHET LIBERTADOR DE CHILE - Por la verdad histórica del 11 de Septiembre de 1973|date=2023|author=[[Gonzalo Townsend Pinochet]]|url=https://www.amazon.com/PRESIDENTE-PINOCHET-LIBERTADOR-CHILE-Septiembre/dp/B0C7T7V4GV}}</ref>

===The Truth about Operation Cóndor===
Operation Cóndor is sometimes mentioned as an alleged “terror operation”, agreed between the military governments of Argentina, Chile and other countries in the 1970s.
The operation was not “of terror”, but quite the opposite, to defend the citizens from terror.

When subversion was ravaging South America the most was in the mid 70's, in 1974, the year in which a “Revolutionary Coordination Board” met in Paris, composed of the National Liberation Army (ELN) of Bolivia, the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) of Argentina, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral and the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Tupamaros of Uruguay and the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) of Chile (of which that same year a young woman named Michelle Bachelet was an active helper, according to her most recognized biography, Insunza and Ortega, 2005).
The secretary of the “Junta de Coordinación Revolucionaria” was the Cuban and member of the DGI (Cuba's KGB) Fernando Luis Álvares, married to Ana María Guevara, sister of a well-known serial killer who served in Cuba, [[Ernesto Che Guevara|Ernesto “Ché” Guevara]].
In October of that year the MIR informed me of the above by means of a mimeographed newspaper, which they promptly delivered to my private office on Doctor Carlos Charlín Street, in Providencia.
The governments of the Southern Cone, then, decided to face together this terrorist coordination, which was to commit attacks and assassinate uniformed and civilians. That is how “Operation Condor” was born, to defend against terror, not to practice it.

Of course, years later in Chile (and before that in Argentina) the rulers, legislators and judges began to persecute the military who participated in “Operation Condor” and, at the same time, the civilian governments have amnestied and compensated the real victimizer of the countries, the extreme [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|left-wing terrorism]], as if those who promoted it had been the “victims”.
A true continental “Operation Historical Lie” has been imposed in this way for decades and extensively. And in virtiud of that gigantic imposture, in our countries the aggressors have become “attacked”, the victimizers have become “victims” (“our comrades and the victims”, as the CJE Juan Emilio Cheyre, whose brain was as well washed of all truth as Ambassador Bielsa's, used to say in his time). And, in short, the totalitarians have now officially become “democrats”.

In Chile, a weak, inept and surrendered political and business ruling class has allowed, in its turn, to brainwash itself and everybody else and to censor or suppress the truth from the media it controls or thinks it controls, because in fact they are managed by the left. If not, they “takes over” the newspaper facilities. Successful disinformation to such an extreme that even the new high class new generations in Chile today believe that the “terror” was brought by the military.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2022/01/y-volvimos-tropezar.html|title=Un Embajador con Cerebro Lavado|date=January 20, 2022|publisher=Blog de Hermógenes|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]}}</ref>

==Pinochet's detention==

Chile became embroiled in an unprecedented controversy in 1998. While visiting Great Britain, Pinochet was detained when left-wing Spanish judge [[Baltasar Garzón]] requested his extradition with the charges of supposed "torture" of Spanish citizens in Chile during his military regime. The case caused the United States and other countries to release documents relating to those who had "disappeared" in Chile under Pinochet's rule. In January 2000 Pinochet with the help of Baroness [[Margaret Thatcher]] won an appeal on medical grounds and was permitted to return home, but Chilean authorities continued to investigate numerous charges of earlier so called "human rights abuses". Stripped of the immunity from prosecution he had enjoyed as a former president, Pinochet was indicted later that year, though the case was later dismissed. In January 2005, however, Chile's Supreme Court upheld another indictment of Pinochet, who was once again without immunity (which is removed on a case-by-case basis under Chilean law).<ref name=EUvsPinochet>{{cite book|url=https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/2022/12/europa-vs-pinochet-indebido-proceso.html|title=Europa vs. Pinochet, Indebido Proceso|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|date=1998|language=es}}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
*[https://odysee.com/THE-PINOCHET-DOCUMENTARY-360p:4?lid=1fd9653478d44db1f87cc8647f820a8669cc3b81 The Pinochet Documentary - English subtitles]
*[https://odysee.com/the-augusto-pinochet-story-never-told:5 Pinochet, the story never told]
*[https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/ Pinochetist Books]
*[https://www.britannica.com/place/Chile/The-military-dictatorship-from-1973 Encyclopædia Britannica article]

==See also==
*[[Augusto Pinochet]]
*[[Mi General Augusto Pinochet (song)]]
*[[Military Political Prisioners of Chile]]
*[[Salvador Allende]]
*[[José Piñera]]
*[[Hernán Büchi]]

[[Category:Chilean History]]
[[Category:Wars]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Augusto Pinochet]]
[[Category:Cold War in Chile]]

Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)

2026-06-13T15:02:39Z

CatolicoAustral: /* The truth about CIA involvement */

[[File:Junta Militar de Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|The Junta.]]
The '''Augusto Pinochet regime''' or '''Military Government''' (''Gobierno Militar'' in [[Spanish language|Spanish]]) is the period on the Chilean History in which the Armed Forced governed the country after a the removal of a Socialist Regime. On September 11, 1973, the [[Chile]]an Armed Forces staged a military intervention. President [[Salvador Allende Gossens]] committed suicide during an infantry-tank assault on the ''[[La Moneda]]'' presidential palace, and a [[junta]] composed of the four leaders of the Armed Forces and Order (Army, Navy, Air Force and Police) took power. [[Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]] was sworn as president in 1974.

The Military Government managed to broke the communists, who were heavily armed and trying to start a civil war; rebuilt an economy destroyed by the previous regime; Pinochet's administration grew the middle class until it became the majority of the country, and eradicated extreme poverty; built a health care system that was affordable, efficient, and available to all; created a private retirement pension account system that gave people free choice while at the same time amassing a huge pool of capital that could be invested in the growth of the country; expunged corruption at all levels, most especially among the oligarchs, whom the government broke on in 1980–82; and created a legal and [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|constitutional framework]] that has given Chile peace, order and prosperity since.<ref>{{cite book|title=Pinochet: las "incómodas" verdades|author=Mario Spataro|date=2006|url=https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/2023/01/pinochet-las-incomodas-verdades-mario.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=CHILE ESCOGE LA LIBERTAD LA PRESIDENCIA DE AUGUSTO PINOCHET UGARTE|author=Gonzalo Rojas Sanchez|publisher=Zig Zag|date=2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://t.me/realCRP/1701|publisher=Telegram|title=Telegram Statement about Pinochet}}</ref>

As the historian Sebastián Hurtado summarizes it "The United States ([[CIA]]) had no direct participation in the coup (itself), neither in its planning nor in its coordination, and I would dare to say that not even in its incitement [...] but it did want Allende to fall (and did actions to promote that with no relation with the successful coup itself)."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latercera.com/la-tercera-sabado/noticia/sebastian-hurtado-historiador-estados-unidos-no-tuvo-participacion-directa-en-el-golpe-pero-si-queria-que-allende-cayera/3UXITS4IUNB3RPPB57ILMYDO64/|title=Sebastián Hurtado, historiador: “Estados Unidos no tuvo participación directa en el Golpe, pero sí quería que Allende cayera”|date=August 26, 2023|publisher=La Tercera|language=es}}</ref>

==Military intervention (So called coup d'état)==
[[File:Intervención militar de 1973.jpg|315px|thumbnail|Military intervention, [[La Moneda|La Moneda Presidential Palace]], 11th of September 1973.]]
The Chilean military reported having suffered 34 killed in stiff fighting in Valparaiso and Santiago on 11–12 September: two army sergeants, three army corporals, four army privates, 2 marine lieutenants, 1 marine corporal, 4 marine cadets, 3 marine conscripts and 15 carabineros (policemen). In mid-September, the military junta claimed its troops suffered another 16 dead and 100 injured by gunfire in mopping-up operations against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|left-wing guerrillas]] Allende civilian supporters, and Pinochet warned: ''"sadly there are still some armed groups who insist on attacking, which means that the military rules of wartime apply to them."'' On 23 October 1973, 23-year-old army corporal Benjamín Alfredo Jaramillo Ruz, who was serving with the ''Regimento Cazadores'', became the first fatal casualty of the counterinsurgency campaign in the mountainous area of Alquihue in the Valdivia Province after being shot by a guerrilla sniper. The Chilean Army suffered 12 killed in various clashes with MIR and GAP guerrillas in October 1973.

On 20 September 1973, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) was given permission to set up an administration office in Santiago, which helped find countries to accept 20,000 Chileans who had been detained or who feared military prosecution.<ref>"On September 20, 1973, just nine days after the coup, the UNHCR opened an office in Santiago and mobilized many efforts to facilitate the withdrawal from Chile of those politically persecuted by the regime and their reception in different countries. More than
20,000 were assisted by UNHCR in those years." Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective, Kathryn Stoner, Michael McFaul, p. 218, JHU Press, 2013</ref> According to an official report by the United States government, 80,000 Chileans were living abroad in the 1970s.<ref>"Since the overthrow about 80,000 Chileans have moved out of their country." U.S. Refugee Programs: Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 96th Congress, Second Session, April 17, 1980, p.398, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1980</ref><ref>"Since the events of September 1973, about 80,000 Chileans have fled their country." World Refugee Crisis, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1979</ref>

During the first three months of Pinochet's military regime, the Chilean armed forces and supporting police units suffered 162 killed in clashes with left-wing guerrillas and civilian supporters in the form of MIR and Chilean Communist Party militants.<ref>Latin America's Wars: The Age of the Professional Soldier, 1900–2001, Robert L. Scheina, p. 326, Potomac Books, 2003</ref>

Since the Allende Regime was declared illegal by the Congress and Judicial Branch, the first one calling the Armed Forces to take action, the actions of September 11, 1973 cannot be a "coup" that would be from outside the State, but it was a Military Intervention (''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciamiento Pronunciamiento] Militar'' in Spanish) called by the institutions to restored themselves.

Historian Richard Pipes (former Dean of History at Harvard University) studied the subject in depth and concluded that, when on September 11, 1973, the Armed Forces removed Allende, they only "obeyed" the Congress Agreement of August 22, 1973. (Book "Communism: A History").<ref name=josepinera>{{cite web|url=http://www.josepinera.org/articles/articulos_verdadhistorica_twitter.htm|title=LA TRAGEDIA DEL QUIEBRE DESDE ADENTRO DE LA DEMOCRACIA CHILENA|language=es|publisher=[[José Piñera]]|date=2010}}</ref> The Military Intervention was not only justified, but unavoidable.

===The truth about CIA involvement===
So many people refuse to accept that the [[CIA]] had no involvement in the 1973 military intervention, the CIA interference was centered on the killing of General René Schneider in 1970.

There was a nationalist small group called ''Patria y Libertad'', they were definitely financed by CIA. And somehow, they got the idea to kidnap the commander-in-chief of the Chilean Armed Forces, General René Schneider.

He was and a man who was extremely well-respected throughout Chilean society, especially in the military. After the 1970 election, there were calls to ignore the democratic process and prevent Allende from taking power. Gen. Schneider publicly articulated what became known as the Schneider doctrine: The armed forces would always support and protect institutional democratic authority, and would never go against a legal outcome duly passed by Congress or the courts. In other words, Schneider was refusing to stand in the way of an Allende presidency. This enraged Allende's hardest opposition, so ''Patria y Libertad'' came up with the idea of kidnapping Schneider, possibly, at the instigation of the CIA. This has never been very clear.

The kidnapping was botched, Schneider defended himself with his side arm and in the process was killed by the kidnappers. This led to the accession of Carlos Prats to the post of commander-in-chief. It was also deeply traumatic to the Chilean military as a whole. A few senior officers outright blamed the Americans for the Schneider killing. Most took a more nuanced view. But the net effect was the same, no one in the Chilean Armed Forces would have anything to do with the CIA or the people from the US Embassy after this incident. Outcasts from the Chilean military, like Roberto Viaux, or marginal people in Chilean politics, gravitated to US Embassy personnel and the CIA, who gave them money.

But their involvement with the Americans made them even more suspect, and marginal, in Chilean society. Later, the CIA in order to justify itself and show that they had been effective in Chile, elevated these marginal or unimportant people as “key to the successful removal of Allende!” Leftists and historians ran with this notion. But it was just to hide CIA incompetence.

Because of the trauma of the Schneider killing, it's absurd to think that the Chilean armed forces would cooperate with the US [[Deep State]] for the 1973 military intervention, especially when they didn't need them to pull it off successfully. It was only after the military intervention, and only out of national economic necessity, that the Military Government got closer to the Americans.

But institutionally, the Chilean military never trusted the Americans, and never allowed themselves to be dependent on them. The American government was never happy with the Pinochet government, because it never gave back the lucrative copper mines that Allende had expropriated.<ref>{{cite web|author=[[Gonzalo Lira]]|url=https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1542742748188606466.html|title=Chilean history thread|date=July 1, 2022}}</ref>

The book "''La CIA en Chile''" published in 2013, also demystifies the role played by the agency in the preparation of the military intervention plan. In a CIA document from 1973, it is pointed out that the CIA office in Santiago was proposing to encourage the military to carry out a ''coup d'état'' against Allende, an option that seemed difficult since the commander in chief of the army, Carlos Prats, did not seem willing to move forward with such an objective.

Ray Warren, the CIA director of the Chilean office, insisted to Washington about the possibility, but the CIA headquarters closed the door: "let's see how history develops, let's not do it", he was told. The US situation was no longer the same as it had been in 1970. The CIA interference had already come to light before Allende's inauguration, the [[Watergate]] affair had already broken out and the [[Vietnam War]] was culminating.

According to the book, "the CIA was so aware of the eyes on it that in a report from its Directorate of Operations, dated September 1972, it said that 'the temptation to assume a positive role in support of the military coup is great', but that they should restrain themselves, since they would be accused of 'engineering the collapse of the Allende government'".
<ref name=CIA_KGB>{{cite web|url=https://ellibero.cl/actualidad/la-mano-de-la-kgb-y-la-cia-en-el-quiebre-democratico-en-chile/|title=La mano de la KGB y la CIA en el quiebre democrático en Chile|September 11, 2015|language=es|publisher=El Líbero}}</ref>

====Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ryan testimony====

[[Lieutenant Colonel]] [[Patrick Ryan]], a member of U.S. naval mission here between 1972 and 1976, wrote an article in November 1976 entitled "The Allende's Chile and the 1,000 lost days", in which he stated:

"For ten years, the United States fought against communism in Vietnam, a country located some 7,000 miles off the coast of California, with a tragic loss of 55,000 American lives, six times the previous number in casualties, without taking into account the tremendous cost of $150 billion. (...) We lost the war!
"On the other hand, the Republic of Chile, located in our hemisphere, fought against communism in the backyard of the United States, without the help of the B-52s, of the VII Fleet and without the visit of [[Bob Hope]]. No American fingers pulled M-16 triggers, no horrifying parade of wrapped coffins wrapped in the American flag was airlifted daily from Santiago de Chile to be buried in the United States. What's more, without our help and without being overwhelmed with our 'calculated response' tactics, the Chileans defeated communism.

"The United States government has not applauded this brilliant defeat of communism, but, incredibly, our Senate and Congress, by means of the Kennedy Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, have terminated all military aid to the new anti-Communist government of Chile. Why?"<ref>{{cite book|url=https://unofar.cl/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/FINAL.-Libro-de-Adolfo-Paul-Latorre.pdf|title=Reflexiones en torno a la Revolución Militar Chilena|language=es|date=2023|author=Adolfo Paúl Latorre}}</ref>

The supposed right-wing Times of London told lies to its readers about Chile. The same aforementioned Lt. Col. Ryan was, in one case, a victim of it, and he tells us:
"Of personal interest to the author was an article in the 'Times' of London (27.10.73), written by Godfrey Hodgson and William Shaweron, which noted: 'In the planning of the coup d'état Admiral José Toribio Meribio Ryan was in personal contact with Lt. Col. Patrick J. Ryan, of the Marine Corps of the U.S. Naval Mission in Valparaiso, Chile'. Although I found the report about my personal daily contact with Admiral Merino very flattering, I also found it to be very false! During the eight months preceding the coup my desk calendar reveals only two appointments with Admiral Merino and they relate to strictly mundane matters. These appointments were typical vice-admiral to lieutenant colonel contacts. He spoke and I listened and promptly carried out his orders. The report in the Times of London about my contact duties with Merino in reference to the coup was absolutely false and typified disinformation and 'fabricated' facts that were disseminated in connection with the coup in Chile".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2020/04/miserias-de-la-chilenidad-actual-iii.html|title=Miserias de la Chilenidad Actual|date=2020|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|language=Spanish}}</ref>

==Initial support==
[[File:A. Pinochet Stamp (cropped).jpg|250px|thumbnail|Pinochet in 1974.]]
At the beginning the junta received the support of the oligarchy and of a sizable part of the middle class. This support by moderate political parties, including many Christian Democrats, can be explained by their belief that a military government represented a transitional stage necessary to restoring Chilean democracy as it had been before 1970.

Four days after that removal, The Economist magazine (15.9.73) editorialized: "The transitory death of democracy in Chile will be regrettable, but the direct responsibility clearly belongs to Dr. Allende and...followers who constantly trampled on the Constitution.... the Allende government violated the letter and spirit of the Constitution...The Armed Forces had to intervene because the constitutional means to stop a government that behaved in an unconstitutional manner failed...The transitory death of democracy in Chile will be deplorable, but it should not be forgotten who made it inevitable".

Four weeks after that removal, [[Patricio Aylwin]], President of the Christian Democracy and future President of Chile, publicly stated: "Allende's government was preparing to carry out a self-coup to establish a communist dictatorship by force. The Armed Forces did nothing but anticipate this imminent risk".

Two months after that removal, the former President of the Republic Eduardo Frei Montalva defended the military internvention with extraordinary strength and lucidity in this extensive letter to Mariano Rumor, President of the International Christian Democracy, in which he said "the military saved Chile!".<ref name=josepinera/>

Very soon they were to discover that the military had their own political objectives, including the repression of all left-wing guerrilla forces. The Christian Democratic, National, and Radical Democracy parties were declared to be in “indefinite recess,” and the Communists, Socialists, and Radicals were outlawed. In 1977 the traditional parties were dissolved.

==Mission of the Junta==
[[File:Government Junta of Chile 1973.jpg|300px|left|thumbnail|Government Junta of Chile in 1973.]]
Since taking office on September 11, 1973, the Military Government Junta did not rest a single day working on regulations, decrees and laws that would allow the normal functioning of the country, mainly in order to recover the economic activity seriously damaged by the Allende government.
As President of the Military Government Junta until 1981 and as President of the Republic until 1990, General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte worked every day on his great ideal: "To make Chile a great nation". On foot, by car, plane or boat, he traveled almost all over Chile, inaugurating numerous development works. While traveling with his ministers or wife, he did not rest. He attended the opening of new companies, inaugurated houses, kindergartens, schools, health centers and hospitals, visited ports, mining companies and works of the ''Carretera Austral'', bringing his smile and words to every Chilean.

His political work did not make him abandon his military work in the Chilean Army. He attended military exercises in the desert, gave lectures at the Military School and regiments, and modernized his institution.

In the face of terrorist actions he had a "iron fist" (''mano dura''), the only way to protect Chile and its people from the communist violence that continued to seek to alter national life.

He confronted the national and international communist propaganda, did not rest until he managed to sign the Peace Treaty with Argentina, harshly criticized foreign boycotts, mainly from the US, and fearlessly continued on his way after the bloody terrorist attack against him.

His horizon was clear: "No one will stop the road to full democracy". As a soldier and a gentleman, he handed over power on March 11, 1990.

Another member of the Military Government Junta, Admiral José Toribio Merino Castro, was in charge of the economic sector of the country and presided over the Economic Committee of Ministers, where the economic measures that the Executive Power implemented were born, as the first economic measures of the Military Government: the liberation of prices of goods and services, a single exchange area was fixed, fiscal spending was reduced and interest rates were freed to start a capital market, the State companies were reorganized, normalizing the intervened companies.

It was Admiral Merino's initiative to study the Statute for foreign investors, which led to the subsequent enactment of Decree Law No. 600. He promoted the study and subsequent enactment of a decree law for the promotion of Chilean exporters, which gave rise to PROCHILE. During this period he promoted the Decree Law to subsidize forestation, establishing incentives to develop plantations of this nature in the country. He represented the military government in negotiating contracts with Pegaso in Spain and before the U.S. government, meeting with President Carter. With a great sense of social justice, he initiated the enactment of Decree Law No. 3,480, to allow debtors of the Housing Savings and Loan System to repay their debts, which favored workers in the middle sector.

In 1980, Decree Law No. 3,500 was issued, which created the new provisional system, and Admiral Merino was a great supporter of this legislation. 1980 saw the approval of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|new Constitution]] that governs the country with 67% of the vote, separating the Executive and Legislative powers in a definite manner. Admiral Merino went on to preside over the Government Board, whose objective was to constitute the Legislative Branch, which governed us until March 1990. He also presided over the first Legislative Commission. In 1982 the country was affected by the world recession and the Government had to take economic measures to alleviate the developing crisis.

Admiral Merino, from the Legislative Branch, promoted laws on the modernization of the financial sector, the State guarantee for deposits and savings, the lowering of import tariffs and, in general, the normalization of the sectors most affected by the crisis, giving maximum support to the Executive Branch, which allowed the country to get out of the crisis. During this period, he promoted the initiative of the Law for the Promotion of the Merchant Marine, contributing significantly to the growth of this sector and also to the shipyards and naval industry through the enactment of Law No. 18,454. He presented motions to replace the Third Book of the Code of Commerce; to adapt the Chilean maritime limits to the Jamaica Convention, through the corresponding reform to the Civil Code, and to repeal the legislation that allowed therapeutic abortion, all of which were approved through the corresponding laws dictated during that period. Likewise, he promoted the enactment of all the Constitutional Organic Laws, which allowed the Military Government to comply with the constitutional itinerary of handing over power to the civilian population.

In 1989, it proposed to the Executive Branch the enactment of a Fisheries and Aquaculture Law, which was achieved after much discussion in the sector. This put an end to the disorganization of the sector and created the conditions for the conservation of renewable marine resources. Finally, he presided over the Joint Legislative Commission to reform the Political Constitution, whose text, approved by the Government Junta, was ratified by the plebiscite held on June 30, 1989. During the period of government of the Armed Forces, 3,660 Decree Laws and 1,090 Laws bearing his signature were promulgated under his supervision.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==First stage of the Military Government (Recovery Stage)==
[[File:President Pinochet and his wife Lucía Hiriart.jpg|250px|thumbnail|President Pinochet and his wife Lucía Hiriart.]]
[[File:Augusto Pinochet 1975.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Augusto Pinochet in 1975 on an Act on the Diego Portales Building (now called Gabriela Mistral).]]
With the military intervention of September 11, 1973, Chile began a 17-year period of government initially assumed by a Military Junta headed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, and composed of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral José Toribio Merino Castro; the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh Guzmán, and the Director General of the Carabineros, General César Mendoza Durán.

The first show of support for the new government came from the Supreme Court, which, represented by its president, Enrique Urrutia Manzano, received a visit from the Junta one day after the pronouncement.
For its part, the [[Catholic Church]] stated that it was pained by the blood of civilians and soldiers that reddened the streets and asked for moderation towards the defeated and that no reprisals be applied.

Meanwhile, the political parties opposed to Salvador Allende -National, Christian Democrat, Social Democrat, Radical Democracy- issued statements of support and justification for the intervention. In the DC, twelve militants signed a communiqué in the opposite direction, but stating the responsibility of the Popular Unity (UP) in the institutional breakdown.

Three were the most pressing objectives set by the military: to provide the country with a new institutional framework, to recover the economy and, above all, to pacify Chile, putting an end to the armed action of violent groups.

The objectives set for the first stage, "Recovery", were:

* To reestablish order and tranquility, seriously threatened by the attempt of irregular Marxist forces tending to destroy freedom and democracy.

* To rebuild the economic and social order, which had been unhinged as a consequence of the systematic degradation of individual guarantees.

* To study and establish a new truly democratic institutionality, protected from totalitarian sectors, respectful of personal liberties, with balanced powers and tending to promote the existence of large, moderate political organizations capable of giving the whole system stability and permanence.

On the same day, September 11, the Honorable Government Junta communicated to the citizens, in Bando No. 5, its firm will to reestablish the economic and social normality of the country, the peace, tranquility and security that had been lost.

The Military Government, from the beginning, was fully aware that the progress of the country required a new social reorganization. This initially forced it to limit a series of political liberties as a way to gradually overcome the deep wounds that had been inflicted.

In September 1974, the Honorable Government Junta issued a solemn declaration, called Declaration of Principles of the Government of Chile, in which, contrary to the value neutrality that had characterized the preceding stage, the principles that would govern its restorative mission were enunciated, while the objectives of its governmental management were made explicit.

By means of military orders and decree laws, the government began to operate under emergency regulations that restricted the individual liberties of the population.
Once the State of Siege and the Emergency Zone were decreed, the circulation of some newspapers, including "El Mercurio", and the operation of Channel 13 and some radio stations were allowed, all under prior censorship.

From the beginning, Pinochet stated that the Armed Forces had taken over the government to return Chile to its democratic system; but first the country's integral recovery had to be achieved through the application of economic, social and political plans that the nation needed.
For this reason, the President of the Junta postulated giving priority to the fulfillment of goals over deadlines.
In the first months of his administration, Pinochet reiterated that the mandate of the military would not constitute a momentary transition between two political governments, but would be the initiator of a great absolute and permanent civic-military movement that would maintain a good administration of the State.
He insisted in affirming that the Armed Forces were not prepared to govern and that they had to assume the task as a result of the prevailing chaos. Gustavo Leigh.

The itinerary of the new Chilean institutionality was made known by Pinochet in July 1977, in an address that is remembered as the "Chacarillas Speech" and which established the parameters of the new democracy.<ref name=GobMilitar>{{cite web|url=https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/p/gobierno-militar.html|title=GOBIERNO MILITAR|publisher=Chile Pinochet Nuestro}}</ref>

==Breakings in the Junta==
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|300px|thumbnail|The new Junta with Fernando Matthei and Rodolfo Stange and without Gustavo Leigh and César Mendoza.]]
An interview given by the Commander-in-Chief of the FACh to the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" was repudiated by the cabinet. After meetings in La Moneda and in the Ministry of Defense, the Junta declared that Leigh was unable to perform his duties, and he was replaced by General Fernando Matthei. The decision caused the resignation of the entire institutional high command.

On March 11, 1981, Pinochet began the second stage of his government by taking the oath of office as President of the Republic. The investiture modified the composition of the Government Junta, which was joined by Lieutenant General César Benavides, representing the Army.

Pinochet served as president until March 11, 1990.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Economic recovery==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
The military government took over a country with a disintegrated economy and virtually bankrupt, since its assets were not enough to meet its obligations. With great efforts of the population, the process of reorganization began, opting for the implementation of a free market model.
One of the most urgent tasks that the Junta de Gobierno set itself when it assumed the leadership of the country was the economic recovery. For this purpose, professionals from the Catholic University who had been part of the academic exchanges with the University of Chicago were consulted. Thus began the era of the "Chicago boys", a group led by the dean of the School of Economics at UC, Sergio de Castro, and composed of Jorge Cauas, Miguel Kast and José Piñera, among others.

The plan of the "Chicago boys" was baptized as "The Brick" and became the foundational basis of the new Chilean social market economy, which left behind the socialist type of centralized and planned economy.

Pinochet approved privatization plans, the return of requisitioned companies, the normalization of agriculture and a new economic and financial conception.

The treasury had to guarantee the population equal opportunities and mass access to the advantages of modern society.

If ten major modernizations materialized by the military regime in the economic sphere were to be highlighted, they would be the following:

Price liberalization: Decree Law 522 of October 15, 1973 eliminated historic price fixing in Chile, with the exception of 33 items that maintained their prices determined by the State and 18 in which businessmen were required to report their values to the authorities. By 1976, all prices were free.

Modernization of the capital market: In 1975, a free interest rate was established, banking was reprivatized and the capital market was liberalized.

Access to higher education: At the end of 1980, private universities made their debut in Chile, significantly increasing the number of young people who could have access to higher education.

Targeting of social spending: A policy that made it possible to allocate State funds to improve the economic situation of the poorest, without producing the injustice of having people receive part of these resources who do not need them.

As a result of these changes, the country's economic growth went from -4.3 percent in 1973 to 10 percent in 1989. Inflation, meanwhile, fell from 106 percent to 21.4 percent in the same years.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Trade liberalization===

By the end of 1973, the Chilean economy was closed to the exterior with import tariffs that averaged 105% and the prohibition to import many products. By 1977, the tariff had already been standardized at 10%, which meant that the productive apparatus began to face external competition, a situation unknown for the country for several decades. Although this confrontation was difficult, today important sectors of the economy are leading this process, being the main generators of foreign exchange and have placed Chile in the leadership in the world with exports of fruits, salmon and wine among several other products. This opening process culminates in the 90s and 2000s in a situation where Chile established free trade agreements with the main economies of the planet.

It allowed the massive arrival of imports that forced national industries to become more competitive and thus export to conquer new markets. In this sense, a single exchange rate was established and a very simplified trade regime was created, without trade barriers and with an even 10 percent tariff since 1979.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Ordering of Fiscal Accounts===

The fiscal deficit reached more than 30% at the end of the Allende government. Public expenditures, which amounted to 41% of GDP in 1973, were reduced by 20% in 1989. Thus, while revenues were recovering, the fiscal imbalance decreased to 2% of GDP in 1975.

However, this reorganization process not only involved cutting unnecessary expenditures, but also required changing the institutional framework governing this sector, which resulted in a rule in force to this day that requires all public spending to have a corresponding financial component, which cannot come from loans from the Central Bank.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Autonomy of the Central Bank===

Its creation made it possible to prevent the government of the day from managing monetary policy at its discretion and thus "triggering" inflation "by turning on the machine to make banknotes" in order to increase fiscal spending.

The Central Bank was granted autonomy in monetary and exchange rate policies, and was entrusted with ensuring price stability and the normal functioning of internal and external payments. This independence from the President of the Republic prevents the political management of the institution for electoral purposes or to support the economic policy of the Executive. This model of autonomy, quite old in the industrialized world, is relatively new in South America and Chile put it into practice before other countries of the continent. It is worth noting that from its inception, the Central Bank's board of directors was formed in equal parts by representatives of the Government and the opposition, thus achieving a balanced and independent performance, in which technical criteria prevailed over partisan ones.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Privatizations===
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|150px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], Finance Minister.]]
A process promoted preferably in the 1980s, under the administration of Finance Minister [[Hernán Büchi]]. It was one of the most unpopular measures taken by the military government, since it resulted in the dismissal of a good part of the companies' workers and, at times, in their liquidation at below market value. However, it allowed the State to divest itself of loss-making companies and to have more resources to invest in areas such as health and education.

The implementation of these reforms was of enormous importance in that they contributed to achieving the productivity increases necessary to sustain economic expansion in the long term. Privatizations are very relevant in this process, since they not only transferred ownership, but also the companies were transferred to people who had the right incentives to maximize their productivity. This resulted in the creation of new companies and new jobs, and allowed Chilean consumers to have access to better quality goods and products at lower prices thanks to the existing competition.

Numerous productive sectors have benefited and strengthened thanks to these microeconomic reforms, as can be seen in the following lines, which mention those that have achieved the greatest development and contributed most strongly to the country's growth.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==World economic recessions (1975 and 1982)==

Since the military government took over the leadership of the State, the disinformation campaign described above was accompanied by the economic attempt to isolate the country from the rest of the international community. These purposes were repeatedly supported from within by different sectors, since the aim was to foster and, ideally, establish a climate of insecurity and unrest, which would facilitate an attempt against the normal evolution of the process underway.

The most difficult challenges that economic policy had to face, in addition to the disastrous situation existing on September 11, 1973, referred to the world oil crisis, the foreign debt, the drop in copper prices and the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]", situations that provided a very unfavorable environment for an economy that had to start by normalizing the productive apparatus and stabilizing the inflation rate, which was close to 500%.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===1st economic crisis of 1975===

In an erratic manner, the origin of this crisis is often analyzed under a supposed and deliberate shock policy, which would have had as its objective to put an end to the inflationary phenomenon, which was still at worrying levels in 1974 and 1975.

The causes are based mainly on the need to adjust the balance of payments, which resulted in a significant economic adjustment, and on the scarce international currency reserves, basically due to the sharp fall in the price of copper during the same period. By way of illustration, the following graph shows the sustained decline of this metal, a vital commodity for the country's economy during those years.

This situation quickly led to a drop in productive activity and high unemployment.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

However, this emergency was quickly overcome, since, in mid-1976, as a result of the adjustment of fiscal accounts, the reorientation of the tariff and exchange policy aimed at promoting the country's integration with the outside world, together with the management of the monetary policy, allowed the situation to be overcome and the population was able to gradually benefit from it.

Another fact that is fully inserted in the context of the international campaign against Chile refers to what was called the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]".

In 1976, [[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] presented before the U.S. Senate a bill to modify the Foreign Military Assistance Act in order to exclude Chile from the military aid that his country provided to the Latin American republics that had signed the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR). The restrictions were approved and began to apply to Chile in October 1977, comprising in summary:

* The prohibition to provide Chile with any form of military assistance, including the education and training of its Armed Forces personnel.

* The prohibition to grant credits for the same purposes.

* The prohibition to all private suppliers to sell and export military equipment to Chile.

The adoption of the amendment was especially relevant, not necessarily because of its economic effects, but basically because of its inopportunity, since at that time Chile, as we will observe later on, had to face highly complex neighboring conflicts. Collaterally, this fact determined a sustained development of the Chilean military industry, which increased its productive capacity and systematized an accelerated and efficient reconversion process. Most big U.S. companies were now restricted in what they could sell to the regime.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-05-10-tm-2620-story.html|title=WEAPONS FOR THE MASSES : SOME PARIAH NATIONS ARE FINDING THERE’S A NEW WORLD ORDER FOR THEIR CUT-RATE ARMS|date= May 5, 1992|publisher=LA Times}}</ref>

Other countries also embargoed Chile, first came the British Labour government in 1974, soon followed by Jimmy Carter's United States in 1979 and Mitterrand's socialist France in 1982. Years earlier, Rolls-Royce workers in East Kilbride (Scotland) had refused to work on Avon engines for the Chilean Air Force's Hawker Hunter fighter fleet.

Chile bought weapons to [[Israel]], [[Spain]], [[Rhodesia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1987/04/12/espana/545176811_850215.html|title=Las armas que España vendió a Pinochet|date=April 11, 1987|language=es|publisher=El País}}</ref> and [[South Africa]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-11-28-declassified-apartheid-profits-pals-with-pinochet/|title=Declassified: Apartheid Profits –Pals with Pinochet|date=November 28, 2017|publisher=Daily Maverick}}</ref><ref>[https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-relationship-between-Chile-under-Pinochet-and-Apartheid-South-Africa]</ref> as well as making their own mainly in FAMAE and made by Carlos Cardoen. Chile sold weapons produced by Carlos Cardoen to [[Saddam Hussein]] from [[Irak]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nacla.org/article/pincohet-arms-merchant|title=Pincohet, Arms Merchant|date=March 6, 2008|publisher=Nacla}}</ref><ref>[https://rebelion.org/recordando-los-pinochet-e-irak/]</ref> and supposedly to China.

China was one of the few in the socialist orbit that did not break diplomatic relations with Pinochet's military junta. The Asian country granted a credit of 62 million dollars to the Chilean military government presided by General Augusto Pinochet in 1977.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1977/08/16/internacional/240530424_850215.html|publisher=El País|date= August 16, 1977|language=es|title=Crédito de China a Pinochet}}</ref>

With the [[Reagan Administration|Ronald Reagan Administration]] in the United States, things improved quite a bit for Chile, even though the State Department bureaucracy ([[Deep State]]) was still biased to the left and very much penetrated by anti-Chilean slogans originated in [[Moscow]] ([[KGB]]) which have been a constant feature of public opinion in Chile, most of the media and U.S. officials.

In February 1981, the prohibition imposed by the [[Carter Administration]] on the subsidized Eximbank loans to finance U.S. exports to Chile was lifted in February 1981. U.S. export ban to Chile was lifted in February 1981. The negative vote that Washington had maintained in relation to World Bank and Inter-American Bank credits was also modified. World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank loans was also modified.

Unfortunately, the Democratic senators were able to win the support of some "moderate" Republicans ([[RINOs]]) and the Kennedy Amendment remained. The Republican "centrists" were always greatly influenced by Soviet disinformation on Chile and acted accordingly, against Reagan's good will.

===2nd economic crisis of 1982===

On this occasion, the adjustment had an immediate origin in the need to face the reality of a lower flow of external resources. Savings fell in 1981 and 1982 as a result of the world debt crisis. The authorities had to devalue the dollar by 18 percent and take other measures related to foreign exchange, which hurt dollar debtors.

It is true that Chile had resorted on numerous occasions to external credit, which had naturally produced misalignments in relative prices. However, the fall in savings was due to high international interest rates, the high price of oil and the ease of access to foreign credit by the world's debtors. However, when this crisis broke out, Chile had already adopted internal corrective measures, which were intensified in the face of the emergency that arose.

A clear demonstration of the soundness of the economic scheme applied in Chile was the notorious difference in the effects caused by the international economic crisis in the country, compared to other countries in the region.

In such events, the Military Government, based on a new economic model that was being developed, and due to the management of its variables, managed to gradually overcome them and continue in a sustained development.

The economic recovery plans translated into the use of an active monetary policy, an increase in the quantity of money with a view to recovering liquidity, a free dollar and a limited use of reserves.

The severe measures to achieve reactivation supported a renegotiation of the foreign debt and other actions that allowed for financial and banking reorganization.

On January 13, 1983, the dissolution of the ''Banco Hipotecario y de Fomento, Banco Unido de Fomento and Financiera Ciga'' was announced. In addition, the banks ''Banco de Chile, Banco de Santiago, Banco Concepción, Banco Internacional and Colocadora Nacional de Valores'' were intervened, and delegated administrators were appointed.

Eighteen of the 22 mutual fund companies operating at that time were suspended. And special credit modalities and terms for the sale of new and old houses were put into effect, which stimulated the real estate market.

From 1984 onwards, the adjustment process was based on an expansive policy to reactivate growth. But it was from 1986, when economist Hernán Büchi was at the head of the Ministry of Finance, that a period of sustained growth developed, culminating in a GDP of 10.6 percent in the last year of the Pinochet administration.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

Oligarchs were imprisoned in the ''Capuchinos'' Prison, which is why many of them started to conspire against Pinochet.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://youtu.be/vlCJ9n7YU28|title=The Pinochet Problem - CRP|author=[[Gonzalo Lira]]}}</ref>

==1980 Chilean Constitution==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Chilean Constitution of 1980.jpg|200px|left|thumbnail|The Chilean Constitution of 1980.]]
[[File:Pinochet as Commander in Chief with his wife Lucía.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Pinochet as Commander-in-Chief with his wife Lucía.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the 1980 Constitution and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
The new political and institutional order that the country needed was embodied in the drafting of a Fundamental Charter that would replace the Constitution in force in 1973. The latter, in force since 1925, had been insufficient to face the problems the country had suffered for many years and even more inoperative in the face of the outbursts of the socialist regime that led the country to the greatest moral, political, social and economic chaos in its history.

The configuration of a new Magna Carta should, in the first place, consecrate the freedom of the people as the axis of its norms and principles. Approved by a large majority in 1980, the new Political Constitution of Chile defines a new political order and a new economic order, based on free private initiative and a subsidiary State, while reinforcing the family as the nucleus of a free society where respect for individuals and their active participation prevail.

The main characteristics of the new Constitution of 1980 are:

* Recovery of the rule of law, which implies the hierarchy of constitutional norms and the separation of public powers.

* Consolidation of individual liberties.

* Subsidiarity of the State.

* Strengthening of individual and social freedoms.

* Recognition and constitutional consecration of rights that were not duly safeguarded.

* Regulation of constitutional states of exception. And creation of a new recourse of protection to defend constitutional guarantees.

* Organization of a strong Executive Branch, rationalization of the Legislative Branch and strengthening of the Judicial Branch.

* Creation of bodies that reinforce institutionality and give people new instances to defend their rights, such as the Constitutional Court, the National Security Council. The General Comptroller of the Republic was elevated to constitutional hierarchy.

* Constitutional consecration of regionalization

Since its enactment on March 11, 1981, the 1980 Constitution regulated the political, economic and social life, transforming the country into an orderly and solidly democratic nation.

In this area, the most important initiative of the military government was the drafting of a new Constitution for the country, which would support the new order it sought to impose in Chile. In this sense, the Declaration of Principles of the Government of Chile, issued in March 1974, served as the basis for the new Magna Carta.

The rights of man (prior and superior to those of the State), the principle of subsidiarity, the recognition of private property and free initiative in the economic field, were assumed as pillars of the foundational work.

The drafting of the new constitutional text was entrusted to a commission chaired by Jorge Alessandri's former Minister of Justice and the Interior, Enrique Ortúzar. The group -whose work was permanently guided by the Executive also included constitutionalists such as Sergio Diez, [[Jaime Guzmán]], Alejandro Silva Bascuñan and Raúl Bertelsen.

The new Political Constitution was voted on in a plebiscite held on September 11, 1980, in which 67.04 percent of the population voted "Yes" and 30.19 percent "No". Six months later, the document came into force.

The regulation contemplated new conceptions of the person, society and the State. In this sense, the important definition that the rights of men are first and prior to those of the State laid the foundations of the institutional framework that would govern the nation.

Likewise, the new Constitution detailed the functioning and role of future institutions.

The election of parliamentarians by constituencies strengthened the regionalization of the country, initiated during the first stage of the government.

The binominal electoral system set the basis for a two-party system that would guarantee the balance of political forces represented in Congress.

It also introduced appointed senators, the second round in presidential elections and the obligation to obtain more than 50 percent of the votes in order to accede to the presidency.

The most revolutionary and resisted innovation of the new Charter was the establishment of the Armed Forces as guarantors of institutionality, a precept that led to the creation of the National Security Council (Cosena).<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Second stage, Road to Democracy (Transition)==
[[File:Pinochet in La Moneda.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President Pinochet in [[La Moneda]] in 1984.]]
[[File:Augusto Pinochet 1986.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Pinochet in a church during the "Tedeum" Ceremony in "Fiestas Patrias" of 1986.]]
As of March 1981, the new Constitution was conceived to come into force, which would define the framework of a full democracy. Its objective was to produce a gradual and sustained advance towards institutional and democratic fullness, which was to be completed by March 1990 at the latest. It is also important to note that this date marked the beginning of the 1981-1988 presidential term, following a plebiscite. Since then, different sectors of society were increasingly incorporated into the responsibilities of the political leadership of the nation, which was reflected in the formation of the cabinets, in which the integration of civilians and the military was a permanent reality.

During the second stage of the military government, the opening of dialogue with the political parties was entrusted to the then Minister of the Interior, Sergio Onofre Jarpa, who drew up a timetable for developing a political plan and established that it would be up to the citizenry to approve a constitutional reform that would allow a democratically elected Congress to take office.

However, the government-opposition dialogue was cancelled by Pinochet, which led to Jarpa's resignation.

In May 1983, a day of protest called by copper workers initiated a series of similar actions in the country, which led to the renewal of the State of Emergency the following year and the decree of a new State of Siege.

Faced with the situation, the Catholic Church took action and Cardinal Juan Francisco Fresno began to meet with different political leaders, meetings that culminated in the signing of the "National Agreement for the Transition to Full Democracy" aimed at guaranteeing future democratic institutions.

For his part, Pinochet reiterated that the institutional path was in the Constitution and should be respected.

In 1987, the country entered a different period with the six-day visit of [[Pope John Paul II]]. That same year, Pinochet approved the transfer of Congress to Valparaíso and ten political parties began their legal registration with the Electoral Service.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==International Relations and Conflicts with Argentina==
[[File:Pope John Paul II and President Augusto Pinochet.jpg|thumbnail|President Augusto Pinochet with [[Pope John Paul II]] visiting Chile in 1987, previously he played a big role on bringing peace to Chile and Argentina avoiding a war because of the Beagle Conflict.]]
Relations with other countries were not easy for the government of Augusto Pinochet, since from the beginning the military regime aroused worldwide concern for having overthrown the first democratically elected Marxist President.

Recognition of the new authorities came only from Latin American countries, with the exception of [[Mexico]] and [[Venezuela]].

The rest of the world repudiated the pronouncement and, with the exception of [[China]], all socialist nations broke off relations. Even European countries, such as Italy, withdrew their ambassadors, leaving the chargés d'affaires in the diplomatic representations.

Likewise, the Armed Forces had to be attentive to the situation with neighboring countries. Especially the relations with Argentina experienced a very conflictive period towards the end of the 70's, due to the dispute over the jurisdiction of the Beagle Channel and the different islands and islets, among them Picton, Lennox and Nueva.

In this sense, Augusto Pinochet continued with the task initiated by the governments of [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] and Salvador Allende, with the aim of diplomatically resolving the differences.

However, on May 2, 1977, relations between Santiago and [[Buenos Aires]] changed when the arbitration award of [[Queen Elizabeth II]] was announced, a ruling that confirmed Chilean sovereignty over the islands and established the dividing line of the Beagle, subjecting it to the orientation that, according to Chile, this waterway has.

In early 1978, the [[Argentine]] military junta declared the arbitration award "insanely null and void". For this reason, it was decided to appoint two commissions to analyze the conflict. After meeting in Santiago and Buenos Aires, the delegates drafted a document stating that the governments would avoid "actions or attitudes contrary to the spirit of peaceful coexistence" between the two countries.

However, after the Argentine Navy rejected the idea of resorting to Vatican mediation to solve the conflict, the military began to carry out maneuvers on both sides of the mountain range. Meanwhile, the Chilean and Argentine cardinals, Raúl Silva Henríquez and Raúl Primatesta, respectively, made high-level efforts to stop the conflict.

The fleets of both countries were only hours away from meeting at sea, but a storm prevented this from happening.

In 1982 during the [[Falklands War]], Chile helped the United Kingdom since Argentina was a real threat for the country, and if they won the war they were going to attack Chile after. [[Margaret Thatcher]] thanked the Chilean support when Pinochet was captured in London in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/mar/26/pinochet.chile2|title=Thatcher visits her old friend Pinochet|date=March 26, 1999|publisher=The Guardian}}</ref>

Samoré died before the successful completion of his mission on May 2, 1985, when the foreign ministers of Argentina and Chile exchanged the instruments of ratification of peace before John Paul II.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Education reform==

===College===
The average years of schooling of Chileans had a significant increase, which went from 4.5% in 1970 to 8.7% in 1987, and the incorporation of the poorest into the system, aspects that would contribute to significantly improve equality of opportunities and equity in the educational system.

INACAP, an institution granted on loan to the Confederation of Production and Commerce, deserves special mention. It has become the main higher technical training center in the country with nearly 50,000 students and branches in Arica, Iquique, Calama, Antofagasta, Copiapó, La Serena, Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Santiago, Rancagua, Talca, Chillán, Los Angeles, Concepción, Talcahuano, Temuco, Valdivia, Osorno, Puerto Montt, Coyhaique and Punta Arenas.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Schools===
Until 1980, the Chilean educational system was characterized by a great intervention of state education, which reached more than 80% of the enrollment and a strongly centralized administration, showing serious problems: insufficient coverage, low quality and scarce capacity to absorb the poorest excluded from the educational system.

Teachers' salaries were very low because the bureaucracy consumed a large part of the resources and the state was the main employer. There was no competition among the different types of schools and a rigid curriculum was designed, conditions that promoted neither efficiency nor quality.

The urgent need to correct these shortcomings gave rise to a system of modernization of education that pursued the following objectives

* Improve the quality of education

* To increase its coverage

* Establish equal opportunities and

* Promote freedom of education

In order to achieve these objectives, a new incentive system was proposed that established a demand-side subsidy scheme based on the service provided, which gave a strong boost to subsidized education. Complementing this policy, it was decided that the State would no longer administer schools through the Ministry of Education and therefore would no longer be the main direct employer of teachers.

To this end, all elementary and secondary schools that had been administered by the Ministry of Education and some technical schools were transferred to the municipalities and transferred to private non-profit entities. Likewise, curricular reforms were increased as of 1980. Thus, the establishment of this framework of incentives and equitable rules of participation that favored competition allowed for a notable increase in coverage at these educational levels, aided by the considerable development of private sector participation in education. At the elementary level, the private subsidized sector went from a 14% share of total enrollment in 1980 to 30.4% in 1988. In secondary education, during the same period, the private subsidized sector almost tripled the number of students, from 15.9% to almost 40%.
Between 1971 and 1973, higher education, with 4.8% of the country's total enrollment (including elementary and secondary education) absorbed 39.7% of total fiscal spending on education. This figure is eloquent, especially if one considers that according to the 1970 Map of Extreme Poverty, 43% of children in extreme poverty did not attend school. The first measures adopted were aimed at reducing the higher education budget in order to prioritize and increase spending on basic and secondary education. Thus, between 1978 and 1980, spending on higher education dropped to 29%.

However, the problems that afflicted this type of education, which went far beyond excessive spending, required a drastic reform that began in 1980, when legal regulations began to be enacted that would correct the closed and virtually monopolistic nature of the university system, reinforce the freedom of teaching and introduce competition in order to improve academic quality.

A first legal text defined what a university was, the degrees and titles it could grant and the modalities of constitution and dissolution. The creation of new private establishments was allowed and the emergence of Professional Institutes was favored. Simultaneously, regulations were issued to force a rationalization and institutional restructuring of the universities. In addition, one of the priority lines of action was to promote the development of scientific and technological research, for which purpose the National Science and Technology Fund was created in 1981.

However, the reform that would have the greatest impact in the following years concerned the financing system. The new regulations defined funding from the public budget as consisting of three components.

* A direct contribution, which was distributed exclusively among the universities existing before the reform and which was reduced with respect to what was previously provided, in order to avoid inefficiency, save fiscal resources and reduce the possibilities of state institutions to compete unfairly with the new institutions that appeared under the new legislation.

* An indirect contribution based on the best scores in the selection and entrance exams.

The tax credit granted to low-income students to be repaid during their professional life.

Although there are still deficiencies in the system, the modifications introduced with the reform allowed for a strong increase in both private universities and intermediate education establishments and a corresponding increase in the number of students graduating from this educational level. There are currently 64 universities, 60 professional institutes and 116 technical training centers throughout the country that collaborate in the formation of the human capital required by a highly competitive and technified world.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Pension system reform==
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|150px|thumbnail|[[José Piñera]], father of the Private Pension system.]]
The reform of the pension system was one of the most profound and transcendental transformation experiences carried out by the military government. The new mechanism replaced the old pay-as-you-go system with a capitalization or individual savings system, privately administered and backed by regulations that ensured a minimum pension level from the State.

Enacted on November 4, 1980. Through this reform, the government changed the old system of distribution of workers' funds for a system of capitalization in individual accounts. To this end, it established private fund management institutions, the AFPs, leaving workers free to choose.

Under the old system, the active workers financed the pensions of the passive workers through their contributions, and both the pension benefits and the obligations of the active workers were fixed by law, with no correspondence between what they contributed and what they received as retirement benefits. This lack of relationship between the amount contributed and the pension received resulted in an incentive to under-declare contributions together with pressure from certain groups to obtain better or additional benefits, forcing the Treasury to make increasing contributions and causing the system to become underfinanced.

In addition, there was a total lack of uniformity in the system. At the time of the reform, there were 32 Pension Funds and more than one hundred different pension systems, which produced great differences in the mechanisms for calculating pensions and in the requirements for retirement, and open discrimination against the most disadvantaged groups and those with the least lobbying power.

In 1981, DL 3,500 was enacted, creating the Pension Fund Administrators, AFP, which introduced a radical change to the pension system and presented the following advantages:

* Pension levels directly related to individual effort.

* Freedom of choice and active role of members.

* Competitiveness of the system

* Independence from the public budget.

* Equity

* Application of the pay-as-you-go system for disability and survivors' pensions.

* Lower costs for members.

* Less negative impact on employment.

* Greater accumulation of capital in the economy as a whole, since the pension funds are operating and yielding returns through the capital market.

With more than twenty years in force, the new system now has more than 1,700,000 affiliates in the AFPs, which operate with a high degree of competitiveness. Its good performance has turned it into a successful export product to many countries around the world.

What was once a bold experiment in pension reform and a reckless privatization of social security, is now an experience that has been emulated in several Latin American and Asian countries. The results observed in Chile first motivated its neighbors to reform their pension systems. In the first half of the 1990s, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay did so.

Subsequently, Bolivia, Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic did so. Others are working on implementing the system, including Ecuador, Nicaragua, Lithuania, Slovak Republic, Ukraine and Romania.

Throughout the world, people's life expectancy has been increasing. In the United States, more than 100,000 people are 100 years old or older and there are studies that indicate that by the middle of this century, human life expectancy will reach 150 years. On the other hand, families are becoming smaller and the possibility for the State to pay decent pensions will become impossible, which is why the solution adopted by the Military Government is of enormous importance.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Health reform==

In order to improve the health status of the Chilean population, the Military Government initiated a series of actions aimed at modifying the impoverished situation of the sector by expanding private participation. In 1979, the existing discrimination between workers and employees was eliminated and the possibilities of choice were increased for a vast sector of the population thanks to the enactment of DL 2,575, which gave workers access to the Free Choice System and allowed the establishment of agreements with private institutions for hospital care. That same year, the Ministry of Health and the SNS were restructured, creating the National Health Services System, SNSS, made up of 27 autonomous entities responsible for providing preventive and curative services in specific geographic areas, each directly dependent on the Ministry.

Since 1980, the financial function of the National Health Fund, FONASA, has been centralized, which is responsible for distributing the resources coming from the Treasury, the contributions of the affiliates to the system and the direct payments of the users of the free-choice modality. In addition, FONASA is responsible for the administration of the health benefits system in the free-choice modality. Another very important step was taken in 1981 with the transfer of primary health care facilities to the municipalities. At the same time, some of these entities delegated their administration to non-profit private corporations. This allowed the administration to be deconcentrated and gave greater decision-making capacity to the local level. The transfer process was completed in 1988.

In 1981, the private social security health institutions, ISAPREs, were created. With this, the compulsory health contributions that until then had been paid into the state health insurance system could be freely transferred to one of these institutions and, within them, to one of the health plans offered by them.

Isapres: They were created with Law 18.933. With them, people can choose between being treated by the public health system or contribute to private health institutions that assure them a coverage determined by the chosen plan.

The additional contribution of 2% by the companies, now abolished, allowed a greater number of workers to have access to this system and improve their health plans, which today they are unable to do.

Subsequently, in 1985, the Health Benefits Regime was created, which stratifies all SNSS beneficiaries according to their income, assuring them a minimum level of health care compatible with their contributions, establishing free health care for the poorest.

The actions described above have made it possible to increase sectoral resources, achieve greater efficiency, increase people's responsibility for their health, improve the quality of care and steadily improve the population's level of health. However, the great challenge still lies in ensuring that all Chileans have the possibility of choosing where to receive health care, whether in the public or private system, with both operating in full competition.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Labor reform==

One of the most important reforms introduced by the military government was the labor reform contained in DL 2,200, which gave rise to the current Labor Code and replaced the legislation in force since 1931. The latter had clearly favored the ideologization of the relationship between workers and employers, which had become a permanent source of conflict.

Attributed to former Labor Minister [[José Piñera]], this was one of the economic changes with the greatest impact. Its objective was to forcefully transfer the principles of individual freedom to the labor market, which would be reflected in the rights of employees and employers established in a balanced manner in labor contracts.

The main elements that constituted the new legislation were the following:

* Legal equality before the law, which eliminated the distinction between workers and employees.

* Freedom of unionization, which put an end to compulsory membership and put an end to the excessive politicization of the organizations.

* Collective bargaining by company. This put an end to a type of bargaining that operated as an expression of class conflict and vindicationist approaches to the power of capital. From now on, collective bargaining takes place within the company, based on productivity and efficiency, with clear economic benefits for the workers.

* Right to strike used as an instrument of negotiation and not of political pressure.

* Freedom to form workers' confederations, eliminating the political monopoly over unions and the single centralized scheme.

With almost a quarter of a century in force, labor reforms have favored a climate of tranquility and productive efficiency, contributing to the growth of the country and the welfare of workers, notwithstanding some recent modifications that may have generated the feeling of going backwards in some specific aspects.

All these activities had a strong impact. Between 1970 and 1990, the population living in extreme poverty decreased from 21% (1.9 million) to 11% (1.4 million). Between the same dates, life expectancy at birth increased from 62 to 72 years and the infant mortality rate fell from 79.3 per 1,000 live births to 16. The average schooling of the population increased from 4.5 years to 9 years, while the percentage of poor children without basic education decreased from 43% to 5%. Illiteracy decreased from 11.8% to 5.4%. With respect to housing and infrastructure between the aforementioned dates, urban drinking water coverage increased from 67% to 97%, while rural coverage increased from 34% to 86%. Urban sewerage increased from 31% to 83%.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Poverty reduction==
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
In 1970, according to the Extreme Poverty Map, 21% of Chileans (almost two million people) lived in conditions of extreme poverty. In view of this reality, the military government had to concentrate its efforts on eradicating this scourge through a set of policies aimed at increasing and improving social programs.

In the first place, policies aimed at investing in human resources and improving the human capital of the population were addressed. Among the programs aimed at these purposes are: primary maternal and child care, supplementary food, preschool care, increased coverage in basic and secondary education, job training and care for children in an irregular situation.

A second group of policies focuses on efforts to improve the targeting of spending, directing it to the most vulnerable segments of the population.

In addition, policies were implemented to redistribute and invest in physical assets, on the understanding that by accessing them, the poor could permanently improve their income conditions and thus overcome their poverty. The programs were developed in the following areas: housing, drinking water, sewerage and title deed clearance.

At the same time, assistance policies were developed to provide mechanisms to supplement the income of the most destitute families in order to satisfy the minimum needs in keeping with the dignity of the human being. Among these were the creation of the single family subsidy and unemployment subsidies and special employment programs designed during periods of economic crisis. In 1975, the welfare pension system was also established for invalids and the elderly who were excluded from the social security system.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

In 1989, the groups belonging to the Mapuche "Regional Councils" appointed Augusto Pinochet as "Ulmen Füta Lonko" or "Great Authority".

With the application of the aforementioned regulations, from 1978 to 1990 the State delivered, in total, 69,984 individual domain titles to the indigenous people, and by virtue of the other provisions of this legal text and the new lands transferred, 72,931 domain titles were completed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://panampost.com/marcelo-duclos/2017/09/04/el-pasado-mapuche-que-incomoda-a-la-izquierda-el-dia-que-nombraron-gran-autoridad-a-pinochet/|title=El pasado mapuche que incomoda a la izquierda: el día que nombraron “Gran Autoridad” a Pinochet|language=es|date=September 4, 2017|publisher=PanamPost}}</ref>

==Local governments==
[[File:Pinochet inaugurando cinra.png|thumbnail]]
Local governments represent one of the areas in which it is possible to appreciate with greater clarity the transformation of the public sector structure initiated by the military government.

Municipal reform and modernization began with the enactment in 1976 of DL 1,289, which addressed improvements in the administrative and internal organization areas. Subsequently, in 1980, more profound changes took place with the enactment of DL 3,036 on Municipal Revenues, which decentralized the adoption of decisions in the financial field, and a set of norms that, together with the organizational restructuring of the municipalities, empowered them to assume the administration of services in areas that until then had been centrally administered, fulfilling the role assigned to them by the 1980 Constitution.

One of the most important innovations defined by the legislation is the Municipal Common Fund, formed with contributions from the municipalities themselves and fiscal resources that are subsequently distributed to the communes according to pre-designed parameters that consider the socioeconomic situation, the number of inhabitants and other territorial factors. This redistributive instrument put an end to the difference between poor and rich communes.

With regard to the administration of social services, the municipalities began to play a fundamental role as the government bodies closest to the community. Among the many services that were transferred to them, the most important were educational services, with the transfer of public elementary, middle and technical-professional schools, and health services, with the transfer of primary health care clinics.

Other relevant aspects in the process of municipal modernization refer to modifications in the technical-financial area. Among these innovations, the following stand out: the creation at the level of each commune of the Communal Secretariats of Planning and Coordination; the delegation to the private sector of works and services that were traditionally carried out directly by public officials; the promotion of efficiency by stimulating competition among municipalities to apply for financing of development projects; the rationalization and mechanization of the systems for the collection of fees, patents and other municipal revenues; and the creation at the national level of uniform and modern financial mechanisms.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

=== Easter Island ===
{{Main article|Easter Island}}
[[File:President Pinochet on Easter Island, Chile.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Augusto Pinochet]] on Easter Island, Chile.]]
Under the Presidency of the Republic of Captain General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, [[Easter Island]] is elevated to a level of importance and dedication from the Chilean authorities previously unthinkable, and one of the most important measures in this regard was the creation of the province of Isla de Pascua, which culminated with the appointment of the eminent Rapa Nui archaeologist and international university academic, Mr. Sergio Rapu Haoa, With an austere administration and charismatic leadership Sergio Rapu Haoa generated a paradigm of local administration that has been maintained by all subsequent governments, which although it has lost prominence as a paradigm, due to political quotas and lack of support from the central government, has definitely established that a member of the Rapanui ethnic group is the representative of the central government in the territory.<ref>[https://polinesia-chilena.blogspot.com/2007/11/independentismo-secesionismo-y.html Independentismo, Secesionismo y Autonomia - Polinesia Chilena]</ref>

On January 24, 1975, television arrived on the island, with the inauguration of a station of Televisión Nacional de Chile, which broadcasted its programming on a deferred basis until 1996, when live satellite transmissions to the island began.

In 1979, by decree, the Rapa Nui were able to legally register their ancestral properties in their own name. Something stipulated in the 1966 Pascua Law but not implemented until Pinochet's decree.

In 1986, a special fuel subsidy was created for Easter Island. In addition, through the then U.S. Ambassador to Chile, Harry Barnes, it was decided that, due to its strategic location and low air traffic density, the Mataveri airport runway was ideal to be used as an emergency alternative for the landing of space shuttles. Thus, the runway was repaired and extended to its current length and equipped with advanced electronics for air navigation. Thanks to this project, tourism on the island increased explosively and a LAN Chile plane began to operate every 15 days with supplies and thanks to this infrastructure, there is the possibility of daily trips in official planes.

Before they had contact every so often, from that moment they began to have more contact, to be able to make surgical interventions. In addition, there began to be subsidies for houses on the island.

===Chilean Antarctica===
[[File:Villa Las Estrellas.jpg|thumbnail|Villa Las Estrellas, the Chilean town in the South Shetland Islands at night. ]]
[[File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Pinochet]] inaugurating [[Villa Las Estrellas]] in the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
The most significant act for Chile, however, perhaps corresponds to the inauguration of Villa Las Estrellas, by [[President of Chile|President]] [[Augusto Pinochet]] on April 9, 1984, on King George Island, in the South Shetlands. It is located next to the President Frei Meteorological Center and three kilometers from the Lieutenant Marsh Base. Pinochet visited the continent more than once, the first time in 1977. Today there is the "Cerro Lucía" named after his wife Lucía Hiriart, the Augusto Pinochet Massif (also known as Dufek) and the Admiral Merino Channel (also known as Plata).

Initially with only six families, in a few months it had already doubled to 12 families and was already the first and only population of civilian settlers established in Antarctica, with no other similar experience in history. The success of this project allowed the registration of some of the first human births in Antarctic territory, which up to 1985 totaled three:

*Juan Pablo Camacho Martinez (November 21, 1984)
*Gisella Ester Cortés Rojas (2 December 1984)
*Ignacio Alfonso Miranda Lagunas (January 23, 1985).
In practice, this means that Chile has allowed the birth of another of the first men with Antarctic gentilage, among the first authentic "Antarctics" in the world, after a registry apparently initiated at the Argentinean base "Esperanza" on January 7, 1978 (Emilio Marcos Palma), but which has been put in doubt by some technical and historical criteria, such as the much earlier birth of a girl in South Georgia Island, United Kingdom: Solveig Gunbjörg Jacobsen, born on October 8, 1913. The case is recorded by Robert K. Headland in his work "The Island of South Georgia" (Cambridge University Press, 1984). Moreover, in the Argentine case, the parents were not resident civilians, but rather officials of a temporary base, although they had been living in specially arranged cabins since that same year. It should be noted that in the case of the Chilean births, they were also residents, since they belonged to families who were members of the settler community. The confusion of the Argentine case and its registration as the "first" in the world, which has even been accepted by the Guinness Book of Records, seems to derive from the campaign carried out during the last Argentine military governments as propaganda in favor of their aspirations over the southern territory.

At present, villa "Las Estrellas" has a large population of its own, including an inn, a nursery, a school, a mini hospital, a small supermarket, a post office and a bank, which make it a real human colony, and not an imitation or a set-up of one, to the point that it has become an important enclave of logistic support for the other eight nations that have installations on King George Island and its surroundings.

Supplies are periodically flown in by air, a task carried out by the Chilean Air Force. The colony's houses are built with great comfort, in a hundred square meters and with lenga wood on a solid steel chassis, with special adaptations in roofs and windows to insulate the cold environment.

The success of villa "Las Estrellas" has not been unique for Chile. In July 2000, another good scientific news took place, after a Chilean research group discovered a natural sanctuary for Antarctic Minke whales, which developed their own habitat on the frozen continent, adapting to its extreme climatic conditions. The whales' refuge was defined by the scientists as "a new population and species of Minke whales for the southern hemisphere". Apparently, the cetaceans developed an extraordinary adaptation that allowed them to permanently inhabit Antarctic waters without having to migrate in the austral winter.

This type of progress is also fundamental for the defense of Chile's Antarctic rights, protected by the Antarctic Treaty, since the country has achieved remarkable advances and discoveries on the white continent, knowledge and foundations that will later be vital for the validation of its rights, since discoveries such as these demonstrate that Chile is one of the few countries with a constant Antarctic relationship. Numerous scientific and geographical studies thus support Chilean sovereignty over the area.

In April 2001, a project to transfer Chilean jurisdiction over Antarctica and the village of "Las Estrellas" from Punta Arenas to the Municipality of Navarino, on the island of the same name, which would be renamed the Municipality of Cape Horn, was approved in April 2001. This measure, although it has some critical remarks, makes a great administrative approximation of the Chilean Antarctic alien to any inductive projection as is the case in other countries, demonstrating another instance of the true close relationship that exists between continental Chile and its polar territory.

In this sense, it may constitute a great advance, but it will be of no use if the serious problem derived from the reduction of the number of people who live in Chile's Antarctic territory persists.<ref>[http://www.soberaniachile.cl/derechos_soberanos_antarticos_de_chile.html]</ref>

==Sectorial Improvements==
===Agriculture===

Chile's great export potential for agricultural products was nullified by the protectionist policy followed since the 1930s. The end of the agrarian reform, together with the process of land titling and, above all, the opening of the economy, were decisive for the development of the sector. Thanks to this, Chile has become one of the largest exporters of fresh fruit in the world by taking advantage of the comparative advantages of the Chilean climate. In 2003, fruit exports reached US$1,667 million (FOB) with a planted area of 214,485 hectares in 2002.

The same has happened with the forestry sector, which also saw its potential curbed by the export restrictions that existed before 1974. Thanks to the opening of the economy, there was a rapid expansion of plantations and subsequently of export volumes, not only of raw material, but also of value-added by-products.

The US adopted sanctions to Chilean Fruit exports for 'human right abusses' and pressured Chile to introduce a series of economic reforms, a process that escalated sharply in the eighties.

One of the ministers of Agriculture was [[Alfonso Marquéz De La Plata]].<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Mining===
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|250px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
When the military government took office, it was faced with litigation arising from nationalization, which had consisted of a virtual stripping of foreign companies of their investments in the mining sector. Nor was there any clarity in the rules for those who wished to exercise the right to explore and exploit mineral deposits, so that the development of the sector was in sharp decline.

Initially, the authorities, aware that the country lacked sufficient capital to support this development, reached agreement formulas with the expropriated companies, taking the first step to restore seriousness in the treatment of foreign investment.

Subsequently, through the 1980 Constitution and the Constitutional Organic Law on mining concessions, the pertinent norms were established, providing the concession with the essential attributes for the right to explore and exploit the deposits. This legislation was later joined in 1983 by the Mining Code.

The Organic Constitutional Law on Mining Concessions reaffirmed the ownership of mining concessions in private hands. The Mining Code established clear and precise definitions, its main objective being to guarantee the stability and security of the concessions.

This legislation, which is applicable to nationals and foreigners, has now borne fruit, thanks to which the sector has benefited from strong investment, which to date amounts to US$18 billion. Copper exports have reached US$7,502.5 million (FOB), while non-copper metallic and non-metallic exports reached US$958 million (FOB) in 2003.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Electricity Sector===

As a result of the price freeze established in 1971, both state-owned and private companies in the electricity sector suffered serious financial difficulties. In the first years after 1974, the Military Government began a process of rationalization and normalization of the sector that sought to correct the preponderant state participation, the imposition of political price regulations and inefficient tariffs, defining a strategy consistent with the general development policy postulated by the country. That is, seeking the maximum welfare of the population within conditions of efficiency in a framework of State subsidiarity.

In 1978, the systematic process of institutional reorganization began with the objectives of decentralization, the search for efficiency, competition and private participation. Privatization itself was conducted with caution and a great deal of pragmatism as to its speed. The first privatizations did not take place before 1980. It should be noted here that this process favored not only institutional investors, but also numerous private individuals and the workers themselves through the so-called "popular capitalism".

Both privatizations and policy changes in the electricity sector have been of great importance for the country's development. First of all, it should be noted that the companies soon showed that their financial situation was in a healthy state. A second positive element was the overall efficiency of the sector, which was reflected in lower tariffs worldwide, benefiting consumers. To this must be added an increase in service coverage. Thirdly, the stability of the rules of the game has favored investment in the sector.

Currently, the energy generation activity operates as a competitive market and transmission and distribution are regulated by tariffs because they are considered natural monopolies. Both the regulatory institutional framework and the tariff law developed during the military government have been key in the development of this sector.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Telecommunications Sector===

The new National Telecommunications Policy that the Military Government elaborated at the beginning was legally materialized in the General Telecommunications Law enacted in 1982, which established the free and non-discriminatory access of individuals to the development of telecommunications services in the country. It also established the technical control of the development of these services through authorizations granted by the Undersecretary of Telecommunications SUBTEL. In relation to the tariffs of the services, the law established a general freedom, but empowered the authority to regulate them in case of monopolistic situations.

Meanwhile, as early as 1974, a process of normalization of the large state-owned companies in the sector (CTC andENTEL) began, which would make their privatization possible after 1985. In this sense, in an attempt to decentralize the sector, the CTC was subsidized.

In 1982, the state monopoly of national telegraph and telex services was abolished and Teles Chile S.A. was created as a subsidiary of CORFO. This company was 100% privatized in 1985.

Another important milestone in the modernization of the sector was to allow the transfer of telephone contracts between private individuals, which meant recognizing the holders of these contracts a property right over them and provided a market solution aimed at economically distributing the severe shortage of lines existing at that time.

In 1981, the first two private telephone companies were created: CMET and Manquehue.

In 1985, in view of the great investment needs, the sector was opened to national and foreign private participation. Since then, the development of telecommunications in Chile has been rapid and successful, which has placed it at the forefront in Latin America and with respect to many countries in the world. On the other hand, the country has been able to successfully introduce state-of-the-art technologies such as cellular telephony, network digitalization and the use of fiber optics, among others, and to introduce greater competition in the development of long distance through the multicarrier system.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Transportation Sector===
[[File:Carretera Austral Augusto Pinochet.jpg|250px|thumbnail|''[[Carretera Austral]]'' of 1240 km long in [[Aysén Region]], built during the Military Government and unofficially named after him by his supporters.]]
[[File:Pinochet en avión con ministros.png|thumbnail]]
In the cases of shipping, air transportation and port operations, modifications were made to the legal system in order to establish a competitive system and open up participation to the private sector.

The modernizations carried out in the port sector have been of great importance as a complement to foreign trade activities. In 1973, Chilean ports were extremely overcrowded. The main cause of this inefficiency was found in the low yields of the port labor sector, a product of its monopolistic position. From 1973 onwards, small reforms were carried out which made it possible to incorporate a greater number of casual workers and private entrepreneurs into port operations by freezing the registration system, preventing EMPORCHI from acquiring new equipment and rationalizing personnel. However, the main change was the end of the labor monopoly, with the enactment in 1981 of Law No. 18,032, which opened access to the port labor market to the entire labor force of the country. Beginning that same year, EMPORCHI's tariff system was rationalized and port work was increased to three shifts, thus improving the efficiency in the occupation of the existing infrastructure.

With respect to air transportation, the following important modernizations were carried out during the Military Government:

* Beginning in 1977, although only administratively, restrictions for foreign operators in cargo movement began to be lifted. Shortly thereafter, the Civil Aeronautics Board decided to approve all requests to provide passenger services unless Lan Chile demonstrated within one week that this was detrimental to it, thus laying the foundations for the deregulation of the air market.

* Freedom of tariffs for scheduled air cargo transportation between Chile and other countries was decreed in December 1978, together with another Supreme Decree approving the same freedom for international scheduled air passenger transportation. In June 1979, freedom of access to the market and freedom of tariffs were established, giving the authority, in accordance with international standards, the power to apply, on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, restrictions to third country companies on routes where Chilean companies are restricted by another state, and to set tariffs on those routes where, by provision of another state, such freedom does not exist.

* Subsequently, in November 1981, Law No. 18,063 was enacted, which gave the JAC the powers it still has today and provided it with the tools to better negotiate Chile's air rights with the authorities of other countries, thus seeking a greater degree of openness in the air markets.

* These implemented policies generated competitive conditions that resulted in increased frequency, lower costs and greater air coverage from the country.

In railroad transportation, progress was made by rationalizing the state-owned company, focusing it on its own tasks and on those in which it had comparative advantages. To a small extent, private participation was introduced, especially in maintenance and repair of equipment and infrastructure.

The ''[[Carretera Austral]]'' (Southern Highway) was built between 1976 and 1989 and connects several rural towns in the far south of Chile that previously didn't had direct transportation, it is 1240 km long, starting in [[Puerto Montt]] and ending in Villa O'Higgins. Today the highway is a touristic destination of Chile because of the beauty of the landscape. This huge and important geopolitical megaproject was built by military personnel, many died because of the rough climate.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Fight against Left Wing Terrorism (Irregular War)==
{{Main article|Left Wing Terrorism in Chile}}
[[File:FPMR Chile.SVG|250px|thumbnail|left|Manuel Rodríguez Front Flag.]]
[[File:Flag of the MIR - Chile.svg|250px|thumbnail|left|MIR Flag.]]
[[File:Miguel Krassnoff.jpg|250px|thumbnail|[[Miguel Krassnoff]] executed the leader of the terrorist organization, MIR. Nowadays he is unjustly in the [[Punta Peuco Jail|Punta Peuco prison]] for that.]]
The Armed Forces, through their intelligence agencies, had to face a difficult element to combat. Terrorism is an activity in which the means override the ends, in which the ultimate objective is above all value considerations, making it an immoral and delirious activity that stops at nothing.
Cowardly attacks, the blowing up of pylons, the detonation of explosives and robberies were the daily bread. The following are some newspaper reports of the time.

In June 1974, the National Intelligence Directorate, DINA, was created to continue the work against terrorism and subversion. The achievements of the DINA were real. But it was also between 1973 and Pinochet's abolition of DINA in 1977 that the most inexcusable abuses were committed, sometimes by senior DINA personnel.
Such abuses are, no doubt, deplorable. But there is no evidence of General Pinochet's involvement in them. Moreover, there should be no doubt as to the reality of the threat facing the country, and that it was essentially this continuing threat that guaranteed a degree of impunity to skeptics of the security apparatus.
The facts speak for themselves. For example: in 1974 fifty-two members of the armed forces and the police were killed or wounded in terrorist attacks.
In the same year [[Miguel Krassnoff]] killed the terrorist Miguel Enríquez, leader of the MIR, the maximum leader of Chilean terrorism, and the secretary general of the Coordinadora Revolucionaria para el Cono Sur (Revolutionary Coordinating Committee for the Southern Cone) while he was in a housed with the main members of the MIR. Krassnoff saved his wife who was pregnant of his son who later became a Socialist politician called Marco Enríquez-Ominami.

In 1975 there were 25 similar cases. Then there was a lull in terrorist activity, but not in the determination of the Marxists to overthrow the regime.

In 1979, the secretary of the Chilean Communist Party, Luis Corvalán, threatened that Chile "could become a second Nicaragua".

In 1980 he envisioned a new era of "acute violence". And indeed the early 1980s saw a major resurgence of terrorist attacks, as the communist forces of the "Manuel Rodriguez Popular Front" regrouped.
The action was organized mainly in Cuba, as the U.S. State Department acknowledged in a report to the Senate Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on December 14, 1981. Again the attempt to destabilize the country was put down.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|450px|thumbnail|Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.]]

In the period after 1980, the recorded terrorist deaths total 389 persons. (The information corresponds to the [[Rettig Report]])
We can observe how between the period 1973-1979 the extremist war power was drastically diminished, which correlates with the number of deaths in those years in frank decrease and in the number and type of attacks perpetrated.
From 1978/79 until the mid-1980s, the terrorist escalation was notorious. This was the beginning of a decade in which the Chilean State designed the outline of a new institutional framework based on a legal system in accordance with national values and with an evidently integrating intention.
The Communist Party took advantage of this moment to reinforce and optimize the "Propaganda War", from where it disseminated its doctrine and action plan.
The MIR restructured itself both politically and militarily. It received support from extremist leaders such as Pascal Allende who came to Chile to consolidate the movement and set objectives. A violent work plan was set up to be applied in 1979, called "offensive of the resistance" which consisted in programming 3 major armed propaganda actions and 10 explosive sabotages per month, in the central zone of Chile and an equivalent number in the rest of the country.
The repressive action of the Military Government was always directed against subversion and terrorism and although it managed to neutralize their action, it never achieved the total defeat of the extremist groups. Between 1982 and 1983, the creation of the Manuel Rodriguez Front marked a new era of violence and terrorism, which was reflected in an increase in the number of terrorist deaths.
Among the most violent attacks were the deaths of military and carabineros in the exercise of their duties, carried out by combat groups of the MIR.

* July 15, 1980: Murder of the Director of the Army Intelligence School, Lieutenant Colonel Roger Vergara Campos and two companions.
* August 30, 1983: Murder of Santiago Intendant General Carol Urzúa and 2 escorts.

Significantly, it was around the same time that Pinochet had already begun to put Chile back on the road to democracy that the most serious attempt to destroy him occurred.
In early 1986, Chilean security forces discovered a huge arsenal of Cuban weapons, enough to arm 5,000 men, although it was apparently only part of a larger quantity whose hiding place remains a mystery.
Some of this weaponry, hidden in the hands of 70 terrorists, was used in a carefully planned assassination attempt against Pinochet.
Fortunately he escaped unharmed but 5 of his bodyguards were killed. Nor were his security personnel the only victims that year; in all of 1986, 23 people died in terrorist acts, including subway passengers, bus passengers and pedestrians.
In the face of so much Soviet-backed and Cuban-sponsored terrorist action perpetrated by communists, it is not surprising that the military government stepped up the fight, and when a government steps up its fight, abuses occur. But the fact remains that order is better than disorder, and legality is better than illegality.
Pinochet's action restored legality and order in Chile.
Had it not been for the timing and effectiveness of the Military Intervention, the death toll could have reached millions. Plan Z could have been carried out and we would have become the second Cuba. That Cuba that today boasts 48,000 executed, 400,000 prisoners and one and a half million exiles and where there is a death penalty for those who try to leave the island.
On July 13, 1995, a tugboat with 72 Cubans trying to flee was intercepted killing 41 people among them 22 children.

The level reached by different paramilitary groups and the culture of destruction that guided their actions did not disappear with the presence of the military government. It only determined a change in the way they acted, since, apart from going underground, it meant a recomposition of their cadres, both from the outside and from the inside, making their actions more violent.

In 1978 close to a thousand terrorists were pardoned, commuted and amnestied according to the Amnesty Decree Law of 1978.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2014/07/este-pobre-pais-desmemoriado.html?m=0|title=Este Pobre País Desmemoriado|date=July 19, 2014|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

The Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), which was the most efficient expression of the extremist groups, sent its main members for guerrilla training to various countries of the Soviet orbit, mainly to Cuba and, from the first quarter of 1974, began to bring them in clandestinely.

Thanks to the action of disinformation, they achieved the desired economic support and, at the end of 1979, they began the self-styled "Operation Return", which allowed them to resume terrorist action in the country, which resulted in constant assaults on bank branches and financial institutions in general, as well as sabotage to road infrastructure, public service buildings and police facilities. A series of attacks against Carabineros and authorities took place, including the assassination of the Director of the Army Intelligence School, which marked the beginning of selective terrorist actions.

This movement managed to expand to rural areas and set up guerrilla stations and pockets, which sought to attract adherents among the peasantry and, at the same time, to organize arms and supplies depots. The best known was discovered in Neltume, in the [[Araucanía Region]].

As a result of the constant arrests to which they were subjected, this group was losing strength, although this did not mean the end of their war logic, since, for example, the year 1980 ended with a disastrous toll of deaths of civilians and police officers, who were in sectors called "armed propaganda". In line with these criminal acts, the murder of the Intendant of Santiago, Major General Carol Urzúa, and his two escorts in 1983, was also a crime.

As an illustrative example and according to existing statistical research, it can be stated that in the period 1974–1984, the MIR carried out more than 1,200 armed actions.

Apart from this movement, there were other armed subversive movements, among them the Manuel Rodriguez Front, which is the armed wing of the Communist Party, and the Lautaro Movement.

The Communist Party, obeying a party doctrine, continued with a public position, while reorganizing its paramilitary instance, which in 1975 was given an organic conformation at national level. Its first actions were registered in Antofagasta and Valparaíso, but it acquired greater strength and dynamics from 1983 onwards in the existing political-social agitation and effervescence, in which the so-called "Peaceful Protests" stood out, which generated support from popular sectors, due to the economic crisis that had to be faced. Gradually their presence became more aggressive and in 1984 alone they carried out 130 attacks with explosives.

Between 1984 and 1986, statistics show that more than 600 Chileans were affected by terrorist acts of the Manuel Rodriguez Front.

Their actions were normally centered in urban areas, but they used coastal sectors for the internment of weapons, the most notorious being the one discovered in the sector of Carrizal Bajo, in the [[Atacama Region]]. Of the material captured by the police and security agencies, which represented only 50% of the weapons seized, the following stand out:

Automatic, semi-automatic and anti-armor weapons in an amount close to 4000 units and a wide range of anti-personnel grenades, diverse and substantial ammunition of different calibers, plus explosives and other elements of war material and engineers.

On September 7, 1986, President Augusto Pinochet suffered a terrorist attack perpetrated by the Front Manuel Rodriguez (FPMR) in the Achupallas sector, Cajón del Maipo, when the motorcade in which he was traveling from his resting residence was attacked with rockets and machine guns. Pinochet suffered minor injuries to his left hand, but five of his escorts were killed. The attack used weapons from the war arsenal found in the [[Atacama Region]] on August 15, 1986, in a cove located in Carrizal Bajo, south of Copiapó, weapons sent by [[Fidel Castro]].<ref name=Biografia>{{cite web|url=https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/p/biografia_21.html|title=BIOGRAFIA|publisher=Chile Pinochet Nuestro}}</ref>

The head of the attack on Pinochet, was César Bunster, and the communist military chief who has publicly confessed to having been the mastermind of that attack, was Guillermo Teillier, both have never been prosecuted because the courts have held that prescription does operate for them.<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019}}</ref>

The men who were killed were:
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Miguel Angel Guerrero Guzmán.
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Cardenio Hernández Cubillos.
- Carabineros 2nd Corporal Pablo Antonio Silva Pizarro.
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Gerardo Rebolledo Cisternas.
- 2nd Corporal of the Army Roberto Rosales Martínez.

The most important criminal acts up to 1990 were:

* Repeated explosive attacks against municipalities and offices of public, private and international companies, including the one perpetrated against the National Defense Fund in Valparaíso, which left 17 wounded and one dead.

* Attacks on towns such as those in Contulmo, Los Queñes and Cabildo.

* Kidnappings of Gonzalo Cruzat, Sebastiano Bartolomé, Carabineros Corporal Sergio Ovando, Army Colonel Mario Haberle Rivadeneira and Army Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera.

* Massive illegal arms shipment.

* Murders of Army Colonel Miguel Rojas Lobos and Army Lieutenant Julio Zegers R. at the Army Aviation Command.

* Frustrated attempt against the Army Military Prosecutor, Brigadier General Fernando Torres Silva.

* Attempted assassination attempt against the President of the Republic, CGL. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, where 5 bodyguards were killed and countless wounded.

With regard to the Lautaro movement, known by various similar names, its most important actions began in 1982 with robberies, assaults, attacks on Carabineros and distribution of the products obtained in this way, in marginal populations and student centers.

In synthesis, this reality was a harsh interference to the spirit and proposal of the Military Government, to reach the different goals in harmony and stability, according to the itinerary that had been previously established. During the period analyzed, and as a result of the action of these extremist groups, the depressing balance, unknown by most of the public opinion, determines that more than 300 Chileans were murdered among civilians and military; they were the object of despicable actions until today forgotten or disfigured by the action of disinformation.

The facts have been distorted by various segments and sectors of Chilean society and the international community, due to disinformation as well as ideological or partisan positions. Unfortunately, it has reached such biased and unilateral levels that the image that is preserved is that of defenselessness and innocence of the actors representing pro-Marxist or paramilitary groups or sectors, and an image of intolerance, abuse of power and guilty acts of those who served in the military government prevails.

It is true that in the action against extremist movements since September 11, 1973, as well as in the periods of social effervescence and political polarization between 1982 and 1986, there may be responsibilities of officials of State agencies in the face of events labeled as human rights, but we must not forget and take into consideration the logic and reality of subversive warfare prevailing in those periods. On the other hand, in no case does this possible reality distort or minimize the responsibility of those who systematically used violence to achieve their ends.

The Government, in combating these devastating terrorist behaviors, was inspired by the common good of the country's citizens and never encouraged, systematized or organized forms of action to increase the spiral of violence that reigned.

The historical truth that must be kept in mind is that these irrational conducts were conceived and practiced by political and subversive sectors that today appear as victims alien to the real scenario that they themselves created.

It is worth mentioning, as an illustrative fact, that after 1990, both the Manuel Rodriguez Front and the Lautaro Movement continued to assassinate military and police personnel and kidnap national personalities. The judicial processes and those responsible for these serious crimes also seem to have been forgotten by public opinion.

343 of the people who died in this period were narcos eliminated along with the destruction of 33 cocaine processing laboratories.<ref>[https://youtu.be/PstCXq6xO-A https://youtu.be/PstCXq6xO-A?t=141]</ref>

==Civilian unrest==

Large-scale popular protests erupted in 1983 organized by the Left, and several opposition parties, the Christian Democratic Party being the largest, formed a new centre-left coalition, the Democratic Alliance (''Alianza Democrática'' or AD). The Roman Catholic Church also began openly to support the opposition. In August 1984, 11 parties of the right and centre signed an accord, worked out by the archbishop of Santiago, Raúl Cardinal Silva Henríquez, calling for elections to be scheduled before 1989. Additional pressure came from the [[Jimmy Carter]] presidency and other countries that had supported Chile economically but now showed signs of impatience with Pinochet's regime and with the numerous reports of so-called 'human rights violations' attributed to his military crackdown and his persecution of Left Wing Guerrillas.

The economic and political climate continued to be volatile in the late 1980s, with increasing pressure for governmental change by the opposition, acts of terrorism multiplying, and the economy suffered from two external crises as well as strikes and protests from the labor sector.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==National plebiscite and third stage (Normality or Consolidation)==
{{Main article|1988 Chilean national plebiscite}}
[[File:Logo Sí & No Pinochet Plebiscite 1988.png|thumbnail|''Sí'' and ''No'' logos of the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite]].]]
[[File:1538674148-pinochet.jpg|thumbnail|The [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]] was held to decide if Pinochet continued being [[President of Chile]] until 1997. Congress was planned to be reopened in both alternatives of the plebiscite.]]

This last phase would be materialized with the transfer of the government to the new authorities.

One aspect that cannot be overlooked is the fact that, while the military government was in power, there was special concern for not confusing or mixing the role that legally corresponded to the Armed Forces with the work of leading the country carried out by some of its members, which prevented a process of politicization of these institutions and allowed a full and expeditious return to their usual functions.

The country's complete political liberalization came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite. To organize opposition to Pinochet, who was chosen as the junta's candidate, 16 centrist and leftist parties formed the Command for No (Comando por el No). On October 5, 1988, the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes won, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. As the country prepared for its first free presidential and legislative elections since 1973, Command for No—renamed the Coalition of Parties for Democracy (Concertación de los Partidos por la Democracia; CPD)—and the government negotiated constitutional amendments that were approved in a national referendum in July 1989, among them the revocation of Article Eight, which banned Marxist parties. Two months later the leftist Chileans living abroad returned to the country. Presidential elections were held on December 11, 1989.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=186894|title=Ministro desclasifica vínculo de George Soros con Chile: apoyó campaña del No, ayudó a Ricardo Lagos con los empresarios y hoy respalda inversión en el país|language=es|publisher=Economía y Negocios|date=September 27, 2015}}</ref> and the [[National Endowment for Democracy]], which originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, and helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2020/12/se-me-cayeron-los-estados-unidos.html|title="Se Me Cayeron" los Estados Unidos|date=December 30, 2020|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref><ref name=aniversarioSi>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/09/otro-aniversario-del-si.html|title=Otro Aniversario del "Sí"|date=Septemebr 30, 2020|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref> Soros is a friend of the Chilean politician Máximo Pacheco who thanked the him for "his contribution in the recovery of our democracy, and we do not forget that in Chile" and also said that Soros was crusial "in conducting studies and obtaining data that gave us information that had been hidden from us for 17 years." "What we learned there was crucial for the preparation of the famous television program of the No campaign and for the victory in the plebiscite".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html|title=El multimillonario que apoyó la campaña del No y ayudó a Ricardo Lagos con empresarios (Soros helped the "No" campaign)|publisher=Emol|language=es|date=September 27, 2015}}</ref>

The "Sí" option would have probably won if the election was in 1987, but the majority verdict changed due to the enormous flow of money from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy and the millionaire European subsidies for a majority of anti-government print media that subsisted thanks to the prevailing freedom of the press (although each year the Inter-American Press Association maintained that there was none, which wasn't true due to the existing opposition magazines containing the worst criticisms to the military government).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/10/hoy-votaria-si-con-mayor-razon.html|title=Hoy Votaría "Sí" Con Mayor Razón|date=October 3, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

The NED financed numerous leftist entities like trade unions, academic and journalistic organizations. Pinochet knew this and described it as "an act of intervention that cannot be viewed with pleasure by the majority of Chileans, including broad sectors of the opposition".
The US ambassador, [[Harry Barnes]], who systematically contradicted the good omens that [[President Reagan]] expressed to the military government, pointed out that the aid to the opposition does not imply an intervention in Chile's internal affairs, but rather "to promote participation and civic education, processes that correspond to any real democracy".<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/05/historia-de-la-revolucion-militar_20.html}}</ref>

The international organizations ignored the historical truth to the same degree as the majority of Chileans, who did not know, because of that deceitful propaganda, that democracy would return the same whether the "Sí" or "No" vote won, because there were going to be the same elections, the same institutions and the same individual guarantees for all, after 1990. Because the "Sí" government so provided in the Constitution, which improved the country for all, including those who voted "No".<ref name=aniversarioSi/><ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Democracy restored==
[[File:Transmision de mando Aylwin-Pinochet.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Augusto Pinochet giving the Presidency to Patricio Aylwin, March 11, 1990.]]
[[File:Pinochet and Aylwin.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Pinochet as Commander-in-Chief and Aylwin as president.]]

In the December 1989 presidential election, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin|Patricio Aylwin Azócar]], leader of the [[Concertación|Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia]] (Concertation of Parties for Democracy), won by a large margin over his closest opponent, Hernán Büchi, a former finance minister and the government-endorsed candidate. The coalition also gained a majority in the lower chamber and nearly half the seats in the upper chamber.

On March 11, 1990, the President of the Republic, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, handed over the Presidential sash to his successor Patricio Aylwin Azócar in a sober ceremony presided over by the newly elected President of the Senate, Gabriel Valdés.
Everyone congratulated each other for this transfer of power full of symbolism.

The Armed Forces and the Forces of Order, which had had to take charge of the nation in 1973, were completing their work, faithfully fulfilling their word.
The country was once again on the democratic path after the military government had made the profound corrections that Chile required.
A thriving economy and a country confident in its future was the legacy that the Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of Order handed over to President Aylwin so that he could continue, for the good of Chile, the path that Chileans had traveled with so much effort and sacrifice during the last two decades.

This correct transition had unique and original features. He who had served for 17 years as President of the Republic continued as Commander-in-Chief of the Army for the next 8 years, that is to say, the entire presidential term of Patricio Aylwin and a good part of his successor's term.

President Aylwin did not feel comfortable with this situation and told the Commander-in-Chief of the Army that his government did not think it was good for the country or for the Army that he would continue as Commander-in-Chief, but that he recognized and respected his right to remain in office.

At the end of his term, former President Aylwin, in an interview with the newspaper ''[[Le Monde]]'', reproduced by the Santiago newspaper El Mercurio on April 30, 1994, praised the figure of Augusto Pinochet as a sort of guarantor of the transition: "If Pinochet had not been there during the transition, we would have had in Chile attempts of insurrection carried out by subordinates, "painted faces" as was the case in Argentina".
Later, in Japan, he declared that "during my government, General Pinochet fulfilled the task of Commander-in-Chief of the Army, subordinate to the President and respectful of the constitutional order" (La Época, July 9, 1994).

Aylwin, who took office in March 1990, supported Chile's free-market system but also emphasized social and political change. Before stepping down, Pinochet was able to appoint several new Supreme Court justices and to claim a lifetime senatorial seat; he also retained significant power as commander of the armed forces until his retirement from the military in 1998.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Smear campaign against the Military Government==
From the first day of the Military Government, a growing campaign of disinformation and criticism began from abroad, inspired and financed, mainly at the beginning, by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and to which, as has been said, other States gradually joined in. Priority support came from leftist sectors working in relevant information, communication and publicity centers at world and national level. In this context it is necessary to remember that disinformation seeks to psychologically destroy an image through the systematic propagation of lies or the dissemination of a half-truth.

The former Secretary of Defense of the United States of America, Robert Mc Namara, in reference to this point, explained in the context of the east–west conflict and exemplified with some postulates of the Soviets:

"The repeated lie is a method of propaganda; if the lie is spread by using all means of publicity, it concludes by being accepted as truth or at least half-truth".

The campaign remained relentless and uninterrupted throughout the Military Government and obviously, it increased after it. The persistence, consistency in the way of acting, together with a systematic use of lies, has its genesis in various meetings held abroad, with the participation of Chilean, Soviet and other nationalities' leaders, where ways were articulated to achieve the political, economic and moral isolation of Chile, with the intention of overthrowing the Military Government and reinstalling a socialist regime.

To achieve this, National Centers of Solidarity with Chile were created, which, through the spaces generated, carried out extensive disinformation campaigns. Since those years, the leftist sectors have used all academic, political and union instances, achieving, among other effects, the gradual incorporation of international, political, economic and governmental organizations to their aims, following the "Gramscian" line referring to the need to provoke a change in the existing social conditions on the basis of changing mentalities.

The level of coordination allowed them to carry out campaigns in most of the international forums, so that, together with denouncing the Military Government, even the economic policies of the country were interfered with, not to mention the high level of support they generated for the ideological opponents and mainly for the subversive apparatuses that operated clandestinely in the country.

This action had as a central axis the accusations related to human rights, which had a special receptivity in the United Nations Organization and other organizations of similar importance. This point was undoubtedly the one that caused the greatest interference and hindrance, significantly damaging national coexistence, as well as affecting the transition process conceived.

The peaceful and rational transition to democracy was slowly eroded by several factors. The main and most negative was the action of the left, which could never forgive President Augusto Pinochet for ending the chaotic government of Salvador Allende, sending a clear signal to the world that a socialist-communist regime, even if it was described as one of "empanadas and red wine", was clearly harmful and undesirable.

[[Leonid Brézhnev]] said in September 1973, "There should never be another Chile!"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2021/10/el-18-de-la-infamia.html|title=El 18 de la Infamia|date=October 17, 2021|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref> and the [[KGB]] started to make propaganda against the Chilean Military Government in collaboration with the Chilean Left claiming that in Chile there were "systematic Human Rights Violations".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2014/11/renegacion-nacional.html|title=¿Renegación Nacional?|date=November 21, 2014|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

===Guilt unjustly attributed===
When people in Chile and abroad speak of "Pinochet's crimes", they are referring mainly to what happened during the passage of General Arellano's retinue through the north, the details of which General Pinochet did not even know in advance and of which, subsequently, he was very badly and contradictorily informed.
And for the effects of the national and world image of the regime, the simultaneous case of Lonquén, which was only discovered five years later, in 1978, aggravated the situation created by an officer of Arellano's retinue, acting on his own, by killing numerous people without any form of trial.

This discovery was decisive, and although the Junta also bore no responsibility for the deaths, it constituted a "turning point" that was very poorly resolved by the Junta.
This case was originated by the unilateral and unauthorized action of the Carabineros, accompanied by civilians, who wanted to take justice into their own hands and also to take revenge on people who had committed abuses during the Allende Regime. They killed 16 leftists and tried to hide their remains in an abandoned oven in a mine in Lonquén. But these were discovered five years later, the news went around the world and the Chilean government found that it had nothing to say, because it ignored everything.

The Junta realized that there could be other similar situations undiscovered and that this could lead to a succession of macabre discoveries that would only accentuate its national and international discredit. He then ordered a confidential internal investigation, throughout the whole territory, so that those who knew of executions that had taken place without trial and without a superior order, would reveal them under the promise of secrecy and impunity. But, instead of ordering the delivery of the recovered remains to the respective families, he ordered them to be thrown into the sea. This was possibly the most unfortunate and clumsy decision of the Junta in its 1973-1981 period of government, and it has paid dearly for it.

As a result, throughout the country, the remains of 327 people killed in 1973 and 1974 and clandestinely buried were exhumed in an equally confidential manner, taken to airfields and thrown into the sea.
I know this because an officer who had to carry out this procedure in Calama, after the Lonquén discovery, told me all about his experience.
But the number of dead was determined and, by subsequent inquiries, the identities were determined. Strictly speaking, they were no longer people whose whereabouts were unknown, i.e., missing.

The [[Rettig Report]] made latter in Aylwin Government, and made to harm the perception of the Military Government, admits that in the case of Arellano's entourage "there was no talk of executions without trial; moreover, the message of the traveling delegate contained an express and repeated reference to facilitating the right of defense of the defendants".<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/05/historia-de-la-revolucion-militar_4.html}}</ref>

===Human right abuses were not a Government policy===
It is not true that the Military Government, as such, abused systematically on human rights. Its government policy consisted of trying to avoid such abuses.
Disproving the [[Rettig Report]] made latter in Aylwin's Government, which inculcates such a notion of "systematic policy of human rights abuses," the Junta made efforts to avoid them.
From the beginning, when it issued a resolution that was distributed to the Armed Forces and the Carabineros, delivered to the latter, transcribed to the personnel by its General Directorate, it expressed its concern to avoid abuses and excesses.
{{quotebox-float|"O. S. 3, Circular No. 1 (H. Junta de Gobierno: Dicta normas de conducta en procedimientos empleen Fuerzas Armadas y Carabineros). Santiago, January 7, 1974.
Our stage in the government of the Nation cannot and should not be characterized by inhuman acts that have to be hidden from the citizens and that only engender a reaction of violence, hatred and revenge. (...)
6.a.- The attitude of the Armed Forces and the Carabineros towards any Chilean or foreigner who is caught wielding arms, in criminal acts against the troops and civilian population or sabotage that affects our forces or the civilian population, must be oriented towards the annihilation in combat of these extremists or violent individuals or, by means of the quickest judicial procedure, if they have surrendered.
6.b.- Those who are caught promoting subversion, must be submitted to trial and punished according to the quick procedures granted by military tribunals in time of war.
6.g.- The concept of 'iron fist' does not authorize the use of procedures banished from civilization; the iron fist is rather a 'just fist', in order to better interpret the spirit of the Government Junta in the conduct of the country (...).
8.- The present Circular shall be disseminated, read and commented to all the commanders of the Armed Forces, Carabineros and Investigations, and the corresponding responsibilities, sanctions and penalties shall be established for any non-compliance with the provisions contained therein. AUGUSTO PINOCHET UGARTE, General of the Army, President of the Governing Board.<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion>{{cite book|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2013/09/el-libro-de-las-verdades-olvidadas.html|title=El Libro de las Verdades Olvidadas NI VERDAD NI RECONCILIACIÓN|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog|date=2013|language=es}}</ref>}}

In 1974 another document was distributed among all military and police units:

{{quotebox-float|(2) Decree Law No. 228 of December 24, 1973, published in the Official Gazette of January 3, 1974, Article 1°, which establishes that all the powers conferred by Article 72, No. 17, third paragraph, of the Political Constitution of the State to the President of the Republic by the declaration of the State of Siege, shall be exercised by the Board of Government by means of Supreme Decrees signed by the Minister of the Interior, with the formula "By order of the Board." (...)
(B) CONSEQUENTLY, THIS MINISTRY PROVIDES:
(1) The detention of persons in use of the powers of the State of Siege is solely and exclusively privative of the Military Government Junta and shall be exercised through Decrees of the Ministry of the Interior.
(2) The detention of persons by the Military Justice may only be carried into effect by virtue of an order issued by a competent Court and in accordance with the legal norms in force.
(3) No authority is authorized to make arrests outside the present provisions; the same applies to the Military Intelligence Services of any institution, which must also be subject to these rules. The above is without prejudice to compliance with orders issued by the competent authority and in cases in which the Criminal Law authorizes the detention of persons caught in flagrante delicto. (...)
(6) The Ministry of Defense shall provide that all C.A.J.S.I. (Justice and Internal Security Grouping Commanders) shall send a complete list of the persons who are detained to date, pursuant to this constitutional power, indicating the date on which they were detained. This list shall be sent to the Ministry of National Defense within ten days after receiving the instructions of that Ministry, which shall be sent through the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees to the Ministry of the Interior. (...)
(10) The Ministry of National Defense shall give the pertinent orders for the immediate fulfillment of these instructions. Sincerely yours faithfully,( sd.) OSCAR BONILLA BRADANOVIC, Major General, Minister of the Interior.<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/>}}

The DINA was abolished in 1977 precisely because supporters of the Junta pointed out that while it was very effective in controlling terrorists, it committed frequent human rights abuses. If the military government had had a "systematic policy of human rights abuses" it would not have disbanded DINA, but would have strengthened it. It was replaced by the CNI, under the command of General Odlanier Mena, a military officer admittedly respectful of legality and the rights of individuals. However, regulations had already been issued to prevent abuses.
Indeed, in January 1976, Supreme Decree 187 was issued, which prohibited secret places of detention and according to which all arrests had to take place with an order signed by the head of the responsible security agency, stating the names of the person who ordered it and of the person executing the order, as well as the place of detention, guaranteeing that family members should obtain a copy of this.<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/>

Historian Gonzalo Rojas Sánchez, in his work "Chile Elige la Libertad", Zigzag, 1998, volume I, p. 232, says about this visit:
"For his part, Duvauchelle personally reports burn marks on the hands of some detainees and hygienic conditions that allow the proliferation of fungus. Pinochet calls Contreras and speaks harshly to him. To Duvauchelle he simply adds: 'These things happen because there are people who do not understand. The DINA director waits for Duvauchelle at the exit and, in a threatening tone, refers to the undersecretary's family, to which Duvauchelle demands that he repeat these comments in front of the President, who reacts angrily with a 'that's not done, next time it's over'. In his recrimination to Contreras, Duvauchelle simply states that 'Pinochet served him'".<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/>

===Truths about the disappeared detainees===

The other major theme of the slogans of the left, which most believe, is that of the so-called "disappeared detainees".
To begin with, the number of the same that the opposition to the military government denounced until 1990 was in the publications of the Vicariate of Solidarity, in seven volumes entitled "Where Are They?", and totaled 600 cases. That was the real extent of the problem.
Another uniformed officer and in particular of an officer who joined General Arellano's retinue on his tour to the north. Without the latter's knowledge, he proceeded to order the unconsulted execution of about 56 people, who in at least two places (Antofagasta and Calama) were buried in the desert, followed by the attempt of other officers, innocent of the executions, but without due judgment, to hide the remains afterwards.

The Military Junta did not know how to deal with this problem in the 1970s and relied on the CAJSI (Area Commanders of Justice and Internal Security), the highest authorities of each zone in a state of exception, who, if they had each fulfilled their duties properly, applying their own military regulations, would have minimized the number of disappeared detainees. There were CAJSI that after 2000 had problems with the justice system and there was one that had none (Washington Carrasco, III Army Division based in Concepción). This means that he always adhered to the regulations. On the other hand, General Joaquín Lagos Osorio, under whose command the worst things happened, after 1990 "went over to the enemy" and tried to blame everything on Pinochet and the Junta. But in 1973 he had the authority to have sanctioned everything that happened unduly under his jurisdiction, he knew it perfectly well and in time, and he did not do it.

The "disappearances" that had been denounced in the 70's and 80's, totaled, as of October 5, 1988, 600, contained in a publication of the Archbishopric, whose authors were Claudio Orrego and Patricia Verdugo. Later, the 1991 [[Rettig Report]] raised them to 979 and the Reparation and Reconciliation Commission increased them to 1,102. The Government claimed to have no information on these cases. But then it has been proven that the remains of people whose whereabouts are known, plus those who have been "reappearing", which are six (that is, they are not technically "disappeared") is greater than 1,102. As this has not been done in decades of Center-left governments, is it politically more profitable to continue talking about "the disappeared".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/11/manos-y-sangre.html|title=Manos y Sangre|date=November 1, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

There is so little interest in identifying remains that a bag with unidentified skeletal remains was discovered in the headquarters of the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared. And an Investigative Commission of the Chamber (which forms them under any pretext) has never been formed to determine the identity of the remains in the AFDD, the Forensic Medical Service and the General Cemetery; and to clarify the cases of "disappeared" who appear to have traveled abroad or have been seen alive by witnesses who so declare before a notary and also those who lack legal existence according to the Civil Registry, but are listed as disappeared. Blaming the Pinochet supporters for these omissions that have been going on for years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/10/el-exito-final-del-kgb.html|title=El Éxito Final del KGB|date=October 7, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

===Exile was not a government policy===
There is also talk of "thousands of exiles" during the Military Government, but that is another hoax. There never were. There were temporary expulsions of political figures who were harshly critical, but they can be counted on the fingers of one's hands and were very exceptional: Renán Fuentealba, Eugenio Velasco Letelier, Jaime Castillo Velasco, Manuel Bustos and the prohibition to re-enter for Andrés Zaldívar. Eventually, those who wanted to return to the country returned.
There was one notable one, former Minister Bernardo Leighton, who left of his own accord at the beginning of 1974. We will see later the case of the assassination attempt against him, after which he returned to live in Chile in 1977. There were other opponents who also left because they had attractive offers abroad.

They usually call themselves "exiles", but they were never exiles.
What is often confused with exile is the commutation of prison sentences for those convicted of terrorist behavior, that is, the possibility of completing their sentences abroad. As the external links of the left and the Christian Democracy were very good, especially in [[Europe]], there were 999 Mirists, communist and socialist prisoners who left prison and traveled to freedom with good jobs in Europe and [[Canada]], thus serving the sentence of exile.
In addition, parole was granted to 96 convicted by the Military Courts and to 22 convicted by special laws who also traveled abroad. These were not sanctions, but benefits for these convicts.
A private study made by General (r) Gastón Frez, details all these cases, which totaled 1,117.
This is what is called "mass exile" which, in reality, never existed but today strengthens the anti-Military Government slogans.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2020/04/miserias-de-la-chilenidad-actual-ii.html|title=Miserias de la Chilenidad: Ciudadanía renegó al gobierno militar, el giro traidor de la derecha y la prevaricación judicial|date=2016|publisher=El Roble|language=es}}</ref>

===Torture denounces===
The extreme left has always done, once its own violence has provoked an armed conflict it turned to the Catholic Church, in which, of course, and particularly in those years, there was no lack of priests and prelates sympathetic to the Popular Unity and the MIR.

Denouncing police torture is a well-known and long-standing tactic of terrorism, whether they exist or not. In a guerrilla instruction seized from the Uruguayan Tupamaros and reproduced in an article by the former President of Uruguay, Juan María Bordaberry, it is stated:
"The reports received (...) mark the stages of the interrogations in which the repressive force has to be attacked, using for this purpose real facts or mounting a great scandal by means of versions that shock the opinion of the people. This campaign must be mounted by indoctrinating our comrades for when they are arrested (...) The greatest number of denunciations must be used, as a system (...) Use the press as the main means, forcing it to publish what we want.
"The methods of torture that are denounced should be generalized to all the cities in order to demonstrate a whole system of illegal coercion and punishments (...) The stories should go into the greatest detail, trying to make them repugnant. One must always try to mention those military men whose surnames are better known by the population (...) One must always be attentive so that any casual event, illness, accident or death is exploited so that the blame falls on the repressive force". (Magazine "Gladius" N° 50, B. Aires, 2001).

Torture was a common practice in the police before the Military Government, even in the Frei Montalva and Allende's Government, but most of the alleged tortured of the Military Government were leftist following the manual exaggerating interrogatories (or nothing) in order to damage the Army's reputation.

Cardinal Silva Henríquez, whose inclination for center-left ideas was well known, but who in the last days of the UP government had evolved and saw that a military solution was inevitable, in spite of this could not but agree to establish an organization to defend the people massively detained by the military authorities under the State of Siege.

Thus was born the Pro-Peace Committee, which was later succeeded by the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago. Then, by natural gravitation, the extreme left, which formed the environment of the armed groups existing in all the parties of the Popular Unity, was integrated to the Vicariate, without, probably, this one could avoid it nor, perhaps, to warn it, but this last one only at the beginning...

Then the Vicariate provided, first, judicial assistance to the detainees. Explainable. But with time it even provided medical assistance to wounded terrorists, as happened under the responsibility of Monsignor Valech, in the 1980s. And some communists reached positions of command in the Vicariate. We saw the case of José Manuel Parada. This was indeed objectionable, since this division of the Church partially became a logistical wing of terrorism, as was demonstrated in the courts.

With this ecclesiastical support, the FPMR became, between 1985 and 1986 (as indicated in reports from the U.S. Embassy) the main cause of violent deaths in Chile. The link with the FPMR of the "Chief of Analysis" of the Vicariate became evident after the arrest, in 1986, of the guerrilla Alfredo Malbrich Labra, who referred in the following terms to his incorporation into the guerrilla through Parada:
"On May 1, 1979 I was arrested by Carabineros in the Alameda Bernardo O'Higgins and taken to the 1st Police Station. My wife went to the Vicaría de la Solidaridad and filed a writ of amparo in my favor. When I was released, I went to the Vicariate, where I made friends with José Manuel Parada, who asked me to collaborate by lending my home telephone as a mailbox and carrying small messages. Later he asked me if I would like to collaborate in a more systematic way; when I accepted, he told me that he would give me a link with Enrique".
From then on, Malbrich refers to his activities in buying and transporting arms, his trips to and from Argentina, Bolivia, Panama and Germany, as a courier for the Communist Party; his participation in the great arms landing of Carrizal Bajo, "to establish a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary government, following the example of Cuba and Nicaragua", according to his words in "El Mercurio" of August 28, 1986.

Then, the files of testimonies of people detained in the anti-terrorist fight of the Vicariate were in charge of a high terrorist leader who followed what Bordaberry's article indicates and what the Brazilian guerrilla theorist, Carlos Marighella, author of the "Marighella's Manual"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://punto-final.org/PDFs/1970/PF_103_doc.pdf|title=Mini-manual de la guerrilla urbana|language=es|author=Carlos Marighella|publisher=Punto Final|date=April 28, 1970}}</ref> advises: to induce the declarant to declare himself always, but absolutely always, tortured by his captors.
Thus, over the years thousands of pages of accounts of torture were accumulated, real (we saw that it was an immemorial and habitual practice in Chile) or fictitious, because many people were not tortured during their detention.

There were approximately thirty-four thousand declarations received by the Valech Commission, which is Valech Commission received, which is not excessively numerous for a subversion made up of ten thousand Chileans and some twelve thousand foreigners who clandestinely entered the country; and in the face of the prize of a lifetime pension for only declaring.
Well, but what happened to these thousands of pages of testimonies deposited in the Archive of the Vicariate of Solidarity? They remained in storage. They had to wait until the country was "mature." Until the brainwashing had been sufficiently prolonged and repeated. And the moment came in 2004, when the Commission for Political Prisoners and Torture was formed, presided over by Monsignor Valech.

He was a person trusted by the Concertación, especially by the left.
Then President [[Ricardo Lagos]] announced that all those tortured under the Military Government, and only under the Military Government (obviously, they were not going to encourage those tortured under their governments, that is, those of the Popular Unity of Allende and the Christian Democrat Frei Montalva's one), would be given economic compensation. All they had to do was to present themselves and state their case. And if the information provided was reliable (and more than 28,000 of the 34,000 who presented themselves were reliable), they were given a pension for life, which initially amounted to around $120,000 pesos a month.

The wide publicity of the Valech Commission's work operated as the most effective brainwashing practiced by the Concertación. But this has little to do with the truth, since the fact of having described tens of thousands as victims of "political imprisonment and torture" and having lured them to testify through a pecuniary retribution does not stand up to any requirement of valid proof within a due process.

===Quemados Case/Julio Castañer Case===
The ''Quemados'' Case (Burnt People Case), (or Quemadores as it should be properly named) was an incident occurred on July 2, 1986, in Santiago where the leftist activists, Carmen Gloria Quintana and Rodrigo Rojas de Negri who were participating in marches against the Military Government, ended out burned after they had materials to burn buses and their passengers and they failed in the process. A former conscript, through an involuntary clumsiness, hit some bombs while they were searching the two detainees, who were carrying smaller bombs in their clothes, which caught fire. They were devices made with aluminum powder, beeswax and kerosene; the wax was the insulator between the reagents. They were not the Molotovs made with benzine and guaipe. The soldiers in the statements contradict themselves grossly.

Julio Castañer Gonzalez is falselly accused by the left as the burner of the leftists. Former conscript Fernando Guzman acted as a fake informer to the judicial system, who was the first and only one to accuse Colonel Julio Castañer Gonzalez (and all the rest of the soldiers contradict Fernando Guzman), arrived at the scene of the events after the arrest of the two young communist terrorists, because he was in the truck driven by Ivan Figueroa. Colonel Castañer was brought, by order of Carroza, by PDI personnel from Punta Arenas, where he lives. Then the judge prosecuted him and he is still being held at the Army Telecommunications Command in Peñalolén.

Immediately after, the current Army command reported that he was dismissed from the position he held as a civilian in his former institution, in Magallanes. However, in his statements to Minister Carroza, Fernando Guzmán has given him details of the arrest of the two communists.

It is impossible that it could be true, since he was not an eyewitness of what happened. On the other hand, it is now known that, since last year, the former conscript Leonardo Riquelme Alarcón confesses that he was the one who accidentally hit the bomb that the extremists were carrying and that, at that moment, he was on the ground. This was declared by former soldier Riquelme himself to Minister Carroza. He would be the involuntary author of the accident.

The trial for the burned burners would be the most scandalous of all those initiated by the Judicial Dictatorship of the Left that reigns in the country, with the co-authorship and complete complicity of the Piñera Administration.

Castañer was completely oblivious to the outcome suffered by the burned burners, Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana, but he has been sentenced to ten years in prison, which he must soon begin to serve. The important thing is that he has managed to publicly prove his innocence in the facts, with which the discredit of Minister Carroza, who imposed the sentence, has fallen to the lowest level, because not only has it become evident that he has prevaricated by passing over ''res judicata'' and the statute of limitations, but also for having contravened the truth of the facts: as Colonel (r) Cristián Slater has proven, Carmen Gloria Quintana declared that she had been sprayed with fuel by a soldier in camouflage uniform and painted face. ... and Castañer has proven that on that day he was wearing civilian clothes, without face paint and was twenty meters away from the events.

Jeannette Reyes de Castañer has conducted, in the social networks, the defense of her husband with a tenacity and courage that every men would like and has provided documentary evidence that by itself removes any basis for the fundamental argument of Minister Carroza to reopen a case that was closed: he has proven that the only conscript (among those who participated in the events) who, 29 years after his 1986 declarations, has contradicted himself and changed his version, lurked in 2015 with center and leftist politicians and has a psychiatric background that detracts from his credibility.

Minister Carroza's actions ''contra legem'' have been of great cruelty with modest people who live from their work, such as the conscripts involved in the case in 1986, who have been subjected to prison by him and some of whom have lost their jobs, being people of scarce resources. But among them Leonardo Riquelme Alarcón has stood out, who in this illegal process voluntarily revealed something that nobody knew: that it was him who, in the episode of 1986, when the bus and people burners were caught carrying highly combustible elements, in a casual way stumbled with a container, breaking it and causing the flames that burned both extremists. This testimony alone further exculpates Colonel Castañer.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2019/07/castaner-duro-de-roer.html|title=Castañer Duro de Roer|date=July 15, 2019|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

One of the former conscripts, Pedro Franco Rivas (who lives in a street condition) and for that same situation, they set up a special figure to leave him in night confinement. All the above facts of this illegal investigation carried out by Carroza are manipulated by people from the Human Rights program of the Ministry of the Interior. Clearly this comes from the Government itself. The one who accused Colonel Julio Castañer is the former conscript Fernando Guzmán, who was prepared for a year to play this role.

Guzman is also a relative of Mayor Sady Melo, a socialist of the most left wing. To the former conscript soldier who spoke on TV about the "pact of silence" in the Quemados case, I would like to comment that: The Communist Party paid him $15,000,000 Chilean Pesos, took him off the streets as a beggar and kept him for two weeks, to detoxify him for alcohol and drugs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/1494510130786585/photos/el-vuelco-no-contado-por-el-juez-carroza-en-el-caso-quemadosescribe-aldoal-ex-so/1657118881192375/|title=EL VUELCO NO CONTADO POR EL JUEZ CARROZA EN EL CASO QUEMADOS|date=August 12, 2015|author=Aldo|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://inocentesinjusticia.cl/|title=Inocentes Sin Justicia|quote=La Verdad del Caso Castañer|language=es}}</ref>

===Orlando Letelier, Carlos Prats & Bernardo Leighton Cases - the CIA uses Chile as a scapegoat===
{{Main article|Orlando Letelier, Carlos Prats & Bernardo Leighton Cases}}{{See also|Central Intelligence Agency}}
[[File:Michael Townley.jpg|thumbnail|150px|Michael Townley, the CIA agent who attacked Chilean Citizens and an American one to discredit Pinochet's Administration worldwide by commandment of the CIA.]]
[[File:Orlando Letelier's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack.jpg|left|250px|thumbnail|Orlando Letelier's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack. Letelier and his American secretary, Ronnie Moffit were killed, Pinochet is falsely accused of ordering the attack.]]
On 21 September 1976 the assassination of Orlando Letelier and his American secretary Ronni Moffitt happen in [[Washington, D.C.]], in which it has been proved that President Pinochet did not participate. It is reported by the [[fake news]] that [[CIA]] information has been "declassified" blaming Pinochet for having supposedly ordered the attack. President [[Michelle Bachelet]] while in Washington lay a wreath at the site of the attack and "thanked" the CIA for the "declassification". The media published that "Pinochet ordered Letelier's assassination". This is another set-up, because the CIA did not investigate the case and its "declassified" documents are mere opinions of fourth level US officials, which do not provide any proof of Pinochet's responsibility.

"La Tercera", the only local newspaper that, apart from publishing the headline, went into a little more detail about the alleged "declassifications", only presents the opinions of subordinate officials. Among them there is only one direct testimony, that of former Chilean lieutenant and deserter, Armando Fernandez Larios, who is in asylum in the U.S. in exchange for a "compensated confession", that is to say, in exchange for revealing everything he knew about the "Letelier case". He contradicted the headline of "Pinochet Ordered Letelier's Assassination", since he affirmed that "he did not know if Pinochet was involved in the preparation of the assassination".<ref>"La Tercera", 24.09.16, p. 14</ref> Then, the only valid witness that appears in the "declassification" denies the title of the information.

Senator Juan Pablo Letelier, son of the assassinated, who declared in "El Mercurio" of the 4th of June 1995 the following: "What I have said again and again, because I was taught to speak with the truth, is that there is no evidence that flows from the process of thousands of pages that allows sustaining that there is participation of the Army nor of its commander in chief in the assassination of Orlando Letelier".

In fact, the CIA had no part in the US investigation of the assassination, which was always and from the beginning in charge of the [[FBI]]. In Chile, it was investigated by the courts of justice and no conviction against Pinochet emerged from them, as he was not involved in the case. He was so oblivious that, when it was discovered that the person who had planted the bomb was the North American resident in Chile, Michael Townley, Pinochet commissioned the CNI, led by General (r) Odlanier Mena, to find out who that person was, because he knew nothing about him. Naturally, the first person Mena interrogated was General Manuel Contreras, former director of the dissolved DINA. Contreras also denied knowing Townley. But Mena took him to Pinochet.

"El Mercurio" of April 2, 2000 reported the following, in a chronicle titled "And He Denied It Three Times": "Pinochet asked Contreras: 'Categorically, tell me if you have any distant relationship, or that you do not know, with this individual'. 'No, none, General,' Contreras replied. Three times he asked him the same question. At most he could have been an informant, but never a DINA agent,' Contreras reiterated. Then Pinochet asked: 'You mean we have to expel Townley. Do you oppose that?' 'No, for any reason, if he has nothing to do with us,' Contreras said.

Hermógenes Pérez de Arce had a personal testimony of Pinochet's ignorance about the assassination attempt a year after it, since he was invited in 1977, together with other newspaper editors (he was from "La Segunda") to attend with the Head of State the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty in Washington. One morning Pérez de Arce readed in the "Washington Post" a column by Jack Anderson according to which there were "Chilean officials involved in Letelier's assassination". It was the first time something like that had been published. That afternoon we met with the President at the Chilean embassy, and he made him see what Anderson was saying, which infuriated him. He said to me something like this: "How can you even repeat that, which is an outrage! You don't know the damage caused by that attack, which interrupted the granting of loans to Chile that were being processed in those very days". When Hermógenes insinuated that it could have been a DINA action of which he had no knowledge, he told me (evidently mistaken): "I know everything that DINA does and I could never have been involved in that".

After Townley's asylum in the U.S. following his plea bargain, he stated that, upon learning from General Contreras that nothing had been reported to President Pinochet about the attack, he would have replied: "Such a decision should not have been taken without his knowledge".

[[File:Carlos Prats's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Carlos Prats's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack in [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]].]]
What will never be clarified is the role of the American Deep State in that attack and in that of General Carlos Prats. It will never be clarified, because there is no interest or means to investigate it and because the main witness and protagonist of the events has died, the American General Vernon Walters, a notorious secret agent who was a close friend of General Contreras.

Letelier was an active and uncomfortable (for the U.S.) agent of Fidel Castro in Washington. And the contents of his briefcase, recovered by the Americans after the attack, have never been found out.

In short, this new set-up by leftist CIA underlings, lacking all seriousness and substance, will be added to the list of others, such as "Pinochet's gold" in the Bank of Hong Kong and Shanghai, a complete fabrication; Pinochet's "fortune of 27 million dollars", which never appeared anywhere, as it is limited to the two million seized by the Chilean courts and some properties owned by him whose contributions his widow pays four times a year asking the court to release funds to be able to pay them and prevent the judicial auction of the properties; and the alleged torture of a young man, in 1989, in a remote police station in Curacautín, which was the only thing the British "high lords" found, to maintain his detention in London in 1998.

There is a historical irony in all this: historian Paul Johnson, in his book "Heroes", designates Pinochet as such, but acknowledges that the Soviet KGB, "before being thrown into the dustbin of history", managed to demonize the general in the eyes of the world. The irony is that the role of the KGB is now assumed by the CIA.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2016/09/mi-mision-imposible.html|title=Mi Misión Imposible|date=September 24, 2016|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann is falsely accused of being the author of the assassination of Letelier, the leftist judges try to link the DINA with the assassination and Iturriaga as part of the DINA to the incident, but nor the DINA was the author, and Iturriaga Neumann was not on the DINA in 1976 since he left in December 1975 to study.<ref>[https://youtu.be/pD-0zDKtndw Declaración de Eduardo Iturriaga por su juzgamiento en el caso de Ronni Moffitt]</ref> Iturriaga is in the [[Punta Peuco Jail]] for this kind of accusations and is one of the [[Military Political Prisoners of Chile]].

Townley arrived in Chile with his father, Vernon Townley, in 1957. Five years later, his father was appointed general manager of General Motors Chile. That same year, 1964, his father Vernon began to serve as head of the CIA Station in our country and Michael was sent to work in Chile. As head of the CIA Station in Chile was sent to work at Ford Motors Peru. In 1966 he returned to Chile and from here he went to Miami, where he worked at the "AMCO Transmission Center", repairing automatic transmissions of automobiles. He did this job for Felipe Riveros, who was head of the Cuban Nationalist Movement (MNC) in Miami. Townley's contacts with that movement date back to that time.

On November 25, 1970, in Miami, Townley contacted a representative of the CIA in that city to offer a CIA representative in that city to offer his services. This is stated by Robert W. Gambino, Director of Security of the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, on November 9, 1978, in a sworn affidavit. This affidavit was filed with federal fi scal Earl J. Silbert, and his deputy, Eugene M. Propper, in the proceedings of "The United States of America vs. Contreras, Pedro Espinoza, Guillermo Novo, Ignacio Novo and Alvin Ross...", by the United States of America against Ross...", for the assassination attempt on the former Chilean ambassador in Washington, Orlando Letelier. There is also information on the extradition process to the U.S. of General Manuel Contreras and Brigadier Pedro Espinoza. Point 4 of this affidavit states, textually: "4. The result of the investigation mentioned in the previous paragraph 3, has been communicated to me by
The result of the investigation mentioned in paragraph 3 above has been communicated to me by the employees of the Security Office in charge of it. The investigation revealed that, in December 1970, in response to the Directorate of Operations, a check was carried out in
a name check was carried out in December 1970. Security Office records also revealed that in February 1971, the Directorate of Operations requested preliminary security approval to use Mr. Townley in an operational capacity. The investigation revealed that, in response to the Operations Directorate, a name check was conducted in December 1970.

There is another affidavit, also dated November 9, 1978, submitted by the same Silbert and Propper affidavits. This second affidavit is signed by Marvin L. Smith, head of the CIA Operations Group, who in item 4 states the following:
"... The employees of the Directorate of Operations in charge of the investigation referred to in in paragraph 3 above, have communicated to me the results of the investigation. The investigation revealed that Mr. Michael Vernon Townley contacted a declared representative of the agency, on November 25, 1970, in Miami, Florida, to offer his services to the agency...". Next, in item 5, Marvin L. Smith states: "On June 14, 1973, Mr. Townley telephoned a declared agent of the agency in Miami, Florida, to notify the agency of his presence in the U.S. in in case they wished to question him.

And with the same date there is a third affidavit, also filed by the ficials. This is the affidavit of F.W.M.
Janney, Director of Personnel of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who, at the point
(CIA), which in item 4, says: ".... The employees in charge of conducting the investigation referred to in paragraph 3 above
above, have communicated to me the result of the same. The result is that the Personnel Office records do not contain the name of Michael Vernon Townley.

The defense counsel for the Cubans, the brothers Guillermo and Ignacio Novo, and for Alvin Ross, attorney Goldberger, testified on page 1.797 of Volume IX: "I will tell the court one thing. This will not be the first time that the CIA denies in a trial in this country that a certain person is working for them. U.S. trial judge Barrington Parker replied to attorney Golderberg: "I'm not going to allow you to put the CIA on trial in this case".
On pages 1,811 to 1,814, among other similar statements, the same Judge Barrington Parker says he is "upset that there appears to be CIA and of Townley, Propper and Barcella. They should communicate to the CIA that I am concerned about this [...] I will not permit cross-examination of him (Townley) regarding incidents in Argentina, South America, Italy or Europe. This is the decision of the Tribunal. And it is justified by the fact that, as to other offenses, they cannot contemplate a situation which would can contemplate a situation that would go beyond the bounds of what happened in the District of Columbia.

[[Image:CIA Logo.gif|thumb|right|The U.S. government used the Chileans and the DINA as scapegoats. The Annual Assembly of the United Nations, in its 1977 session, approved a condemnation of Chile for violation of human rights mainly because of Townley's actions. From that year on, the string of assassinations and attacks perpetrated by the agent also came to an end. The goal of the CIA was to replace the Military Government with an Open Liberal Democracy.]]
Very revealing was what was expressed by the defense attorney, Goldberger, and which was incorporated in the respective file in Volume XXI A, at pages 4,576 to 4,577, in 1981: "'''The U.S. government used the Chileans and the DINA as scapegoats in this case'''".

In Volume XV, pages 1,644 to 1,653, of 1981, the defense attorney, Goldberger, states that according to Townley's statement, Townley "joined the DINA in December 1974 and does not see why he was denied the possibility of interrogating him about the trip to Argentina when it is presumed that he went to assassinate General Carlos Prats". Judge Parker said: "Listen: I don't want to hear anything about the investigation of the Prats and Leighton murders". Attorney Goldberger reactsto Judge Parker's prohibitions by saying, "You are not allowing this jury to know who the real Michael Vernon Townley is and I think, if there has ever been a witness in this country that the jury really ought to know the whole story about, it is certainly this one" (Volume XXVII).

In Volume XXII, on pages 4,780 to 4,788 and pages 4,797 to 4,798 of 1981, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Paraguay, and later Ambassador to Chile, George Walter Landau, declares in the process making clear that: "Not being able to communicate with the deputy director of the CIA, General Vernon Walters in the year 1976, visas were extended to the Paraguayan passports of Williams and Romeral"... Michael Townley and the Chilean Captain Armando Fernández Larios traveled to Washington D.C. with those names and passports in the year 1976... "ordering that the passports be photocopied from the first to the last page, including the photographs of the persons, which he sent by diplomatic pouch to General Vernon Walters and together with an explanatory message". Ambassador Landau further states that he "received an ordinary message, acknowledging receipt of the shipment, but that it had been delivered to Mr. [[George Bush]], director of the Central Intelligence Agency, because General Walters was no longer working with the Agency."

It is interesting to note the statement of former Ambassador Walter Landau, made in Miami, in an interview given in that city to the newspaper La Segunda, on May 31, 1995. Question: "With all due respect... may I ask you a question that is part of Chilean public opinion...? It has been said that you are from the CIA.

Landau answers: "The CIA never confirms or denies if someone is a member of it, as is normal in any intelligence office".

It all relates to Townley's joining the CIA in 1971. That same year, Townley returned to Chile with his family. Already had married Mariana Callejas Honores. For him, it was his first marriage. For Mariana Callejas, it was her third.

After the Military Pronouncement of September 11, Townley set out to return to Chile, for which he adopted a different identity, falsifying his identity documents adopting the name of a deceased American citizen. Thus he obtained the American passport No. 5 D2287732, in the name of Kenneth Enyart, under whose name he entered Chile.

On September 30, 1974, there was an attack against the former Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army, General Carlos Prats, and his wife, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Townley had entered Argentina under the name of Kenneth Enyart and the same passport number mentioned above. He arrived in Buenos Aires on September 10 and left on September 30 for Montevideo, Uruguay, with the same name and passport number.

The attack was carried out with the help of Mariana Callejas, who was traveling under the false name of Ana Luisa Pizarro.
Avilés.

On October 1, 1974, both entered Chile from Montevideo, always under the names of Kenneth Enyart and Ana Luisa Pizarro.
Pizarro. The data are registered in the respective international police.

At the end of November, or perhaps in December 1974, Townley made contact with the DINA through through Major Pedro Espinoza, to whom he made his technical-electronic skills known. Espinoza put him in contact with Major Daniel Valdivieso, in charge of that area in the organization. Townley himself testified to this in several declarations. In some of them he says that his contacts with
the Chilean DINA began at the end of November and in others in December 1974. Both dates, after his attempt on
attempt on the Prats husband and wife.

Minister Jorge Rodríguez, appointed by the Supreme Court to study the extradition of Chilean citizens to, accused of the attack on the Prats couple, in his ruling of July 12, 2002, details seven statements made by Townley. In all of them he states that his first contacts with the DINA were at the end of November or in December 1974, that is, more than two months after the Prats murders.

In December 1974, Townley traveled to the U.S. for the purpose of acquiring electronic items for the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA). He contacted mainly the AID company, whose president was John Holcoms, a well-known member of the CIA. Upon his
return, he brought a series of electronic items of special use for intelligence services.

It was around that time that General Raúl Iturriaga Neumann met Andrés Wilson, which was the name used by Townley at the time. From the end of 1974 and during 1975, Townley combined his activities as an informant and electronic technical collaborator of the DINA with a series of trips. Among other countries he visited Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, USA and several European countries, using different passports and names, among them Andrew Brooks and Kenneth Enyart. On some of these trips he was accompanied by Mariana Callejas, who traveled with him under the name of Ana Brooks.

In September 1975 his tracks appeared in Rome, where he made contact with the neo-Nazi movement ''Avanguardia Nazionale'', and mainly with its leader, the Italian Stéfano delle Chiaie.

On October 6, 1975, some members of ''Avanguardia Nazionale'' attacked the former minister of Chilean President [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] in Rome. Bernardo Leighton was seriously wounded along with his wife, Anita Fresno. Following this attack, Townley smuggled Stéfano delle Chiaie out of Italy, who was pursued by car by the police on his way to France. In Rome, especially in his registration in hotels, Michael Vernon Townley used his real name.

In 1976, Townley made further trips abroad, using different identities. In the Dominican Republic he used the name
name of Juan Torres; entered and left Paraguay under the name of Juan Andres Wilson; entered the U.S. on September 8, 1976, under the name of Juan Andres Wilson; he entered the U.S. on September 8, 1976, with a passport in the name of Hans Petersen Silva, a document that was made and forged by Townley himself, in his workshop.

On September 21, 1976, in Washington D.C., Michael Townley electronically detonated a bomb in the car in which the former foreign
former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his secretary Ronnie Moffit, resulting in the death of both. This attack was carried out with the with the collaboration of some members of the Cuban Nationalist Movement, MNC.

Thus, Townley carried out three attacks against Chilean citizens:
He assassinated the Prats couple in Buenos Aires; he made a criminal attempt against the Leighton couple in Rome, through the Italian neo-Nazi movement ''Avanguardia Nazionale''; and he assassinated Orlando Letelier and his secretary, Ronnie Moffit, in Washington D.C.

Three attacks in a row, in the first three years of the Military Government, and immediately prior to the Annual meeting of the United Nations in New York.

In the first of them, against the Prats couple, he had not yet established contacts with the DINA, according to his own statements, recorded in seven declarations statements collected by Minister Jorge Rodriguez Ariztía and existing in the file of the
in the file of the Argentine extradition request.

Until 1976 it was not known who had carried out these attacks. As soon as the Military Pronouncement took place, there were national and international political sectors that expected that, as soon as possible, the Military Junta would hand over the Government or call for democratic elections.

Neither happened. On the contrary, the Military Government issued the "Declaration of Principles of the Government of Chile", stating that goals were set, but not deadlines. The U.S. Government and the CIA, as a consequence, were against Allende's socialist government, they did not want that in the southern cone of South America to establish a "dictatorship of the proletariat" in a Marxist spirit. Without directly supporting the Military Pronouncement of September 11, the U.S. government welcomed the end of the Popular Unity Government. But,
according to them, a "military dictatorship" could not be allowed to hold sway for long in South America.

When the CIA documents corresponding to those years were declassified, we learned that during the Popular Unity Government, the US agency collaborated economically with several Chilean organizations, opponents of the government, and with several Chilean organizations, opponents of Allende. This aid, especially in dollars, even reached members of the Christian Democratic Party, who acknowledged the fact. This political party, which agreed with the Military Pronouncement, was the most interested in having the Government of the Nation handed over to it as soon as possible.

General Pinochet recalls in his memoirs that: "A certain well-known personage, from a well-known political party, has called me several times, telling me where he is, leaving telephone numbers and stating that he is available for whatever is offered...".

The then Colonel Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda was sent by the Junta to Washington at the beginning of 74, in order to meet with General Vernon Walters, deputy director of the CIA.

The purpose of the interview was to explain what in its beginnings was our intelligence service, to inform about the situation in Chile and, in particular, the work to be done to dismantle the subversion in Chile.

In the interview, General Walters expressed the wishes of his government. They wanted that, in the course of that year, open elections be called and political parties be allowed to function again.

In 1975, the Junta arranged for the Director of National Intelligence to meet, again in Washington, with the vice director of the CIA, who was still General Walters. At this time it was particularly important to detail the situation in the country in order to counteract the opinion of numerous U.S. officials and representatives of other countries at the United Nations, who were calling for the expulsion of Chile from the United Nations.

On that occasion, Walters stated that Kissinger was opposed to this type of measures against our country, but not Senator Frank Church, a declared opponent of the Chilean government junta and the main promoter of the idea of expelling Chile from the United Nations.

General Walters also expressed the CIA's desire for DINA to collaborate in establishing contacts with European nationalist groups... for the benefit of its own intelligence agency. The CIA was in question because Senator Church himself had denounced several CIA activities as criminal and the former CIA director, Richard Helms, had just been sentenced to two years in prison.

Colonel Manuel Contreras explained to General Walters that Chile and the DINA did not have the capacity to carry out what was being asked of them, and that he did not want to be involved in events that could be questionable, precisely because the Chilean Government was under diplomatic attack by several countries.

The two trips to the U.S. by the National Intelligence Director are detailed in declarations and reports delivered by him in the extradition process requested by Italy as a result of the attack against the Leighton couple.

The [[Kennedy Amendment]], specially sponsored by Democratic Senator [[Edward Kennedy]], was published in February 1976, by means of which the U.S. hardened even more its position against the Chilean government, suppressing military aid and even prohibiting the sale of arms to the country.

The Annual Assembly of the United Nations, in its 1977 session, approved a condemnation of Chile for violation of human rights.
There were 96 votes against 14. From that year on, the string of assassinations and attacks perpetrated by Michael Townley also came to an end.

In March 1978, the national press published the photos of Michael Townley and Captain Armando Fernandez Larios, identifying them as the characters Williams and Romeral, both involved in the assassination attempt that took the lives of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his secretary, Ronnie Moffit, in Washington D.C.

The FBI was convinced that Townley was directly implicated in the events that led to the death of Orlando Letelier; it had, among other evidence, the originals of the forged passports issued in Paraguay. Walter Landau, former U.S. ambassador in that country, had sent them to the CIA. To this must be added the denunciation, addressed in writing to President Pinochet, by the director of the CNI, retired General Odlanier Mena, reporting the various purchases of electronic material in the U.S. made by Townley, of his trips to the U.S. and of his trips to Paraguay and of the use of false passports; among others, those obtained in Paraguay.

This denunciation was the one that gave rise to the process for passport forgery initiated in the Chilean military courts, known later as the Letelier Case.

These events caused great commotion in the country and, in particular, within the CNI. Due to the pressure exerted by the U.S. Government, the Chilean Junta, relying on certain articles of the Immigration Law, expelled Townley from the country.

In his activities in Chile, Michael Vernon Townley Welch used more than 15 false names, registered more than 100 trips abroad and committed a series of criminal acts, such as forging documents, identity cards and passports. A brief calculation of the money needed to cover all his activities, especially his trips and stays abroad, adds up to a stratospheric amount, impossible to be covered by the Chilean National Intelligence Directorate. Nor was it the DINA that taught him to make remote-controlled bombs or the sophisticated electronic techniques he displayed, or to be a specialist in document forgery.

Townley was never a DINA agent, only an informant and collaborator in electronic matters. The officials of the National Intelligence Directorate came in their totality from the institutions of the National Defense, the Carabineros de Chile, the Investigative Police or the Gendarmerie.<ref>En las Alas del Cóndor, 2021, Eduardo Raúl Iturriaga Neumann</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2022/03/caso-prats-juzguelo-usted.html|Caso Prats: Júzguelo Usted|date=March 5, 2022|publisher=Blog de Hermógenes|author=Hermógenes Pérez de Arce|title=Caso Prats: Júzguelo Usted}}</ref>

===Eduardo Frei Montalva Case===
[[File:Patricio Aylwin & Eduardo Frei Montalva.jpg|250px|thumbnail|[[Patricio Aylwin]] and [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] in 1965, both [[Christian Democrat]] Presidents of Chile and icons of their party.]]
A typical example of how a baseless story is the Frei case. At the end of 1981, the former president underwent surgery for an esophageal obstruction performed by Augusto Larraín. An error in the operation caused an infection and peritonitis, which led to another operation. The former president could not survive this one.

No one then said anything about "poisoning" or third party intervention or even less about "assassination", because Frei lived his last days protected and surrounded by those closest to him, especially his closest friends and former ministers, Patricio Rojas and Patricio Silva, and the former senator Dr. Osvaldo Olguín.

The doctor who performed Frei's first operation, Augusto Larraín, suffered the consequent discredit as a result of the poor outcome, but for more than twenty years he never said anything about the intervention of third parties in the outcome. On the contrary, when shortly after the death of the former president he had a daughter and received a bouquet of flowers from his widow, Mrs. María Ruiz-Tagle de Frei, he took care to send a letter to "El Mercurio" making public this gesture that vindicated him and highlighting the nobility of Mrs. Maruja in expressing her no resentment for the fatal outcome of her husband's operation.

It was only about fifteen years after Frei Montalva's death that his daughter, Carmen, began to voice suspicions of third party intervention in her father's death. It had become fashionable to blame everything on the Pinochet regime without proof. And the totalitarians had already become "democrats", the aggressors had become "attacked" and the perpetrators who were preparing the 1973 self-coup, denounced by Aylwin in October of that year, had become "victims", declared and compensated as such by Aylwin himself.

But nobody took Carmen Frei's suspicions seriously, so much so that the then director of "El Mercurio", Juan Pablo Illanes, told us in a meeting of editors that, after asking President Frei Ruiz-Tagle about his sister's denunciation, he had replied: "These are Carmen's things". His government never took part in them or investigated anything, because there was nothing. But in Chile, if you get the support of the left, you can fabricate a case out of nothing, especially against Augusto Pinochet.

In 1997, Dr. Augusto Larraín also operated on Isabel Allende for the same thing that had affected Frei and when she, like him, was at death's door with a generalized infection, he went to Dr. Arturo Jirón, former doctor of La Moneda under Allende, who operated correctly, cleaned and sterilized her and, partly thanks to the younger age of the patient, saved her. Isabel Allende had had no problem in declaring publicly that she did not believe in the "Frei assassination" because she had had the experience with Dr. Augusto Larraín and knew that his procedures had left her on the verge of death. But a few days ago I saw in a tweet of hers, in "La Tercera", that she has changed her position, as she now expressed her support to the Frei family in their thesis of the "assassination".

At the same time, [[Sebastián Piñera]], already in his first presidency climbed on the Frei's bandwagon and promised them help to get an American expert opinion to prove the poisoning, but the expert from there did not find any traces of poison.

Before that, the country had been shaken when, under the first Bachelet government, the Frei's lawyer announced that there was a report from the University of Ghent, in [[Belgium]], confirming the poisoning. Then the ineffable president summoned the national and international press to La Moneda to denounce the assassination of Frei Montalva, an occasion in which her minister Vivianne Blanlot launched a phrase that made headlines: "The horror does not end". The bad thing was that "La Segunda" called the University of Ghent and they replied that there was no such report on Frei's poisoning. But the family's lawyer replied: "There is a report, there is a report! However, he never showed it. Finally, he resigned his sponsorship of the case.

Almost a quarter of a century after the ill-fated operation, Dr. Augusto Larraín, who had never said anything, appeared on Chilevisión and the following day, August 19, 2006, in "El Mercurio", saying that he had been summoned by Judge Madrid to testify in the case opened at the initiative of Carmen Frei: "I kept for 25 years the secret of my impressions regarding the reasons that had complicated the health of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva", he said. I ask myself: what doctor who has had a patient poisoned stays silent for 25 years and does not denounce it? Well, Dr. Larraín told "El Mercurio" that he had kept his doubts secret and had only expressed them to his cousin and DC senator, Andrés Zaldívar, who did not say anything either.

In that version of "El Mercurio" of August 19, 2006, Dr. Larraín appears adding that Judge Madrid asked him "if there could have been any external contamination", to which Larraín responded in the affirmative. "He also said that Madrid gave him information that he did not know". And the newspaper goes on to say: "Regarding the way in which this external contamination could have been produced, Larraín admitted that there could have been no intentionality, since it could have been caused by a bad sterilization".

The Christian Democracy has closed ranks behind its "flagship family" in the dubious crusade it has undertaken, they pretended that the second government of Sebastián Piñera took part, since he was known for yielding to all pressures and was characterized, just like his first presidency, by columnists and opinion makers changing his ministers. The Christian Democrats demanded the resignation of his Undersecretary of Health Care Networks, Dr. Luis Castillo, who held the same position during his first administration, but then the Frei family had not realized that he had been in charge of Frei Montalva's pathological anatomy samples at the Catholic University. Now when they found out, they decided to accuse him of having hidden them and, therefore, of being an "accessory" to the assassination, all of which is false, because those samples were taken at the request of the former president's medical team (there is a document), the results were delivered to that medical team (there is a document) and until October 2002 (twenty years after the operation) no one from the family or the medical team requested that information, according to what the former dean of Catholic University Medicine, Dr. Gonzalo Grebe, expressed in a letter to the newspaper. He added that when Mrs. Carmen Frei asked for it, it was given to her ("there is a document that can be made public", he affirms). In other words, zero cover-up and zero blame for Dr. Castillo, but the DC continues to pressure Piñera to defend him, something that no one, knowing Piñera, can dismiss.

In addition, one of Frei Montalva's closest friends, his former minister Patricio Silva Garín, who wanted to help him in the infectious aftermath of Augusto Larraín's operation, has been indicted as the author of the "assassination"; and another, Patricio Rojas, former Minister of the Interior, who also said he did not believe in the "assassination" thesis, suffered such an onslaught of insults from within the Christian Democracy that Patricio Aylwin had to come out in defense of his good name.

All of which proves that in Chile, if you want to blame Pinochet, you can put together any story and transform it into a judicial process in the hands of a leftist judge, with good prospects.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/08/el-caso-frei.html|title=El "Caso Frei"|date=August 21, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=PRESIDENTE PINOCHET LIBERTADOR DE CHILE - Por la verdad histórica del 11 de Septiembre de 1973|date=2023|author=[[Gonzalo Townsend Pinochet]]|url=https://www.amazon.com/PRESIDENTE-PINOCHET-LIBERTADOR-CHILE-Septiembre/dp/B0C7T7V4GV}}</ref>

===The Truth about Operation Cóndor===
Operation Cóndor is sometimes mentioned as an alleged “terror operation”, agreed between the military governments of Argentina, Chile and other countries in the 1970s.
The operation was not “of terror”, but quite the opposite, to defend the citizens from terror.

When subversion was ravaging South America the most was in the mid 70's, in 1974, the year in which a “Revolutionary Coordination Board” met in Paris, composed of the National Liberation Army (ELN) of Bolivia, the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) of Argentina, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral and the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Tupamaros of Uruguay and the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) of Chile (of which that same year a young woman named Michelle Bachelet was an active helper, according to her most recognized biography, Insunza and Ortega, 2005).
The secretary of the “Junta de Coordinación Revolucionaria” was the Cuban and member of the DGI (Cuba's KGB) Fernando Luis Álvares, married to Ana María Guevara, sister of a well-known serial killer who served in Cuba, [[Ernesto Che Guevara|Ernesto “Ché” Guevara]].
In October of that year the MIR informed me of the above by means of a mimeographed newspaper, which they promptly delivered to my private office on Doctor Carlos Charlín Street, in Providencia.
The governments of the Southern Cone, then, decided to face together this terrorist coordination, which was to commit attacks and assassinate uniformed and civilians. That is how “Operation Condor” was born, to defend against terror, not to practice it.

Of course, years later in Chile (and before that in Argentina) the rulers, legislators and judges began to persecute the military who participated in “Operation Condor” and, at the same time, the civilian governments have amnestied and compensated the real victimizer of the countries, the extreme [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|left-wing terrorism]], as if those who promoted it had been the “victims”.
A true continental “Operation Historical Lie” has been imposed in this way for decades and extensively. And in virtiud of that gigantic imposture, in our countries the aggressors have become “attacked”, the victimizers have become “victims” (“our comrades and the victims”, as the CJE Juan Emilio Cheyre, whose brain was as well washed of all truth as Ambassador Bielsa's, used to say in his time). And, in short, the totalitarians have now officially become “democrats”.

In Chile, a weak, inept and surrendered political and business ruling class has allowed, in its turn, to brainwash itself and everybody else and to censor or suppress the truth from the media it controls or thinks it controls, because in fact they are managed by the left. If not, they “takes over” the newspaper facilities. Successful disinformation to such an extreme that even the new high class new generations in Chile today believe that the “terror” was brought by the military.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2022/01/y-volvimos-tropezar.html|title=Un Embajador con Cerebro Lavado|date=January 20, 2022|publisher=Blog de Hermógenes|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]}}</ref>

==Pinochet's detention==

Chile became embroiled in an unprecedented controversy in 1998. While visiting Great Britain, Pinochet was detained when left-wing Spanish judge [[Baltasar Garzón]] requested his extradition with the charges of supposed "torture" of Spanish citizens in Chile during his military regime. The case caused the United States and other countries to release documents relating to those who had "disappeared" in Chile under Pinochet's rule. In January 2000 Pinochet with the help of Baroness [[Margaret Thatcher]] won an appeal on medical grounds and was permitted to return home, but Chilean authorities continued to investigate numerous charges of earlier so called "human rights abuses". Stripped of the immunity from prosecution he had enjoyed as a former president, Pinochet was indicted later that year, though the case was later dismissed. In January 2005, however, Chile's Supreme Court upheld another indictment of Pinochet, who was once again without immunity (which is removed on a case-by-case basis under Chilean law).<ref name=EUvsPinochet>{{cite book|url=https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/2022/12/europa-vs-pinochet-indebido-proceso.html|title=Europa vs. Pinochet, Indebido Proceso|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|date=1998|language=es}}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
*[https://odysee.com/THE-PINOCHET-DOCUMENTARY-360p:4?lid=1fd9653478d44db1f87cc8647f820a8669cc3b81 The Pinochet Documentary - English subtitles]
*[https://odysee.com/the-augusto-pinochet-story-never-told:5 Pinochet, the story never told]
*[https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/ Pinochetist Books]
*[https://www.britannica.com/place/Chile/The-military-dictatorship-from-1973 Encyclopædia Britannica article]

==See also==
*[[Augusto Pinochet]]
*[[Mi General Augusto Pinochet (song)]]
*[[Military Political Prisioners of Chile]]
*[[Salvador Allende]]
*[[José Piñera]]
*[[Hernán Büchi]]

[[Category:Chilean History]]
[[Category:Wars]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Augusto Pinochet]]
[[Category:Cold War in Chile]]

Salvador Allende

2026-05-01T18:10:57Z

CatolicoAustral: /* The truth about CIA involvement */

{{Officeholder
|name=Salvador Allende Gossens
|image=Salvador Allende (1970).jpg
|offices={{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Presidential Standard of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]][[President of Chile]]
|terms=November 3, 1970 – September 11, 1973
|preceded=[[Eduardo Frei Montalva]]
|succeeded=[[Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]]
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=President of the Senate of Chile
|terms=December 27, 1966 – May 15, 1969
|preceded=Tomás Reyes Vicuña
|succeeded=Tomás Pablo Elorza
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Coat of arms of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]]Senator of the Republic of Chile
|terms=May 15, 1945 – November 3, 1970
|preceded=Luis Ambrosio Concha
|succeeded=Adonis Sepúlveda Acuña
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=Minister of Health, Welfare and Social Assistance of Chile
|terms=August 28, 1939 – April 2, 1942
|president=A
|preceded=Miguel Etchebarne Riol
|succeeded=Eduardo Escudero Forrastal
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=Deputy of the Republic of Chile
|terms=May 15, 1937 – August 28, 1939
|preceded=Humberto Casali Monreal
|succeeded=Vasco Valdebenito García
}}
|religion=[[Agnostic]]
|party=Socialist Party of Chile
}}
'''Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens''' (b. [[Valparaíso]] July 26, 1908–d. [[Santiago de Chile|Santiago]], on September 11, 1973) was a [[Chile]]an medic, physician and politician, member of the [[Socialist Party of Chile]] who worked as an agent for the [[KGB]] since 1952.<ref name=KGB/> He ruled as the [[President of Chile]] from 1970 to 1973 being declared unconstitutional by the Chilean Congress<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/> and Judicial System<ref name=SupremeCourt/> as he broke several laws, thus becoming a dictator.<ref>{{cite book|title=La dictadura comunista de Salvador Allende|author=[[Nicolás Márquez]]|date=2022|language=es}}</ref> He was also a self-proclaimed "militant socialist", "marxist-leninist" and [[demagogue]], his overthrow and death are crucial in the Chilean History and in the [[Cold War]].

==Political History==
===Background===
Allende ran for President in 1952, 1958 and 1964, loosing on all of the occasions.

In November 1967, Salvador Allende and the Socialist Party unanimously approved, at their Congress in Chillán, a true "Declaration of War on Chilean Democracy".

In that declaration it was affirmed: "Revolutionary violence is legitimate (...) it is the only way to take power (...) only by destroying the democratic-military apparatus of the State can the socialist revolution be consolidated (...) peaceful or legal forms of struggle do not lead to power (...) the political process leads us to armed struggle".

===International support, KGB Agent and Cuba's help===
[[File:USSR stamp Salvador Allende 1973 6k.jpg|thumb|A [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] stamp honoring Salvador Allende.]]
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]

US intelligence reports implicated Allende in the assassination of several opponents,<ref name=nixontapeaudio>{{cite web|url=http://nixontapeaudio.org/chile/517-004.pdf|title=Conversation 517-004|date=June 11, 1971, 9:37 - 10:36 a.m.|location=[[Oval Office]]|author= [[Richard Nixon]], [[Harry Robbins Haldeman|H.R. Haldeman]], and [[Henry Kissinger]]}}</ref> while KGB files smuggled out of Russia by [[Vasily Mitrokhin]] indicate that Allende received funds and support from the Soviet Union. The book "The World was Going our Way"<ref name=CIA_KGB/> by Vasili Mitrokilin (former KGB agent) and Christopher Anurew reveal: {{quotebox-float|By far the most important of the KGB’s confidential contacts in South America was Salvador Allende Gossens (codenamed LEADER by the KGB),— whose election as President of Chile in 1970 was hailed by a Moscow commentator as "second only to the victory of the Cuban Revolution in the magnitude of its significance as a revolutionary blow to the imperialist system in Latin America" (...)

Allende had first attracted KGB attention in the early 1950s when, as leader of the Chilean Socialist Party (Partido Socialista), he had formed an alliance with the then banned Communist Party. In 1952 he stood with its support at the presidential election but won only 6 per cent of the vote. Though there was as yet no KGB residency in Chile, a Line PR (political intelligence) officer, Svyatoslav Fyodorovich Kuznetsov (codenamed LEONID), probably operating under cover as a Novosti correspondent, made the first direct contact with Allende in the following year .— At the presidential election of 1958, standing as the candidate of a left-wing alliance, the Frente de Acción Popular (FRAP), Allende was beaten into second place by only 35,000 votes.

What Allende's KGB file describes as "systematic contact" with him began after the establishment in 1961 of a Soviet trade mission in Chile, which provided cover for a KGB presence. Allende is reported to have "stated his willingness to co-operate on a confidential basis and provide any necessary assistance" since he considered himself a friend of the Soviet Union. He willingly shared political information. Though he became a KGB "confidential contact", however, he was never classed as an agent. The KGB claimed some of the credit for Allende's part in the campaign which led to the establishment of Soviet-Chilean diplomatic relations in 1964. — The new Soviet embassy in Santiago contained the first KGB legal residency on Chilean soil.—<ref name=KGB>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/TheWorldWasGoingOurWayTheKGBAndTheBattleForTheTheThirdWorld/The+World+Was+Going+Our+Way_djvu.txt|title=The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the the Third World|coauthors=CHRISTOPHER ANUREW and VASILI MlTROKlilN}}</ref>}}

In the book by Vasili Mitrokihn, former Soviet agent cited above, it is stated:"Payment of US$100 000 from the reserved fund of the Council of Ministers (of the USSR) for 'special measures' in Chile was approved by the Politburo on February 7, 1973. An additional 'monetary reward' of US$400 was given to Allende for unspecified 'valuable information' which he had provided".<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2013/09/el-libro-de-las-verdades-olvidadas.html|title=El Libro de las Verdades Olvidadas NI VERDAD NI RECONCILIACIÓN|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog|date=2013|language=es}}</ref>

In the infamous "Cuban Packages Scandal" that precipitated his eventual ouster, large quantities of weapons were sent from [[Fidel Castro]]'s Cuba to arm pro-Allende terrorists in Chile.<ref>https://www.nationalreview.com/articles/219461/pinochet-history-nro-symposium</ref> Kissinger privately told Nixon that Allende might declare martial law.<ref name=nixontapeaudio/> By 1973, as a result of covert US aid to Chilean dissidents and financing of pro-democracy protestors, US intelligence indicated Allende would likely lose the next Chilean election if it was held.<ref>http://archive.frontpagemag.com/Printable.aspx?ArtId=15648</ref> Volodia Teitelboim, the chief ideologue of the Communist Party in Chile, declared that if civil war came, "it probably would signify immense loss of human lives, between half a million and one million."<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20040108221609/http://lyd.org/noticias/violencia/what_really.html</ref> Allende's sister, Laura Allende, spoke at the [[Peoples Temple]] in San Francisco to make the case for Chilean socialism.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YcXsCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT89&lpg=PT89&dq=Laura+Allende+jim+jones&source=bl&ots=oYzBuLkqli&sig=ACfU3U3WxYWRcNbxWq-X_4F6_pdlCC-JlA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjc0unTvargAhWH8oMKHTfkBlwQ6AEwC3oECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=Laura%20Allende%20jim%20jones&f=false Carole M. Cusac, ''Sacred Sucide''].</ref>

Salvador was a friend of [[Ernesto Che Guevara]] who met in 1959 during the early times of the Communist Revolution in Cuba. Guevara dedicated his book "The guerilla war" to the Chilean marxist: "To Salvador Allende, who by other means tries to obtain the
same. Affectionately, Che"

The KGB and Cuban Government had a strong interference in Chile during the government of Salvador Allende. The KGB had a "Department D" of disinformation destined to fabricate lies around the world to favor communism. On one occasion, they even falsified an edition of Newsweek magazine to be distributed in Asia and Africa, in 1963. An article in it about John Kennedy had been completely replaced by an opposite one, supporting the Soviet interest.

In addition, Chile had become a Marxist state in ideological and economic terms, and that from a strategic perspective it had become an important base for Soviet and Cuban subversive operations, including terrorism for all of Latin America. The KGB recruited members for terrorist training courses.

===1970 Presidential Election===

Allende, representing a coalition of [[Marxist]] parties, won the September 1970 election narrowly beating his closest opponent with 36.2% of the vote against the right-wing candidate, [[Jorge Alessandri]], who obtained 34.9%.<ref>[http://foia.state.gov/Reports/ChurchReport.asp]</ref>
In November, the Congress, which could choose between the two (there was no second round), elected him President.
Allende was outspoken in his intent to dramatically "transform" Chile according to socialist principles, which concerned moderate voters and politicians. The Chilean Congress voted to give Allende the presidency, in accordance with run-off rules in place at the time, but required Allende to sign a special statement promising that his reforms would always respect the constitution.

The [[Christian Democracy]] supported in the National Congress the election of Salvador Allende as President of Chile, after he committed himself to a Statute of Constitutional Guarantees elaborated by the centrist party.<ref name=memoria>{{cite web|url=http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-96669.html|title=Alianza con la derecha para enfrentar a la Unidad Popular|publisher=Memoria Chilena|language=es}}</ref>

Allende was the first democratically elected socialist president in history. The 36.2% in 1970 was less than he had gotten in 1964 when he got 38.93%, in that election the right-wing decided to not have a candidate and instead support Frei.

==Government==

During his government, Allende instituted a plan called the "Chilean way to socialism" (''La vía chilena al socialismo'') or "socialism within pluralism" in attempt to address the unequal distribution of wealth in the Chilean economy, but which led to widespread disruption and social polarization. Upon assuming power Allende expropriated private sector business, middle class and [[bourgeois]] property and began to implement an agrarian reforms and a program to nationalize vital industry. Allende posted some of his supporters to oversee these expropriations and nationalization, including David Silberman <ref>http://www.jta.org/1976/02/06/archive/family-of-former-chilean-jewish-official-seeking-his-where-abouts</ref> (disappeared) who was assigned to oversee the "nationalization" of Chile's largest copper industry: Chuquicamata. The media wrote extensively of Allende's failures. Strikes and shutdowns caused massive inflation and unrest, and the conservative-controlled Chilean Congress sought to reject Allende's proposals whenever possible, causing considerable political gridlock.

===Economic crisis and food shortages===
[[File:Line to get food during Salvador Allende's Socialist Regime in Chile.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Line to get food during Salvador Allende's Socialist Regime in Chile]]
Salvador Allende froze the prices of all goods and services and raised the wages by 10% within a few months of these economic policies happening the hyperinflation of the Escudo which was the the currency at the time. The Escudo started to lose value rapidly, it started to disintegrate as a currency, the only thing propping it up were the foreign currency reserves of Chile because in 1970 Chile was a fairly prosperous country and all of the successive governments had been very careful to maintain the positive balance of trade and to never ever run any kind of fiscal deficit so Chile had a very large supply of hard foreign currencies: Dollars, Pounds. Financially Chile was in very good shape when this new agenda came in with his policies that started costing all kinds of money.<ref name=Lira>{{cite web|url=https://youtu.be/GBQiic6vH4Y|author=[[Gonzalo Lira]]|title=Salvador Allende|date=2017|publisher=YouTube}}</ref>

The entrepreneurs couldn't raise the prices with the frozen prices and now they had to pay more to employees starting to lose money and closing they businesses and factories causing mass unemployment and shortages. The response of the government was to seize the companies and accuse them of conspiring and being financial speculators.

Chileans started to make huge lines to get basic goods such as toilet paper, toothpaste and food. The black market flourished which only accepted U.S. Dollars. People started selling everything that they had in order to get dollars to buy the basics. The Government created the Committees for Popular Supply (''Juntas de Abastecimiento Popular, JAP'') rationing a country that had been previously prosperous.

[[File:0718-5049-izquierdas-41-00224-gch2.jpg|250px|thumbnail|left|A bussiness closed by the Committee for Popular Supply (''JAP'') acussing it of being financial speculators.]]

A ration card was implemented, and it was only with the ration card that the people could get the basics like rice, potatoes and cooking oil, the ration card was needed to feed your family. The ''JAPs'' were in every neighborhood where the ration card was stamped by the head of the ''JAP'' who was a member of the Popular Unity leftist parties. This was used to excluse political opponents and the government accussed those people of being "an oligarch" or "an enemy of the people". Food became politicized the situation in Chile was just just deteriorating on daily basis.<ref name=Lira/>

[[File:Ration Card from Salvador Allende's Regime.jpg|250px|thumbnail|A Ration Card from Salvador Allende's Regime.]]

The left says that the fault of this is from [[Richard Nixon]] who had a meeting with [[Henry Kissinger]] after the whole agenda debacle and said that he wanted the Chilean economy "to scream", however, in 1970 the world economies were not completely integrated as in the XXI Century, Chile's largest training partner was not the United States but Argentina and Peru because of the proximity. Even if the Nixon Administration wanted to squeeze the Chilean economy, they couldn't success, especially not after all the American companies were expropriated by the Allende regime. '''The Popular Unity Government has all the fault of the food shortages and economic crisis, this is now denied for political reasons.'''<ref name=Lira/>

The rumors began in May 1971: shortages, shortages, rationing of food and other essential items. The cards for this purpose were being printed in the Santiago penitentiary. The Undersecretary of Economy, Oscar Garretón, categorically denied: "This is an irresponsible campaign, aimed at creating social tension". But Allende himself speaks already, ominously, of "stocks to be exhausted" in fifteen days or two more months. The Government granting "good money": important salary readjustments -44%-, and applying a brake on the rise in prices, has meant that Chileans have more money than in 1970 and are spending more on all kinds of things. Rumors of crisis and shortages precipitate people to build up their own stocks, and thus produce precisely the crisis and rationing: "Hence the irritation of the Government with the wave of rumors on the matter". In order to undermine this systematic campaign, the Minister of Economy, Mr. Vuskovic, addresses the country on national TV. He explains that the greater purchasing power of the population has been reflected in a higher volume of sales than in any previous period.
The dollar reserves are still very respectable, and shortages of any product, especially foodstuffs, can be supplied by importing them. However, at the end of May, the Government put obstacles - deposits of one hundred times their value - to import a thousand products, considered "not strictly indispensable". In the case of "durable and expendable" items -cars, televisions, refrigerators, etc.- customers are placed in a "queue", which automatically produces either a black market or an overprice for those who do not want to or cannot wait.

However, the number of products that are difficult to find continues to increase. The board of directors of the Santiago Bus Union reports that hundreds of buses are paralyzed due to "a growing shortage of spare parts". The newspaper "Tribuna" denounces the lack of medicines, "both because of the official policy regarding the dollar, as well as the delay in resolving the prices". However, the shortage of basic food products is the most worrisome and the long "queues" are an increasingly frequent spectacle. Allende recognizes this, speaking to the students of Antofagasta: "Vast sectors of Chile are beginning to feel - and I say this with regret, but I am telling the truth - difficulties in supply. Vuskovic himself admitted a few days later, at the end of a meeting of the Supply Committee, chaired by the Head of State himself. Undersecretary Garretón will continue, however, to insist that the problem is due to a "psychosis created by the media".

Several facts show the reality of the situation: Bolivian meat was imported in the north, and in Santiago, when DIRINCO inspectors tried to seize meat that a southern cooperative was selling directly to the public, they had to leave amidst a hail of carterazos (scuffles) by the owners of the house. SOCOAGRO, the CORFO subsidiary that channels the state supply of meat, has the butchers going crazy, sleeping in the offices of the firm to get some piece of animal.

Opposition and government agreed that the issue is not a sympathetic one. "The former blame the government's mistakes: increase of the purchasing power, discouragement of production, errors in the exchange policy". "The government parties say it is a fabrication of the opposition". As far as construction materials are concerned, the problem was generalized. Cement, nails, wire, wood and hardware products are in short supply. As for clothing, the cotton and cashmere line is out of stock. When Undersecretary Garretón was asked about the possible outcome of all this, he said that the problems arise from the State's failure to intervene sufficiently. "There are distribution problems; we cannot rule out boycotts and there has been an increase in demand. This leads us to conclude that we have to participate in distribution"<ref>{{cite book|title=Cfr. Augusto Pinochet. " El día decisivo". Edit. Estado Mayor Ejército}}</ref>.

[[File:Empty Pot Protests, Chile 1971.jpg|thumbnail|Empty Pot Protests, Chile 1971.]]
The climate of confrontation in the country reaches its boiling point on Wednesday, December 1. At dusk, the demonstration of the "empty pots and baskets", called by the women of Santiago, begins. Even its organizers were surprised by the number and enthusiasm of the participants, and it became the most multitudinous, enthusiastic and combative women's rally in the country's history. Ultra-left elements of the [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|MIR and MAPU]] and of the increasingly famous communist and socialist brigades attacked the women with stones, chains, sticks and even with potatoes bristling with pieces of razor blades.

The economic, political, social and cultural situation of the country could not have been worse. Chile broke the world record for inflation, with 143%. The Central Bank announced that a total of 36 367 million escudos were issued that year, which implied an increase of 174.4% over 1971. In a high-level meeting of the Communist Party, the Minister of Finance gave equally gloomy statistics: the 140 nationalized companies left 50 000 000 escudos of losses in 1792; during the month of October alone, 6 000 000 escudos had to be printed to cover their enormous "financial hole"; and a third of the 1973 fiscal budget was spent on buying foreign foodstuffs.
The exasperation of the Chilean consumer with inflation and shortages was demonstrated in daily acts of violence. Calama: 200 people assaulted two trucks carrying Argentine meat for Antofagasta, forcing them to go to the city slaughterhouse, which (said a neighbor) did not receive "not even bones from the authorities".

Despite the proximity of the parliamentary elections, the government decided to face the problem. The Minister of Finance announced, on radio and television, that rationing had arrived in Chile: "The Government is aware that there is a set of difficulties, derived from the shortage of products indispensable for consumption; from rampant speculation; and from the black market, difficulties that have tended to worsen in recent times".

The Minister's revelations provoked an avalanche. Former President Eduardo Frei Montalva defined them as "a clear and definitive action for the totalitarian control of the country". Christian Democrat Senator Juan Hamilton described the speech as "shameless and sinister". "Those who have plunged the country into hunger, want to impose dictatorship through the stomach. Whoever does not submit to the JAP ("Committees of Popular Supply") and the Popular Unity Party Coalition, will not eat".

The Government's ineffable official comment was transmitted by Bosco Parra: "It is not rationing - he said -. On the contrary, it is a search for a solution to the existing problems. It is the establishment of standards for the identification of needs.
Allende himself tried to minimize the problem, saying: "There will be no food rationing, but a truly equitable and humane distribution of essential items for consumption. distribution of essential items for family consumption".<ref name=UP>{{cite web|url=https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/2012/07/chile-bajo-la-unidad-popular.html|title=CHILE - BAJO LA UNIDAD POPULAR|publisher=Chile Pinochet Nuestro|author=Jaime Antonio Urrutia Mansilla}}</ref>

===1972 Trucker strike===

Between October 9 and November 5, 1972, the most extensive and massive national strike in Chilean and Latin American history to that date took place. When, at the beginning of October 1972, the Chilean truckers' union decided to paralyze its functions from north to south, it was fully aware of the rupture it would produce in the Allende regime.

International aid, especially from the U.S., came to help the truckers.
The transport union and others started the process of the beginning of the end of the Red Terror that the left wanted to impose.
The action of this movement in the struggle to overthrow the leftist government in power was fierce until the end of that nightmare.

The struggle of unions and organizations that united against the tyranny improved with the passing of events and in practice there was no other way out but to stop transportation as a weapon that would prevent the total destruction of the national economy.

It was in this scenario full of struggle that on October 9, 1972, Chile was awakened by the courageous carriers who began their strike. This stoppage, which was a historical product of their strength and cohesion, was the prelude to the intervention of the Armed Forces and the Order Forces (Carabineros), whose commanders were others.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2020/08/barbaridades-diarias.html|title=Barbaridades diarias|date=August 8, 2020|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

===Paramilitary Marxist Terrorist groups and political persecution===
{{Main article|Left Wing Terrorism in Chile}}
[[File:Flag of the MIR - Chile.svg|250px|thumbnail|MIR Flag.]]
[[File:Bandera de la VOP.jpg|250px|thumbnail|VOP Flag.]]

The Left was creating paramilitary forces that were loyal to the Popular Unity project (even more than the President himselft) and not loyal to the Chilean citizenry, one of the groups was called MIR (Movement of the Revolutionary Left) these groups gone to farms and seized the land in the name of "the people" and killed the landowners and their families. Around 500 Chileans died in this [[Red Terror]].

The MIR killed seven in the three years of Allende's Popular Unity Regime. Five of them were members of the Carabineros (The Chilean Police), another second lieutenant of the same corps and the last was an agent of Investigations Police.The group called VOP (Organizated Vanguard of the People) assassinated the former Minister of the Interior and former Vice President of the government prior to the arrival of Allende, Edmundo Pérez Zujovic. The material authors of the assassination were the same terrorists who had been pardoned in Allende's first decree.

The crimes committed during the violent occupations of farms were committed mostly by the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (MCR), a franchise of the MIR in the rural world. In this series of events, which were committed in many cases by members of the Socialist Party, the main political force in the government coalition, there are dramatic events. Perhaps the most shocking of all was that committed against the middle-aged woman Antonia Maechell Ricardi, owner of La Tregua de Valdivia who was abducted from her own home, raped by the MIR a situation that led to her suicide.

Similar crimes were committed throughout the country. More than 500 deaths among landowners and workers who defended them from the occupations are documented. All this in more than 300 violent occupations of farms.

Several businessmen were murdered when they refused to pay the "revolutionary" tax. An example is the case of Raúl Méndez Espinosa, dedicated to the industrial manufacture of sweets, beaten to death for refusing to give money to the terrorists.

Jorge Baraona Puelma, former congressman, died on April 30, 1971 of a heart attack after being evicted from his property and seeing his Nilahue de Colchagua farm occupied by officials of the Corporation of the Agriarian Reform.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://buenmuseo.blogspot.com/2019/05/allende-asesinatos-y-violencia-para.html|title=Allende, asesinatos y violencia para imponer el socialismo a sangre y fuego|date=May 23, 2019|publisher=Museo de la Buena Memoria|language=es|author=Juan E. Pflüger}}</ref>

Among the actions of the left-wing radicals of the MIR and the VOP, among which there were quite a few militants of the Socialist Party, the assassinations of members of other political parties also stand out. Thus Héctor Castilla, of the Christian Democracy, was assassinated in retaliation for the victory of his student associations in Chilean universities. Also Rolando Matús, a member of the National Party, was assassinated by socialist militants collaborating with the MIR. And the frustrated assassination of the Christian Democrat leader Patricio Aylwin, when he was giving a lecture in a gymnasium in the town of Curicó.

There were also attacks on critical media. Such as the assaults by members of the Socialist Party youths on radio stations linked to the newspaper El Mercurio, a newspaper that Allende managed to close.

In 1972, 4000 Soviet-made AK-47 assault rifles were brought from Cuba and stored in the offices of the Socialist Party presided by Allende, using diplomatic pouches for their transportation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elpaisonline.cl/verdad-historica-new/1970-marxismo-al-poder/75-allende-asesinatos-y-violencia-para-imponer-el-socialismo-a-sangre-y-fuego|title=Allende, asesinatos y violencia para imponer el socialismo a sangre y fuego|author=Juan E. Pflüger|date=June 24, 2016|language=es}}</ref><ref>[https://twitter.com/aprachile/status/1437017349631193089?lang=es]</ref>

[[File:Left Wing terrorists seizing land in Salvador Allende's Chile.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Left Wing terrorists seizing land in the South of Chile. Note that one sign says "The poor are welcome, f**k the rich", with "Welcome" being mispeled in Spanish (which is ''Bienvenidos'').]]

The MCR (Revolutionary Peasant Movement) member, Gregorio José Liendo, also known as "Comandante Pepe", told the journalist Nena Ossa, in a personal interview with her in 1972, reproduced in her book "Allende, Thank You":<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2019/07/homenaje-al-comandante-pepe.html|title=Homenaje al Comandante Pepe|date=July 12, 2019|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog|language=es}}</ref>

{{quotebox-float|
'''– Nena Ossa:''' What is your plan, in the short, medium or long term?

'''– "Commander Pepe":''' Take over the fields and towns of the south, violently if necessary, while in Santiago the MIR takes over the city and they come down to join us halfway.

'''– Nena Ossa:''' In other words, the goal is to 'take over' all of Chile violently. Don't you care if people die?

'''– "Commander Pepe":''' Of course, violently. A million Chileans have to die so that the people get involved with the revolution and it becomes a reality. With fewer deaths it will not work.<ref>{{cite book|title=Allende Thank You|publisher=Maye|author=Nena Ossa|date=2009|language=es|pages=on the back cover}}</ref>}}

This 1972 guerrilla generation was trained in the Punto Cero camp in Cuba, in [[Algiers]], [[Algeria]] and [[Libya]].

A typical phrase used by the far-left was "Momio to the wall, Momia to the mattress" (''Momio al paredón, Momia al colchón'') Momio reffers to conservatives, "to the wall" means execution and "Momia al colchón" means raping female conservatives. They also used the phrase "Enough of conciliating, it's time to fight back" (''Basta ya de conciliar, es la hora de luchar'') and other macabre expressions.

The Foreigners who entered the country illegally between 1970 and 1973, based on a report of the "Special Commission for Consultation on Security" of the Organization of American States (OAS), formed by delegates from the United States, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic, and presented to the twenty-first special session of 1974, where it said:
"The approximate number of foreigners illegally entering Chile, could be estimated in September 1973, between 12 and 15 thousand individuals."
It adds: "After September 11 and up to the following March, more than 3,500 foreigners left Chile as asylum seekers, refugees or expelled".<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/>

===Torture during the Allende Regime and Human Rights Violations===
Illegitimate arrests of political opponents were a common practice during the Popular Unity government. That is why the Agreement of the Chamber of Deputies of August 22, 1973 contemplated them in a separate paragraph as one of the reasons for requesting the intervention of the armed forces to "put an end to the existing de facto situations".

Numerous public figures were subjected to torture, among them the then director of the Santa Cruz newspaper "El Condor", Maximiano Errazuriz, at the hands of detectives of Investigaciones in 1972, which he described in his book "Maximiano, Perdón y Olvido" (Maximiano, Forgiveness and Oblivion).

The pressures decisively undermined the health of the announcer of Minería Radio and Channel 13, Carlos de la Sotta, imprisoned for the case of interference, during the Popular Unity government, to the transmissions of Channel 13 in [[Concepción]].

But the case that attracted most attention was that of the president of the National Party Youth and Vice President of the party, Juan Luis Ossa Bulnes, whose letter referring to them was published by "El Mercurio" on January 23, 1972.

A writ of amparo had been filed in Ossa's favor, but the judge who heard the case did not order his release, but rather his transfer to the Rancagua prison, where he was interrogated by another judge, who was hearing a government complaint for violations of the Internal Security Law of the State. Before both magistrates Ossa referred to the torments he had suffered, but without any reaction from them. Ossa remained deprived of his liberty from Wednesday, January 12 to Saturday, January 15, 1972, without any reason to justify it.

The Allende government had no reaction to the publication of the tortures inflicted on the opposition youth leader, and Deputy Director Carlos Toro, a communist, remained at his charge, immovable, and probably reflecting on how to improve his interrogation methods so that the new detainees he had arrested would really say what he wanted to hear them say.<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/>

===Agrarian reform===
[[File:Seized land in Salvador Allende's Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|left|Seized land in the South of Chile by the MCR.]]
"Here, now the peasants will be in charge," declared the Minister of Agriculture at a press conference. Very few dared to think that Jacques Chonchol's words were prophetic. The timid - according to the UP - Agrarian Reform initiated by the Frei Government, was going to transform, in the coming months, to a real revolution in the countryside.

This was going to go beyond Allende's declarations, according to which this reform would not be carried out through land occupations, but within a technical process, with an adequate planning, so that the country would produce more food. However, in December, the press began to reproduce news like this: "Occupations of estates and land in San Bernardo, Puerto Montt and San Fernando". In January 1971, along with the new year, the seizures increase: 50 properties in the area of [[Temuco]]; another 52 in Cautín; more than 30 "arbitrarily occupied in the provinces of [[Valdivia]], Osorno and Llanquihue.

The National Agricultural Society denounced that since Allende took office, 250 properties had been illegally occupied. In summary, in February, 30 or 40 estates were expropriated every week. The expropriation procedure was simple: the illegal seizure, even if carried out by persons outside the estate, was classified as a "conflict". The resumption of work was decreed, with an intervener to direct it and an arbitration tribunal to resolve the pseudo-conflict. The owner, an absolute minority in this tribunal, finds himself with the estate in the hands of strangers and directed by a stranger, and with an arbitration decision issued by his counterpart in the conflict, a decision that meant unacceptable demands and impossible expenses. With this fact, the owner is forced to accept expropriations without legal cause. The Supreme Court has decided not to intervene in the arbitration rulings, thus throwing the agricultural entrepreneurs into complete indifference.

Taking stock of the agrarian policy in Temuco, Allende affirms without even blinking: "we have committed ourselves to emphasize that we are not looking for twisted procedures to promote the Agrarian Reform extra-legally". Three days later in the Plaza de la Constitución, he said: "We have wanted to play absolutely clean and the interveners will not go beyond the clear instructions that the Government has given... the agricultural boss who complies with the Law and wants to work his land, knows that he will be supported by the Popular Government".<ref name=UP/>

===Interference in the educational system===
The Allende government proposed the Unified National School (''Escuela Nacional Unificada'', ''ENU''), a pamphlet from February 1971 entitled "For a democratic, pluralistic and popular national education: goals for 1973", caused fear in many Catholics since it would shatter Christian valoric education of Chile. The center party, Christian Democracy, typically spoke of "Let's wait, let's see what happens..." but this time they began to worry about Allende's political project (somewhat late). This project provoked the mass outing to the streets of conservative students from the Catholic University led by [[Jaime Guzmán]], father of [[Guildism]] and also those from the University of Chile.<ref>{{cite book|title=Allende Thank You|publisher=Maye|author=Nena Ossa|date=2009|language=es|pages=p. 151, 152}}</ref>

===1973 Parliamentary Election Vote Fraud===

On July 17, the dean of the Catholic University Law School, Jaime del Valle, announced on Channel 13, "Chilean men and women: our nation is the victim of an infamy". This consisted of having perpetrated, in the last parliamentary elections, a massive fraud, 200 000 votes, in benefit of the Popular Unity and its candidates. The fraud had been committed through the multiple registration of the same person in several communes, with his real identity or with his real identity and other falsified identities, so that when the election came, the same person could vote several times. Organizing the crime in a systematic way, throughout the whole country and on a gigantic scale, would have totally adulterated the electoral results.

The Popular Unity coallition increased its power in the Congress after the election.

===Supreme Court acussations===
Enrique Urrutia, President of the Supreme Court, sent a letter on May 26, 1973 to "El Mercurio" Newspaper about the illegal seizures of land by the regime directed to Allende.

{{quotebox-float|This Supreme Court, by unanimous resolution adopted yesterday, agreed to address Your Excellency in the following terms: "The Second Criminal Court of Rancagua has communicated that in the process for usurpation N? 11. 202 an order was given to the Carabineros of Machalí for the eviction of the usurped property, but that this order was not complied with, as reported by the Prefect of Carabineros of Rancagua, Mr. Manuel Blanco Castillo, on the 17th of the present, because the Intendant of the Province of O'Higgins, according to official letter s/n of February 27, 1973, ordered the suspension of the eviction in reference, considering that this is a conflictive situation that affects precisely the duties indicated in art. 45 of the Law of the Internal Regime.

"This Supreme Court must represent to Your Excellency, for the umpteenth time, the attitude of the Court of Appeals. for the umpteenth time, the illegal attitude of the administrative authority in the illicit interference in judicial matters, as well as the obstruction of the Carabineros in the fulfillment of orders emanating from a Criminal Court, which according to the law, must be executed by said body without any obstacle whatsoever; all of which signifies an open obstinacy in rebelling against judicial resolutions, disregarding the alteration that such attitudes or omissions produce in the legal order, which - in addition - signifies not only a crisis of the rule of law, as was represented to H. E. in the previous official letter, but also a crisis of the rule of law, as was represented to H. E. in the previous official letter. E. in the previous official letter, but a peremptory or imminent bankruptcy of the country's legality.

"We inform Your Excellency that on this date, as on recent occasions, the Military Justice has been requested to instruct the corresponding process. "For the record, the present minutes are issued and signed by the President, the Ministers and the Secretary who is the author of this document.<ref name=SupremeCourt>{{cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41605145?seq=3|title=Inminente Quiebre de la Juridicidad|date=May 29, 1973|publisher=El Mercurio|page=p. 17|location=[[Santiago de Chile]]|language=es}}</ref>}}

===Congress accusations===

In July 1973, the then President of the Senate and former President of the Republic, Eduardo Frei Montalva, faced with the serious crisis after 900 days of government of the Socialist Party united with the Communist Party, told important businessmen: "This problem can only be solved with guns", as revealed in the Rivera Act.

Allende was formally condemned by Chile's Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, the arm of the Congress that had elected him, in its Resolution of August 22, 1973,<ref>https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Breakdown_of_Chile%E2%80%99s_Democracy “Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile’s Democracy”</ref> called for Allende's removal from the Presidency in a historic Accord which accused Allende of 20 violations to the Constitution and the law: support of armed groups, torture, illegal arrests, muzzling the press, manipulating education, confiscating [[private property]], and not allowing people to leave the country. The text of the Resolution was published in the government newspaper ''LA NACION'' on August 25, 1973, and (English translation by Chilean economist [[José Piñera]])'' "...it is their (the Chilean military's) duty to put an immediate end to all situations herein referred to that breach the Constitution and the laws of the land..."'' It is eloquent that the Agreement was voted in favor by all the deputies of the Christian Democrats (including B. Leighton).

To understand this situation, the key premise is this: Whoever from power violates the Constitution of a country is the one who gives a "blow" to the democratic system and becomes a "tyrant".

The most famous case in history: Hitler with the so-called "enabling law" of March 23, 1933. Elected democratically, he becomes a tyrant. I even suggested to the historian Niall Ferguson to write a "virtual history" essay: What if the Reichstag had approved an Agreement similar to that of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies?

Good Constitutions (e.g. USA) contemplate reasonable rules to remove by vote the President who tries to become a tyrant. Unfortunately, the one in force in Chile in 1925 made it almost impossible to remove a violator of the Constitution and the law.

In these cases, democrats face a terrible crossroads: surrender to the violator of the Constitution (as in the case of Germany in March 1933) and suffer the consequences, or seek the most democratic formula possible, albeit imperfect, to prevent a path to tyranny. Chile followed this second path and found that formula in the Agreement of the Chamber of Deputies.
So those who really removed Allende were the 81 Chilean deputies (63.3% of the Chamber) who voted in favor of the Agreement of August 22, 1973.<ref name=josepinera>{{cite web|url=http://www.josepinera.org/articles/articulos_verdadhistorica_twitter.htm|title=LA TRAGEDIA DEL QUIEBRE DESDE ADENTRO DE LA DEMOCRACIA CHILENA|language=es|publisher=[[José Piñera]]|date=2010}}</ref>

==Military Intervention==
{{Main article|1973 Chilean Military Intervention}}
[[File:Intervención militar de 1973.jpg|215px|thumbnail|Military intervention, [[La Moneda|La Moneda Presidential Palace]], 11th of September 1973.]]
Two weeks later, on September 11, 1973, the Chilean military began the removal of the Allende regime. With the Presidential palace surrounded, Allende committed suicide with a gold-engraved [[AK-47]] given to him as a gift by Castro rather than be arrested.

This Chamber of Deputies legislatively authorized removal is ubiquitously and fallaciously referred to as a "coup" by those pushing or under the sway of Marxist propaganda. The coup, proper, began only when Army Commander-in-Chief [[Augusto Pinochet]], victorious, refused to return governmental power to the civilian legislature, and to rule instead at the head of a [[junta]].

The Senate Intelligence Committee under Senator [[Frank Church]] investigated US involvement and exonerated the Nixon administration of any unlawful activity.<ref>[http://www.foia.state.gov/Reports/ChurchReport.asp Church Report. Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973]. United States Senate. 94th Cong. 1st Ses. GPO 63-372. Washington. 1975.</ref><ref>Falcoff, Mark, [http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=10612 ''Kissinger and Chile''], Commentary Magazine, 10 November 2003.</ref><ref>[http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/09/19/us.cia.chile.ap/]</ref><ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch01-01.htm]</ref>

===The truth about CIA involvement===
As the historian Sebastián Hurtado summarizes it "The United States had no direct participation in the coup (itself), neither in its planning nor in its coordination, and I would dare to say that not even in its incitement [...] but it did want Allende to fall (and did actions to promote that with no relation with the successful coup itself)."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latercera.com/la-tercera-sabado/noticia/sebastian-hurtado-historiador-estados-unidos-no-tuvo-participacion-directa-en-el-golpe-pero-si-queria-que-allende-cayera/3UXITS4IUNB3RPPB57ILMYDO64/|title=Sebastián Hurtado, historiador: “Estados Unidos no tuvo participación directa en el Golpe, pero sí quería que Allende cayera”|date=August 26, 2023|publisher=La Tercera|language=es}}</ref>

So many people refuse to accept that the [[CIA]] had no involvement in the 1973 military intervention, the CIA interference was centered on the killing of General René Schneider in 1970.

There was a nationalist small group called ''Patria y Libertad'', they were definitely financed by CIA. And somehow, they got the idea to kidnap the commander-in-chief of the Chilean Armed Forces, General René Schneider.

He was and a man who was extremely well-respected throughout Chilean society, especially in the military. After the 1970 election, there were calls to ignore the democratic process and prevent Allende from taking power. Gen. Schneider publicly articulated what became known as the Schneider doctrine: The armed forces would always support and protect institutional democratic authority, and would never go against a legal outcome duly passed by Congress or the courts. In other words, Schneider was refusing to stand in the way of an Allende presidency. This enraged Allende's hardest opposition, so ''Patria y Libertad'' came up with the idea of kidnapping Schneider, possibly, at the instigation of the CIA. This has never been very clear.

The kidnapping was botched, Schneider defended himself with his side arm and in the process was killed by the kidnappers. This led to the accession of Carlos Prats to the post of commander-in-chief. It was also deeply traumatic to the Chilean military as a whole. A few senior officers outright blamed the Americans for the Schneider killing. Most took a more nuanced view. But the net effect was the same, no one in the Chilean Armed Forces would have anything to do with the CIA or the people from the US Embassy after this incident. Outcasts from the Chilean military, like Roberto Viaux, or marginal people in Chilean politics, gravitated to US Embassy personnel and the CIA, who gave them money.

But their involvement with the Americans made them even more suspect, and marginal, in Chilean society. Later, the CIA in order to justify itself and show that they had been effective in Chile, elevated these marginal or unimportant people as “key to the successful removal of Allende!” Leftists and historians ran with this notion. But it was just to hide CIA incompetence.

Because of the trauma of the Schneider killing, it’s absurd to think that the Chilean armed forces would cooperate with the US [[Deep State]] for the 1973 military intervention, especially when they didn’t need them to pull it off successfully. It was only after the military intervention, and only out of national economic necessity, that the Military Government got closer to the Americans.

But institutionally, the Chilean military never trusted the Americans, and never allowed themselves to be dependent on them. The American government was never happy with the Pinochet government, because it never gave back the lucrative copper mines that Allende had expropriated.<ref>{{cite web|author=[[Gonzalo Lira]]|url=https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1542742748188606466.html|title=Chilean history thread|date=July 1, 2022}}</ref>

The book "''La CIA en Chile''" published in 2013, also demystifies the role played by the agency in the preparation of the military intervention plan. In a CIA document from 1973, it is pointed out that the CIA office in Santiago was proposing to encourage the military to carry out a ''coup d'état'' against Allende, an option that seemed difficult since the commander in chief of the army, Carlos Prats, did not seem willing to move forward with such an objective.

Ray Warren, the CIA director of the Chilean office, insisted to Washington about the possibility, but the CIA headquarters closed the door: "let's see how history develops, let's not do it", he was told. The US situation was no longer the same as it had been in 1970. The CIA interference had already come to light before Allende's inauguration, the [[Watergate]] affair had already broken out and the [[Vietnam War]] was culminating.

According to the book, "the CIA was so aware of the eyes on it that in a report from its Directorate of Operations, dated September 1972, it said that 'the temptation to assume a positive role in support of the military coup is great', but that they should restrain themselves, since they would be accused of 'engineering the collapse of the Allende government'".
<ref name=CIA_KGB>{{cite web|url=https://ellibero.cl/actualidad/la-mano-de-la-kgb-y-la-cia-en-el-quiebre-democratico-en-chile/|title=La mano de la KGB y la CIA en el quiebre democrático en Chile|September 11, 2015|language=es|publisher=El Líbero}}</ref>

According to Mark Falcoff: "Great things have been claimed for the Clinton declassifications. Thanks to them, Christopher Hitchens has been able to boast that in his book “I produce [government] documents that plainly show the orchestration of a plot to murder General René Schneider.” Likewise, he remarks, in the suit filed by the general’s family, “every paper for the prosecution is a declassified document of the U.S. government.” In fact, however, the Clinton declassifications are less rich in information than the findings of the Church committee, which was able to examine the documentary record in its unexpurgated form and also to interrogate the participants under oath. Nor do the Clinton declassifications contribute anything particularly useful to the case against Kissinger. Some of them actually corroborate the findings of the Church committee, and, what is even more ironic, support Kissinger’s own version of events as laid out in the relevant volumes of his memoirs.

That version is itself buttressed at points by other information, especially transcripts of Kissinger’s conversations with relevant figures in Washington and elsewhere. Some of these conversations took place by telephone. Records of Kissinger’s telephone exchanges, covering the entire span of his government service, are now in the process of being released—they form, for instance, the primary basis of his new book, Crisis, dealing with the Yom Kippur war and the end of the Vietnam war. All of them have been given by him for inclusion in the Nixon Library. Although the records relating specifically to Chile are not yet in the public domain, they will be before long, and he has kindly let me review them in advance.

First and foremost, these transcripts establish that Chile was not an important part of the then-National Security Adviser’s daily diet. This point is crucial, not least because in the BBC film we are continually being told that Kissinger micromanaged every detail of American foreign policy. While that may have been true for subjects of high geopolitical import, Chile was not one of them. In fact, during September and October 1970—which is to say, between the Chilean election and the congressional vote—the telephone record reveals a Kissinger preoccupied with a full-blown Middle East crisis, Vietnam, a Soviet submarine base in Cuba, the Black September plane hijacking, Nixon’s planned visit to Europe and to the Sixth Fleet, the defense budget, and the Pugwash conference on U.S.-Soviet relations, but with Chile only slightly. Thereafter, there is nothing at all until June 1973, when he and Nixon discuss a failed military revolt against Allende, and then no further references until after Pinochet’s assumption of power with the September 11 coup.

But this is not really surprising. During much of the Allende presidency, Kissinger was in Paris, Moscow, Beijing, or other locales of far greater importance to the U.S. than Santiago. And even when the subject was again broached at the time of the coup, Kissinger was principally concerned with the possible resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew and preparations for his own confirmation hearings as Secretary of State.

This is hardly to say, however, that the telephone documents are uninformative; far from it. In what follows I shall be drawing freely on them as well as on other pertinent sources to reconstruct the true course of events."<ref>[https://www.commentary.org/articles/mark-falcoff/kissinger-chile-the-myth-that-will-not-die/ Kissinger & Chile: The Myth That Will Not Die]</ref>

According to Kyle Orton: "The U.S. actions in 1970 have created confusion, some of it honest and some of it wilful, about the coup that actually did bring down Allende in 1973. Almost invariably when somebody presents a “smoking gun” of U.S. complicity in the 1973 coup, it transpires to be a document or transcript from 1970. Five days after Allende was toppled in September 1973, Kissinger said in a telephone call with Nixon, “We didn’t do it”, and that is the plain truth. The U.S. did not plan the 1973 coup and was not even aware of the plot. The most that can be said is what Kissinger added in that call: that the U.S. “created the conditions as great as possible”. In reality, even this is overstating the case. Chileans acted in 1973 for Chilean reasons in response to conditions created by Chileans, but, whether self-flagellating or boasting, American officials can struggle with the idea events occur in the world without their involvement.

The argument that the U.S. “created the conditions” for the 1973 coup centres on claims the U.S. took steps to damage the Chilean economy—and the evidence adduced consists of documents and statements from U.S. officials in 1970. Ten days after Allende’s election in 1970, Nixon was recorded saying that he would “make the economy scream”. This quotation is infamous in circles where the Chilean coup is the archetype of U.S. Imperial abuses. On 16 October, after the Viaux coup was paused but the general “Track II” policy continued, the CIA headquarters cabled the station in Santiago, “We are to continue to generate maximum pressure toward this end”. Soon after Allende took office in November 1970, Nixon determined that the U.S.’s “public posture” would be “correct but cool, to avoid giving the Allende government a basis on which to rally domestic and international support for consolidation of the regime”, and in the background the U.S. would “seek to maximize pressures on the Allende government to prevent its consolidation and limit its ability to implement policies contrary to U.S. and hemisphere interests.”

This all sounds minatory, but the rhetoric far outstripped the policy. For instance, Nixon wanted to “bring maximum feasible influence to bear in international financial institutions to limit credit or other financing assistance to Chile”. As it turned out, the maximum feasible influence was not much: Chile under Allende received over $100 million ($800 million in today’s money) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“The documentary evidence is … unambiguous”, Falcoff summarises, “the most serious charge that can be levied against the Nixon administration is that it contemplated economic sanctions against Chile at a time when Allende had yet to lay a hand on American investments in the country and was still making payments on Chile’s debts. But even that envisaged policy was never truly implemented.” As just a few examples: in July 1971, Allende expropriated American copper holdings and the Hickenlooper Amendment was not invoked; Chile defaulted on its debts to the U.S. in November 1971, but it did not stop agreed loans being sent; humanitarian aid was never cut off; and U.S. aid to the Chilean military tripled from 1970-73, which considerably assisted Allende in consolidating his regime by relieving pressure on the civilian budget and drawing the military leadership, Prats in particular, closer to being co-opted by the president.

The economic ruin that afflicted Chile by 1973 was a result of Allende’s policies, not U.S. sanctions. Allende came into office at the head of Unidad Popular, a “popular front” coalition that had the Soviets’ “fraternal” Communist Party as one of its leading elements and contained the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), a terrorist-revolutionary outfit devoted to Lenin’s example, one of whose leaders was Allende’s nephew. “Our aim in Marxist socialism, total and scientific”, Allende told a stenographer in 1971, and to that end the paramilitary squads of the parties in his coalition directed the revolutionary workers’ committees (cordones industriales) in often-violent seizures of factories and farms across the country, inevitably bringing the enterprises to a near-halt, collapsing productivity, wages, and foreign investment, while creating a food shortage. The constant harassing of small businesses and other operators made goods Chileans had taken for granted unavailable—not that most people could have easily afforded them by late 1972. The unchecked printing of currency sent inflation through the roof: inflation hit nearly 80% in 1972, reached 350% by 1973, and stood at over 1,000% by August 1973. Chilean truckers went on strike in October 1972, infuriated at the extortionate freight rates they were being charged when they could not even access spare parts, and the strike spread to other sectors, notably shopkeepers, with threats that engineers, doctors, and other professionals would join in. Allende’s effort to dismantle or co-opt the independent trades unions was shown to be seriously incomplete, and the whole economy was virtually paralysed.

The economic disaster was accompanied by escalating political repression. The Soviets maintained regular contact with Allende once he was in power, notably doing this through his old KGB handler Kuznetsov, not the Soviet ambassador. Allende was officially a Soviet confidential contact, not an agent, but he was regularly paid by the Soviets—in just October 1971, he was given $30,000—and Allende did as directed by Moscow. (The details of Allende’s subordination to Moscow were revealed in the Mitrokhin Archive after the Cold War was over, but it was hardly a secret in real-time: Allende identified the Soviet Union as Chile’s “Big Brother” in a speech to the Kremlin in December 1972 and publicly said his views were “identical” to those of the Soviet Communist leaders.) The KGB’s consistent advice was for Allende to rely more heavily on the security apparatus in governing, to bring Soviet “advisers” into the military-intelligence system, and to tighten Chile’s links with Castro’s Cuba. Allende accepted all of these things. It was black-beret Cuban troops and Cuban-trained militiamen from Allende’s Socialist Party (PS) that formed the Praetorian Guards, the “Group of Personal Friends” (GAP or Grupo de Amigos Personales), for Allende and his family."<ref>[https://www.kyleorton.com/p/myth-1973-american-coup-in-chile The Myth of the “American Coup” in Chile]</ref>

==Unknown controversial statements==
Chilean historian Víctor Farías published a controversial book, which could only be published thanks to a small publishing house in the face of the boycott by the country's major publishing houses, in which he collected the most polemic writings of the myth and martyr of the international left: Salvador Allende. The basic texts for the analysis of the Popular Unity leader's thought are his doctoral thesis - "Mental Hygiene and Delinquency"- and the Sterilization Law project he presented during his time as Minister of Health of the [[Pedro Aguirre Cerda]] Government.

In his doctoral thesis, Allende proposed the sterilization of the mentally ill, the punishment of homosexuals and harshly attacked the Jews, whom he described very graphically: "The Hebrews are characterized by certain forms of crime: swindling, falsehood, slander and, above all, usury". He considered the revolutionaries as mentally deranged and denounced "the pernicious influence that an apparently normal individual can exert on the masses and that, in reality, when studied, would show us that he belongs to a certain group of mental disorders (...) this type of collective disorders sometimes have epidemiological characteristics, and that is why when revolutionary movements break out in certain countries, they spread with incredible speed to neighboring states."

Perhaps more dangerous was the second of the texts, the Sterilization Bill, which he attempted to pass in parliament. With it he tried to institutionalize measures such as sterilization or the compulsory introduction of treatment for venereal diseases or drug addicts. Allende himself explained that it was "a legislative tripod in defense of the race", which included the imposition of compulsory treatment for drug addicts and those infected by venereal diseases, in addition to considering their contagion as a crime and the "sterilization of the mentally alienated".

In addition, the relatives of the sick were prevented from appearing in these proceedings. It also established therapies to deal with homosexuality, which it considered an illness. The text placed special emphasis on the problem of alcoholism, also proposing its sterilization, knowing that it did not cure the addiction and that it was, therefore, a measure based on punishment with no other objectives.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127130102/https://gaceta.es/noticias/allende-racista-defensor-esterilizacion-forzosa-inspira-pablo-iglesias-23062016-2013|title=Allende, un racista defensor de la esterilización forzosa que inspira a Pablo Iglesias|language=es|date=June 23, 2016|publisher=La Gaceta}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==See also==
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Augusto Pinochet]]
*[[Fidel Castro]]
*[[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]]
*[[Operation Cóndor]]

==External links==
*[http://www.lyd.com/noticias/violencia/what_really.html ''What Really Happened In Chile 30 Years Ago''], James R. Whelan, Wall Street Journal Online, 12 September 2003.
*[https://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/chile/index.html CIA Activities in Chile], September 18, 2000.

{{Chilean Historic Characters}}
{{communism}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allende, Salvador}}
[[Category:Cold War in Chile]]
[[Category:Former Heads of State]]
[[Category:Former Heads of Government]]
[[Category:Conspiracy Theory]]
[[Category:Marxism]]
[[Category:Socialists]]
[[Category:Presidents of Chile]]

Chile

2026-03-23T13:27:20Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Military Government (1973-1990) */

{{Country
|name =''República de Chile''
|map =Tricontinental Chile Map.jpg
|map2 =Chile location map.png
|flag =Flag of Chile.png
|arms =Coat of arms of Chile.png
|capital-raw =[[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]]
|government-raw =[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Unitarian & Presidentialist Republic]]
|language =Spanish
|president =José Antonio Kast
|president-raw=
|conservative-leader=
|conservative-leader-raw=[[José Antonio Kast]]/[[Johannes Kaiser]]
|area =774,657 sq. mi. (Tricontinental Chile) 292,183 sq. mi. (Only Continental and Insular Chile)
|pop =19,100,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$280,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$14,660 (2020)
|currency =Chilean Peso (CLP)
|idd =+56
|tld =.cl
}}
'''Chile''' (official name: '''Republic of Chile''') is a [[nation]] on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of [[South America]], [[Antarctica]] and [[Oceania]] which is organized as a Centralized Unitary Presidential [[Democracy]]. It has a population of 17.5 million and the capital city is [[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]] which is also the biggest city of the country. Chile borders [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Peru]].

Between 1975 and 2014, Chile followed the path of the [[free market]] and [[Capitalism]] been the best place to make business of [[Latin America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iberglobal.com/files/2019-1/economic_freedom_index_2019.pdf|title=Economic Freedom Index 2019}}</ref> This has made the country the most developed of the Region according to the [[Human Development Index]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=505045|title=Chile sigue al tope de A. Latina en Índice de Desarrollo Humano|date=September 15, 2018|publisher=Economía y Negocios|language=es}}</ref> Chile went from a [[Gross domestic product]] of 100 in 1973 to 515 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobierno.udd.cl/files/2016/05/PPT-FPP.pdf|author=Lucas Palacios Covarrubias|title=Pobreza vs Desigualdad|date=April 2016|publisher=[[Universidad del Desarrollo]] - Facultad de Gobierno|language=es}}</ref> However that was put at risk with the leftist insurrection from 2019 and the Boric presidency. Right-wing [[President of Chile|President]] [[José Antonio Kast]] promises to retake the path to develop the country.

In early September 2022, by a resounding 62-38% landslide margin, Chileans rejected a progressive new constitution proposal and thereby decided to retain [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|the one written under]] [[conservative]] leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1980, which was reformed over 70 times in democracy in more than half of its content.<ref>https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1121065756/chile-constitution-referendum</ref><ref>[https://www.uandes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CPR-Edicio%CC%81n-Histo%CC%81rica.pdf]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220929111026/https://plataformacontexto.cl/contexto_factual/cuanto-queda-de-la-constitucion-de-pinochet/ Cuánto queda de “la Constitución de Pinochet”]</ref> A new proposal from the center-right with globalist elements was rejected on December 2023 with a 56-44% landslide margin.

==Geography==
[[File:Volcano Osorno and Petrohué waterfalls.JPG|thumb|left|Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano in the background.]]
The northern Chilean [[Atacama Desert]] contains great mineral wealth, principally [[copper]], and also contains locations where rainfall has never been recorded. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in [[forest]]s and grazing lands and features a string of [[volcano]]es and [[lake]]s. The southern coast located in [[Patagonia]] is a labyrinth of [[fjord]]s, [[inlet]]s, [[canal]]s, twisting [[peninsula]]s, and [[island]]s. The [[Andes]] Mountains are located on the eastern border.
*Area of Tricontinental Chile: 2,006,354 km2 (774,657 sq. mi.) including the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]] which reaches the [[South Pole]].
*Area considering Continental and Insular Chile: 756,945 km2. (302,778 sq. mi.), or nearly twice the size of California.
*Cities: Capital—[[Santiago]] (metropolitan area est. 6.25 million). Other cities: [[Concepción]]-[[Talcahuano]] (840,000), [[Viña del Mar]]-[[Valparaíso]] (800,000), [[Antofagasta]] (245,000), [[Temuco]] (230,000).
*Terrain: Desert in north; fertile central valley; volcanoes and lakes toward the south, giving way to rugged and complex coastline; Andes Mountains on the eastern border.
*Climate: Arid in north, Mediterranean in the central portion, cool and damp in south.

Chile has experienced numerous massive earthquakes, being located within the "Ring of Fire": of the 46 known earthquakes estimated at magnitude >= 8.5, one-third have occurred in Chile, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was measured at magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever recorded. On four occasions, two earthquakes with magnitude >= 8.5 have had the same Chilean epicenter. Furthermore, the strongest estimated earthquake (before seismographs were invented) also took place in Chile around 1800 BC, also estimated in the magnitude 9.5 range.

==People==
[[File:Chilean dance.jpg|left|140px]]
About 85% of Chile's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in greater Santiago. Most have [[Spain|Spanish]] ancestry. A small, yet influential number of [[Irish]] and [[English]] immigrants came to Chile during the Spanish Empire period. [[German]] immigration began in 1848 and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of [[Valdivia]], [[Llanquihue]], and [[Osorno]] show a strong German influence. Other significant historic immigrant groups are [[Italian]], [[Croatian]], [[Basque]], [[Palestinian]] and [[Peruvian]]. About 800,000 Native Americans, mostly of the [[Mapuche]] (Araucan) tribes, reside in the south-central area. The [[Aymara]] and [[Diaguita]] groups can be found mainly in Chile's northern desert valleys.

Since 2014 Chile has been experiencing [[open borders|mass]] [[immigration]] from [[Haiti]], [[Venezuela]], [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]], something that was unusual and has drastically changed the demographics of the country in the recent years (The immigrants went from 1.1% to 6.1% and is still growing)<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> a lot of them are [[Illegal immigration|illegally]] (See ''[[Colchane#Mass_immigration_problem|Colchane's Mass immigration problem]]'').

*Population (2019): 17.5 million.
*Annual population growth rate: 0.881%.
*Ethnic groups: Spanish-Native-American (mestizo), European, Native-American, Blacks (since 2014 with mass Haitian immigration).
*Religions: [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] 70%, [[Evangelical]] 15.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.1%, other Christian 1%, other 4.6%, none 8.3%.
*Language: [[Spanish]].
*Education: Years compulsory—13. Attendance—3 million. Adult literacy rate—96%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate—8.9/1,000. Life expectancy—80 yrs. for men, 85 for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsuss.cl/ipsuss/analisis-y-estudios/esperanza-de-vida-al-nacer-en-chile-llega-a-85-anos-en-mujeres-y-80-anos/2017-09-26/154547.html|title=Esperanza de vida al nacer en Chile llega a 85 años en mujeres y 80 años en hombres|date=September 26, 2017|language=es|publisher=Ipsuss}}</ref>
*Work force (6.94 million); employed 6.45 million: Community, social and individual services—26%; industry—14.4%; commerce—17.6%; agriculture, forestry, and fishing—13.9%; construction—7.1%; financial services—7.5%; transportation and communication—8.0%; electricity, gas and water—0.5%; mining—1.2%.

==Government==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Palacio de La Moneda.jpg|thumbnail|250px|[[La Moneda]] Palace, seat of Executive Branch.]]
[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Chile's Constitution]] was approved in a September 1980 national plebiscite with 67% of the vote. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]], the Constitution was reformed and another referendum was held over the reforms in which 91% voted in favor. In 2005 President Lagos made several reforms to the Constitution, even changing the Pinochet sign with his.
The President term is 4-year long, however is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms. The political system of Chile is an exacerbated [[Presidential system|Presidential]] one.
Chile has a bicameral Congress, which meets in the port city of [[Valparaíso]], about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago (since 1990). Deputies are elected every 4 years, and Senators serve 8-year terms.
There are currently 43 Senators and 155 Deputies.
The Chilean elections are judged free and fair.

Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nationwide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform replaced old proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.

The Central Bank in Chile is autonomous since 1981.

===Principal Government Officials===
{{See also|President of Chile}}
[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio Kast Rist]], a pro-life, anti illegal immigration conservative.]]
*[[President of Chile|President]]—[[José Antonio Kast]] since 11 March 2026.
*Minister of Interior—Claudio Alvarado
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Francisco Pérez Mackenna
*Ambassador to the United States—Andrés Ergas
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)—José Miguel Castro
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Roberto Ampuero
*Ambassador to the OECD—Sebastián Schneinder
*Mayor of Santiago—[[Mario Desbordes]]

===Foreign Relations===
Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. [[Jose Miguel Insulza]], a Chilean national, was Secretary General of the Organization of American States from May 2005 to 2015. Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002 and the [[APEC]] summit and related meetings in 2004. Chile hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial in April 2005. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade. The APEC 2019 was planed to be hosted on Chile and the COP25 but was cancelled due to the [[2019 Chilean State of Emergency|State of Emergency]]. President [[Donald Trump]] planed to sign an agreement with [[Xi Jinping]] to end the 'Trade War' in the APEC hosted in Chile, however it was canceled.

Chile was one of the four countries (along with [[Singapore]], [[Brunei]] and [[New Zealand]]) that started the [[TPP (treaty)|TPP-11]].

Chile signed many Free Trade Agreements since the 90s.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. It settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s except for a part in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and the Antarctic claims overlap between both countries, however the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow modification to the claims and they are ineffective.

In 2007 Peru demanded Chile in the International Court of Justice due to a maritime dispute. The case was closed in 2013 in which half of the disputed sea was ceded to Peru and half to Chile. In Chile it was seen as a lost case.

Chile and Bolivia have bad diplomatic relations since [[Evo Morales]], Bolivia's president, reintegrated the desire to reacquire territory Bolivia lost to Chile in 1879-83 [[War of the Pacific]] in his Foreign Affairs Policy and he demanded Chile in the Internation Couth of Justice, a case which Chile won. There is currently a case to determine if Silala is a river (Chile's position) or is a spring artificially modificated by Chile (Bolivia's position). The two countries maintain consular relations and are represented at the Consul General level but doesn't have embassies in each other.

===Political parties and coalitions===
Important parties without coalition:
*[[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (right-wing) ([[José Antonio Kast]]'s party).
*[[National Libertarian Party]] ([[Paleolibertarian]] party) ([[Johannes Kaiser]]'s party).
*[[Broad Front (Chile)|Broad Front]] (far-left) ([[Gabriel Boric]]'s party).
*[[Communist Party]] (far-left) ([[Daniel Jadue|Jadue]]'s party).
*[[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]] (from center to center-right) ([[Franco Parisi]]'s party).
*''[[Communist Party]] of Chile - Proletarian Action/Patriotic Union'' (dissolved) (far-left) (Eduardo Artes' party).
*''[[Social Christian Party (Chile)|Social Christian Party]]'' (dissolved) ([[Evangelical]] party) (Evangelical party).

The main coalitions are:
*[[Chile Vamos]] (Globalist center-right) ([[Sebastián Piñera|Piñera]] and [[Evelyn Matthei|Matthei]]'s coalition) composed by the [[Independent Democrat Union]], [[National Renewal]] and ''[[Evópoli]]'' (dissolved party).
*Democratic Socialism (left) composed by old leftist parties such as: the [[Socialist]] Party, Party for Democracy, and the Liberal Party.

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Chile (+Antarctica & Islands), administrative divisions - en - colored.png|230px|thumbnail|Map of the Chilean Regions.]]
{{Main article|Regions of Chile}}
Chile is divided in 16 Regions, 56 provinces and 346 communes. Chile is a Unitary Centralized State in which the law is the same in every place of the country.

'''List of the Regions and their Capital''':
*[[Arica & Parinacota Region|Arica & Parinacota]] - Capital: [[Arica]]
*[[Tarapacá Region|Tarapacá]] - Capital: [[Iquique]]
*[[Antofagasta Region|Antofagasta]] - Capital: [[Antofagasta]]
*[[Atacama Region|Atacama]] - Capital: [[Copiapó]]
*[[Coquimbo Region|Coquimbo]] - Capital: [[La Serena]]
*[[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]] - Capital: [[Valparaíso]]
*[[Metropolitan Region|Metropolitan]] - Capital: [[Santiago]]
*[[O'Higgins Region|O'Higgins]] - Capital: [[Rancagua]]
*[[Maule Region|Maule]] - Capital: [[Talca]]
*[[Ñuble Region|Ñuble]] - Capital: [[Chillán]]
*[[Biobío Region|Biobío]] - Capital: [[Concepción (Chile)|Concepción]]
*[[Araucanía Region|Araucanía]] - Capital: [[Temuco]]
*[[Los Ríos Region|Los Ríos]] - Capital: [[Valdivia]]
*[[Los Lagos Region|Los Lagos]] - Capital: [[Puerto Montt]]
*[[Aysén Region|Aysén]] - Capital: [[Coyhaique]]
*[[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica]] - Capital: [[Punta Arenas]]

The most conservative commune of Chile is [[Colchane]] as well with Antártica, Lo Barnechea, Vitacura & Las Condes.

==Defense==
Chile's Armed Forces are subject to civilian control exercised by the President through the Minister of Defense. The President has the authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.

===Army===
The Chilean Army is 45,000 strong and is organized with an Army headquarters in Santiago, seven divisions throughout its territory, an Air Brigade in Rancagua, and a Special Forces Command in Colina. The Chilean Army is one of the most professional and technologically advanced armies in Latin America habing inherited the [[Prussian]] military doctrine.

===Navy===
The Navy has 23,000-person, including 2,500 Marines. Of the fleet of 29 surface vessels, only eight are operational major combatants (frigates). Those ships are based in [[Valparaíso]]. The Navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no Navy fighter or bomber aircraft. The Navy also operates four submarines based in [[Talcahuano]].

===Air Force (FACH)===
The FACH is a force of 12,500. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on [[Villa Las Estrellas]], [[King George Island]], [[Antarctica]]. The FACH was created in 1930 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]].

===Carabineros===
[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|250px|thumbnail]]
[[Carabineros de Chile]] is the national police force of 30,000 men and women who are responsible for law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control, and counter-terrorism throughout Chile. The Carabineros were created in 1927 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]]. Carabineros is the best police in Latin America and least corrupt.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/best-worst-latam-police|title=From Chile to Mexico: Best and Worst of LatAm Police|publisher=InSight Crime|date=March 20, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

Carabineros enjoys significant international prestige due to its professionalism and efficiency. Through the Chilean government's Cooperation Programme for Uniformed Foreign Police Forces (CECIPU), it has trained and specialized over thousands of officers from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. As a founding member of AMERIPOL (Community of American Police Forces) since 2007 and an associated member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (FIEP) since 2005, Carabineros has even chaired AMERIPOL, highlighting its regional leadership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cecipu.interior.gob.cl/|title=CECIPU: Programa de cooperación internacional del Gobierno de Chile para policías uniformadas|publisher=Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gob.mx/epn%7Cpoliciafederal/articulos/cuerpo-de-carabineros-de-chile-condecora-al-comisionado-general-de-la-policia-federal-de-mexico|title=Cuerpo de Carabineros de Chile condecora al Comisionado General de la Policía Federal de México|publisher=Gobierno de México|date=April 27, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
[[File:Gran Torre Santiago (39693576311).jpg|thumbnail|300px|Gran Torre Santiago, in the financial district of the city.]]
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 3.3% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.1%. Real GDP growth reached 6.3% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile signed the OECD Convention, becoming the first South American country to join the OECD.

*GDP (official exchange rate): $150.4 billion. (GDP (purchasing power parity):$335.4 billion (2013 est.))
*Annual real growth rate: -1.5%.
*Per capita GDP (purchasing power parity): $27,058 (GDP - per capita (PPP) 2019 est.)
*Forestry, agriculture, and fisheries (6% of GDP): Products—fruits, wheat, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions, beans, livestock, fish.
*Commerce (8% of GDP): Sales, restaurants, hotels.
*Manufacturing (17% of GDP): Types—mineral refining, metal manufacturing, food processing, fish processing, paper and wood products, finished textiles.
*Electricity, gas, and water: 3% of GDP.
*Transportation and communication: 7% of GDP.
*Construction: 8% of GDP.
*Financial services (12% of GDP): Insurance, leasing, consulting.
*Mining (13% of GDP): Copper, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, and molybdenum.
*Trade: Exports--$57.61 billion: copper, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and wood products. Major markets—U.S., Japan, China, Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Mexico. Imports--$40.91 billion: fuels, heavy industrial machinery, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, plastic. Major suppliers—U.S., China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. (GDP (official exchange rate):$281.7 billion (2013 est.))

Chile has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by [[negotiating]] in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[José Piñera]] creator of the Individual capitalization pension system.]]
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], economist during the Military Government that re-implemented liberal economic policies.]]
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.

Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile's consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a family of four's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 18% by 2004.

Chile's independent Central Bank pursues an inflation target of between 2% and 4%. Inflation has not exceeded 5% since 1998. Chile registered an inflation rate of 3.2% in 2006. The Chilean peso's rapid appreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent years has helped dampen inflation. Most wage settlements and loans are indexed, reducing inflation's volatility. Under the compulsory private pension system, most formal sector employees pay 10% of their salaries into privately managed funds.

[[File:Countries with a private pension system.jpg|thumbnail|Countries that applied Chile's private pension system.]]
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) was only $3.4 billion in 2006, up 52% from a poor performance in 2005. However, 80% of FDI continues to go to only four sectors: electricity, gas, water and mining. Much of the jump in FDI in 2006 was also the result of acquisitions and mergers and has done little to create new employment in Chile. The Chilean Government has formed a Council on Innovation and Competition, which is tasked with identifying new sectors and industries to promote. It is hoped that this, combined with some tax reforms to encourage domestic and foreign investment in research and development, will bring in additional FDI and to new parts of the economy. As of 2006, Chile invested only 0.6% of its annual GDP in research and development (R&D). Even then, two-thirds of that was government spending. The fact that domestic and foreign companies spend almost nothing on R&D does not bode well for the Government of Chile's efforts to develop innovative, knowledge-based sectors. Additionally, on January 8, 2007, Chile was placed on the U.S. Trade Representative's Priority Watch List due to its poor record on protecting intellectual property rights. Chile is only the second U.S. FTA partner ever to be placed on the Priority Watch List. Chile has a poor and deteriorating record of protecting copyrighted music, films, and software. Combined with this is its institutional structure allowing local companies to produce and market pharmaceutical generics that violate existing patents. Beyond its general economic and political stability, the government also has encouraged the use of Chile as an "investment platform" for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region, but this will have limited value given the developing business climate in Chile itself. Chile's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Chileans. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital. While Chile and the EU have signed a double taxation treaty, no such agreement exists between the U.S. and Chile.

Mining was temporarily curtailed following an accident in which 33 miners were trapped after a cave-in at the San Jose mine<ref>http://www.minandes.com/s/RoadtoProduction.asp</ref> near Copiapo on August 5, 2010. A rescue attempt - bolstered by national pride at getting the men out alive - ended 67 days later on October 13 as the last of the men were pulled out to safety.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/12/rescued-chilean-miner-returns-surface/</ref><ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7961923/Chilean-miners-trapped-in-San-Jose-mine.html</ref>

===Foreign Trade===
[[File:Commercial Treaties Chile 2012.jpg|thumb|295px|Commercial Treaties, 2012.]]
2006 was a record year for Chilean trade. Total trade registered a 31% increase over 2005. During 2006, exports of goods and services totaled U.S. $58 billion, an increase of 41%. This figure was somewhat distorted by the skyrocketing price of copper. In 2006, copper exports reached a historical high of U.S. $33.3 billion. Imports totaled U.S. $35 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. Chile thus recorded a positive trade balance of U.S. $23 billion in 2006.

The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion). Seen as shares of Chile's export markets, 42% of exports went to the Americas, 30% to Asia and 24% to Europe. Within Chile's diversified network of trade relationships, its most important partner remained the United States. Total trade with the U.S. was U.S. $14.8 billion in 2006. Since the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004, U.S.-Chilean trade has increased by 154%. Internal Government of Chile figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has grown over 60% since then.

Total trade with Europe also grew in 2006, expanding by 42%. The Netherlands and Italy were Chile's main European trading partners. Total trade with Asia also grew significantly at nearly 31%. Trade with Korea and Japan grew significantly, but China remained Chile's most important trading partner in Asia. Chile's total trade with China reached U.S. $8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66% of the value of its trade relationship with Asia.

The growth of exports in 2006 was due mainly to a strong increase in sales to the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. These three markets alone accounted for an additional U.S. $5.5 billion worth of Chilean exports. Chilean exports to the United States totaled U.S. $9.3 billion, representing a 37.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $6.7 billion). Exports to the European Union were U.S. $15.4 billion, a 63.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $9.4 billion). Exports to Asia increased from U.S. $15.2 billion in 2005 to U.S. $19.7 billion in 2006, a 29.9% increase.

During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).

Chile's overall trade profile has traditionally been dependent upon copper exports. The state-owned firm CODELCO is the world's largest copper-producing company, with recorded copper reserves of 200 years. Chile has made an effort to expand nontraditional exports. The most important non-mineral exports are forestry and wood products, fresh fruit and processed food, fishmeal and seafood, and wine.

Successive Chilean governments have actively pursued trade-liberalizing agreements. During the 1990s, Chile signed FTAs with Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Chile also concluded preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. An association agreement with Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—went into effect in October 1996. Continuing its export-oriented development strategy, Chile completed landmark free trade agreements in 2002 with the European Union and South Korea. Chile, as a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, is seeking to boost commercial ties to Asian markets. To that end, it has signed trade agreements in recent years with New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, and most recently Japan. In 2007, Chile plans to begin negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

After two years of negotiations, the United States and Chile signed an agreement in June 2003 that will lead to completely duty-free bilateral trade within 12 years. The U.S.-Chile FTA entered into force January 1, 2004 following approval by the U.S. and Chilean congresses. The bilateral FTA has inaugurated greatly expanded U.S.-Chilean trade ties, with total bilateral trade jumping by 154% during the FTA's first three years.

Chile unilaterally lowered its across-the-board import tariff for all countries with which it does not have a trade agreement to 6% in 2003. Higher effective tariffs are charged only on imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar as a result of a system of import price bands. The price bands were ruled inconsistent with Chile's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in 2002, and the government has introduced legislation to modify them. Under the terms of the U.S.-Chile FTA, the price bands will be completely phased out for U.S. imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar within 12 years.

Chile is a strong proponent of pressing ahead on negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is active in the WTO's Doha round of negotiations, principally through its membership in the G-20 and Cairns Group.

===Finance===
Chile's financial sector has grown quickly in recent years, with a banking reform law approved in 1997 that broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001, and there is further pending legislation proposing further liberalization. Over the last ten years, Chileans have enjoyed the introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has also been accompanied by an increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $70 billion at the end of 2006, has been an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S&P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways for Chilean firms to raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stocks on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Nearly all of the funds raised through these means go to finance domestic Chilean investment. The government is required by law to run a fiscal surplus of at least 1% of GDP. In 2006, the Government of Chile ran a surplus of $11.3 billion, equal to almost 8% of GDP. The Government of Chile continues to pay down its foreign debt, with public debt only 3.9% of GDP at the end of 2006.

==History==
===Discovery and Hispanic period===
[[File:Pedro de Valdivia.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Pedro de Valdivia]], founder of several cities and conqueror of Chile.]]
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]], one of the founding fathers of Chile.]]
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first European to see Chilean land was [[Ferdinand Magellan]] when he discovered the [[Strait of Magellan]] in 1520, however the first one to arrive in Chile were [[Diego de Almagro]] and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in 1535. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of [[Santiago]] on February 12, 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

===19th Century, Independence, State Consolidation and Wars with neightbours===
[[File:Pedro Subercaseaux Jura de la Independencia Chile.jpg|thumb|300px|Fray Pedro Subercaseaux, Jura de la Independencia de Chile.]]
[[File:Diego Portales-2.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Diego Portales]] author of the 1833 Constitution which prioritized order over democracy.]]
[[File:Arturo Prat Chacón.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Arturo Prat|Arturo Prat Chacón]], the maximum naval hero of the Chilean Nation.]]
[[File:Sinking of the Esmeralda during the battle of Iquique.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Sinking of the Esmeralda during the [[battle of Iquique|naval battle of Iquique]].]]
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national [[junta]] in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence which [[José Miguel Carrera]] started soon won a wide following. After the [[Battle of Rancagua]], a Spanish attempt to reimpose arbitrary rule started, during what was called the "Reconquista" led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army led by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], Chile's most renowned patriot, and [[José de San Martín]], hero of Argentine independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership.

During the Ramón Freire Presidency in 1826 the last royalist bastion was defeated, the [[Chiloé]] archipelago and the Tantauco Treaty was signed between Chile and Spain.

Between 1823 and 1829 there was a period of Constitutional Attempts, and there were four of them.

The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the 1833 Constitution made by [[Diego Portales]]. After the [[Civil War]] of 1829–30, a strong presidency emerged, but wealthy landowners remained extremely powerful.

Between 1836 and 1839, Chile fought a [[War against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] which Chile won and separated Peru and Bolivia again.

In 1865 and 1866 Chile, Peru and Ecuador fought against Spain in the [[Chincha Islands War]], Chile and it's allies won.

[[Image:Easter_island_statues.jpg|thumb|right|On September 9, 1888 the Council of Rapanui Chiefs asked the Chilean Navy Captain, Policarpo Toro, to accept the sovereignty of [[Easter Island]] without giving up their chieftaincy titles, the ownership of their lands, the validity of their culture and traditions and on equal terms. This known as the "Agreement of Wills".]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by founding the [[Fort Bulnes]] in 1843 (near the current city of [[Punta Arenas]] in the [[Strait of Magellan]]) and incorporating the zone of the south of the [[Biobío river]] in a process called the [[Pacification of the Araucanía]], the government plan was to building roads, schools, and public infrastructure where the [[Mapuche]] Indians live, they were incorporated as citizens, however the rebel Mapuches were crushed.

There was also a process of Colonization in which the Government gave [[German]] [[settlers]] lands in [[Valdivia]] and the [[Llanquihue Lake]] where they founded several towns and cities. To this day the German influence can be noted in cities like Valdivia, [[Puerto Varas]], [[Frutillar]], [[Puerto Octay]], [[Nueva Braunau]], Ensenada, [[Puerto Montt]] and [[Osorno]].

In 1881, Chile signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan but also loosing its colonial rights over Eastern Patagonia. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. After a [[Civil war]] in 1891 in which President [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] committed suicide, a parliamentary democracy was established, but degenerated into a system protecting the interests of the ruling oligarchy.
In 1888 Chile incorporated [[Easter Island]] to the national territory.

===20th Century===
[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|175px|thumbnail|The [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.
Continuing political and economic instability resulted with the rule of the quasidictatorial Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] (1924–32).
In June there was a Coup and between that month and September 1932 there was an attempt to establish a [[Socialist]] Republic that failed.
When constitutional rule was restored later that year, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy.
In 1940 Chile started to claim officially the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].

In 1962 the "right-wing" President [[Jorge Alessandri]] started the agrarian reform in a small portion, that expropriated part of big land properties. This reform was deepened by the next two governments.

The 1964 presidential election of [[Christian Democrat]] [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

He also made the "Chileanization of the copper" which introduced the State into the copper industry.
====Unidad Popular Marxist Regime (1970-1973)====
{{Main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
In 1970, Senator [[Salvador Allende]], a [[Marxist]] and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the "Popular Unity" (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats (the lasts ones supported him with the condition of respecting the laws and private property), won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest and was named president by the Chilean Congress. His program included the nationalization of private industries and banks, massive land expropriation, and collectivization, implementation of a Marxist education system, repartition of food collectively (with a limit of one stock per family). Allende's program also included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major copper mines.

[[Fidel Castro]] visited Chile in 1971 where he stayed for months.
Allende said in the same year "The major role of a journalist is not to server the truth, but to server the revolution" and in 1972 "I'm the President of the Unidad Popular, but I'm not the president of all Chileans".

Elected with only 36% of the vote and by a plurality of only 36,000 votes, Allende never enjoyed majority support in the Chilean Congress or broad popular support. Domestic production declined; severe shortages of consumer goods, food, and manufactured products were widespread; and inflation reached 1,000% per annum. Mass demonstrations, recurring strikes, violence by both government supporters and opponents, and widespread rural unrest ensued in response to the general deterioration of the economy.

The 22th of August 1973 the Chamber of Deputies called for a military intervention since the Allende's Government was Unconstitutional for not respecting basic laws like [[private property]].<ref>[https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2013/08/23/40-anos-del-acuerdo-de-la-camara-que-declaro-la-ilegitimidad-del-gobierno-de-allende/ 40 años del acuerdo de la Cámara que declaró la ilegitimidad del Gobierno de Allende]</ref> By the time the Christian Democrats stopped supporting Allende and started to support an intervention.

[[Carlos Altamirano]], General Secretary of the Socialist Party in July 1973 called to "crush the opposition" and to "not negotiate with the enemies of Chile"<ref>https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304093123/rev91_documento.pdf</ref> he also called for a violent Marxist revolution in 1968.

====Military Government (1973-1990)====
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990).jpg|300px|thumbnail|President and General [[Augusto Pinochet|Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], President of Chile (1973-1990), fighter against [[Marxism]], father of Chile's development, and restorer of the order and the institutions.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|1980 Constitution]] and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
A military pronouncement overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace, Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime in particular were marked by an irregular war against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|leftist terrorists]] who wanted a violent Marxist revolution. A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] was approved by a plebiscite on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. The Constitution writing had an important participation of [[Jaime Guzmán]] who also founded the [[Independent Democrat Union]].

The Armed Forces had to assume the leadership of the country, aware that this task did not mean a mere restoration of the broken institutionality, since the systematic destruction to which the Homeland had been subjected had deeply undermined coexistence and national development; therefore, it was imperative to go further and create a modern, profound system of the country, with a clear social content and democratic character. From the structuring of the stages and objectives of the Government and the determination of the principles that would govern the project, the Armed Forces marked with height, coherence and consequence the national reality and the itinerary designed.

This great work was not exempt from interferences, demands and sacrifices, since at the beginning it was necessary to overcome the disastrous consequences of the previous administrations and the prevailing polarization. Subsequently, it was necessary to face defamation, the economic crises in the neighborhood, and the wily terrorist and subversive actions. These, together or in isolation, ([[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] made the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]" that blocked any selling of weapons to Chile, and also the U.S. imposed a blockade on fruit exports) in could have led any government to political, economic and social collapse. However, the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, based on efficiency, patriotism and joint effort, with a more than important part of society, managed to overcome the obstacles and deliver a better future for all Chileans.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Military men victims of [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]].]]

There is an evident reality that shows that important sectors of the political spectrum not only tried gradually and systematically to delegitimize the Military Government, but even, once they determined the impossibility of achieving their goals, they used means and tools contrary to peaceful coexistence, even seeking its destabilization, accepting, encouraging or participating in Chilean and foreign extremist organizations contrary to the idiosyncrasy and national identity.
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
The successful model and the change of life generated in Chileans by the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, in general, has not been accepted or recognized at the national and international level. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it would be pernicious for national coexistence that a government defined as authoritarian has been so successful and profound. Undoubtedly, this is a biased point of view, since this line of argument tends to homologate our reality with caudillisms or military irruptions that lacked ethical imperatives and national needs and that did occur systematically or cyclically in other nations.

The deed of September 11, 1973 and the foundational work of the Military Government, apart from signifying for the Armed Forces and the Carabineros and, particularly, for the Army, a feeling of honor and pride that must be preserved, is an event that must necessarily be included in national and universal history in all its truth and dimension.
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|250|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile in 1985.]]
[[File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Pinochet]] inaugurating [[Villa Las Estrellas]] in [[Chilean Antarctic Territory|Chilean Antarctica]] in 1984.]]

In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. In contrast to its authoritarian political rule, the military government pursued decidedly [[laissez-faire]] economic policies.

[[Milton Friedman]] said,
* "... the really extraordinary thing about the Chilean case was that a military government followed the opposite of military policies. The military is distinguished from the ordinary economy by the fact that it's a top-down organization. The general tells the colonel, the colonel tells the captain, and so on down, whereas a market is a bottom-up organization. The customer goes into the store and tells the retailer what he wants; the retailer sends it back up the line to the manufacturer and so on. So the basic organizational principles in the military are almost the opposite of the basic organizational principles of a free market and a free society. And the really remarkable thing about Chile is that the military adopted the free-market arrangements instead of the military arrangements."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10 Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman on PBS]</ref>

The ''[[Carretera Austral]]'' (Southern Highway) was built between 1976 and 1989 and connects several rural towns in the far south of Chile that previously didn't had direct transportation, it is 1240 km long, starting in [[Puerto Montt]] and ending in Villa O'Higgins. Today the highway is a touristic destination of Chile because of the beauty of the landscape. This huge and important geopolitical megaproject was built by military personnel, many died because of the rough climate.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/p/carretera-austral.html|title=Carretera Austral|publisher=Pinochet Nuestro|language=es}}</ref>

During its 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that fostered an increase in domestic and foreign private investment. The complete political liberalization of the country came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite, which finally took place on October 5. On that day, the triumph of the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans voted for elections to choose a new president in 1989 and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress. The Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution on the same year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>[https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html Soros helped the "No" campaign]</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

===Democratic governments===
[[File:Izamiento de la Gran Bandera Nacional - Presidentes de Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|The five [[President of Chile|Chilean Presidents]] between the years 1990 and 2022 (two of them were elected twice in non-consecutive terms).]]
On December 14, 1989, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the Concertación, was elected president. In a ceremony held in the Congress building in Valparaíso, Pinochet handed over the presidency to the new constitutional President.

Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994 and was succeeded by another Christian Democrat, [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (son of the previous President), leading the same coalition, for a 6-year term. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy led the Concertación to a narrower victory in 2000 presidential elections.

During the ''Concertación'' Governments, Military personnel who fought terrorism were jailed unfairly using an old judicial system and without proof, these can be called the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisioners]] that were destined to the [[Punta Peuco Jail]]. Also during these Governments the private pension system was reformed to benefit the companies that manage pension funds by making the users assume the economic losses and increased the retirement age by approximately 20 years, which directly lowered pensions. This changes are the main factor of the problems in the system that can be reversed.

In September 2005, President [[Ricardo Lagos]] signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.

On January 15, 2006 [[Michelle Bachelet|Michelle Bachelet Jeria]] (center-left) won the elections against businessman [[Sebastián Piñera]] (center-right) and she took office on March 11, 2006, becoming the first woman to become President of Chile.
In 2009 Sebastián Piñera Echenique won the presidency, beign the first center-right candidate to do so after the Pinochet regime. In 2013 Bachelet won the office again and Piñera in 2017. Presidents in Chile can't have consecutive two terms, they need to wait another election.

Chile's congressional elections were governed by a unique binomial system made by [[Jaime Guzmán]] until 2018 that rewarded coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for the two Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district. Historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) splat most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 did the winning coalition gain both seats.

Chile was leaded by President [[Sebastián Piñera]] between 2018 and 2022 with the coalition of parties called [[Chile Vamos]]. The coalition was center-right and took [[progressive]] stands on some moral issues like legalizing [[same sex "marriage"]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2018/11/29/chile-enacts-landmark-gender-identity-law/|title=Chile enacts landmark gender identity law|date=November 29, 2018|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref>

{{main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
In 2019 Leftist mobs began to burn private and public property (the main public damage were 20 metro stations that were burned and 77 damaged in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metro.cl/noticias/balance-danos-19-de-octubre-2019|title=Balance daños 19 de octubre 2019|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Metro de Santiago}}</ref> starting a political crisis that has on its objectives to make the state bigger, raise taxes, and eliminate the individual capitalization system, as well as a change of the Constitution. This groups have been supported by the international left, the [[Sao Paulo Forum]], the [[Puebla Group]] and [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/10/20/nicolas-maduro-respondio-las-acusaciones-de-alentar-las-protestas-en-ecuador-y-chile-foro-de-sao-paulo-estamos-cumpliendo-el-plan-ustedes-me-entienden/|title=Nicolás Maduro habló sobre las acusaciones de alentar las protestas en Ecuador y Chile: "Foro de San Pablo, estamos cumpliendo el plan, ustedes me entienden..."|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Infobae}}</ref> The period is called ''Estallido social'' by the left. [[Diosdado Cabello]], a government official from Venezuela at that time said "The [[Bolivarian]] breeze sweeping the region will become a hurricane"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-diosdado-cabello-amenaza-brisa-bolivariana-recorre-region-convertira-huracan-201910201834_noticia.html|title=Diosdado Cabello amenaza: "La brisa bolivariana que recorre la región se convertirá en huracán"|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=ABC Internacional}}</ref>

On the 15th of November 2019 the Congress approved to make a referendum on the Constitution, ceding to the radical left.

The referendum was made on October 25, 2020, and the option to change the Constitution won. Several rallies were made for the 'Rejection' (''Rechazo'') option by patriots with a high number of people attending and in which [[Sebastián Izquierdo]] played an important role.

There was a previous proposal of a new Constitution that was a draft from the socialist Michelle Bachelet from the last weeks of her administration and both administrations (Piñera and Bachelet) were committed to follow the globalist [[2030 Agenda]] from the United Nations. The [[Constitutional Convention (Chile)|Constitutional Convention]] which redacted the text made a progressive and globalist proposal, the conservative [[Teresa Marinovic]] was elected to the Convention auditing the far-left institution.

In the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Presidential Election]], the final front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Gabriel Boric]]. Kast won the first round with a 27.91% of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and Boric obtained 25.82% (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13% (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87% (4,620,890 votes) from Boric. Boric got electoed at the age of 35, a former student radical "activist," a self-described [[communist]].<ref name=at22nov21>Monica Showalter, [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/stunning_good_news_from_chile__and_not_just_for_them_but_for_us.html Stunning good news from Chile...], American Thinker, November 22, 2021</ref>

On September 4, 2022, the second referendum took place in which the 'Rejection' option won with 61.86% of the votes against 38.14% of the 'Approve' option. The main difference with the first election was that the vote was mandatory in the second one and not the first one, having bigger participation of older generations which tend to vote conservative. After the triumph of the 'Rechazo', Gabriel Boric changed the cabinet of ministers of his government.

In 2023 the corrupt political system started a new process to change the Constitution, this time with more control of the establishment parties, without asking on a referendum if the citizens of Chile wanted a new process (they "assumed" that the 2020 referendum result is permanent, even that that process ended with the 2022 referendum). On May 7 the [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|election to elect the counselors of the Constitutional Council]] was held and a massive conservative victory was obtained, the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] won the majority as well as a record "Nulo" (Voluntary refusal to choose a candidate by the citizenry in a mandatory election) votes on 3rd place.

On December 17, 2023 a new referendum was held over the new written text, the Republican Party directive supported the change of the Chilean Constitution, many members of the party opposed this stance change of the party. The Globalist "center-right" coalition, [[Chile Vamos]] and centrist parties such as "Democrats" and "Yellows" (which means "being too moderated") supported the "In Favor" option as well. Chilean Patriots supported the "Against" option as well as the most of the left-wing. The "Against" Option obtained 55.76% of the votes while the "In Favor" Option obtained 44.24%. The dissident right was victorious over the establishment "right-wing" parties who supported the new proposed text.

On June 7, 2024 [[Johannes Kaiser]] founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-globalist, paleo-libertarian party.

José Antonio Kast, a Catholic pro-life conservative who promised to protect Chile against illegal immigration won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Sports==
[[Association Football|Football]] is the most popular sport by far. Chile hosted the 1962 [[World Cup]], notable for the "Battle of Santiago" (a group stage match between host Chile and Italy, which due to the on-pitch action - police had to be called no fewer than four times to gain control between squads - is considered among the poorest displays of sportsmanship in sports history, and eventually led to development of yellow and red cards).

However, the national sport is the Rodeo.

Chile won the Copa América 2015 and Copa América Centenario 2016, obtaining its first two Football titles in the national selection.

The Chilean mountains have important ski centers like Valle Nevado.

The [[Arica]] city in the north has the best waves of the country, something ideal for surfing.

[[File:Carretera Austral Augusto Pinochet.jpg|250px|thumbnail|''[[Carretera Austral]]'' of 1240 km long in [[Aysén Region]], built during the Military Government and unofficially named after him by his supporters.]]
The Chilean [[Patagonia]] is a famous place for trekking and out-door sports, The [[Carretera Austral]] (Southern Highway) and many National Parks (including the [[National Park Torres del Paine|Torres del Paine]] one) are visited by people all over the world.

==Culture==
[[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Nicanor Parra]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] are famous Chilean poets. Chillán in the Ñuble Region is a notorious cultural city of Chile.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== See also ==
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]
*[[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
*[[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[La Moneda]]
*[[Easter Island]]
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Colchane]], Chilean most conservative town
*[[Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
*[[War of the Pacific]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm]}}}.
|}

{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Chile

2026-03-23T13:26:22Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Military Government (1973-1990) */

{{Country
|name =''República de Chile''
|map =Tricontinental Chile Map.jpg
|map2 =Chile location map.png
|flag =Flag of Chile.png
|arms =Coat of arms of Chile.png
|capital-raw =[[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]]
|government-raw =[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Unitarian & Presidentialist Republic]]
|language =Spanish
|president =José Antonio Kast
|president-raw=
|conservative-leader=
|conservative-leader-raw=[[José Antonio Kast]]/[[Johannes Kaiser]]
|area =774,657 sq. mi. (Tricontinental Chile) 292,183 sq. mi. (Only Continental and Insular Chile)
|pop =19,100,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$280,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$14,660 (2020)
|currency =Chilean Peso (CLP)
|idd =+56
|tld =.cl
}}
'''Chile''' (official name: '''Republic of Chile''') is a [[nation]] on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of [[South America]], [[Antarctica]] and [[Oceania]] which is organized as a Centralized Unitary Presidential [[Democracy]]. It has a population of 17.5 million and the capital city is [[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]] which is also the biggest city of the country. Chile borders [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Peru]].

Between 1975 and 2014, Chile followed the path of the [[free market]] and [[Capitalism]] been the best place to make business of [[Latin America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iberglobal.com/files/2019-1/economic_freedom_index_2019.pdf|title=Economic Freedom Index 2019}}</ref> This has made the country the most developed of the Region according to the [[Human Development Index]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=505045|title=Chile sigue al tope de A. Latina en Índice de Desarrollo Humano|date=September 15, 2018|publisher=Economía y Negocios|language=es}}</ref> Chile went from a [[Gross domestic product]] of 100 in 1973 to 515 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobierno.udd.cl/files/2016/05/PPT-FPP.pdf|author=Lucas Palacios Covarrubias|title=Pobreza vs Desigualdad|date=April 2016|publisher=[[Universidad del Desarrollo]] - Facultad de Gobierno|language=es}}</ref> However that was put at risk with the leftist insurrection from 2019 and the Boric presidency. Right-wing [[President of Chile|President]] [[José Antonio Kast]] promises to retake the path to develop the country.

In early September 2022, by a resounding 62-38% landslide margin, Chileans rejected a progressive new constitution proposal and thereby decided to retain [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|the one written under]] [[conservative]] leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1980, which was reformed over 70 times in democracy in more than half of its content.<ref>https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1121065756/chile-constitution-referendum</ref><ref>[https://www.uandes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CPR-Edicio%CC%81n-Histo%CC%81rica.pdf]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220929111026/https://plataformacontexto.cl/contexto_factual/cuanto-queda-de-la-constitucion-de-pinochet/ Cuánto queda de “la Constitución de Pinochet”]</ref> A new proposal from the center-right with globalist elements was rejected on December 2023 with a 56-44% landslide margin.

==Geography==
[[File:Volcano Osorno and Petrohué waterfalls.JPG|thumb|left|Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano in the background.]]
The northern Chilean [[Atacama Desert]] contains great mineral wealth, principally [[copper]], and also contains locations where rainfall has never been recorded. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in [[forest]]s and grazing lands and features a string of [[volcano]]es and [[lake]]s. The southern coast located in [[Patagonia]] is a labyrinth of [[fjord]]s, [[inlet]]s, [[canal]]s, twisting [[peninsula]]s, and [[island]]s. The [[Andes]] Mountains are located on the eastern border.
*Area of Tricontinental Chile: 2,006,354 km2 (774,657 sq. mi.) including the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]] which reaches the [[South Pole]].
*Area considering Continental and Insular Chile: 756,945 km2. (302,778 sq. mi.), or nearly twice the size of California.
*Cities: Capital—[[Santiago]] (metropolitan area est. 6.25 million). Other cities: [[Concepción]]-[[Talcahuano]] (840,000), [[Viña del Mar]]-[[Valparaíso]] (800,000), [[Antofagasta]] (245,000), [[Temuco]] (230,000).
*Terrain: Desert in north; fertile central valley; volcanoes and lakes toward the south, giving way to rugged and complex coastline; Andes Mountains on the eastern border.
*Climate: Arid in north, Mediterranean in the central portion, cool and damp in south.

Chile has experienced numerous massive earthquakes, being located within the "Ring of Fire": of the 46 known earthquakes estimated at magnitude >= 8.5, one-third have occurred in Chile, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was measured at magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever recorded. On four occasions, two earthquakes with magnitude >= 8.5 have had the same Chilean epicenter. Furthermore, the strongest estimated earthquake (before seismographs were invented) also took place in Chile around 1800 BC, also estimated in the magnitude 9.5 range.

==People==
[[File:Chilean dance.jpg|left|140px]]
About 85% of Chile's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in greater Santiago. Most have [[Spain|Spanish]] ancestry. A small, yet influential number of [[Irish]] and [[English]] immigrants came to Chile during the Spanish Empire period. [[German]] immigration began in 1848 and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of [[Valdivia]], [[Llanquihue]], and [[Osorno]] show a strong German influence. Other significant historic immigrant groups are [[Italian]], [[Croatian]], [[Basque]], [[Palestinian]] and [[Peruvian]]. About 800,000 Native Americans, mostly of the [[Mapuche]] (Araucan) tribes, reside in the south-central area. The [[Aymara]] and [[Diaguita]] groups can be found mainly in Chile's northern desert valleys.

Since 2014 Chile has been experiencing [[open borders|mass]] [[immigration]] from [[Haiti]], [[Venezuela]], [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]], something that was unusual and has drastically changed the demographics of the country in the recent years (The immigrants went from 1.1% to 6.1% and is still growing)<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> a lot of them are [[Illegal immigration|illegally]] (See ''[[Colchane#Mass_immigration_problem|Colchane's Mass immigration problem]]'').

*Population (2019): 17.5 million.
*Annual population growth rate: 0.881%.
*Ethnic groups: Spanish-Native-American (mestizo), European, Native-American, Blacks (since 2014 with mass Haitian immigration).
*Religions: [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] 70%, [[Evangelical]] 15.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.1%, other Christian 1%, other 4.6%, none 8.3%.
*Language: [[Spanish]].
*Education: Years compulsory—13. Attendance—3 million. Adult literacy rate—96%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate—8.9/1,000. Life expectancy—80 yrs. for men, 85 for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsuss.cl/ipsuss/analisis-y-estudios/esperanza-de-vida-al-nacer-en-chile-llega-a-85-anos-en-mujeres-y-80-anos/2017-09-26/154547.html|title=Esperanza de vida al nacer en Chile llega a 85 años en mujeres y 80 años en hombres|date=September 26, 2017|language=es|publisher=Ipsuss}}</ref>
*Work force (6.94 million); employed 6.45 million: Community, social and individual services—26%; industry—14.4%; commerce—17.6%; agriculture, forestry, and fishing—13.9%; construction—7.1%; financial services—7.5%; transportation and communication—8.0%; electricity, gas and water—0.5%; mining—1.2%.

==Government==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Palacio de La Moneda.jpg|thumbnail|250px|[[La Moneda]] Palace, seat of Executive Branch.]]
[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Chile's Constitution]] was approved in a September 1980 national plebiscite with 67% of the vote. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]], the Constitution was reformed and another referendum was held over the reforms in which 91% voted in favor. In 2005 President Lagos made several reforms to the Constitution, even changing the Pinochet sign with his.
The President term is 4-year long, however is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms. The political system of Chile is an exacerbated [[Presidential system|Presidential]] one.
Chile has a bicameral Congress, which meets in the port city of [[Valparaíso]], about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago (since 1990). Deputies are elected every 4 years, and Senators serve 8-year terms.
There are currently 43 Senators and 155 Deputies.
The Chilean elections are judged free and fair.

Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nationwide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform replaced old proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.

The Central Bank in Chile is autonomous since 1981.

===Principal Government Officials===
{{See also|President of Chile}}
[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio Kast Rist]], a pro-life, anti illegal immigration conservative.]]
*[[President of Chile|President]]—[[José Antonio Kast]] since 11 March 2026.
*Minister of Interior—Claudio Alvarado
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Francisco Pérez Mackenna
*Ambassador to the United States—Andrés Ergas
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)—José Miguel Castro
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Roberto Ampuero
*Ambassador to the OECD—Sebastián Schneinder
*Mayor of Santiago—[[Mario Desbordes]]

===Foreign Relations===
Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. [[Jose Miguel Insulza]], a Chilean national, was Secretary General of the Organization of American States from May 2005 to 2015. Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002 and the [[APEC]] summit and related meetings in 2004. Chile hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial in April 2005. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade. The APEC 2019 was planed to be hosted on Chile and the COP25 but was cancelled due to the [[2019 Chilean State of Emergency|State of Emergency]]. President [[Donald Trump]] planed to sign an agreement with [[Xi Jinping]] to end the 'Trade War' in the APEC hosted in Chile, however it was canceled.

Chile was one of the four countries (along with [[Singapore]], [[Brunei]] and [[New Zealand]]) that started the [[TPP (treaty)|TPP-11]].

Chile signed many Free Trade Agreements since the 90s.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. It settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s except for a part in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and the Antarctic claims overlap between both countries, however the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow modification to the claims and they are ineffective.

In 2007 Peru demanded Chile in the International Court of Justice due to a maritime dispute. The case was closed in 2013 in which half of the disputed sea was ceded to Peru and half to Chile. In Chile it was seen as a lost case.

Chile and Bolivia have bad diplomatic relations since [[Evo Morales]], Bolivia's president, reintegrated the desire to reacquire territory Bolivia lost to Chile in 1879-83 [[War of the Pacific]] in his Foreign Affairs Policy and he demanded Chile in the Internation Couth of Justice, a case which Chile won. There is currently a case to determine if Silala is a river (Chile's position) or is a spring artificially modificated by Chile (Bolivia's position). The two countries maintain consular relations and are represented at the Consul General level but doesn't have embassies in each other.

===Political parties and coalitions===
Important parties without coalition:
*[[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (right-wing) ([[José Antonio Kast]]'s party).
*[[National Libertarian Party]] ([[Paleolibertarian]] party) ([[Johannes Kaiser]]'s party).
*[[Broad Front (Chile)|Broad Front]] (far-left) ([[Gabriel Boric]]'s party).
*[[Communist Party]] (far-left) ([[Daniel Jadue|Jadue]]'s party).
*[[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]] (from center to center-right) ([[Franco Parisi]]'s party).
*''[[Communist Party]] of Chile - Proletarian Action/Patriotic Union'' (dissolved) (far-left) (Eduardo Artes' party).
*''[[Social Christian Party (Chile)|Social Christian Party]]'' (dissolved) ([[Evangelical]] party) (Evangelical party).

The main coalitions are:
*[[Chile Vamos]] (Globalist center-right) ([[Sebastián Piñera|Piñera]] and [[Evelyn Matthei|Matthei]]'s coalition) composed by the [[Independent Democrat Union]], [[National Renewal]] and ''[[Evópoli]]'' (dissolved party).
*Democratic Socialism (left) composed by old leftist parties such as: the [[Socialist]] Party, Party for Democracy, and the Liberal Party.

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Chile (+Antarctica & Islands), administrative divisions - en - colored.png|230px|thumbnail|Map of the Chilean Regions.]]
{{Main article|Regions of Chile}}
Chile is divided in 16 Regions, 56 provinces and 346 communes. Chile is a Unitary Centralized State in which the law is the same in every place of the country.

'''List of the Regions and their Capital''':
*[[Arica & Parinacota Region|Arica & Parinacota]] - Capital: [[Arica]]
*[[Tarapacá Region|Tarapacá]] - Capital: [[Iquique]]
*[[Antofagasta Region|Antofagasta]] - Capital: [[Antofagasta]]
*[[Atacama Region|Atacama]] - Capital: [[Copiapó]]
*[[Coquimbo Region|Coquimbo]] - Capital: [[La Serena]]
*[[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]] - Capital: [[Valparaíso]]
*[[Metropolitan Region|Metropolitan]] - Capital: [[Santiago]]
*[[O'Higgins Region|O'Higgins]] - Capital: [[Rancagua]]
*[[Maule Region|Maule]] - Capital: [[Talca]]
*[[Ñuble Region|Ñuble]] - Capital: [[Chillán]]
*[[Biobío Region|Biobío]] - Capital: [[Concepción (Chile)|Concepción]]
*[[Araucanía Region|Araucanía]] - Capital: [[Temuco]]
*[[Los Ríos Region|Los Ríos]] - Capital: [[Valdivia]]
*[[Los Lagos Region|Los Lagos]] - Capital: [[Puerto Montt]]
*[[Aysén Region|Aysén]] - Capital: [[Coyhaique]]
*[[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica]] - Capital: [[Punta Arenas]]

The most conservative commune of Chile is [[Colchane]] as well with Antártica, Lo Barnechea, Vitacura & Las Condes.

==Defense==
Chile's Armed Forces are subject to civilian control exercised by the President through the Minister of Defense. The President has the authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.

===Army===
The Chilean Army is 45,000 strong and is organized with an Army headquarters in Santiago, seven divisions throughout its territory, an Air Brigade in Rancagua, and a Special Forces Command in Colina. The Chilean Army is one of the most professional and technologically advanced armies in Latin America habing inherited the [[Prussian]] military doctrine.

===Navy===
The Navy has 23,000-person, including 2,500 Marines. Of the fleet of 29 surface vessels, only eight are operational major combatants (frigates). Those ships are based in [[Valparaíso]]. The Navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no Navy fighter or bomber aircraft. The Navy also operates four submarines based in [[Talcahuano]].

===Air Force (FACH)===
The FACH is a force of 12,500. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on [[Villa Las Estrellas]], [[King George Island]], [[Antarctica]]. The FACH was created in 1930 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]].

===Carabineros===
[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|250px|thumbnail]]
[[Carabineros de Chile]] is the national police force of 30,000 men and women who are responsible for law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control, and counter-terrorism throughout Chile. The Carabineros were created in 1927 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]]. Carabineros is the best police in Latin America and least corrupt.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/best-worst-latam-police|title=From Chile to Mexico: Best and Worst of LatAm Police|publisher=InSight Crime|date=March 20, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

Carabineros enjoys significant international prestige due to its professionalism and efficiency. Through the Chilean government's Cooperation Programme for Uniformed Foreign Police Forces (CECIPU), it has trained and specialized over thousands of officers from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. As a founding member of AMERIPOL (Community of American Police Forces) since 2007 and an associated member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (FIEP) since 2005, Carabineros has even chaired AMERIPOL, highlighting its regional leadership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cecipu.interior.gob.cl/|title=CECIPU: Programa de cooperación internacional del Gobierno de Chile para policías uniformadas|publisher=Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gob.mx/epn%7Cpoliciafederal/articulos/cuerpo-de-carabineros-de-chile-condecora-al-comisionado-general-de-la-policia-federal-de-mexico|title=Cuerpo de Carabineros de Chile condecora al Comisionado General de la Policía Federal de México|publisher=Gobierno de México|date=April 27, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
[[File:Gran Torre Santiago (39693576311).jpg|thumbnail|300px|Gran Torre Santiago, in the financial district of the city.]]
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 3.3% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.1%. Real GDP growth reached 6.3% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile signed the OECD Convention, becoming the first South American country to join the OECD.

*GDP (official exchange rate): $150.4 billion. (GDP (purchasing power parity):$335.4 billion (2013 est.))
*Annual real growth rate: -1.5%.
*Per capita GDP (purchasing power parity): $27,058 (GDP - per capita (PPP) 2019 est.)
*Forestry, agriculture, and fisheries (6% of GDP): Products—fruits, wheat, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions, beans, livestock, fish.
*Commerce (8% of GDP): Sales, restaurants, hotels.
*Manufacturing (17% of GDP): Types—mineral refining, metal manufacturing, food processing, fish processing, paper and wood products, finished textiles.
*Electricity, gas, and water: 3% of GDP.
*Transportation and communication: 7% of GDP.
*Construction: 8% of GDP.
*Financial services (12% of GDP): Insurance, leasing, consulting.
*Mining (13% of GDP): Copper, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, and molybdenum.
*Trade: Exports--$57.61 billion: copper, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and wood products. Major markets—U.S., Japan, China, Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Mexico. Imports--$40.91 billion: fuels, heavy industrial machinery, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, plastic. Major suppliers—U.S., China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. (GDP (official exchange rate):$281.7 billion (2013 est.))

Chile has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by [[negotiating]] in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[José Piñera]] creator of the Individual capitalization pension system.]]
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], economist during the Military Government that re-implemented liberal economic policies.]]
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.

Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile's consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a family of four's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 18% by 2004.

Chile's independent Central Bank pursues an inflation target of between 2% and 4%. Inflation has not exceeded 5% since 1998. Chile registered an inflation rate of 3.2% in 2006. The Chilean peso's rapid appreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent years has helped dampen inflation. Most wage settlements and loans are indexed, reducing inflation's volatility. Under the compulsory private pension system, most formal sector employees pay 10% of their salaries into privately managed funds.

[[File:Countries with a private pension system.jpg|thumbnail|Countries that applied Chile's private pension system.]]
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) was only $3.4 billion in 2006, up 52% from a poor performance in 2005. However, 80% of FDI continues to go to only four sectors: electricity, gas, water and mining. Much of the jump in FDI in 2006 was also the result of acquisitions and mergers and has done little to create new employment in Chile. The Chilean Government has formed a Council on Innovation and Competition, which is tasked with identifying new sectors and industries to promote. It is hoped that this, combined with some tax reforms to encourage domestic and foreign investment in research and development, will bring in additional FDI and to new parts of the economy. As of 2006, Chile invested only 0.6% of its annual GDP in research and development (R&D). Even then, two-thirds of that was government spending. The fact that domestic and foreign companies spend almost nothing on R&D does not bode well for the Government of Chile's efforts to develop innovative, knowledge-based sectors. Additionally, on January 8, 2007, Chile was placed on the U.S. Trade Representative's Priority Watch List due to its poor record on protecting intellectual property rights. Chile is only the second U.S. FTA partner ever to be placed on the Priority Watch List. Chile has a poor and deteriorating record of protecting copyrighted music, films, and software. Combined with this is its institutional structure allowing local companies to produce and market pharmaceutical generics that violate existing patents. Beyond its general economic and political stability, the government also has encouraged the use of Chile as an "investment platform" for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region, but this will have limited value given the developing business climate in Chile itself. Chile's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Chileans. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital. While Chile and the EU have signed a double taxation treaty, no such agreement exists between the U.S. and Chile.

Mining was temporarily curtailed following an accident in which 33 miners were trapped after a cave-in at the San Jose mine<ref>http://www.minandes.com/s/RoadtoProduction.asp</ref> near Copiapo on August 5, 2010. A rescue attempt - bolstered by national pride at getting the men out alive - ended 67 days later on October 13 as the last of the men were pulled out to safety.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/12/rescued-chilean-miner-returns-surface/</ref><ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7961923/Chilean-miners-trapped-in-San-Jose-mine.html</ref>

===Foreign Trade===
[[File:Commercial Treaties Chile 2012.jpg|thumb|295px|Commercial Treaties, 2012.]]
2006 was a record year for Chilean trade. Total trade registered a 31% increase over 2005. During 2006, exports of goods and services totaled U.S. $58 billion, an increase of 41%. This figure was somewhat distorted by the skyrocketing price of copper. In 2006, copper exports reached a historical high of U.S. $33.3 billion. Imports totaled U.S. $35 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. Chile thus recorded a positive trade balance of U.S. $23 billion in 2006.

The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion). Seen as shares of Chile's export markets, 42% of exports went to the Americas, 30% to Asia and 24% to Europe. Within Chile's diversified network of trade relationships, its most important partner remained the United States. Total trade with the U.S. was U.S. $14.8 billion in 2006. Since the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004, U.S.-Chilean trade has increased by 154%. Internal Government of Chile figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has grown over 60% since then.

Total trade with Europe also grew in 2006, expanding by 42%. The Netherlands and Italy were Chile's main European trading partners. Total trade with Asia also grew significantly at nearly 31%. Trade with Korea and Japan grew significantly, but China remained Chile's most important trading partner in Asia. Chile's total trade with China reached U.S. $8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66% of the value of its trade relationship with Asia.

The growth of exports in 2006 was due mainly to a strong increase in sales to the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. These three markets alone accounted for an additional U.S. $5.5 billion worth of Chilean exports. Chilean exports to the United States totaled U.S. $9.3 billion, representing a 37.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $6.7 billion). Exports to the European Union were U.S. $15.4 billion, a 63.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $9.4 billion). Exports to Asia increased from U.S. $15.2 billion in 2005 to U.S. $19.7 billion in 2006, a 29.9% increase.

During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).

Chile's overall trade profile has traditionally been dependent upon copper exports. The state-owned firm CODELCO is the world's largest copper-producing company, with recorded copper reserves of 200 years. Chile has made an effort to expand nontraditional exports. The most important non-mineral exports are forestry and wood products, fresh fruit and processed food, fishmeal and seafood, and wine.

Successive Chilean governments have actively pursued trade-liberalizing agreements. During the 1990s, Chile signed FTAs with Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Chile also concluded preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. An association agreement with Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—went into effect in October 1996. Continuing its export-oriented development strategy, Chile completed landmark free trade agreements in 2002 with the European Union and South Korea. Chile, as a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, is seeking to boost commercial ties to Asian markets. To that end, it has signed trade agreements in recent years with New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, and most recently Japan. In 2007, Chile plans to begin negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

After two years of negotiations, the United States and Chile signed an agreement in June 2003 that will lead to completely duty-free bilateral trade within 12 years. The U.S.-Chile FTA entered into force January 1, 2004 following approval by the U.S. and Chilean congresses. The bilateral FTA has inaugurated greatly expanded U.S.-Chilean trade ties, with total bilateral trade jumping by 154% during the FTA's first three years.

Chile unilaterally lowered its across-the-board import tariff for all countries with which it does not have a trade agreement to 6% in 2003. Higher effective tariffs are charged only on imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar as a result of a system of import price bands. The price bands were ruled inconsistent with Chile's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in 2002, and the government has introduced legislation to modify them. Under the terms of the U.S.-Chile FTA, the price bands will be completely phased out for U.S. imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar within 12 years.

Chile is a strong proponent of pressing ahead on negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is active in the WTO's Doha round of negotiations, principally through its membership in the G-20 and Cairns Group.

===Finance===
Chile's financial sector has grown quickly in recent years, with a banking reform law approved in 1997 that broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001, and there is further pending legislation proposing further liberalization. Over the last ten years, Chileans have enjoyed the introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has also been accompanied by an increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $70 billion at the end of 2006, has been an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S&P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways for Chilean firms to raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stocks on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Nearly all of the funds raised through these means go to finance domestic Chilean investment. The government is required by law to run a fiscal surplus of at least 1% of GDP. In 2006, the Government of Chile ran a surplus of $11.3 billion, equal to almost 8% of GDP. The Government of Chile continues to pay down its foreign debt, with public debt only 3.9% of GDP at the end of 2006.

==History==
===Discovery and Hispanic period===
[[File:Pedro de Valdivia.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Pedro de Valdivia]], founder of several cities and conqueror of Chile.]]
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]], one of the founding fathers of Chile.]]
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first European to see Chilean land was [[Ferdinand Magellan]] when he discovered the [[Strait of Magellan]] in 1520, however the first one to arrive in Chile were [[Diego de Almagro]] and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in 1535. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of [[Santiago]] on February 12, 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

===19th Century, Independence, State Consolidation and Wars with neightbours===
[[File:Pedro Subercaseaux Jura de la Independencia Chile.jpg|thumb|300px|Fray Pedro Subercaseaux, Jura de la Independencia de Chile.]]
[[File:Diego Portales-2.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Diego Portales]] author of the 1833 Constitution which prioritized order over democracy.]]
[[File:Arturo Prat Chacón.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Arturo Prat|Arturo Prat Chacón]], the maximum naval hero of the Chilean Nation.]]
[[File:Sinking of the Esmeralda during the battle of Iquique.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Sinking of the Esmeralda during the [[battle of Iquique|naval battle of Iquique]].]]
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national [[junta]] in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence which [[José Miguel Carrera]] started soon won a wide following. After the [[Battle of Rancagua]], a Spanish attempt to reimpose arbitrary rule started, during what was called the "Reconquista" led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army led by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], Chile's most renowned patriot, and [[José de San Martín]], hero of Argentine independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership.

During the Ramón Freire Presidency in 1826 the last royalist bastion was defeated, the [[Chiloé]] archipelago and the Tantauco Treaty was signed between Chile and Spain.

Between 1823 and 1829 there was a period of Constitutional Attempts, and there were four of them.

The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the 1833 Constitution made by [[Diego Portales]]. After the [[Civil War]] of 1829–30, a strong presidency emerged, but wealthy landowners remained extremely powerful.

Between 1836 and 1839, Chile fought a [[War against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] which Chile won and separated Peru and Bolivia again.

In 1865 and 1866 Chile, Peru and Ecuador fought against Spain in the [[Chincha Islands War]], Chile and it's allies won.

[[Image:Easter_island_statues.jpg|thumb|right|On September 9, 1888 the Council of Rapanui Chiefs asked the Chilean Navy Captain, Policarpo Toro, to accept the sovereignty of [[Easter Island]] without giving up their chieftaincy titles, the ownership of their lands, the validity of their culture and traditions and on equal terms. This known as the "Agreement of Wills".]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by founding the [[Fort Bulnes]] in 1843 (near the current city of [[Punta Arenas]] in the [[Strait of Magellan]]) and incorporating the zone of the south of the [[Biobío river]] in a process called the [[Pacification of the Araucanía]], the government plan was to building roads, schools, and public infrastructure where the [[Mapuche]] Indians live, they were incorporated as citizens, however the rebel Mapuches were crushed.

There was also a process of Colonization in which the Government gave [[German]] [[settlers]] lands in [[Valdivia]] and the [[Llanquihue Lake]] where they founded several towns and cities. To this day the German influence can be noted in cities like Valdivia, [[Puerto Varas]], [[Frutillar]], [[Puerto Octay]], [[Nueva Braunau]], Ensenada, [[Puerto Montt]] and [[Osorno]].

In 1881, Chile signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan but also loosing its colonial rights over Eastern Patagonia. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. After a [[Civil war]] in 1891 in which President [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] committed suicide, a parliamentary democracy was established, but degenerated into a system protecting the interests of the ruling oligarchy.
In 1888 Chile incorporated [[Easter Island]] to the national territory.

===20th Century===
[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|175px|thumbnail|The [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.
Continuing political and economic instability resulted with the rule of the quasidictatorial Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] (1924–32).
In June there was a Coup and between that month and September 1932 there was an attempt to establish a [[Socialist]] Republic that failed.
When constitutional rule was restored later that year, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy.
In 1940 Chile started to claim officially the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].

In 1962 the "right-wing" President [[Jorge Alessandri]] started the agrarian reform in a small portion, that expropriated part of big land properties. This reform was deepened by the next two governments.

The 1964 presidential election of [[Christian Democrat]] [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

He also made the "Chileanization of the copper" which introduced the State into the copper industry.
====Unidad Popular Marxist Regime (1970-1973)====
{{Main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
In 1970, Senator [[Salvador Allende]], a [[Marxist]] and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the "Popular Unity" (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats (the lasts ones supported him with the condition of respecting the laws and private property), won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest and was named president by the Chilean Congress. His program included the nationalization of private industries and banks, massive land expropriation, and collectivization, implementation of a Marxist education system, repartition of food collectively (with a limit of one stock per family). Allende's program also included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major copper mines.

[[Fidel Castro]] visited Chile in 1971 where he stayed for months.
Allende said in the same year "The major role of a journalist is not to server the truth, but to server the revolution" and in 1972 "I'm the President of the Unidad Popular, but I'm not the president of all Chileans".

Elected with only 36% of the vote and by a plurality of only 36,000 votes, Allende never enjoyed majority support in the Chilean Congress or broad popular support. Domestic production declined; severe shortages of consumer goods, food, and manufactured products were widespread; and inflation reached 1,000% per annum. Mass demonstrations, recurring strikes, violence by both government supporters and opponents, and widespread rural unrest ensued in response to the general deterioration of the economy.

The 22th of August 1973 the Chamber of Deputies called for a military intervention since the Allende's Government was Unconstitutional for not respecting basic laws like [[private property]].<ref>[https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2013/08/23/40-anos-del-acuerdo-de-la-camara-que-declaro-la-ilegitimidad-del-gobierno-de-allende/ 40 años del acuerdo de la Cámara que declaró la ilegitimidad del Gobierno de Allende]</ref> By the time the Christian Democrats stopped supporting Allende and started to support an intervention.

[[Carlos Altamirano]], General Secretary of the Socialist Party in July 1973 called to "crush the opposition" and to "not negotiate with the enemies of Chile"<ref>https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304093123/rev91_documento.pdf</ref> he also called for a violent Marxist revolution in 1968.

====Military Government (1973-1990)====
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990).jpg|300px|thumbnail|President and General [[Augusto Pinochet|Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], President of Chile (1973-1990), fighter against [[Marxism]], father of Chile's development, and restorer of the order and the institutions.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|1980 Constitution]] and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
A military pronouncement overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace, Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime in particular were marked by an irregular war against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|leftist terrorists]] who wanted a violent Marxist revolution. A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] was approved by a plebiscite on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. The Constitution writing had an important participation of [[Jaime Guzmán]] who also founded the [[Independent Democrat Union]].

The Armed Forces had to assume the leadership of the country, aware that this task did not mean a mere restoration of the broken institutionality, since the systematic destruction to which the Homeland had been subjected had deeply undermined coexistence and national development; therefore, it was imperative to go further and create a modern, profound system of the country, with a clear social content and democratic character. From the structuring of the stages and objectives of the Government and the determination of the principles that would govern the project, the Armed Forces marked with height, coherence and consequence the national reality and the itinerary designed.

This great work was not exempt from interferences, demands and sacrifices, since at the beginning it was necessary to overcome the disastrous consequences of the previous administrations and the prevailing polarization. Subsequently, it was necessary to face defamation, the economic crises in the neighborhood, and the wily terrorist and subversive actions. These, together or in isolation, ([[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] made the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]" that blocked any selling of weapons to Chile, and also the U.S. imposed a blockade on fruit exports) in could have led any government to political, economic and social collapse. However, the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, based on efficiency, patriotism and joint effort, with a more than important part of society, managed to overcome the obstacles and deliver a better future for all Chileans.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Military men victims of [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]].]]

There is an evident reality that shows that important sectors of the political spectrum not only tried gradually and systematically to delegitimize the Military Government, but even, once they determined the impossibility of achieving their goals, they used means and tools contrary to peaceful coexistence, even seeking its destabilization, accepting, encouraging or participating in Chilean and foreign extremist organizations contrary to the idiosyncrasy and national identity.
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
The successful model and the change of life generated in Chileans by the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, in general, has not been accepted or recognized at the national and international level. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it would be pernicious for national coexistence that a government defined as authoritarian has been so successful and profound. Undoubtedly, this is a biased point of view, since this line of argument tends to homologate our reality with caudillisms or military irruptions that lacked ethical imperatives and national needs and that did occur systematically or cyclically in other nations.

The deed of September 11, 1973 and the foundational work of the Military Government, apart from signifying for the Armed Forces and the Carabineros and, particularly, for the Army, a feeling of honor and pride that must be preserved, is an event that must necessarily be included in national and universal history in all its truth and dimension.
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|250|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile in 1985.]]
[[File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Pinochet]] inaugurating [[Villa Las Estrellas]] in [[Chilean Antarctic Territory|Chilean Antarctica]] in 1984.]]

In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. In contrast to its authoritarian political rule, the military government pursued decidedly [[laissez-faire]] economic policies.

[[Milton Friedman]] said,
* "... the really extraordinary thing about the Chilean case was that a military government followed the opposite of military policies. The military is distinguished from the ordinary economy by the fact that it's a top-down organization. The general tells the colonel, the colonel tells the captain, and so on down, whereas a market is a bottom-up organization. The customer goes into the store and tells the retailer what he wants; the retailer sends it back up the line to the manufacturer and so on. So the basic organizational principles in the military are almost the opposite of the basic organizational principles of a free market and a free society. And the really remarkable thing about Chile is that the military adopted the free-market arrangements instead of the military arrangements."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10 Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman on PBS]</ref>

The ''[[Carretera Austral]]'' (Southern Highway) was built between 1976 and 1989 and connects several rural towns in the far south of Chile that previously didn't had direct transportation, it is 1240 km long, starting in [[Puerto Montt]] and ending in Villa O'Higgins. Today the highway is a touristic destination of Chile because of the beauty of the landscape. This huge and important geopolitical megaproject was built by military personnel, many died because of the rough climate.

During its 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that fostered an increase in domestic and foreign private investment. The complete political liberalization of the country came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite, which finally took place on October 5. On that day, the triumph of the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans voted for elections to choose a new president in 1989 and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress. The Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution on the same year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>[https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html Soros helped the "No" campaign]</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

===Democratic governments===
[[File:Izamiento de la Gran Bandera Nacional - Presidentes de Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|The five [[President of Chile|Chilean Presidents]] between the years 1990 and 2022 (two of them were elected twice in non-consecutive terms).]]
On December 14, 1989, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the Concertación, was elected president. In a ceremony held in the Congress building in Valparaíso, Pinochet handed over the presidency to the new constitutional President.

Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994 and was succeeded by another Christian Democrat, [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (son of the previous President), leading the same coalition, for a 6-year term. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy led the Concertación to a narrower victory in 2000 presidential elections.

During the ''Concertación'' Governments, Military personnel who fought terrorism were jailed unfairly using an old judicial system and without proof, these can be called the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisioners]] that were destined to the [[Punta Peuco Jail]]. Also during these Governments the private pension system was reformed to benefit the companies that manage pension funds by making the users assume the economic losses and increased the retirement age by approximately 20 years, which directly lowered pensions. This changes are the main factor of the problems in the system that can be reversed.

In September 2005, President [[Ricardo Lagos]] signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.

On January 15, 2006 [[Michelle Bachelet|Michelle Bachelet Jeria]] (center-left) won the elections against businessman [[Sebastián Piñera]] (center-right) and she took office on March 11, 2006, becoming the first woman to become President of Chile.
In 2009 Sebastián Piñera Echenique won the presidency, beign the first center-right candidate to do so after the Pinochet regime. In 2013 Bachelet won the office again and Piñera in 2017. Presidents in Chile can't have consecutive two terms, they need to wait another election.

Chile's congressional elections were governed by a unique binomial system made by [[Jaime Guzmán]] until 2018 that rewarded coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for the two Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district. Historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) splat most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 did the winning coalition gain both seats.

Chile was leaded by President [[Sebastián Piñera]] between 2018 and 2022 with the coalition of parties called [[Chile Vamos]]. The coalition was center-right and took [[progressive]] stands on some moral issues like legalizing [[same sex "marriage"]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2018/11/29/chile-enacts-landmark-gender-identity-law/|title=Chile enacts landmark gender identity law|date=November 29, 2018|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref>

{{main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
In 2019 Leftist mobs began to burn private and public property (the main public damage were 20 metro stations that were burned and 77 damaged in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metro.cl/noticias/balance-danos-19-de-octubre-2019|title=Balance daños 19 de octubre 2019|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Metro de Santiago}}</ref> starting a political crisis that has on its objectives to make the state bigger, raise taxes, and eliminate the individual capitalization system, as well as a change of the Constitution. This groups have been supported by the international left, the [[Sao Paulo Forum]], the [[Puebla Group]] and [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/10/20/nicolas-maduro-respondio-las-acusaciones-de-alentar-las-protestas-en-ecuador-y-chile-foro-de-sao-paulo-estamos-cumpliendo-el-plan-ustedes-me-entienden/|title=Nicolás Maduro habló sobre las acusaciones de alentar las protestas en Ecuador y Chile: "Foro de San Pablo, estamos cumpliendo el plan, ustedes me entienden..."|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Infobae}}</ref> The period is called ''Estallido social'' by the left. [[Diosdado Cabello]], a government official from Venezuela at that time said "The [[Bolivarian]] breeze sweeping the region will become a hurricane"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-diosdado-cabello-amenaza-brisa-bolivariana-recorre-region-convertira-huracan-201910201834_noticia.html|title=Diosdado Cabello amenaza: "La brisa bolivariana que recorre la región se convertirá en huracán"|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=ABC Internacional}}</ref>

On the 15th of November 2019 the Congress approved to make a referendum on the Constitution, ceding to the radical left.

The referendum was made on October 25, 2020, and the option to change the Constitution won. Several rallies were made for the 'Rejection' (''Rechazo'') option by patriots with a high number of people attending and in which [[Sebastián Izquierdo]] played an important role.

There was a previous proposal of a new Constitution that was a draft from the socialist Michelle Bachelet from the last weeks of her administration and both administrations (Piñera and Bachelet) were committed to follow the globalist [[2030 Agenda]] from the United Nations. The [[Constitutional Convention (Chile)|Constitutional Convention]] which redacted the text made a progressive and globalist proposal, the conservative [[Teresa Marinovic]] was elected to the Convention auditing the far-left institution.

In the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Presidential Election]], the final front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Gabriel Boric]]. Kast won the first round with a 27.91% of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and Boric obtained 25.82% (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13% (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87% (4,620,890 votes) from Boric. Boric got electoed at the age of 35, a former student radical "activist," a self-described [[communist]].<ref name=at22nov21>Monica Showalter, [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/stunning_good_news_from_chile__and_not_just_for_them_but_for_us.html Stunning good news from Chile...], American Thinker, November 22, 2021</ref>

On September 4, 2022, the second referendum took place in which the 'Rejection' option won with 61.86% of the votes against 38.14% of the 'Approve' option. The main difference with the first election was that the vote was mandatory in the second one and not the first one, having bigger participation of older generations which tend to vote conservative. After the triumph of the 'Rechazo', Gabriel Boric changed the cabinet of ministers of his government.

In 2023 the corrupt political system started a new process to change the Constitution, this time with more control of the establishment parties, without asking on a referendum if the citizens of Chile wanted a new process (they "assumed" that the 2020 referendum result is permanent, even that that process ended with the 2022 referendum). On May 7 the [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|election to elect the counselors of the Constitutional Council]] was held and a massive conservative victory was obtained, the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] won the majority as well as a record "Nulo" (Voluntary refusal to choose a candidate by the citizenry in a mandatory election) votes on 3rd place.

On December 17, 2023 a new referendum was held over the new written text, the Republican Party directive supported the change of the Chilean Constitution, many members of the party opposed this stance change of the party. The Globalist "center-right" coalition, [[Chile Vamos]] and centrist parties such as "Democrats" and "Yellows" (which means "being too moderated") supported the "In Favor" option as well. Chilean Patriots supported the "Against" option as well as the most of the left-wing. The "Against" Option obtained 55.76% of the votes while the "In Favor" Option obtained 44.24%. The dissident right was victorious over the establishment "right-wing" parties who supported the new proposed text.

On June 7, 2024 [[Johannes Kaiser]] founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-globalist, paleo-libertarian party.

José Antonio Kast, a Catholic pro-life conservative who promised to protect Chile against illegal immigration won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Sports==
[[Association Football|Football]] is the most popular sport by far. Chile hosted the 1962 [[World Cup]], notable for the "Battle of Santiago" (a group stage match between host Chile and Italy, which due to the on-pitch action - police had to be called no fewer than four times to gain control between squads - is considered among the poorest displays of sportsmanship in sports history, and eventually led to development of yellow and red cards).

However, the national sport is the Rodeo.

Chile won the Copa América 2015 and Copa América Centenario 2016, obtaining its first two Football titles in the national selection.

The Chilean mountains have important ski centers like Valle Nevado.

The [[Arica]] city in the north has the best waves of the country, something ideal for surfing.

[[File:Carretera Austral Augusto Pinochet.jpg|250px|thumbnail|''[[Carretera Austral]]'' of 1240 km long in [[Aysén Region]], built during the Military Government and unofficially named after him by his supporters.]]
The Chilean [[Patagonia]] is a famous place for trekking and out-door sports, The [[Carretera Austral]] (Southern Highway) and many National Parks (including the [[National Park Torres del Paine|Torres del Paine]] one) are visited by people all over the world.

==Culture==
[[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Nicanor Parra]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] are famous Chilean poets. Chillán in the Ñuble Region is a notorious cultural city of Chile.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== See also ==
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]
*[[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
*[[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[La Moneda]]
*[[Easter Island]]
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Colchane]], Chilean most conservative town
*[[Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
*[[War of the Pacific]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
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!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm]}}}.
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{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Patagonia

2026-03-23T13:25:25Z

CatolicoAustral:

[[File:Cuernos del Paine from Lake Pehoé.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Torres del Paine National Park in the [[Chile]]an Patagonia.]]
[[File:Pat map old.png|175px|left|thumbnail|Map of Patagonia (with its traditional borders)]]
'''Patagonia''' is a region covering two-thirds of the country of [[Argentina]] and the southern part of [[Chile]]. It is covered mostly by farms. Is is famous for having unique landscapes and is a common touristic destination for people who like nature and out-door sports like trekking.

The ''[[Carretera Austral]]'' (Southern Highway) was built between 1976 and 1989 and connects several rural towns in the far south of Chile that previously didn't had direct transportation, it is 1240 km long, starting in [[Puerto Montt]] and ending in Villa O'Higgins. Today the highway is a touristic destination of Chile because of the beauty of the landscape. This huge and important geopolitical megaproject was built by military personnel, many died because of the rough climate.

[[Category:Geography of Chile]]
[[Category:Argentina]]
[[Category:Geography]]

Carretera Austral

2026-03-23T13:24:47Z

CatolicoAustral: /* History & characteristics */

[[File:Carretera Austral Augusto Pinochet.jpg|300px|thumbnail|''Carretera Austral'' of 1240 km long in [[Aysén Region]], built during the Military Government and unofficially named after him by his supporters.]]
The '''Carretera Austral Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte''' (Sothern Highway in English) is a road constructed to connect rural towns of the [[Aysén Region]] in [[Chile]]an [[Patagonia]] which were previously disconected or depended more on ships to move in between them. It was built between 1976 and 1989, it is 1240 km long, starting in [[Puerto Montt]] and ending in Villa O'Higgins. Today the highway is a touristic destination of Chile because of the beauty of the landscape. This huge and important geopolitical megaproject was built by military personnel, many died because of the rough climate. The project was proposed by [[Pinochet]] since 1958 in the [[Chilean Army]] and his [[Geopolitics]] works from 1965, to finnally start its implementation during his [[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)|Government]]. Eduardo Frei Montalva's Government considered the project but didn't make it happen.

{{quote|Our goal is for these regions to become fully integrated into the nation’s development and for each of you and your families to be able to enjoy the country’s progress and advancements|Augusto Pinochet <ref>Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, Capitán General, Presidente de la República, Puerto Cisnes, febrero 1986 / Book: "Carretera Austral Presidente Pinochet, The Austral Road", Banco Osorno-SERNATUR, 1987</ref>}}

President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte cut one tricolor ribbon after another as he inaugurated numerous projects in Palena and Aisén, along the Carretera Austral and in the surrounding area. Inaugurating mainly bridges, paved roads, and hydroelectric plants, President Pinochet’s voice echoed through the forests, valleys, lakes, and towns, leaving in the memory of those who heard and saw him the image of “a true soldier” fighting for his country.

== History & characteristics ==
[[File:Pinochet en avión con ministros.png|300px|thumbnail]]
Given the natural characteristics of Palena and Aisén, the locals themselves expected to continue relying on Argentine roads and the sea route for many decades to come.
The ranchers themselves—those who, in rain and snow, crossing rivers and cliffs, herded their cattle through dense forests for miles on end and for days at a time—perhaps never imagined that a road would connect their destinations in just a few hours.
Of the 56 km of existing roads in Aisén as of 1975, the Carretera Austral Presidente Pinochet had already inaugurated its main section between Chaitén and Coyhaique in 1982, spanning 420 km.

Six years later, in 1988, the Coyhaique-Cochrane section was inaugurated, covering 337 km.
Unfortunately, the political situation Chile faced between 1989 and 1992—marked by a plebiscite that ended the military government and ushered in “the new era of democratic governments” (?)—halted the planned development of the Southern Road Network, which was intended to be completed in 1992 with its final section definitively connecting Villa O’Higgins. The Southern Highway did not reach Villa O’Higgins until September 2000.
The vindictive politicking of those who assumed power in the “democratic governments” forced a reduction—not in the budget, but rather in the construction work on the Southern Highway—due mainly to the route’s significance in relation to the figure of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.
The total length of roads planned by the Military Government by 1992 was 1,780 km, completed between Puerto Montt-Ralún (latitude 41°20“) and Villa O’Higgins (latitude 48°28”), with an estimated investment of $200 million, reaching approximately $300 million in actual costs—expenses that represent roughly 17% to 20% of the costs of the Colbún Machicura Hydroelectric Plant and 33% to 35% of the costs of Lines 1 and 2 of the Santiago Metro.

The climate and nature as natural barriers, which require constant maintenance of the route, would not be obstacles to General Pinochet’s “geopolitical vision.” He did not hesitate for a second to decide on the construction of the Carretera Austral, which would bear his name—a name bestowed not of his own volition, as his Marxist executioners continue to claim even after his death on December 10, 2006.
The physical incorporation of more than 220,000 km² of territory, the extension of national sovereignty, and economic, social, tourism, and scientific development were the primary concerns of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, guided by his lifelong passion: “geopolitics.”
His interest lay in “connecting the southern regions, accessible only via Chilean territory between Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas.”
The development that the Carretera Austral would bring to the areas of the Municipality of Puerto Montt, the Municipality of Cochamó, the Province of Palena, and the XI. Aisén Region of General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, was viewed with skepticism by many, despite the fact that a 1980 report by the Department of Geology at the University of Chile had already indicated “significant mineralization of silver, copper, and iron in Aisén.” The Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Chile did not offer a positive opinion until 1988, when it demonstrated “its economic profitability in the short, medium, and long term” and that “its social profitability is even greater.”

The stance of political groups opposed to the military government—who were staunch enemies of President Pinochet—was extremely strong and even excessive; in one of the opposition publications of that time, they demonstrated their unrelenting hostility.
In a report on the Carretera Austral in Cauce Magazine, No. 9, March 1984, it was stated: “The structural breakdown of Aisén’s productive and developmental base,” the residents of Aisén “will benefit nothing from it” (the southern route), “the maritime route or the Argentine route will continue to be more economical for many years to come,” the route “will not play... the role of a true axis of integration,” Aisén is an “area of limited resources not susceptible to development,” it is “a broken region.”
Dirty politics, revenge, and hatred lead to blindness and absolute mediocrity, and ultimately to contradiction.
Today we can see on the Chilean government’s website that Region XI of Aisén is promoted as it always should have been: “The Carretera Austral changed the lives of the locals, gave a major boost to regional development, and tourism has flourished around it, constituting one of the foundations of the local economy.”
In this monumental undertaking, we must not forget the civilians and military personnel who worked on it: conscripted soldiers, technicians, and military engineers from the Chilean Army, through the Military Labor Corps (CMT); private companies; regional authorities from the Road Administration of the Ministry of Public Works; and laborers, people from the PEM and POJH programs, and even inmates from the Coyhaique prison. We especially honor those who lost their lives during the exploration, planning, and construction of the Southern Highway.

=== Opinions about the road ===

Remarks by the Bishop of Aisén, Monsignor Bernardo Cazzaro
(appointed as the new Bishop of Puerto Montt), in Puerto Aisén, on March 5, 1988:

{{quoteMr. President, as a Chilean, I must also express my gratitude for all the contributions that you and your government have made to this region. We have seen tangible progress... As a foreign priest, I have lived here for many years and have witnessed so much hardship, isolation, and neglect. We are grateful first to God and then to the instruments He has used to promote progress in the region.}}

Words from the German settler and founder of the Puyuhuapi carpet factory, Mr. Walter Hopperdietzel (Ercilla Magazine, October 11, 1989, p. 28):

{{quote|Before, we had to travel by boat to get anywhere... This change has brought enormous development to agriculture. Then came electricity, which allows us to have refrigerators and safely store perishable foods. This has an impact on the well-being and health of the population... And now this (referring to the telephone), which has allowed us to talk with our families in Santiago and Germany... I hadn’t seen any congressmen or senators around here. However, during this time we’ve had President Pinochet visit four times. We know each other now, and when he comes, he greets me by name. I already consider him my friend, and that’s a very nice thing.}}

===Puerto Montt–Chaitén===

The Austral Highway begins in Puerto Montt and stretches over 1,240 kilometers to Villa O’Higgins near the Southern Ice Field. The first section we’ll cover runs from Puerto Montt to Chaitén (160 km), with a transfer between Hornopirén and Caleta Gonzalo (5 hours, operates only during the summer months). The rest of the year, you can travel directly from Puerto Montt to Chaitén (12 hours) or from Quellón to Chaitén (5.5 hours). This service operates twice a week. There is also an air route with three daily flights between Puerto Montt and Chaitén (35-minute flight). Traveling this section of the route takes one day, though it is best to take two days to include excursions in the Hualaihué district, Comau Fjord, and Caleta Gonzalo. Construction of this section took place between 1976 and 1987, except for the first 10 km, which were completed before 1976. The Military Labor Corps (CMT), the Ministry of Public Works (MOP), and private construction companies played a significant role.

===Chaitén–Coyhaique===

The challenge posed in 1976, based on the work carried out by the Road Administration to establish a road network on mainland Chiloé and in the Aisén region, set as its goal the physical connection between Chaitén and Coyhaique. Apart from the inherent difficulties involved in road construction—particularly given the isolated location in this part of the country, with its varied topography, narrow U-shaped valleys, dense vegetation, and the presence of forests and undergrowth, as well as the necessity of routing the road through coastal areas, parks, and sectors near the pampa and in rugged terrain— in short, due to the need to develop a mountain road, a demonstration of technical and economic feasibility had to be provided, showing that a network under the conditions described could be built within a specified timeframe. Ultimately, the exploration and reconnaissance work, carried out and led by Hans Steffen at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, by Augusto Grosse from the 1930s through the 1960s, and by Antonio Horvath between 1976 and 1986, bore its first fruits with the completion of the Chaitén - Coyhaique section; specifically, 272 kilometers of road were built between 1976 and 1981 between Chaitén and Coyhaique, and in parallel, part of the cross-country roads defined for the program were constructed. The construction reflected the efforts of consulting firms, construction companies, the Military Labor Corps, and the Road Administration of the Ministry of Public Works through planners, engineers, designers, inspectors, builders, operators, miners, administrative staff, and workers in general. Thus, in 1982, with the inauguration of the Chaitén–Coyhaique highway, the skepticism that had always surrounded road construction in Central Patagonia, Chile, was largely overcome. The importance of the Chaitén–Coyhaique connection can be summarized, among other things, by: the integration of the area into the national territory; improved and greater access to health, education, and technical assistance services; increased land value; the consolidation of existing productive activities; and the initiation of new productive activities. The towns directly affected were Chaitén, Palena, Futaleufú, La Junta, Puerto Puyuhuapi, Puerto Cisnes, Villa Amengual, and Tapera. Currently, paving work is underway in the northern sector of Coyhaique, between kilometers 66 and 100, with completion expected in March 2001. Additionally, in the Aisén Region, programs and studies are being prepared to continue paving from the area where Lake Pedro Aguirre Cerda is located (km 100) to Puerto Puyuhuapi (km 220), and in the 10th Region, work is underway on a program to pave the approximately 75 km stretch from Chaitén to Villa Santa Lucía; all with the goal of having the Coyhaique–Chaitén section fully paved within the next 12 years.

===Ruta Austral: Coyhaique–Cochrane Section===

The Coyhaique–Cochrane road is 345 kilometers long. Its construction has been carried out in sections over time. In the 1940s, the Coyhaique–Balmaceda section was built; in the 1950s, the road providing access to Puerto Ingeniero Ibañez and Villa Cerro Castillo was constructed; and subsequently, the Villa Cerro Castillo–Murta–Puerto Tranquilo–El Maitén section was built between 1980 and 1988. The El Maitén–Cochrane section was built in the 1960s. Thus, for a long time, access to Cochrane was via boats on Lake General Carrera, which covered the Puerto Ingeniero Ibañez–Guadal section. Before this mode of transport existed, Cochrane was accessed via Argentine territory (Route 40), entering through the Chacabuco Valley. The information in the preceding paragraph explains why the route is not uniform along its entire length. The sections built were designed to meet the needs and resources available in the province of Aisén at that time. Additionally, it highlights the importance of civil aviation, which for many years was the sole means of transportation serving the region’s various population centers.

===Ruta Austral Cochrane - Villa O'Higgins===

The Cochrane-Villa O'Higgins road consists of two sections: The first section runs between Cochrane and Puerto Yungay, is 120 kilometers long, and its construction presented significant difficulties in the area known as Vagabundo (100 kilometers south of Cochrane), to the extent that five people lost their lives there. The second section corresponds to the so-called Transversal #7 Puerto Yungay–Villa O’Higgins and currently serves as an extension of the Southern Highway. This section is 100 km long. The importance of constructing this part of the network lies in providing land access to the region’s most remote settlement, Villa O’Higgins. In fact, Villa O’Higgins is the capital of the O’Higgins commune, and from the time the settlers first arrived in the area until the road opened in September 1999, supplies were brought in from Argentina and people were transported by air. Likewise, the limited livestock production was transported by pack animals from Villa O’Higgins to Cochrane, a journey that could easily take up to a month depending on weather conditions. The initial idea for this part of the network was to build a road without a transfer point; however, economic assessments and the potential traffic demand led to the determination that the solution in the first phase would involve a 13-kilometer transfer between Puerto Yungay and Río Bravo; this transfer takes 45 minutes. In the Río Bravo sector, the route begins that addresses the most significant challenge of the next 25 to 30 years: connecting Puerto Yungay with Puerto Natales in the Esperanza Province of Region XII by land; that is, continuing the Southern Road to unite all of Chile. This route has a preliminary length of 953 kilometers and includes 9 crossings ranging in length from 19 to 0.5 kilometers. Currently (1999), studies are underway at a 1:2000 scale using aerial surveying for the Río Bravo–Ventisquero Montt section, with the aim of beginning construction in the year 2000. In the XII Region, construction began on the first kilometers from Puerto Natales toward Fiordo Steines. From Villa O’Higgins, a 5-kilometer road was built providing access to the binational O’Higgins Lake (Lago San Martín in Argentine territory); this is also possible thanks to the suspension bridge over the Mayer River named Augusto Grosse in honor of the distinguished explorer from the Ministry of Public Works; the structure is a 138-meter suspension bridge. There are several vessels on the lake, notably the barge Integración, which provides access to and services for the residents living on the lake and in the southern ice field. An area of great scenic beauty.

===Transversal Highway No. 1 – Frontera – Lago Verde – Puerto Raúl Marín Balmaceda===

Transversal Highway No. 1 is one of the most important transversal highways in Region XI and ranks second in importance only to Transversal Highway No. 3, which runs from Frontera to Balmaceda, Coyhaique, and Puerto Aisén, ending at Puerto Chacabuco. It connects the towns of Lago Verde, the capital of the Lago Verde commune, La Junta, and Puerto Raúl Marín Balmaceda. It is expected that this transversal will eventually become the northern bioceanic corridor of the Aisén Region. Construction of this road has been carried out in stages. Thus, the La Junta–Lago Verde section was built between 1982 and 1992, providing access to Lake Rosselot, Lake El Ensueño, the Figueroa River, and Lago Verde itself, as well as other areas with potential for tourism, logging, and forestry. Lago Verde hopes that on the Argentine side, the road between the border and the village of Las Pampas (19 kilometers), in the Province of Chubut, will be completed to create tourist circuits in areas of great scenic beauty. La Junta, a town that owes its name to the confluence of the Palena and Rosselot rivers, is the one that has shown the greatest relative development over time, and it is expected that, with the 2001 connection, this development will gain further momentum. This should occur to the extent that the connection to the province of Chiloé is made via this cross-country route rather than via the Chaitén route. In the past, residents reached La Junta by air, on horseback, and/or by boat traveling up the Palena River. Currently, a trip from Coyhaique takes about 6 hours under normal conditions, covering a distance of 268 kilometers. The distance from La Junta to Chaitén is approximately 150 kilometers, and given the services Chaitén is offering, residents of La Junta are gradually forming stronger ties with Chaitén rather than with the regional capital, Coyhaique.

===Chile Chico–Tranquilo–Exploradores Road===

TRANSVERSAL 5 Transversal #5 is expected to become the bi-oceanic corridor for the southern part of the region, connecting with the province of Santa Cruz in Argentina. The road has been built in stages over time, and it is known that the Mechanized Agricultural Service participated in the construction of certain sections in the 1970s. The most complex section was between Fachinal and Mallín Grande, particularly the stretch known as Paso Las Llaves, which is characterized by a route that winds along a steep slope, where rockfalls also occur in certain ravines. The terrain’s characteristics necessitated a highly constrained design, with steep gradients, tight curve radii, and ultimately a design speed in certain sections not exceeding 30 km/h. The scenic beauty and surroundings of the area are captivating. The Puerto Tranquilo–Bahía Exploradores section is currently under construction, with completion expected in March 2001: 30 kilometers remain to be built starting from Lake Bayo. The completion of the Tranquilo–Bahía Exploradores section (75 km) will facilitate access for residents of the Bahía Exploradores area to healthcare, education, communications, and daily transportation to Coyhaique. Furthermore, this road will provide access via the Southern Longitudinal Highway to the San Rafael Glacier, a tourist attraction whose appeal has transcended national borders.

== References ==
* [https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/p/carretera-austral.html CARRETERA AUSTRAL]
<references/>

[[Category:History of Chile]]
[[Category:Chile]]

Chile

2026-03-23T13:24:04Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Sports */

{{Country
|name =''República de Chile''
|map =Tricontinental Chile Map.jpg
|map2 =Chile location map.png
|flag =Flag of Chile.png
|arms =Coat of arms of Chile.png
|capital-raw =[[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]]
|government-raw =[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Unitarian & Presidentialist Republic]]
|language =Spanish
|president =José Antonio Kast
|president-raw=
|conservative-leader=
|conservative-leader-raw=[[José Antonio Kast]]/[[Johannes Kaiser]]
|area =774,657 sq. mi. (Tricontinental Chile) 292,183 sq. mi. (Only Continental and Insular Chile)
|pop =19,100,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$280,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$14,660 (2020)
|currency =Chilean Peso (CLP)
|idd =+56
|tld =.cl
}}
'''Chile''' (official name: '''Republic of Chile''') is a [[nation]] on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of [[South America]], [[Antarctica]] and [[Oceania]] which is organized as a Centralized Unitary Presidential [[Democracy]]. It has a population of 17.5 million and the capital city is [[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]] which is also the biggest city of the country. Chile borders [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Peru]].

Between 1975 and 2014, Chile followed the path of the [[free market]] and [[Capitalism]] been the best place to make business of [[Latin America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iberglobal.com/files/2019-1/economic_freedom_index_2019.pdf|title=Economic Freedom Index 2019}}</ref> This has made the country the most developed of the Region according to the [[Human Development Index]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=505045|title=Chile sigue al tope de A. Latina en Índice de Desarrollo Humano|date=September 15, 2018|publisher=Economía y Negocios|language=es}}</ref> Chile went from a [[Gross domestic product]] of 100 in 1973 to 515 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobierno.udd.cl/files/2016/05/PPT-FPP.pdf|author=Lucas Palacios Covarrubias|title=Pobreza vs Desigualdad|date=April 2016|publisher=[[Universidad del Desarrollo]] - Facultad de Gobierno|language=es}}</ref> However that was put at risk with the leftist insurrection from 2019 and the Boric presidency. Right-wing [[President of Chile|President]] [[José Antonio Kast]] promises to retake the path to develop the country.

In early September 2022, by a resounding 62-38% landslide margin, Chileans rejected a progressive new constitution proposal and thereby decided to retain [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|the one written under]] [[conservative]] leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1980, which was reformed over 70 times in democracy in more than half of its content.<ref>https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1121065756/chile-constitution-referendum</ref><ref>[https://www.uandes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CPR-Edicio%CC%81n-Histo%CC%81rica.pdf]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220929111026/https://plataformacontexto.cl/contexto_factual/cuanto-queda-de-la-constitucion-de-pinochet/ Cuánto queda de “la Constitución de Pinochet”]</ref> A new proposal from the center-right with globalist elements was rejected on December 2023 with a 56-44% landslide margin.

==Geography==
[[File:Volcano Osorno and Petrohué waterfalls.JPG|thumb|left|Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano in the background.]]
The northern Chilean [[Atacama Desert]] contains great mineral wealth, principally [[copper]], and also contains locations where rainfall has never been recorded. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in [[forest]]s and grazing lands and features a string of [[volcano]]es and [[lake]]s. The southern coast located in [[Patagonia]] is a labyrinth of [[fjord]]s, [[inlet]]s, [[canal]]s, twisting [[peninsula]]s, and [[island]]s. The [[Andes]] Mountains are located on the eastern border.
*Area of Tricontinental Chile: 2,006,354 km2 (774,657 sq. mi.) including the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]] which reaches the [[South Pole]].
*Area considering Continental and Insular Chile: 756,945 km2. (302,778 sq. mi.), or nearly twice the size of California.
*Cities: Capital—[[Santiago]] (metropolitan area est. 6.25 million). Other cities: [[Concepción]]-[[Talcahuano]] (840,000), [[Viña del Mar]]-[[Valparaíso]] (800,000), [[Antofagasta]] (245,000), [[Temuco]] (230,000).
*Terrain: Desert in north; fertile central valley; volcanoes and lakes toward the south, giving way to rugged and complex coastline; Andes Mountains on the eastern border.
*Climate: Arid in north, Mediterranean in the central portion, cool and damp in south.

Chile has experienced numerous massive earthquakes, being located within the "Ring of Fire": of the 46 known earthquakes estimated at magnitude >= 8.5, one-third have occurred in Chile, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was measured at magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever recorded. On four occasions, two earthquakes with magnitude >= 8.5 have had the same Chilean epicenter. Furthermore, the strongest estimated earthquake (before seismographs were invented) also took place in Chile around 1800 BC, also estimated in the magnitude 9.5 range.

==People==
[[File:Chilean dance.jpg|left|140px]]
About 85% of Chile's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in greater Santiago. Most have [[Spain|Spanish]] ancestry. A small, yet influential number of [[Irish]] and [[English]] immigrants came to Chile during the Spanish Empire period. [[German]] immigration began in 1848 and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of [[Valdivia]], [[Llanquihue]], and [[Osorno]] show a strong German influence. Other significant historic immigrant groups are [[Italian]], [[Croatian]], [[Basque]], [[Palestinian]] and [[Peruvian]]. About 800,000 Native Americans, mostly of the [[Mapuche]] (Araucan) tribes, reside in the south-central area. The [[Aymara]] and [[Diaguita]] groups can be found mainly in Chile's northern desert valleys.

Since 2014 Chile has been experiencing [[open borders|mass]] [[immigration]] from [[Haiti]], [[Venezuela]], [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]], something that was unusual and has drastically changed the demographics of the country in the recent years (The immigrants went from 1.1% to 6.1% and is still growing)<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> a lot of them are [[Illegal immigration|illegally]] (See ''[[Colchane#Mass_immigration_problem|Colchane's Mass immigration problem]]'').

*Population (2019): 17.5 million.
*Annual population growth rate: 0.881%.
*Ethnic groups: Spanish-Native-American (mestizo), European, Native-American, Blacks (since 2014 with mass Haitian immigration).
*Religions: [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] 70%, [[Evangelical]] 15.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.1%, other Christian 1%, other 4.6%, none 8.3%.
*Language: [[Spanish]].
*Education: Years compulsory—13. Attendance—3 million. Adult literacy rate—96%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate—8.9/1,000. Life expectancy—80 yrs. for men, 85 for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsuss.cl/ipsuss/analisis-y-estudios/esperanza-de-vida-al-nacer-en-chile-llega-a-85-anos-en-mujeres-y-80-anos/2017-09-26/154547.html|title=Esperanza de vida al nacer en Chile llega a 85 años en mujeres y 80 años en hombres|date=September 26, 2017|language=es|publisher=Ipsuss}}</ref>
*Work force (6.94 million); employed 6.45 million: Community, social and individual services—26%; industry—14.4%; commerce—17.6%; agriculture, forestry, and fishing—13.9%; construction—7.1%; financial services—7.5%; transportation and communication—8.0%; electricity, gas and water—0.5%; mining—1.2%.

==Government==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Palacio de La Moneda.jpg|thumbnail|250px|[[La Moneda]] Palace, seat of Executive Branch.]]
[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Chile's Constitution]] was approved in a September 1980 national plebiscite with 67% of the vote. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]], the Constitution was reformed and another referendum was held over the reforms in which 91% voted in favor. In 2005 President Lagos made several reforms to the Constitution, even changing the Pinochet sign with his.
The President term is 4-year long, however is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms. The political system of Chile is an exacerbated [[Presidential system|Presidential]] one.
Chile has a bicameral Congress, which meets in the port city of [[Valparaíso]], about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago (since 1990). Deputies are elected every 4 years, and Senators serve 8-year terms.
There are currently 43 Senators and 155 Deputies.
The Chilean elections are judged free and fair.

Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nationwide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform replaced old proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.

The Central Bank in Chile is autonomous since 1981.

===Principal Government Officials===
{{See also|President of Chile}}
[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio Kast Rist]], a pro-life, anti illegal immigration conservative.]]
*[[President of Chile|President]]—[[José Antonio Kast]] since 11 March 2026.
*Minister of Interior—Claudio Alvarado
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Francisco Pérez Mackenna
*Ambassador to the United States—Andrés Ergas
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)—José Miguel Castro
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Roberto Ampuero
*Ambassador to the OECD—Sebastián Schneinder
*Mayor of Santiago—[[Mario Desbordes]]

===Foreign Relations===
Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. [[Jose Miguel Insulza]], a Chilean national, was Secretary General of the Organization of American States from May 2005 to 2015. Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002 and the [[APEC]] summit and related meetings in 2004. Chile hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial in April 2005. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade. The APEC 2019 was planed to be hosted on Chile and the COP25 but was cancelled due to the [[2019 Chilean State of Emergency|State of Emergency]]. President [[Donald Trump]] planed to sign an agreement with [[Xi Jinping]] to end the 'Trade War' in the APEC hosted in Chile, however it was canceled.

Chile was one of the four countries (along with [[Singapore]], [[Brunei]] and [[New Zealand]]) that started the [[TPP (treaty)|TPP-11]].

Chile signed many Free Trade Agreements since the 90s.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. It settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s except for a part in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and the Antarctic claims overlap between both countries, however the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow modification to the claims and they are ineffective.

In 2007 Peru demanded Chile in the International Court of Justice due to a maritime dispute. The case was closed in 2013 in which half of the disputed sea was ceded to Peru and half to Chile. In Chile it was seen as a lost case.

Chile and Bolivia have bad diplomatic relations since [[Evo Morales]], Bolivia's president, reintegrated the desire to reacquire territory Bolivia lost to Chile in 1879-83 [[War of the Pacific]] in his Foreign Affairs Policy and he demanded Chile in the Internation Couth of Justice, a case which Chile won. There is currently a case to determine if Silala is a river (Chile's position) or is a spring artificially modificated by Chile (Bolivia's position). The two countries maintain consular relations and are represented at the Consul General level but doesn't have embassies in each other.

===Political parties and coalitions===
Important parties without coalition:
*[[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (right-wing) ([[José Antonio Kast]]'s party).
*[[National Libertarian Party]] ([[Paleolibertarian]] party) ([[Johannes Kaiser]]'s party).
*[[Broad Front (Chile)|Broad Front]] (far-left) ([[Gabriel Boric]]'s party).
*[[Communist Party]] (far-left) ([[Daniel Jadue|Jadue]]'s party).
*[[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]] (from center to center-right) ([[Franco Parisi]]'s party).
*''[[Communist Party]] of Chile - Proletarian Action/Patriotic Union'' (dissolved) (far-left) (Eduardo Artes' party).
*''[[Social Christian Party (Chile)|Social Christian Party]]'' (dissolved) ([[Evangelical]] party) (Evangelical party).

The main coalitions are:
*[[Chile Vamos]] (Globalist center-right) ([[Sebastián Piñera|Piñera]] and [[Evelyn Matthei|Matthei]]'s coalition) composed by the [[Independent Democrat Union]], [[National Renewal]] and ''[[Evópoli]]'' (dissolved party).
*Democratic Socialism (left) composed by old leftist parties such as: the [[Socialist]] Party, Party for Democracy, and the Liberal Party.

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Chile (+Antarctica & Islands), administrative divisions - en - colored.png|230px|thumbnail|Map of the Chilean Regions.]]
{{Main article|Regions of Chile}}
Chile is divided in 16 Regions, 56 provinces and 346 communes. Chile is a Unitary Centralized State in which the law is the same in every place of the country.

'''List of the Regions and their Capital''':
*[[Arica & Parinacota Region|Arica & Parinacota]] - Capital: [[Arica]]
*[[Tarapacá Region|Tarapacá]] - Capital: [[Iquique]]
*[[Antofagasta Region|Antofagasta]] - Capital: [[Antofagasta]]
*[[Atacama Region|Atacama]] - Capital: [[Copiapó]]
*[[Coquimbo Region|Coquimbo]] - Capital: [[La Serena]]
*[[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]] - Capital: [[Valparaíso]]
*[[Metropolitan Region|Metropolitan]] - Capital: [[Santiago]]
*[[O'Higgins Region|O'Higgins]] - Capital: [[Rancagua]]
*[[Maule Region|Maule]] - Capital: [[Talca]]
*[[Ñuble Region|Ñuble]] - Capital: [[Chillán]]
*[[Biobío Region|Biobío]] - Capital: [[Concepción (Chile)|Concepción]]
*[[Araucanía Region|Araucanía]] - Capital: [[Temuco]]
*[[Los Ríos Region|Los Ríos]] - Capital: [[Valdivia]]
*[[Los Lagos Region|Los Lagos]] - Capital: [[Puerto Montt]]
*[[Aysén Region|Aysén]] - Capital: [[Coyhaique]]
*[[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica]] - Capital: [[Punta Arenas]]

The most conservative commune of Chile is [[Colchane]] as well with Antártica, Lo Barnechea, Vitacura & Las Condes.

==Defense==
Chile's Armed Forces are subject to civilian control exercised by the President through the Minister of Defense. The President has the authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.

===Army===
The Chilean Army is 45,000 strong and is organized with an Army headquarters in Santiago, seven divisions throughout its territory, an Air Brigade in Rancagua, and a Special Forces Command in Colina. The Chilean Army is one of the most professional and technologically advanced armies in Latin America habing inherited the [[Prussian]] military doctrine.

===Navy===
The Navy has 23,000-person, including 2,500 Marines. Of the fleet of 29 surface vessels, only eight are operational major combatants (frigates). Those ships are based in [[Valparaíso]]. The Navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no Navy fighter or bomber aircraft. The Navy also operates four submarines based in [[Talcahuano]].

===Air Force (FACH)===
The FACH is a force of 12,500. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on [[Villa Las Estrellas]], [[King George Island]], [[Antarctica]]. The FACH was created in 1930 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]].

===Carabineros===
[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|250px|thumbnail]]
[[Carabineros de Chile]] is the national police force of 30,000 men and women who are responsible for law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control, and counter-terrorism throughout Chile. The Carabineros were created in 1927 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]]. Carabineros is the best police in Latin America and least corrupt.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/best-worst-latam-police|title=From Chile to Mexico: Best and Worst of LatAm Police|publisher=InSight Crime|date=March 20, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

Carabineros enjoys significant international prestige due to its professionalism and efficiency. Through the Chilean government's Cooperation Programme for Uniformed Foreign Police Forces (CECIPU), it has trained and specialized over thousands of officers from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. As a founding member of AMERIPOL (Community of American Police Forces) since 2007 and an associated member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (FIEP) since 2005, Carabineros has even chaired AMERIPOL, highlighting its regional leadership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cecipu.interior.gob.cl/|title=CECIPU: Programa de cooperación internacional del Gobierno de Chile para policías uniformadas|publisher=Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gob.mx/epn%7Cpoliciafederal/articulos/cuerpo-de-carabineros-de-chile-condecora-al-comisionado-general-de-la-policia-federal-de-mexico|title=Cuerpo de Carabineros de Chile condecora al Comisionado General de la Policía Federal de México|publisher=Gobierno de México|date=April 27, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
[[File:Gran Torre Santiago (39693576311).jpg|thumbnail|300px|Gran Torre Santiago, in the financial district of the city.]]
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 3.3% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.1%. Real GDP growth reached 6.3% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile signed the OECD Convention, becoming the first South American country to join the OECD.

*GDP (official exchange rate): $150.4 billion. (GDP (purchasing power parity):$335.4 billion (2013 est.))
*Annual real growth rate: -1.5%.
*Per capita GDP (purchasing power parity): $27,058 (GDP - per capita (PPP) 2019 est.)
*Forestry, agriculture, and fisheries (6% of GDP): Products—fruits, wheat, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions, beans, livestock, fish.
*Commerce (8% of GDP): Sales, restaurants, hotels.
*Manufacturing (17% of GDP): Types—mineral refining, metal manufacturing, food processing, fish processing, paper and wood products, finished textiles.
*Electricity, gas, and water: 3% of GDP.
*Transportation and communication: 7% of GDP.
*Construction: 8% of GDP.
*Financial services (12% of GDP): Insurance, leasing, consulting.
*Mining (13% of GDP): Copper, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, and molybdenum.
*Trade: Exports--$57.61 billion: copper, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and wood products. Major markets—U.S., Japan, China, Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Mexico. Imports--$40.91 billion: fuels, heavy industrial machinery, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, plastic. Major suppliers—U.S., China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. (GDP (official exchange rate):$281.7 billion (2013 est.))

Chile has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by [[negotiating]] in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[José Piñera]] creator of the Individual capitalization pension system.]]
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], economist during the Military Government that re-implemented liberal economic policies.]]
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.

Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile's consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a family of four's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 18% by 2004.

Chile's independent Central Bank pursues an inflation target of between 2% and 4%. Inflation has not exceeded 5% since 1998. Chile registered an inflation rate of 3.2% in 2006. The Chilean peso's rapid appreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent years has helped dampen inflation. Most wage settlements and loans are indexed, reducing inflation's volatility. Under the compulsory private pension system, most formal sector employees pay 10% of their salaries into privately managed funds.

[[File:Countries with a private pension system.jpg|thumbnail|Countries that applied Chile's private pension system.]]
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) was only $3.4 billion in 2006, up 52% from a poor performance in 2005. However, 80% of FDI continues to go to only four sectors: electricity, gas, water and mining. Much of the jump in FDI in 2006 was also the result of acquisitions and mergers and has done little to create new employment in Chile. The Chilean Government has formed a Council on Innovation and Competition, which is tasked with identifying new sectors and industries to promote. It is hoped that this, combined with some tax reforms to encourage domestic and foreign investment in research and development, will bring in additional FDI and to new parts of the economy. As of 2006, Chile invested only 0.6% of its annual GDP in research and development (R&D). Even then, two-thirds of that was government spending. The fact that domestic and foreign companies spend almost nothing on R&D does not bode well for the Government of Chile's efforts to develop innovative, knowledge-based sectors. Additionally, on January 8, 2007, Chile was placed on the U.S. Trade Representative's Priority Watch List due to its poor record on protecting intellectual property rights. Chile is only the second U.S. FTA partner ever to be placed on the Priority Watch List. Chile has a poor and deteriorating record of protecting copyrighted music, films, and software. Combined with this is its institutional structure allowing local companies to produce and market pharmaceutical generics that violate existing patents. Beyond its general economic and political stability, the government also has encouraged the use of Chile as an "investment platform" for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region, but this will have limited value given the developing business climate in Chile itself. Chile's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Chileans. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital. While Chile and the EU have signed a double taxation treaty, no such agreement exists between the U.S. and Chile.

Mining was temporarily curtailed following an accident in which 33 miners were trapped after a cave-in at the San Jose mine<ref>http://www.minandes.com/s/RoadtoProduction.asp</ref> near Copiapo on August 5, 2010. A rescue attempt - bolstered by national pride at getting the men out alive - ended 67 days later on October 13 as the last of the men were pulled out to safety.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/12/rescued-chilean-miner-returns-surface/</ref><ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7961923/Chilean-miners-trapped-in-San-Jose-mine.html</ref>

===Foreign Trade===
[[File:Commercial Treaties Chile 2012.jpg|thumb|295px|Commercial Treaties, 2012.]]
2006 was a record year for Chilean trade. Total trade registered a 31% increase over 2005. During 2006, exports of goods and services totaled U.S. $58 billion, an increase of 41%. This figure was somewhat distorted by the skyrocketing price of copper. In 2006, copper exports reached a historical high of U.S. $33.3 billion. Imports totaled U.S. $35 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. Chile thus recorded a positive trade balance of U.S. $23 billion in 2006.

The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion). Seen as shares of Chile's export markets, 42% of exports went to the Americas, 30% to Asia and 24% to Europe. Within Chile's diversified network of trade relationships, its most important partner remained the United States. Total trade with the U.S. was U.S. $14.8 billion in 2006. Since the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004, U.S.-Chilean trade has increased by 154%. Internal Government of Chile figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has grown over 60% since then.

Total trade with Europe also grew in 2006, expanding by 42%. The Netherlands and Italy were Chile's main European trading partners. Total trade with Asia also grew significantly at nearly 31%. Trade with Korea and Japan grew significantly, but China remained Chile's most important trading partner in Asia. Chile's total trade with China reached U.S. $8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66% of the value of its trade relationship with Asia.

The growth of exports in 2006 was due mainly to a strong increase in sales to the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. These three markets alone accounted for an additional U.S. $5.5 billion worth of Chilean exports. Chilean exports to the United States totaled U.S. $9.3 billion, representing a 37.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $6.7 billion). Exports to the European Union were U.S. $15.4 billion, a 63.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $9.4 billion). Exports to Asia increased from U.S. $15.2 billion in 2005 to U.S. $19.7 billion in 2006, a 29.9% increase.

During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).

Chile's overall trade profile has traditionally been dependent upon copper exports. The state-owned firm CODELCO is the world's largest copper-producing company, with recorded copper reserves of 200 years. Chile has made an effort to expand nontraditional exports. The most important non-mineral exports are forestry and wood products, fresh fruit and processed food, fishmeal and seafood, and wine.

Successive Chilean governments have actively pursued trade-liberalizing agreements. During the 1990s, Chile signed FTAs with Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Chile also concluded preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. An association agreement with Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—went into effect in October 1996. Continuing its export-oriented development strategy, Chile completed landmark free trade agreements in 2002 with the European Union and South Korea. Chile, as a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, is seeking to boost commercial ties to Asian markets. To that end, it has signed trade agreements in recent years with New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, and most recently Japan. In 2007, Chile plans to begin negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

After two years of negotiations, the United States and Chile signed an agreement in June 2003 that will lead to completely duty-free bilateral trade within 12 years. The U.S.-Chile FTA entered into force January 1, 2004 following approval by the U.S. and Chilean congresses. The bilateral FTA has inaugurated greatly expanded U.S.-Chilean trade ties, with total bilateral trade jumping by 154% during the FTA's first three years.

Chile unilaterally lowered its across-the-board import tariff for all countries with which it does not have a trade agreement to 6% in 2003. Higher effective tariffs are charged only on imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar as a result of a system of import price bands. The price bands were ruled inconsistent with Chile's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in 2002, and the government has introduced legislation to modify them. Under the terms of the U.S.-Chile FTA, the price bands will be completely phased out for U.S. imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar within 12 years.

Chile is a strong proponent of pressing ahead on negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is active in the WTO's Doha round of negotiations, principally through its membership in the G-20 and Cairns Group.

===Finance===
Chile's financial sector has grown quickly in recent years, with a banking reform law approved in 1997 that broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001, and there is further pending legislation proposing further liberalization. Over the last ten years, Chileans have enjoyed the introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has also been accompanied by an increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $70 billion at the end of 2006, has been an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S&P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways for Chilean firms to raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stocks on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Nearly all of the funds raised through these means go to finance domestic Chilean investment. The government is required by law to run a fiscal surplus of at least 1% of GDP. In 2006, the Government of Chile ran a surplus of $11.3 billion, equal to almost 8% of GDP. The Government of Chile continues to pay down its foreign debt, with public debt only 3.9% of GDP at the end of 2006.

==History==
===Discovery and Hispanic period===
[[File:Pedro de Valdivia.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Pedro de Valdivia]], founder of several cities and conqueror of Chile.]]
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]], one of the founding fathers of Chile.]]
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first European to see Chilean land was [[Ferdinand Magellan]] when he discovered the [[Strait of Magellan]] in 1520, however the first one to arrive in Chile were [[Diego de Almagro]] and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in 1535. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of [[Santiago]] on February 12, 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

===19th Century, Independence, State Consolidation and Wars with neightbours===
[[File:Pedro Subercaseaux Jura de la Independencia Chile.jpg|thumb|300px|Fray Pedro Subercaseaux, Jura de la Independencia de Chile.]]
[[File:Diego Portales-2.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Diego Portales]] author of the 1833 Constitution which prioritized order over democracy.]]
[[File:Arturo Prat Chacón.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Arturo Prat|Arturo Prat Chacón]], the maximum naval hero of the Chilean Nation.]]
[[File:Sinking of the Esmeralda during the battle of Iquique.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Sinking of the Esmeralda during the [[battle of Iquique|naval battle of Iquique]].]]
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national [[junta]] in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence which [[José Miguel Carrera]] started soon won a wide following. After the [[Battle of Rancagua]], a Spanish attempt to reimpose arbitrary rule started, during what was called the "Reconquista" led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army led by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], Chile's most renowned patriot, and [[José de San Martín]], hero of Argentine independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership.

During the Ramón Freire Presidency in 1826 the last royalist bastion was defeated, the [[Chiloé]] archipelago and the Tantauco Treaty was signed between Chile and Spain.

Between 1823 and 1829 there was a period of Constitutional Attempts, and there were four of them.

The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the 1833 Constitution made by [[Diego Portales]]. After the [[Civil War]] of 1829–30, a strong presidency emerged, but wealthy landowners remained extremely powerful.

Between 1836 and 1839, Chile fought a [[War against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] which Chile won and separated Peru and Bolivia again.

In 1865 and 1866 Chile, Peru and Ecuador fought against Spain in the [[Chincha Islands War]], Chile and it's allies won.

[[Image:Easter_island_statues.jpg|thumb|right|On September 9, 1888 the Council of Rapanui Chiefs asked the Chilean Navy Captain, Policarpo Toro, to accept the sovereignty of [[Easter Island]] without giving up their chieftaincy titles, the ownership of their lands, the validity of their culture and traditions and on equal terms. This known as the "Agreement of Wills".]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by founding the [[Fort Bulnes]] in 1843 (near the current city of [[Punta Arenas]] in the [[Strait of Magellan]]) and incorporating the zone of the south of the [[Biobío river]] in a process called the [[Pacification of the Araucanía]], the government plan was to building roads, schools, and public infrastructure where the [[Mapuche]] Indians live, they were incorporated as citizens, however the rebel Mapuches were crushed.

There was also a process of Colonization in which the Government gave [[German]] [[settlers]] lands in [[Valdivia]] and the [[Llanquihue Lake]] where they founded several towns and cities. To this day the German influence can be noted in cities like Valdivia, [[Puerto Varas]], [[Frutillar]], [[Puerto Octay]], [[Nueva Braunau]], Ensenada, [[Puerto Montt]] and [[Osorno]].

In 1881, Chile signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan but also loosing its colonial rights over Eastern Patagonia. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. After a [[Civil war]] in 1891 in which President [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] committed suicide, a parliamentary democracy was established, but degenerated into a system protecting the interests of the ruling oligarchy.
In 1888 Chile incorporated [[Easter Island]] to the national territory.

===20th Century===
[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|175px|thumbnail|The [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.
Continuing political and economic instability resulted with the rule of the quasidictatorial Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] (1924–32).
In June there was a Coup and between that month and September 1932 there was an attempt to establish a [[Socialist]] Republic that failed.
When constitutional rule was restored later that year, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy.
In 1940 Chile started to claim officially the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].

In 1962 the "right-wing" President [[Jorge Alessandri]] started the agrarian reform in a small portion, that expropriated part of big land properties. This reform was deepened by the next two governments.

The 1964 presidential election of [[Christian Democrat]] [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

He also made the "Chileanization of the copper" which introduced the State into the copper industry.
====Unidad Popular Marxist Regime (1970-1973)====
{{Main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
In 1970, Senator [[Salvador Allende]], a [[Marxist]] and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the "Popular Unity" (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats (the lasts ones supported him with the condition of respecting the laws and private property), won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest and was named president by the Chilean Congress. His program included the nationalization of private industries and banks, massive land expropriation, and collectivization, implementation of a Marxist education system, repartition of food collectively (with a limit of one stock per family). Allende's program also included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major copper mines.

[[Fidel Castro]] visited Chile in 1971 where he stayed for months.
Allende said in the same year "The major role of a journalist is not to server the truth, but to server the revolution" and in 1972 "I'm the President of the Unidad Popular, but I'm not the president of all Chileans".

Elected with only 36% of the vote and by a plurality of only 36,000 votes, Allende never enjoyed majority support in the Chilean Congress or broad popular support. Domestic production declined; severe shortages of consumer goods, food, and manufactured products were widespread; and inflation reached 1,000% per annum. Mass demonstrations, recurring strikes, violence by both government supporters and opponents, and widespread rural unrest ensued in response to the general deterioration of the economy.

The 22th of August 1973 the Chamber of Deputies called for a military intervention since the Allende's Government was Unconstitutional for not respecting basic laws like [[private property]].<ref>[https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2013/08/23/40-anos-del-acuerdo-de-la-camara-que-declaro-la-ilegitimidad-del-gobierno-de-allende/ 40 años del acuerdo de la Cámara que declaró la ilegitimidad del Gobierno de Allende]</ref> By the time the Christian Democrats stopped supporting Allende and started to support an intervention.

[[Carlos Altamirano]], General Secretary of the Socialist Party in July 1973 called to "crush the opposition" and to "not negotiate with the enemies of Chile"<ref>https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304093123/rev91_documento.pdf</ref> he also called for a violent Marxist revolution in 1968.

====Military Government (1973-1990)====
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990).jpg|300px|thumbnail|President and General [[Augusto Pinochet|Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], President of Chile (1973-1990), fighter against [[Marxism]], father of Chile's development, and restorer of the order and the institutions.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|1980 Constitution]] and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
A military pronouncement overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace, Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime in particular were marked by an irregular war against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|leftist terrorists]] who wanted a violent Marxist revolution. A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] was approved by a plebiscite on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. The Constitution writing had an important participation of [[Jaime Guzmán]] who also founded the [[Independent Democrat Union]].

The Armed Forces had to assume the leadership of the country, aware that this task did not mean a mere restoration of the broken institutionality, since the systematic destruction to which the Homeland had been subjected had deeply undermined coexistence and national development; therefore, it was imperative to go further and create a modern, profound system of the country, with a clear social content and democratic character. From the structuring of the stages and objectives of the Government and the determination of the principles that would govern the project, the Armed Forces marked with height, coherence and consequence the national reality and the itinerary designed.

This great work was not exempt from interferences, demands and sacrifices, since at the beginning it was necessary to overcome the disastrous consequences of the previous administrations and the prevailing polarization. Subsequently, it was necessary to face defamation, the economic crises in the neighborhood, and the wily terrorist and subversive actions. These, together or in isolation, ([[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] made the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]" that blocked any selling of weapons to Chile, and also the U.S. imposed a blockade on fruit exports) in could have led any government to political, economic and social collapse. However, the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, based on efficiency, patriotism and joint effort, with a more than important part of society, managed to overcome the obstacles and deliver a better future for all Chileans.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Military men victims of [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]].]]

There is an evident reality that shows that important sectors of the political spectrum not only tried gradually and systematically to delegitimize the Military Government, but even, once they determined the impossibility of achieving their goals, they used means and tools contrary to peaceful coexistence, even seeking its destabilization, accepting, encouraging or participating in Chilean and foreign extremist organizations contrary to the idiosyncrasy and national identity.
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
The successful model and the change of life generated in Chileans by the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, in general, has not been accepted or recognized at the national and international level. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it would be pernicious for national coexistence that a government defined as authoritarian has been so successful and profound. Undoubtedly, this is a biased point of view, since this line of argument tends to homologate our reality with caudillisms or military irruptions that lacked ethical imperatives and national needs and that did occur systematically or cyclically in other nations.

The deed of September 11, 1973 and the foundational work of the Military Government, apart from signifying for the Armed Forces and the Carabineros and, particularly, for the Army, a feeling of honor and pride that must be preserved, is an event that must necessarily be included in national and universal history in all its truth and dimension.
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|250|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile in 1985.]]
[[File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Pinochet]] inaugurating [[Villa Las Estrellas]] in [[Chilean Antarctic Territory|Chilean Antarctica]] in 1984.]]

In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. In contrast to its authoritarian political rule, the military government pursued decidedly [[laissez-faire]] economic policies.

[[Milton Friedman]] said,
* "... the really extraordinary thing about the Chilean case was that a military government followed the opposite of military policies. The military is distinguished from the ordinary economy by the fact that it's a top-down organization. The general tells the colonel, the colonel tells the captain, and so on down, whereas a market is a bottom-up organization. The customer goes into the store and tells the retailer what he wants; the retailer sends it back up the line to the manufacturer and so on. So the basic organizational principles in the military are almost the opposite of the basic organizational principles of a free market and a free society. And the really remarkable thing about Chile is that the military adopted the free-market arrangements instead of the military arrangements."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10 Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman on PBS]</ref>

During its 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that fostered an increase in domestic and foreign private investment. The complete political liberalization of the country came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite, which finally took place on October 5. On that day, the triumph of the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans voted for elections to choose a new president in 1989 and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress. The Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution on the same year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>[https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html Soros helped the "No" campaign]</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

===Democratic governments===
[[File:Izamiento de la Gran Bandera Nacional - Presidentes de Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|The five [[President of Chile|Chilean Presidents]] between the years 1990 and 2022 (two of them were elected twice in non-consecutive terms).]]
On December 14, 1989, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the Concertación, was elected president. In a ceremony held in the Congress building in Valparaíso, Pinochet handed over the presidency to the new constitutional President.

Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994 and was succeeded by another Christian Democrat, [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (son of the previous President), leading the same coalition, for a 6-year term. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy led the Concertación to a narrower victory in 2000 presidential elections.

During the ''Concertación'' Governments, Military personnel who fought terrorism were jailed unfairly using an old judicial system and without proof, these can be called the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisioners]] that were destined to the [[Punta Peuco Jail]]. Also during these Governments the private pension system was reformed to benefit the companies that manage pension funds by making the users assume the economic losses and increased the retirement age by approximately 20 years, which directly lowered pensions. This changes are the main factor of the problems in the system that can be reversed.

In September 2005, President [[Ricardo Lagos]] signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.

On January 15, 2006 [[Michelle Bachelet|Michelle Bachelet Jeria]] (center-left) won the elections against businessman [[Sebastián Piñera]] (center-right) and she took office on March 11, 2006, becoming the first woman to become President of Chile.
In 2009 Sebastián Piñera Echenique won the presidency, beign the first center-right candidate to do so after the Pinochet regime. In 2013 Bachelet won the office again and Piñera in 2017. Presidents in Chile can't have consecutive two terms, they need to wait another election.

Chile's congressional elections were governed by a unique binomial system made by [[Jaime Guzmán]] until 2018 that rewarded coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for the two Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district. Historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) splat most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 did the winning coalition gain both seats.

Chile was leaded by President [[Sebastián Piñera]] between 2018 and 2022 with the coalition of parties called [[Chile Vamos]]. The coalition was center-right and took [[progressive]] stands on some moral issues like legalizing [[same sex "marriage"]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2018/11/29/chile-enacts-landmark-gender-identity-law/|title=Chile enacts landmark gender identity law|date=November 29, 2018|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref>

{{main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
In 2019 Leftist mobs began to burn private and public property (the main public damage were 20 metro stations that were burned and 77 damaged in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metro.cl/noticias/balance-danos-19-de-octubre-2019|title=Balance daños 19 de octubre 2019|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Metro de Santiago}}</ref> starting a political crisis that has on its objectives to make the state bigger, raise taxes, and eliminate the individual capitalization system, as well as a change of the Constitution. This groups have been supported by the international left, the [[Sao Paulo Forum]], the [[Puebla Group]] and [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/10/20/nicolas-maduro-respondio-las-acusaciones-de-alentar-las-protestas-en-ecuador-y-chile-foro-de-sao-paulo-estamos-cumpliendo-el-plan-ustedes-me-entienden/|title=Nicolás Maduro habló sobre las acusaciones de alentar las protestas en Ecuador y Chile: "Foro de San Pablo, estamos cumpliendo el plan, ustedes me entienden..."|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Infobae}}</ref> The period is called ''Estallido social'' by the left. [[Diosdado Cabello]], a government official from Venezuela at that time said "The [[Bolivarian]] breeze sweeping the region will become a hurricane"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-diosdado-cabello-amenaza-brisa-bolivariana-recorre-region-convertira-huracan-201910201834_noticia.html|title=Diosdado Cabello amenaza: "La brisa bolivariana que recorre la región se convertirá en huracán"|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=ABC Internacional}}</ref>

On the 15th of November 2019 the Congress approved to make a referendum on the Constitution, ceding to the radical left.

The referendum was made on October 25, 2020, and the option to change the Constitution won. Several rallies were made for the 'Rejection' (''Rechazo'') option by patriots with a high number of people attending and in which [[Sebastián Izquierdo]] played an important role.

There was a previous proposal of a new Constitution that was a draft from the socialist Michelle Bachelet from the last weeks of her administration and both administrations (Piñera and Bachelet) were committed to follow the globalist [[2030 Agenda]] from the United Nations. The [[Constitutional Convention (Chile)|Constitutional Convention]] which redacted the text made a progressive and globalist proposal, the conservative [[Teresa Marinovic]] was elected to the Convention auditing the far-left institution.

In the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Presidential Election]], the final front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Gabriel Boric]]. Kast won the first round with a 27.91% of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and Boric obtained 25.82% (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13% (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87% (4,620,890 votes) from Boric. Boric got electoed at the age of 35, a former student radical "activist," a self-described [[communist]].<ref name=at22nov21>Monica Showalter, [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/stunning_good_news_from_chile__and_not_just_for_them_but_for_us.html Stunning good news from Chile...], American Thinker, November 22, 2021</ref>

On September 4, 2022, the second referendum took place in which the 'Rejection' option won with 61.86% of the votes against 38.14% of the 'Approve' option. The main difference with the first election was that the vote was mandatory in the second one and not the first one, having bigger participation of older generations which tend to vote conservative. After the triumph of the 'Rechazo', Gabriel Boric changed the cabinet of ministers of his government.

In 2023 the corrupt political system started a new process to change the Constitution, this time with more control of the establishment parties, without asking on a referendum if the citizens of Chile wanted a new process (they "assumed" that the 2020 referendum result is permanent, even that that process ended with the 2022 referendum). On May 7 the [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|election to elect the counselors of the Constitutional Council]] was held and a massive conservative victory was obtained, the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] won the majority as well as a record "Nulo" (Voluntary refusal to choose a candidate by the citizenry in a mandatory election) votes on 3rd place.

On December 17, 2023 a new referendum was held over the new written text, the Republican Party directive supported the change of the Chilean Constitution, many members of the party opposed this stance change of the party. The Globalist "center-right" coalition, [[Chile Vamos]] and centrist parties such as "Democrats" and "Yellows" (which means "being too moderated") supported the "In Favor" option as well. Chilean Patriots supported the "Against" option as well as the most of the left-wing. The "Against" Option obtained 55.76% of the votes while the "In Favor" Option obtained 44.24%. The dissident right was victorious over the establishment "right-wing" parties who supported the new proposed text.

On June 7, 2024 [[Johannes Kaiser]] founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-globalist, paleo-libertarian party.

José Antonio Kast, a Catholic pro-life conservative who promised to protect Chile against illegal immigration won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Sports==
[[Association Football|Football]] is the most popular sport by far. Chile hosted the 1962 [[World Cup]], notable for the "Battle of Santiago" (a group stage match between host Chile and Italy, which due to the on-pitch action - police had to be called no fewer than four times to gain control between squads - is considered among the poorest displays of sportsmanship in sports history, and eventually led to development of yellow and red cards).

However, the national sport is the Rodeo.

Chile won the Copa América 2015 and Copa América Centenario 2016, obtaining its first two Football titles in the national selection.

The Chilean mountains have important ski centers like Valle Nevado.

The [[Arica]] city in the north has the best waves of the country, something ideal for surfing.

[[File:Carretera Austral Augusto Pinochet.jpg|250px|thumbnail|''[[Carretera Austral]]'' of 1240 km long in [[Aysén Region]], built during the Military Government and unofficially named after him by his supporters.]]
The Chilean [[Patagonia]] is a famous place for trekking and out-door sports, The [[Carretera Austral]] (Southern Highway) and many National Parks (including the [[National Park Torres del Paine|Torres del Paine]] one) are visited by people all over the world.

==Culture==
[[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Nicanor Parra]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] are famous Chilean poets. Chillán in the Ñuble Region is a notorious cultural city of Chile.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== See also ==
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]
*[[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
*[[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[La Moneda]]
*[[Easter Island]]
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Colchane]], Chilean most conservative town
*[[Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
*[[War of the Pacific]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
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!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm]}}}.
|}

{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)

2026-03-23T13:23:49Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Transportation Sector */

[[File:Junta Militar de Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|The Junta.]]
The '''Augusto Pinochet regime''' or '''Military Government''' (''Gobierno Militar'' in [[Spanish language|Spanish]]) is the period on the Chilean History in which the Armed Forced governed the country after a the removal of a Socialist Regime. On September 11, 1973, the [[Chile]]an Armed Forces staged a military intervention. President [[Salvador Allende Gossens]] committed suicide during an infantry-tank assault on the ''[[La Moneda]]'' presidential palace, and a [[junta]] composed of the four leaders of the Armed Forces and Order (Army, Navy, Air Force and Police) took power. [[Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]] was sworn as president in 1974.

The Military Government managed to broke the communists, who were heavily armed and trying to start a civil war; rebuilt an economy destroyed by the previous regime; Pinochet's administration grew the middle class until it became the majority of the country, and eradicated extreme poverty; built a health care system that was affordable, efficient, and available to all; created a private retirement pension account system that gave people free choice while at the same time amassing a huge pool of capital that could be invested in the growth of the country; expunged corruption at all levels, most especially among the oligarchs, whom the government broke on in 1980–82; and created a legal and [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|constitutional framework]] that has given Chile peace, order and prosperity since.<ref>{{cite book|title=Pinochet: las "incómodas" verdades|author=Mario Spataro|date=2006|url=https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/2023/01/pinochet-las-incomodas-verdades-mario.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=CHILE ESCOGE LA LIBERTAD LA PRESIDENCIA DE AUGUSTO PINOCHET UGARTE|author=Gonzalo Rojas Sanchez|publisher=Zig Zag|date=2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://t.me/realCRP/1701|publisher=Telegram|title=Telegram Statement about Pinochet}}</ref>

As the historian Sebastián Hurtado summarizes it "The United States ([[CIA]]) had no direct participation in the coup (itself), neither in its planning nor in its coordination, and I would dare to say that not even in its incitement [...] but it did want Allende to fall (and did actions to promote that with no relation with the successful coup itself)."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latercera.com/la-tercera-sabado/noticia/sebastian-hurtado-historiador-estados-unidos-no-tuvo-participacion-directa-en-el-golpe-pero-si-queria-que-allende-cayera/3UXITS4IUNB3RPPB57ILMYDO64/|title=Sebastián Hurtado, historiador: “Estados Unidos no tuvo participación directa en el Golpe, pero sí quería que Allende cayera”|date=August 26, 2023|publisher=La Tercera|language=es}}</ref>

==Military intervention (So called coup d'état)==
[[File:Intervención militar de 1973.jpg|315px|thumbnail|Military intervention, [[La Moneda|La Moneda Presidential Palace]], 11th of September 1973.]]
The Chilean military reported having suffered 34 killed in stiff fighting in Valparaiso and Santiago on 11–12 September: two army sergeants, three army corporals, four army privates, 2 marine lieutenants, 1 marine corporal, 4 marine cadets, 3 marine conscripts and 15 carabineros (policemen). In mid-September, the military junta claimed its troops suffered another 16 dead and 100 injured by gunfire in mopping-up operations against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|left-wing guerrillas]] Allende civilian supporters, and Pinochet warned: ''"sadly there are still some armed groups who insist on attacking, which means that the military rules of wartime apply to them."'' On 23 October 1973, 23-year-old army corporal Benjamín Alfredo Jaramillo Ruz, who was serving with the ''Regimento Cazadores'', became the first fatal casualty of the counterinsurgency campaign in the mountainous area of Alquihue in the Valdivia Province after being shot by a guerrilla sniper. The Chilean Army suffered 12 killed in various clashes with MIR and GAP guerrillas in October 1973.

On 20 September 1973, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) was given permission to set up an administration office in Santiago, which helped find countries to accept 20,000 Chileans who had been detained or who feared military prosecution.<ref>"On September 20, 1973, just nine days after the coup, the UNHCR opened an office in Santiago and mobilized many efforts to facilitate the withdrawal from Chile of those politically persecuted by the regime and their reception in different countries. More than
20,000 were assisted by UNHCR in those years." Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective, Kathryn Stoner, Michael McFaul, p. 218, JHU Press, 2013</ref> According to an official report by the United States government, 80,000 Chileans were living abroad in the 1970s.<ref>"Since the overthrow about 80,000 Chileans have moved out of their country." U.S. Refugee Programs: Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 96th Congress, Second Session, April 17, 1980, p.398, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1980</ref><ref>"Since the events of September 1973, about 80,000 Chileans have fled their country." World Refugee Crisis, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1979</ref>

During the first three months of Pinochet's military regime, the Chilean armed forces and supporting police units suffered 162 killed in clashes with left-wing guerrillas and civilian supporters in the form of MIR and Chilean Communist Party militants.<ref>Latin America's Wars: The Age of the Professional Soldier, 1900–2001, Robert L. Scheina, p. 326, Potomac Books, 2003</ref>

Since the Allende Regime was declared illegal by the Congress and Judicial Branch, the first one calling the Armed Forces to take action, the actions of September 11, 1973 cannot be a "coup" that would be from outside the State, but it was a Military Intervention (''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciamiento Pronunciamiento] Militar'' in Spanish) called by the institutions to restored themselves.

Historian Richard Pipes (former Dean of History at Harvard University) studied the subject in depth and concluded that, when on September 11, 1973, the Armed Forces removed Allende, they only "obeyed" the Congress Agreement of August 22, 1973. (Book "Communism: A History").<ref name=josepinera>{{cite web|url=http://www.josepinera.org/articles/articulos_verdadhistorica_twitter.htm|title=LA TRAGEDIA DEL QUIEBRE DESDE ADENTRO DE LA DEMOCRACIA CHILENA|language=es|publisher=[[José Piñera]]|date=2010}}</ref> The Military Intervention was not only justified, but unavoidable.

===The truth about CIA involvement===
So many people refuse to accept that the [[CIA]] had no involvement in the 1973 military intervention, the CIA interference was centered on the killing of General René Schneider in 1970.

There was a nationalist small group called ''Patria y Libertad'', they were definitely financed by CIA. And somehow, they got the idea to kidnap the commander-in-chief of the Chilean Armed Forces, General René Schneider.

He was and a man who was extremely well-respected throughout Chilean society, especially in the military. After the 1970 election, there were calls to ignore the democratic process and prevent Allende from taking power. Gen. Schneider publicly articulated what became known as the Schneider doctrine: The armed forces would always support and protect institutional democratic authority, and would never go against a legal outcome duly passed by Congress or the courts. In other words, Schneider was refusing to stand in the way of an Allende presidency. This enraged Allende's hardest opposition, so ''Patria y Libertad'' came up with the idea of kidnapping Schneider, possibly, at the instigation of the CIA. This has never been very clear.

The kidnapping was botched, Schneider defended himself with his side arm and in the process was killed by the kidnappers. This led to the accession of Carlos Prats to the post of commander-in-chief. It was also deeply traumatic to the Chilean military as a whole. A few senior officers outright blamed the Americans for the Schneider killing. Most took a more nuanced view. But the net effect was the same, no one in the Chilean Armed Forces would have anything to do with the CIA or the people from the US Embassy after this incident. Outcasts from the Chilean military, like Roberto Viaux, or marginal people in Chilean politics, gravitated to US Embassy personnel and the CIA, who gave them money.

But their involvement with the Americans made them even more suspect, and marginal, in Chilean society. Later, the CIA in order to justify itself and show that they had been effective in Chile, elevated these marginal or unimportant people as “key to the successful removal of Allende!” Leftists and historians ran with this notion. But it was just to hide CIA incompetence.

Because of the trauma of the Schneider killing, it's absurd to think that the Chilean armed forces would cooperate with the US [[Deep State]] for the 1973 military intervention, especially when they didn't need them to pull it off successfully. It was only after the military intervention, and only out of national economic necessity, that the Military Government got closer to the Americans.

But institutionally, the Chilean military never trusted the Americans, and never allowed themselves to be dependent on them. The American government was never happy with the Pinochet government, because it never gave back the lucrative copper mines that Allende had expropriated.<ref>{{cite web|author=[[Gonzalo Lira]]|url=https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1542742748188606466.html|title=Chilean history thread|date=July 1, 2022}}</ref>

The book "''La CIA en Chile''" published in 2013, also demystifies the role played by the agency in the preparation of the military intervention plan. In a CIA document from 1973, it is pointed out that the CIA office in Santiago was proposing to encourage the military to carry out a ''coup d'état'' against Allende, an option that seemed difficult since the commander in chief of the army, Carlos Prats, did not seem willing to move forward with such an objective.

Ray Warren, the CIA director of the Chilean office, insisted to Washington about the possibility, but the CIA headquarters closed the door: "let's see how history develops, let's not do it", he was told. The US situation was no longer the same as it had been in 1970. The CIA interference had already come to light before Allende's inauguration, the [[Watergate]] affair had already broken out and the [[Vietnam War]] was culminating.

According to the book, "the CIA was so aware of the eyes on it that in a report from its Directorate of Operations, dated September 1972, it said that 'the temptation to assume a positive role in support of the military coup is great', but that they should restrain themselves, since they would be accused of 'engineering the collapse of the Allende government'".
<ref name=CIA_KGB>{{cite web|url=https://ellibero.cl/actualidad/la-mano-de-la-kgb-y-la-cia-en-el-quiebre-democratico-en-chile/|title=La mano de la KGB y la CIA en el quiebre democrático en Chile|September 11, 2015|language=es|publisher=El Líbero}}</ref>

==Initial support==
[[File:A. Pinochet Stamp (cropped).jpg|250px|thumbnail|Pinochet in 1974.]]
At the beginning the junta received the support of the oligarchy and of a sizable part of the middle class. This support by moderate political parties, including many Christian Democrats, can be explained by their belief that a military government represented a transitional stage necessary to restoring Chilean democracy as it had been before 1970.

Four days after that removal, The Economist magazine (15.9.73) editorialized: "The transitory death of democracy in Chile will be regrettable, but the direct responsibility clearly belongs to Dr. Allende and...followers who constantly trampled on the Constitution.... the Allende government violated the letter and spirit of the Constitution...The Armed Forces had to intervene because the constitutional means to stop a government that behaved in an unconstitutional manner failed...The transitory death of democracy in Chile will be deplorable, but it should not be forgotten who made it inevitable".

Four weeks after that removal, [[Patricio Aylwin]], President of the Christian Democracy and future President of Chile, publicly stated: "Allende's government was preparing to carry out a self-coup to establish a communist dictatorship by force. The Armed Forces did nothing but anticipate this imminent risk".

Two months after that removal, the former President of the Republic Eduardo Frei Montalva defended the military internvention with extraordinary strength and lucidity in this extensive letter to Mariano Rumor, President of the International Christian Democracy, in which he said "the military saved Chile!".<ref name=josepinera/>

Very soon they were to discover that the military had their own political objectives, including the repression of all left-wing guerrilla forces. The Christian Democratic, National, and Radical Democracy parties were declared to be in “indefinite recess,” and the Communists, Socialists, and Radicals were outlawed. In 1977 the traditional parties were dissolved.

==Mission of the Junta==
[[File:Government Junta of Chile 1973.jpg|300px|left|thumbnail|Government Junta of Chile in 1973.]]
Since taking office on September 11, 1973, the Military Government Junta did not rest a single day working on regulations, decrees and laws that would allow the normal functioning of the country, mainly in order to recover the economic activity seriously damaged by the Allende government.
As President of the Military Government Junta until 1981 and as President of the Republic until 1990, General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte worked every day on his great ideal: "To make Chile a great nation". On foot, by car, plane or boat, he traveled almost all over Chile, inaugurating numerous development works. While traveling with his ministers or wife, he did not rest. He attended the opening of new companies, inaugurated houses, kindergartens, schools, health centers and hospitals, visited ports, mining companies and works of the ''Carretera Austral'', bringing his smile and words to every Chilean.

His political work did not make him abandon his military work in the Chilean Army. He attended military exercises in the desert, gave lectures at the Military School and regiments, and modernized his institution.

In the face of terrorist actions he had a "iron fist" (''mano dura''), the only way to protect Chile and its people from the communist violence that continued to seek to alter national life.

He confronted the national and international communist propaganda, did not rest until he managed to sign the Peace Treaty with Argentina, harshly criticized foreign boycotts, mainly from the US, and fearlessly continued on his way after the bloody terrorist attack against him.

His horizon was clear: "No one will stop the road to full democracy". As a soldier and a gentleman, he handed over power on March 11, 1990.

Another member of the Military Government Junta, Admiral José Toribio Merino Castro, was in charge of the economic sector of the country and presided over the Economic Committee of Ministers, where the economic measures that the Executive Power implemented were born, as the first economic measures of the Military Government: the liberation of prices of goods and services, a single exchange area was fixed, fiscal spending was reduced and interest rates were freed to start a capital market, the State companies were reorganized, normalizing the intervened companies.

It was Admiral Merino's initiative to study the Statute for foreign investors, which led to the subsequent enactment of Decree Law No. 600. He promoted the study and subsequent enactment of a decree law for the promotion of Chilean exporters, which gave rise to PROCHILE. During this period he promoted the Decree Law to subsidize forestation, establishing incentives to develop plantations of this nature in the country. He represented the military government in negotiating contracts with Pegaso in Spain and before the U.S. government, meeting with President Carter. With a great sense of social justice, he initiated the enactment of Decree Law No. 3,480, to allow debtors of the Housing Savings and Loan System to repay their debts, which favored workers in the middle sector.

In 1980, Decree Law No. 3,500 was issued, which created the new provisional system, and Admiral Merino was a great supporter of this legislation. 1980 saw the approval of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|new Constitution]] that governs the country with 67% of the vote, separating the Executive and Legislative powers in a definite manner. Admiral Merino went on to preside over the Government Board, whose objective was to constitute the Legislative Branch, which governed us until March 1990. He also presided over the first Legislative Commission. In 1982 the country was affected by the world recession and the Government had to take economic measures to alleviate the developing crisis.

Admiral Merino, from the Legislative Branch, promoted laws on the modernization of the financial sector, the State guarantee for deposits and savings, the lowering of import tariffs and, in general, the normalization of the sectors most affected by the crisis, giving maximum support to the Executive Branch, which allowed the country to get out of the crisis. During this period, he promoted the initiative of the Law for the Promotion of the Merchant Marine, contributing significantly to the growth of this sector and also to the shipyards and naval industry through the enactment of Law No. 18,454. He presented motions to replace the Third Book of the Code of Commerce; to adapt the Chilean maritime limits to the Jamaica Convention, through the corresponding reform to the Civil Code, and to repeal the legislation that allowed therapeutic abortion, all of which were approved through the corresponding laws dictated during that period. Likewise, he promoted the enactment of all the Constitutional Organic Laws, which allowed the Military Government to comply with the constitutional itinerary of handing over power to the civilian population.

In 1989, it proposed to the Executive Branch the enactment of a Fisheries and Aquaculture Law, which was achieved after much discussion in the sector. This put an end to the disorganization of the sector and created the conditions for the conservation of renewable marine resources. Finally, he presided over the Joint Legislative Commission to reform the Political Constitution, whose text, approved by the Government Junta, was ratified by the plebiscite held on June 30, 1989. During the period of government of the Armed Forces, 3,660 Decree Laws and 1,090 Laws bearing his signature were promulgated under his supervision.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==First stage of the Military Government (Recovery Stage)==
[[File:President Pinochet and his wife Lucía Hiriart.jpg|250px|thumbnail|President Pinochet and his wife Lucía Hiriart.]]
[[File:Augusto Pinochet 1975.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Augusto Pinochet in 1975 on an Act on the Diego Portales Building (now called Gabriela Mistral).]]
With the military intervention of September 11, 1973, Chile began a 17-year period of government initially assumed by a Military Junta headed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, and composed of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral José Toribio Merino Castro; the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh Guzmán, and the Director General of the Carabineros, General César Mendoza Durán.

The first show of support for the new government came from the Supreme Court, which, represented by its president, Enrique Urrutia Manzano, received a visit from the Junta one day after the pronouncement.
For its part, the [[Catholic Church]] stated that it was pained by the blood of civilians and soldiers that reddened the streets and asked for moderation towards the defeated and that no reprisals be applied.

Meanwhile, the political parties opposed to Salvador Allende -National, Christian Democrat, Social Democrat, Radical Democracy- issued statements of support and justification for the intervention. In the DC, twelve militants signed a communiqué in the opposite direction, but stating the responsibility of the Popular Unity (UP) in the institutional breakdown.

Three were the most pressing objectives set by the military: to provide the country with a new institutional framework, to recover the economy and, above all, to pacify Chile, putting an end to the armed action of violent groups.

The objectives set for the first stage, "Recovery", were:

* To reestablish order and tranquility, seriously threatened by the attempt of irregular Marxist forces tending to destroy freedom and democracy.

* To rebuild the economic and social order, which had been unhinged as a consequence of the systematic degradation of individual guarantees.

* To study and establish a new truly democratic institutionality, protected from totalitarian sectors, respectful of personal liberties, with balanced powers and tending to promote the existence of large, moderate political organizations capable of giving the whole system stability and permanence.

On the same day, September 11, the Honorable Government Junta communicated to the citizens, in Bando No. 5, its firm will to reestablish the economic and social normality of the country, the peace, tranquility and security that had been lost.

The Military Government, from the beginning, was fully aware that the progress of the country required a new social reorganization. This initially forced it to limit a series of political liberties as a way to gradually overcome the deep wounds that had been inflicted.

In September 1974, the Honorable Government Junta issued a solemn declaration, called Declaration of Principles of the Government of Chile, in which, contrary to the value neutrality that had characterized the preceding stage, the principles that would govern its restorative mission were enunciated, while the objectives of its governmental management were made explicit.

By means of military orders and decree laws, the government began to operate under emergency regulations that restricted the individual liberties of the population.
Once the State of Siege and the Emergency Zone were decreed, the circulation of some newspapers, including "El Mercurio", and the operation of Channel 13 and some radio stations were allowed, all under prior censorship.

From the beginning, Pinochet stated that the Armed Forces had taken over the government to return Chile to its democratic system; but first the country's integral recovery had to be achieved through the application of economic, social and political plans that the nation needed.
For this reason, the President of the Junta postulated giving priority to the fulfillment of goals over deadlines.
In the first months of his administration, Pinochet reiterated that the mandate of the military would not constitute a momentary transition between two political governments, but would be the initiator of a great absolute and permanent civic-military movement that would maintain a good administration of the State.
He insisted in affirming that the Armed Forces were not prepared to govern and that they had to assume the task as a result of the prevailing chaos. Gustavo Leigh.

The itinerary of the new Chilean institutionality was made known by Pinochet in July 1977, in an address that is remembered as the "Chacarillas Speech" and which established the parameters of the new democracy.<ref name=GobMilitar>{{cite web|url=https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/p/gobierno-militar.html|title=GOBIERNO MILITAR|publisher=Chile Pinochet Nuestro}}</ref>

==Breakings in the Junta==
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|300px|thumbnail|The new Junta with Fernando Matthei and Rodolfo Stange and without Gustavo Leigh and César Mendoza.]]
An interview given by the Commander-in-Chief of the FACh to the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" was repudiated by the cabinet. After meetings in La Moneda and in the Ministry of Defense, the Junta declared that Leigh was unable to perform his duties, and he was replaced by General Fernando Matthei. The decision caused the resignation of the entire institutional high command.

On March 11, 1981, Pinochet began the second stage of his government by taking the oath of office as President of the Republic. The investiture modified the composition of the Government Junta, which was joined by Lieutenant General César Benavides, representing the Army.

Pinochet served as president until March 11, 1990.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Economic recovery==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
The military government took over a country with a disintegrated economy and virtually bankrupt, since its assets were not enough to meet its obligations. With great efforts of the population, the process of reorganization began, opting for the implementation of a free market model.
One of the most urgent tasks that the Junta de Gobierno set itself when it assumed the leadership of the country was the economic recovery. For this purpose, professionals from the Catholic University who had been part of the academic exchanges with the University of Chicago were consulted. Thus began the era of the "Chicago boys", a group led by the dean of the School of Economics at UC, Sergio de Castro, and composed of Jorge Cauas, Miguel Kast and José Piñera, among others.

The plan of the "Chicago boys" was baptized as "The Brick" and became the foundational basis of the new Chilean social market economy, which left behind the socialist type of centralized and planned economy.

Pinochet approved privatization plans, the return of requisitioned companies, the normalization of agriculture and a new economic and financial conception.

The treasury had to guarantee the population equal opportunities and mass access to the advantages of modern society.

If ten major modernizations materialized by the military regime in the economic sphere were to be highlighted, they would be the following:

Price liberalization: Decree Law 522 of October 15, 1973 eliminated historic price fixing in Chile, with the exception of 33 items that maintained their prices determined by the State and 18 in which businessmen were required to report their values to the authorities. By 1976, all prices were free.

Modernization of the capital market: In 1975, a free interest rate was established, banking was reprivatized and the capital market was liberalized.

Access to higher education: At the end of 1980, private universities made their debut in Chile, significantly increasing the number of young people who could have access to higher education.

Targeting of social spending: A policy that made it possible to allocate State funds to improve the economic situation of the poorest, without producing the injustice of having people receive part of these resources who do not need them.

As a result of these changes, the country's economic growth went from -4.3 percent in 1973 to 10 percent in 1989. Inflation, meanwhile, fell from 106 percent to 21.4 percent in the same years.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Trade liberalization===

By the end of 1973, the Chilean economy was closed to the exterior with import tariffs that averaged 105% and the prohibition to import many products. By 1977, the tariff had already been standardized at 10%, which meant that the productive apparatus began to face external competition, a situation unknown for the country for several decades. Although this confrontation was difficult, today important sectors of the economy are leading this process, being the main generators of foreign exchange and have placed Chile in the leadership in the world with exports of fruits, salmon and wine among several other products. This opening process culminates in the 90s and 2000s in a situation where Chile established free trade agreements with the main economies of the planet.

It allowed the massive arrival of imports that forced national industries to become more competitive and thus export to conquer new markets. In this sense, a single exchange rate was established and a very simplified trade regime was created, without trade barriers and with an even 10 percent tariff since 1979.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Ordering of Fiscal Accounts===

The fiscal deficit reached more than 30% at the end of the Allende government. Public expenditures, which amounted to 41% of GDP in 1973, were reduced by 20% in 1989. Thus, while revenues were recovering, the fiscal imbalance decreased to 2% of GDP in 1975.

However, this reorganization process not only involved cutting unnecessary expenditures, but also required changing the institutional framework governing this sector, which resulted in a rule in force to this day that requires all public spending to have a corresponding financial component, which cannot come from loans from the Central Bank.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Autonomy of the Central Bank===

Its creation made it possible to prevent the government of the day from managing monetary policy at its discretion and thus "triggering" inflation "by turning on the machine to make banknotes" in order to increase fiscal spending.

The Central Bank was granted autonomy in monetary and exchange rate policies, and was entrusted with ensuring price stability and the normal functioning of internal and external payments. This independence from the President of the Republic prevents the political management of the institution for electoral purposes or to support the economic policy of the Executive. This model of autonomy, quite old in the industrialized world, is relatively new in South America and Chile put it into practice before other countries of the continent. It is worth noting that from its inception, the Central Bank's board of directors was formed in equal parts by representatives of the Government and the opposition, thus achieving a balanced and independent performance, in which technical criteria prevailed over partisan ones.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Privatizations===
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|150px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], Finance Minister.]]
A process promoted preferably in the 1980s, under the administration of Finance Minister [[Hernán Büchi]]. It was one of the most unpopular measures taken by the military government, since it resulted in the dismissal of a good part of the companies' workers and, at times, in their liquidation at below market value. However, it allowed the State to divest itself of loss-making companies and to have more resources to invest in areas such as health and education.

The implementation of these reforms was of enormous importance in that they contributed to achieving the productivity increases necessary to sustain economic expansion in the long term. Privatizations are very relevant in this process, since they not only transferred ownership, but also the companies were transferred to people who had the right incentives to maximize their productivity. This resulted in the creation of new companies and new jobs, and allowed Chilean consumers to have access to better quality goods and products at lower prices thanks to the existing competition.

Numerous productive sectors have benefited and strengthened thanks to these microeconomic reforms, as can be seen in the following lines, which mention those that have achieved the greatest development and contributed most strongly to the country's growth.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==World economic recessions (1975 and 1982)==

Since the military government took over the leadership of the State, the disinformation campaign described above was accompanied by the economic attempt to isolate the country from the rest of the international community. These purposes were repeatedly supported from within by different sectors, since the aim was to foster and, ideally, establish a climate of insecurity and unrest, which would facilitate an attempt against the normal evolution of the process underway.

The most difficult challenges that economic policy had to face, in addition to the disastrous situation existing on September 11, 1973, referred to the world oil crisis, the foreign debt, the drop in copper prices and the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]", situations that provided a very unfavorable environment for an economy that had to start by normalizing the productive apparatus and stabilizing the inflation rate, which was close to 500%.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===1st economic crisis of 1975===

In an erratic manner, the origin of this crisis is often analyzed under a supposed and deliberate shock policy, which would have had as its objective to put an end to the inflationary phenomenon, which was still at worrying levels in 1974 and 1975.

The causes are based mainly on the need to adjust the balance of payments, which resulted in a significant economic adjustment, and on the scarce international currency reserves, basically due to the sharp fall in the price of copper during the same period. By way of illustration, the following graph shows the sustained decline of this metal, a vital commodity for the country's economy during those years.

This situation quickly led to a drop in productive activity and high unemployment.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

However, this emergency was quickly overcome, since, in mid-1976, as a result of the adjustment of fiscal accounts, the reorientation of the tariff and exchange policy aimed at promoting the country's integration with the outside world, together with the management of the monetary policy, allowed the situation to be overcome and the population was able to gradually benefit from it.

Another fact that is fully inserted in the context of the international campaign against Chile refers to what was called the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]".

In 1976, [[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] presented before the U.S. Senate a bill to modify the Foreign Military Assistance Act in order to exclude Chile from the military aid that his country provided to the Latin American republics that had signed the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR). The restrictions were approved and began to apply to Chile in October 1977, comprising in summary:

* The prohibition to provide Chile with any form of military assistance, including the education and training of its Armed Forces personnel.

* The prohibition to grant credits for the same purposes.

* The prohibition to all private suppliers to sell and export military equipment to Chile.

The adoption of the amendment was especially relevant, not necessarily because of its economic effects, but basically because of its inopportunity, since at that time Chile, as we will observe later on, had to face highly complex neighboring conflicts. Collaterally, this fact determined a sustained development of the Chilean military industry, which increased its productive capacity and systematized an accelerated and efficient reconversion process. Most big U.S. companies were now restricted in what they could sell to the regime.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-05-10-tm-2620-story.html|title=WEAPONS FOR THE MASSES : SOME PARIAH NATIONS ARE FINDING THERE’S A NEW WORLD ORDER FOR THEIR CUT-RATE ARMS|date= May 5, 1992|publisher=LA Times}}</ref>

Other countries also embargoed Chile, first came the British Labour government in 1974, soon followed by Jimmy Carter's United States in 1979 and Mitterrand's socialist France in 1982. Years earlier, Rolls-Royce workers in East Kilbride (Scotland) had refused to work on Avon engines for the Chilean Air Force's Hawker Hunter fighter fleet.

Chile bought weapons to [[Israel]], [[Spain]], [[Rhodesia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1987/04/12/espana/545176811_850215.html|title=Las armas que España vendió a Pinochet|date=April 11, 1987|language=es|publisher=El País}}</ref> and [[South Africa]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-11-28-declassified-apartheid-profits-pals-with-pinochet/|title=Declassified: Apartheid Profits –Pals with Pinochet|date=November 28, 2017|publisher=Daily Maverick}}</ref><ref>[https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-relationship-between-Chile-under-Pinochet-and-Apartheid-South-Africa]</ref> as well as making their own mainly in FAMAE and made by Carlos Cardoen. Chile sold weapons produced by Carlos Cardoen to [[Saddam Hussein]] from [[Irak]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nacla.org/article/pincohet-arms-merchant|title=Pincohet, Arms Merchant|date=March 6, 2008|publisher=Nacla}}</ref><ref>[https://rebelion.org/recordando-los-pinochet-e-irak/]</ref> and supposedly to China.

China was one of the few in the socialist orbit that did not break diplomatic relations with Pinochet's military junta. The Asian country granted a credit of 62 million dollars to the Chilean military government presided by General Augusto Pinochet in 1977.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1977/08/16/internacional/240530424_850215.html|publisher=El País|date= August 16, 1977|language=es|title=Crédito de China a Pinochet}}</ref>

With the [[Reagan Administration|Ronald Reagan Administration]] in the United States, things improved quite a bit for Chile, even though the State Department bureaucracy ([[Deep State]]) was still biased to the left and very much penetrated by anti-Chilean slogans originated in [[Moscow]] ([[KGB]]) which have been a constant feature of public opinion in Chile, most of the media and U.S. officials.

In February 1981, the prohibition imposed by the [[Carter Administration]] on the subsidized Eximbank loans to finance U.S. exports to Chile was lifted in February 1981. U.S. export ban to Chile was lifted in February 1981. The negative vote that Washington had maintained in relation to World Bank and Inter-American Bank credits was also modified. World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank loans was also modified.

Unfortunately, the Democratic senators were able to win the support of some "moderate" Republicans ([[RINOs]]) and the Kennedy Amendment remained. The Republican "centrists" were always greatly influenced by Soviet disinformation on Chile and acted accordingly, against Reagan's good will.

===2nd economic crisis of 1982===

On this occasion, the adjustment had an immediate origin in the need to face the reality of a lower flow of external resources. Savings fell in 1981 and 1982 as a result of the world debt crisis. The authorities had to devalue the dollar by 18 percent and take other measures related to foreign exchange, which hurt dollar debtors.

It is true that Chile had resorted on numerous occasions to external credit, which had naturally produced misalignments in relative prices. However, the fall in savings was due to high international interest rates, the high price of oil and the ease of access to foreign credit by the world's debtors. However, when this crisis broke out, Chile had already adopted internal corrective measures, which were intensified in the face of the emergency that arose.

A clear demonstration of the soundness of the economic scheme applied in Chile was the notorious difference in the effects caused by the international economic crisis in the country, compared to other countries in the region.

In such events, the Military Government, based on a new economic model that was being developed, and due to the management of its variables, managed to gradually overcome them and continue in a sustained development.

The economic recovery plans translated into the use of an active monetary policy, an increase in the quantity of money with a view to recovering liquidity, a free dollar and a limited use of reserves.

The severe measures to achieve reactivation supported a renegotiation of the foreign debt and other actions that allowed for financial and banking reorganization.

On January 13, 1983, the dissolution of the ''Banco Hipotecario y de Fomento, Banco Unido de Fomento and Financiera Ciga'' was announced. In addition, the banks ''Banco de Chile, Banco de Santiago, Banco Concepción, Banco Internacional and Colocadora Nacional de Valores'' were intervened, and delegated administrators were appointed.

Eighteen of the 22 mutual fund companies operating at that time were suspended. And special credit modalities and terms for the sale of new and old houses were put into effect, which stimulated the real estate market.

From 1984 onwards, the adjustment process was based on an expansive policy to reactivate growth. But it was from 1986, when economist Hernán Büchi was at the head of the Ministry of Finance, that a period of sustained growth developed, culminating in a GDP of 10.6 percent in the last year of the Pinochet administration.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

Oligarchs were imprisoned in the ''Capuchinos'' Prison, which is why many of them started to conspire against Pinochet.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://youtu.be/vlCJ9n7YU28|title=The Pinochet Problem - CRP|author=[[Gonzalo Lira]]}}</ref>

==1980 Chilean Constitution==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Chilean Constitution of 1980.jpg|200px|left|thumbnail|The Chilean Constitution of 1980.]]
[[File:Pinochet as Commander in Chief with his wife Lucía.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Pinochet as Commander-in-Chief with his wife Lucía.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the 1980 Constitution and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
The new political and institutional order that the country needed was embodied in the drafting of a Fundamental Charter that would replace the Constitution in force in 1973. The latter, in force since 1925, had been insufficient to face the problems the country had suffered for many years and even more inoperative in the face of the outbursts of the socialist regime that led the country to the greatest moral, political, social and economic chaos in its history.

The configuration of a new Magna Carta should, in the first place, consecrate the freedom of the people as the axis of its norms and principles. Approved by a large majority in 1980, the new Political Constitution of Chile defines a new political order and a new economic order, based on free private initiative and a subsidiary State, while reinforcing the family as the nucleus of a free society where respect for individuals and their active participation prevail.

The main characteristics of the new Constitution of 1980 are:

* Recovery of the rule of law, which implies the hierarchy of constitutional norms and the separation of public powers.

* Consolidation of individual liberties.

* Subsidiarity of the State.

* Strengthening of individual and social freedoms.

* Recognition and constitutional consecration of rights that were not duly safeguarded.

* Regulation of constitutional states of exception. And creation of a new recourse of protection to defend constitutional guarantees.

* Organization of a strong Executive Branch, rationalization of the Legislative Branch and strengthening of the Judicial Branch.

* Creation of bodies that reinforce institutionality and give people new instances to defend their rights, such as the Constitutional Court, the National Security Council. The General Comptroller of the Republic was elevated to constitutional hierarchy.

* Constitutional consecration of regionalization

Since its enactment on March 11, 1981, the 1980 Constitution regulated the political, economic and social life, transforming the country into an orderly and solidly democratic nation.

In this area, the most important initiative of the military government was the drafting of a new Constitution for the country, which would support the new order it sought to impose in Chile. In this sense, the Declaration of Principles of the Government of Chile, issued in March 1974, served as the basis for the new Magna Carta.

The rights of man (prior and superior to those of the State), the principle of subsidiarity, the recognition of private property and free initiative in the economic field, were assumed as pillars of the foundational work.

The drafting of the new constitutional text was entrusted to a commission chaired by Jorge Alessandri's former Minister of Justice and the Interior, Enrique Ortúzar. The group -whose work was permanently guided by the Executive also included constitutionalists such as Sergio Diez, [[Jaime Guzmán]], Alejandro Silva Bascuñan and Raúl Bertelsen.

The new Political Constitution was voted on in a plebiscite held on September 11, 1980, in which 67.04 percent of the population voted "Yes" and 30.19 percent "No". Six months later, the document came into force.

The regulation contemplated new conceptions of the person, society and the State. In this sense, the important definition that the rights of men are first and prior to those of the State laid the foundations of the institutional framework that would govern the nation.

Likewise, the new Constitution detailed the functioning and role of future institutions.

The election of parliamentarians by constituencies strengthened the regionalization of the country, initiated during the first stage of the government.

The binominal electoral system set the basis for a two-party system that would guarantee the balance of political forces represented in Congress.

It also introduced appointed senators, the second round in presidential elections and the obligation to obtain more than 50 percent of the votes in order to accede to the presidency.

The most revolutionary and resisted innovation of the new Charter was the establishment of the Armed Forces as guarantors of institutionality, a precept that led to the creation of the National Security Council (Cosena).<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Second stage, Road to Democracy (Transition)==
[[File:Pinochet in La Moneda.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President Pinochet in [[La Moneda]] in 1984.]]
[[File:Augusto Pinochet 1986.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Pinochet in a church during the "Tedeum" Ceremony in "Fiestas Patrias" of 1986.]]
As of March 1981, the new Constitution was conceived to come into force, which would define the framework of a full democracy. Its objective was to produce a gradual and sustained advance towards institutional and democratic fullness, which was to be completed by March 1990 at the latest. It is also important to note that this date marked the beginning of the 1981-1988 presidential term, following a plebiscite. Since then, different sectors of society were increasingly incorporated into the responsibilities of the political leadership of the nation, which was reflected in the formation of the cabinets, in which the integration of civilians and the military was a permanent reality.

During the second stage of the military government, the opening of dialogue with the political parties was entrusted to the then Minister of the Interior, Sergio Onofre Jarpa, who drew up a timetable for developing a political plan and established that it would be up to the citizenry to approve a constitutional reform that would allow a democratically elected Congress to take office.

However, the government-opposition dialogue was cancelled by Pinochet, which led to Jarpa's resignation.

In May 1983, a day of protest called by copper workers initiated a series of similar actions in the country, which led to the renewal of the State of Emergency the following year and the decree of a new State of Siege.

Faced with the situation, the Catholic Church took action and Cardinal Juan Francisco Fresno began to meet with different political leaders, meetings that culminated in the signing of the "National Agreement for the Transition to Full Democracy" aimed at guaranteeing future democratic institutions.

For his part, Pinochet reiterated that the institutional path was in the Constitution and should be respected.

In 1987, the country entered a different period with the six-day visit of [[Pope John Paul II]]. That same year, Pinochet approved the transfer of Congress to Valparaíso and ten political parties began their legal registration with the Electoral Service.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==International Relations and Conflicts with Argentina==
[[File:Pope John Paul II and President Augusto Pinochet.jpg|thumbnail|President Augusto Pinochet with [[Pope John Paul II]] visiting Chile in 1987, previously he played a big role on bringing peace to Chile and Argentina avoiding a war because of the Beagle Conflict.]]
Relations with other countries were not easy for the government of Augusto Pinochet, since from the beginning the military regime aroused worldwide concern for having overthrown the first democratically elected Marxist President.

Recognition of the new authorities came only from Latin American countries, with the exception of [[Mexico]] and [[Venezuela]].

The rest of the world repudiated the pronouncement and, with the exception of [[China]], all socialist nations broke off relations. Even European countries, such as Italy, withdrew their ambassadors, leaving the chargés d'affaires in the diplomatic representations.

Likewise, the Armed Forces had to be attentive to the situation with neighboring countries. Especially the relations with Argentina experienced a very conflictive period towards the end of the 70's, due to the dispute over the jurisdiction of the Beagle Channel and the different islands and islets, among them Picton, Lennox and Nueva.

In this sense, Augusto Pinochet continued with the task initiated by the governments of [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] and Salvador Allende, with the aim of diplomatically resolving the differences.

However, on May 2, 1977, relations between Santiago and [[Buenos Aires]] changed when the arbitration award of [[Queen Elizabeth II]] was announced, a ruling that confirmed Chilean sovereignty over the islands and established the dividing line of the Beagle, subjecting it to the orientation that, according to Chile, this waterway has.

In early 1978, the [[Argentine]] military junta declared the arbitration award "insanely null and void". For this reason, it was decided to appoint two commissions to analyze the conflict. After meeting in Santiago and Buenos Aires, the delegates drafted a document stating that the governments would avoid "actions or attitudes contrary to the spirit of peaceful coexistence" between the two countries.

However, after the Argentine Navy rejected the idea of resorting to Vatican mediation to solve the conflict, the military began to carry out maneuvers on both sides of the mountain range. Meanwhile, the Chilean and Argentine cardinals, Raúl Silva Henríquez and Raúl Primatesta, respectively, made high-level efforts to stop the conflict.

The fleets of both countries were only hours away from meeting at sea, but a storm prevented this from happening.

In 1982 during the [[Falklands War]], Chile helped the United Kingdom since Argentina was a real threat for the country, and if they won the war they were going to attack Chile after. [[Margaret Thatcher]] thanked the Chilean support when Pinochet was captured in London in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/mar/26/pinochet.chile2|title=Thatcher visits her old friend Pinochet|date=March 26, 1999|publisher=The Guardian}}</ref>

Samoré died before the successful completion of his mission on May 2, 1985, when the foreign ministers of Argentina and Chile exchanged the instruments of ratification of peace before John Paul II.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Education reform==

===College===
The average years of schooling of Chileans had a significant increase, which went from 4.5% in 1970 to 8.7% in 1987, and the incorporation of the poorest into the system, aspects that would contribute to significantly improve equality of opportunities and equity in the educational system.

INACAP, an institution granted on loan to the Confederation of Production and Commerce, deserves special mention. It has become the main higher technical training center in the country with nearly 50,000 students and branches in Arica, Iquique, Calama, Antofagasta, Copiapó, La Serena, Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Santiago, Rancagua, Talca, Chillán, Los Angeles, Concepción, Talcahuano, Temuco, Valdivia, Osorno, Puerto Montt, Coyhaique and Punta Arenas.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Schools===
Until 1980, the Chilean educational system was characterized by a great intervention of state education, which reached more than 80% of the enrollment and a strongly centralized administration, showing serious problems: insufficient coverage, low quality and scarce capacity to absorb the poorest excluded from the educational system.

Teachers' salaries were very low because the bureaucracy consumed a large part of the resources and the state was the main employer. There was no competition among the different types of schools and a rigid curriculum was designed, conditions that promoted neither efficiency nor quality.

The urgent need to correct these shortcomings gave rise to a system of modernization of education that pursued the following objectives

* Improve the quality of education

* To increase its coverage

* Establish equal opportunities and

* Promote freedom of education

In order to achieve these objectives, a new incentive system was proposed that established a demand-side subsidy scheme based on the service provided, which gave a strong boost to subsidized education. Complementing this policy, it was decided that the State would no longer administer schools through the Ministry of Education and therefore would no longer be the main direct employer of teachers.

To this end, all elementary and secondary schools that had been administered by the Ministry of Education and some technical schools were transferred to the municipalities and transferred to private non-profit entities. Likewise, curricular reforms were increased as of 1980. Thus, the establishment of this framework of incentives and equitable rules of participation that favored competition allowed for a notable increase in coverage at these educational levels, aided by the considerable development of private sector participation in education. At the elementary level, the private subsidized sector went from a 14% share of total enrollment in 1980 to 30.4% in 1988. In secondary education, during the same period, the private subsidized sector almost tripled the number of students, from 15.9% to almost 40%.
Between 1971 and 1973, higher education, with 4.8% of the country's total enrollment (including elementary and secondary education) absorbed 39.7% of total fiscal spending on education. This figure is eloquent, especially if one considers that according to the 1970 Map of Extreme Poverty, 43% of children in extreme poverty did not attend school. The first measures adopted were aimed at reducing the higher education budget in order to prioritize and increase spending on basic and secondary education. Thus, between 1978 and 1980, spending on higher education dropped to 29%.

However, the problems that afflicted this type of education, which went far beyond excessive spending, required a drastic reform that began in 1980, when legal regulations began to be enacted that would correct the closed and virtually monopolistic nature of the university system, reinforce the freedom of teaching and introduce competition in order to improve academic quality.

A first legal text defined what a university was, the degrees and titles it could grant and the modalities of constitution and dissolution. The creation of new private establishments was allowed and the emergence of Professional Institutes was favored. Simultaneously, regulations were issued to force a rationalization and institutional restructuring of the universities. In addition, one of the priority lines of action was to promote the development of scientific and technological research, for which purpose the National Science and Technology Fund was created in 1981.

However, the reform that would have the greatest impact in the following years concerned the financing system. The new regulations defined funding from the public budget as consisting of three components.

* A direct contribution, which was distributed exclusively among the universities existing before the reform and which was reduced with respect to what was previously provided, in order to avoid inefficiency, save fiscal resources and reduce the possibilities of state institutions to compete unfairly with the new institutions that appeared under the new legislation.

* An indirect contribution based on the best scores in the selection and entrance exams.

The tax credit granted to low-income students to be repaid during their professional life.

Although there are still deficiencies in the system, the modifications introduced with the reform allowed for a strong increase in both private universities and intermediate education establishments and a corresponding increase in the number of students graduating from this educational level. There are currently 64 universities, 60 professional institutes and 116 technical training centers throughout the country that collaborate in the formation of the human capital required by a highly competitive and technified world.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Pension system reform==
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|150px|thumbnail|[[José Piñera]], father of the Private Pension system.]]
The reform of the pension system was one of the most profound and transcendental transformation experiences carried out by the military government. The new mechanism replaced the old pay-as-you-go system with a capitalization or individual savings system, privately administered and backed by regulations that ensured a minimum pension level from the State.

Enacted on November 4, 1980. Through this reform, the government changed the old system of distribution of workers' funds for a system of capitalization in individual accounts. To this end, it established private fund management institutions, the AFPs, leaving workers free to choose.

Under the old system, the active workers financed the pensions of the passive workers through their contributions, and both the pension benefits and the obligations of the active workers were fixed by law, with no correspondence between what they contributed and what they received as retirement benefits. This lack of relationship between the amount contributed and the pension received resulted in an incentive to under-declare contributions together with pressure from certain groups to obtain better or additional benefits, forcing the Treasury to make increasing contributions and causing the system to become underfinanced.

In addition, there was a total lack of uniformity in the system. At the time of the reform, there were 32 Pension Funds and more than one hundred different pension systems, which produced great differences in the mechanisms for calculating pensions and in the requirements for retirement, and open discrimination against the most disadvantaged groups and those with the least lobbying power.

In 1981, DL 3,500 was enacted, creating the Pension Fund Administrators, AFP, which introduced a radical change to the pension system and presented the following advantages:

* Pension levels directly related to individual effort.

* Freedom of choice and active role of members.

* Competitiveness of the system

* Independence from the public budget.

* Equity

* Application of the pay-as-you-go system for disability and survivors' pensions.

* Lower costs for members.

* Less negative impact on employment.

* Greater accumulation of capital in the economy as a whole, since the pension funds are operating and yielding returns through the capital market.

With more than twenty years in force, the new system now has more than 1,700,000 affiliates in the AFPs, which operate with a high degree of competitiveness. Its good performance has turned it into a successful export product to many countries around the world.

What was once a bold experiment in pension reform and a reckless privatization of social security, is now an experience that has been emulated in several Latin American and Asian countries. The results observed in Chile first motivated its neighbors to reform their pension systems. In the first half of the 1990s, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay did so.

Subsequently, Bolivia, Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic did so. Others are working on implementing the system, including Ecuador, Nicaragua, Lithuania, Slovak Republic, Ukraine and Romania.

Throughout the world, people's life expectancy has been increasing. In the United States, more than 100,000 people are 100 years old or older and there are studies that indicate that by the middle of this century, human life expectancy will reach 150 years. On the other hand, families are becoming smaller and the possibility for the State to pay decent pensions will become impossible, which is why the solution adopted by the Military Government is of enormous importance.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Health reform==

In order to improve the health status of the Chilean population, the Military Government initiated a series of actions aimed at modifying the impoverished situation of the sector by expanding private participation. In 1979, the existing discrimination between workers and employees was eliminated and the possibilities of choice were increased for a vast sector of the population thanks to the enactment of DL 2,575, which gave workers access to the Free Choice System and allowed the establishment of agreements with private institutions for hospital care. That same year, the Ministry of Health and the SNS were restructured, creating the National Health Services System, SNSS, made up of 27 autonomous entities responsible for providing preventive and curative services in specific geographic areas, each directly dependent on the Ministry.

Since 1980, the financial function of the National Health Fund, FONASA, has been centralized, which is responsible for distributing the resources coming from the Treasury, the contributions of the affiliates to the system and the direct payments of the users of the free-choice modality. In addition, FONASA is responsible for the administration of the health benefits system in the free-choice modality. Another very important step was taken in 1981 with the transfer of primary health care facilities to the municipalities. At the same time, some of these entities delegated their administration to non-profit private corporations. This allowed the administration to be deconcentrated and gave greater decision-making capacity to the local level. The transfer process was completed in 1988.

In 1981, the private social security health institutions, ISAPREs, were created. With this, the compulsory health contributions that until then had been paid into the state health insurance system could be freely transferred to one of these institutions and, within them, to one of the health plans offered by them.

Isapres: They were created with Law 18.933. With them, people can choose between being treated by the public health system or contribute to private health institutions that assure them a coverage determined by the chosen plan.

The additional contribution of 2% by the companies, now abolished, allowed a greater number of workers to have access to this system and improve their health plans, which today they are unable to do.

Subsequently, in 1985, the Health Benefits Regime was created, which stratifies all SNSS beneficiaries according to their income, assuring them a minimum level of health care compatible with their contributions, establishing free health care for the poorest.

The actions described above have made it possible to increase sectoral resources, achieve greater efficiency, increase people's responsibility for their health, improve the quality of care and steadily improve the population's level of health. However, the great challenge still lies in ensuring that all Chileans have the possibility of choosing where to receive health care, whether in the public or private system, with both operating in full competition.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Labor reform==

One of the most important reforms introduced by the military government was the labor reform contained in DL 2,200, which gave rise to the current Labor Code and replaced the legislation in force since 1931. The latter had clearly favored the ideologization of the relationship between workers and employers, which had become a permanent source of conflict.

Attributed to former Labor Minister [[José Piñera]], this was one of the economic changes with the greatest impact. Its objective was to forcefully transfer the principles of individual freedom to the labor market, which would be reflected in the rights of employees and employers established in a balanced manner in labor contracts.

The main elements that constituted the new legislation were the following:

* Legal equality before the law, which eliminated the distinction between workers and employees.

* Freedom of unionization, which put an end to compulsory membership and put an end to the excessive politicization of the organizations.

* Collective bargaining by company. This put an end to a type of bargaining that operated as an expression of class conflict and vindicationist approaches to the power of capital. From now on, collective bargaining takes place within the company, based on productivity and efficiency, with clear economic benefits for the workers.

* Right to strike used as an instrument of negotiation and not of political pressure.

* Freedom to form workers' confederations, eliminating the political monopoly over unions and the single centralized scheme.

With almost a quarter of a century in force, labor reforms have favored a climate of tranquility and productive efficiency, contributing to the growth of the country and the welfare of workers, notwithstanding some recent modifications that may have generated the feeling of going backwards in some specific aspects.

All these activities had a strong impact. Between 1970 and 1990, the population living in extreme poverty decreased from 21% (1.9 million) to 11% (1.4 million). Between the same dates, life expectancy at birth increased from 62 to 72 years and the infant mortality rate fell from 79.3 per 1,000 live births to 16. The average schooling of the population increased from 4.5 years to 9 years, while the percentage of poor children without basic education decreased from 43% to 5%. Illiteracy decreased from 11.8% to 5.4%. With respect to housing and infrastructure between the aforementioned dates, urban drinking water coverage increased from 67% to 97%, while rural coverage increased from 34% to 86%. Urban sewerage increased from 31% to 83%.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Poverty reduction==
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
In 1970, according to the Extreme Poverty Map, 21% of Chileans (almost two million people) lived in conditions of extreme poverty. In view of this reality, the military government had to concentrate its efforts on eradicating this scourge through a set of policies aimed at increasing and improving social programs.

In the first place, policies aimed at investing in human resources and improving the human capital of the population were addressed. Among the programs aimed at these purposes are: primary maternal and child care, supplementary food, preschool care, increased coverage in basic and secondary education, job training and care for children in an irregular situation.

A second group of policies focuses on efforts to improve the targeting of spending, directing it to the most vulnerable segments of the population.

In addition, policies were implemented to redistribute and invest in physical assets, on the understanding that by accessing them, the poor could permanently improve their income conditions and thus overcome their poverty. The programs were developed in the following areas: housing, drinking water, sewerage and title deed clearance.

At the same time, assistance policies were developed to provide mechanisms to supplement the income of the most destitute families in order to satisfy the minimum needs in keeping with the dignity of the human being. Among these were the creation of the single family subsidy and unemployment subsidies and special employment programs designed during periods of economic crisis. In 1975, the welfare pension system was also established for invalids and the elderly who were excluded from the social security system.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

In 1989, the groups belonging to the Mapuche "Regional Councils" appointed Augusto Pinochet as "Ulmen Füta Lonko" or "Great Authority".

With the application of the aforementioned regulations, from 1978 to 1990 the State delivered, in total, 69,984 individual domain titles to the indigenous people, and by virtue of the other provisions of this legal text and the new lands transferred, 72,931 domain titles were completed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://panampost.com/marcelo-duclos/2017/09/04/el-pasado-mapuche-que-incomoda-a-la-izquierda-el-dia-que-nombraron-gran-autoridad-a-pinochet/|title=El pasado mapuche que incomoda a la izquierda: el día que nombraron “Gran Autoridad” a Pinochet|language=es|date=September 4, 2017|publisher=PanamPost}}</ref>

==Local governments==
[[File:Pinochet inaugurando cinra.png|thumbnail]]
Local governments represent one of the areas in which it is possible to appreciate with greater clarity the transformation of the public sector structure initiated by the military government.

Municipal reform and modernization began with the enactment in 1976 of DL 1,289, which addressed improvements in the administrative and internal organization areas. Subsequently, in 1980, more profound changes took place with the enactment of DL 3,036 on Municipal Revenues, which decentralized the adoption of decisions in the financial field, and a set of norms that, together with the organizational restructuring of the municipalities, empowered them to assume the administration of services in areas that until then had been centrally administered, fulfilling the role assigned to them by the 1980 Constitution.

One of the most important innovations defined by the legislation is the Municipal Common Fund, formed with contributions from the municipalities themselves and fiscal resources that are subsequently distributed to the communes according to pre-designed parameters that consider the socioeconomic situation, the number of inhabitants and other territorial factors. This redistributive instrument put an end to the difference between poor and rich communes.

With regard to the administration of social services, the municipalities began to play a fundamental role as the government bodies closest to the community. Among the many services that were transferred to them, the most important were educational services, with the transfer of public elementary, middle and technical-professional schools, and health services, with the transfer of primary health care clinics.

Other relevant aspects in the process of municipal modernization refer to modifications in the technical-financial area. Among these innovations, the following stand out: the creation at the level of each commune of the Communal Secretariats of Planning and Coordination; the delegation to the private sector of works and services that were traditionally carried out directly by public officials; the promotion of efficiency by stimulating competition among municipalities to apply for financing of development projects; the rationalization and mechanization of the systems for the collection of fees, patents and other municipal revenues; and the creation at the national level of uniform and modern financial mechanisms.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

=== Easter Island ===
{{Main article|Easter Island}}
[[File:President Pinochet on Easter Island, Chile.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Augusto Pinochet]] on Easter Island, Chile.]]
Under the Presidency of the Republic of Captain General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, [[Easter Island]] is elevated to a level of importance and dedication from the Chilean authorities previously unthinkable, and one of the most important measures in this regard was the creation of the province of Isla de Pascua, which culminated with the appointment of the eminent Rapa Nui archaeologist and international university academic, Mr. Sergio Rapu Haoa, With an austere administration and charismatic leadership Sergio Rapu Haoa generated a paradigm of local administration that has been maintained by all subsequent governments, which although it has lost prominence as a paradigm, due to political quotas and lack of support from the central government, has definitely established that a member of the Rapanui ethnic group is the representative of the central government in the territory.<ref>[https://polinesia-chilena.blogspot.com/2007/11/independentismo-secesionismo-y.html Independentismo, Secesionismo y Autonomia - Polinesia Chilena]</ref>

On January 24, 1975, television arrived on the island, with the inauguration of a station of Televisión Nacional de Chile, which broadcasted its programming on a deferred basis until 1996, when live satellite transmissions to the island began.

In 1979, by decree, the Rapa Nui were able to legally register their ancestral properties in their own name. Something stipulated in the 1966 Pascua Law but not implemented until Pinochet's decree.

In 1986, a special fuel subsidy was created for Easter Island. In addition, through the then U.S. Ambassador to Chile, Harry Barnes, it was decided that, due to its strategic location and low air traffic density, the Mataveri airport runway was ideal to be used as an emergency alternative for the landing of space shuttles. Thus, the runway was repaired and extended to its current length and equipped with advanced electronics for air navigation. Thanks to this project, tourism on the island increased explosively and a LAN Chile plane began to operate every 15 days with supplies and thanks to this infrastructure, there is the possibility of daily trips in official planes.

Before they had contact every so often, from that moment they began to have more contact, to be able to make surgical interventions. In addition, there began to be subsidies for houses on the island.

===Chilean Antarctica===
[[File:Villa Las Estrellas.jpg|thumbnail|Villa Las Estrellas, the Chilean town in the South Shetland Islands at night. ]]
[[File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Pinochet]] inaugurating [[Villa Las Estrellas]] in the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
The most significant act for Chile, however, perhaps corresponds to the inauguration of Villa Las Estrellas, by [[President of Chile|President]] [[Augusto Pinochet]] on April 9, 1984, on King George Island, in the South Shetlands. It is located next to the President Frei Meteorological Center and three kilometers from the Lieutenant Marsh Base. Pinochet visited the continent more than once, the first time in 1977. Today there is the "Cerro Lucía" named after his wife Lucía Hiriart, the Augusto Pinochet Massif (also known as Dufek) and the Admiral Merino Channel (also known as Plata).

Initially with only six families, in a few months it had already doubled to 12 families and was already the first and only population of civilian settlers established in Antarctica, with no other similar experience in history. The success of this project allowed the registration of some of the first human births in Antarctic territory, which up to 1985 totaled three:

*Juan Pablo Camacho Martinez (November 21, 1984)
*Gisella Ester Cortés Rojas (2 December 1984)
*Ignacio Alfonso Miranda Lagunas (January 23, 1985).
In practice, this means that Chile has allowed the birth of another of the first men with Antarctic gentilage, among the first authentic "Antarctics" in the world, after a registry apparently initiated at the Argentinean base "Esperanza" on January 7, 1978 (Emilio Marcos Palma), but which has been put in doubt by some technical and historical criteria, such as the much earlier birth of a girl in South Georgia Island, United Kingdom: Solveig Gunbjörg Jacobsen, born on October 8, 1913. The case is recorded by Robert K. Headland in his work "The Island of South Georgia" (Cambridge University Press, 1984). Moreover, in the Argentine case, the parents were not resident civilians, but rather officials of a temporary base, although they had been living in specially arranged cabins since that same year. It should be noted that in the case of the Chilean births, they were also residents, since they belonged to families who were members of the settler community. The confusion of the Argentine case and its registration as the "first" in the world, which has even been accepted by the Guinness Book of Records, seems to derive from the campaign carried out during the last Argentine military governments as propaganda in favor of their aspirations over the southern territory.

At present, villa "Las Estrellas" has a large population of its own, including an inn, a nursery, a school, a mini hospital, a small supermarket, a post office and a bank, which make it a real human colony, and not an imitation or a set-up of one, to the point that it has become an important enclave of logistic support for the other eight nations that have installations on King George Island and its surroundings.

Supplies are periodically flown in by air, a task carried out by the Chilean Air Force. The colony's houses are built with great comfort, in a hundred square meters and with lenga wood on a solid steel chassis, with special adaptations in roofs and windows to insulate the cold environment.

The success of villa "Las Estrellas" has not been unique for Chile. In July 2000, another good scientific news took place, after a Chilean research group discovered a natural sanctuary for Antarctic Minke whales, which developed their own habitat on the frozen continent, adapting to its extreme climatic conditions. The whales' refuge was defined by the scientists as "a new population and species of Minke whales for the southern hemisphere". Apparently, the cetaceans developed an extraordinary adaptation that allowed them to permanently inhabit Antarctic waters without having to migrate in the austral winter.

This type of progress is also fundamental for the defense of Chile's Antarctic rights, protected by the Antarctic Treaty, since the country has achieved remarkable advances and discoveries on the white continent, knowledge and foundations that will later be vital for the validation of its rights, since discoveries such as these demonstrate that Chile is one of the few countries with a constant Antarctic relationship. Numerous scientific and geographical studies thus support Chilean sovereignty over the area.

In April 2001, a project to transfer Chilean jurisdiction over Antarctica and the village of "Las Estrellas" from Punta Arenas to the Municipality of Navarino, on the island of the same name, which would be renamed the Municipality of Cape Horn, was approved in April 2001. This measure, although it has some critical remarks, makes a great administrative approximation of the Chilean Antarctic alien to any inductive projection as is the case in other countries, demonstrating another instance of the true close relationship that exists between continental Chile and its polar territory.

In this sense, it may constitute a great advance, but it will be of no use if the serious problem derived from the reduction of the number of people who live in Chile's Antarctic territory persists.<ref>[http://www.soberaniachile.cl/derechos_soberanos_antarticos_de_chile.html]</ref>

==Sectorial Improvements==
===Agriculture===

Chile's great export potential for agricultural products was nullified by the protectionist policy followed since the 1930s. The end of the agrarian reform, together with the process of land titling and, above all, the opening of the economy, were decisive for the development of the sector. Thanks to this, Chile has become one of the largest exporters of fresh fruit in the world by taking advantage of the comparative advantages of the Chilean climate. In 2003, fruit exports reached US$1,667 million (FOB) with a planted area of 214,485 hectares in 2002.

The same has happened with the forestry sector, which also saw its potential curbed by the export restrictions that existed before 1974. Thanks to the opening of the economy, there was a rapid expansion of plantations and subsequently of export volumes, not only of raw material, but also of value-added by-products.

The US adopted sanctions to Chilean Fruit exports for 'human right abusses' and pressured Chile to introduce a series of economic reforms, a process that escalated sharply in the eighties.

One of the ministers of Agriculture was [[Alfonso Marquéz De La Plata]].<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Mining===
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|250px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
When the military government took office, it was faced with litigation arising from nationalization, which had consisted of a virtual stripping of foreign companies of their investments in the mining sector. Nor was there any clarity in the rules for those who wished to exercise the right to explore and exploit mineral deposits, so that the development of the sector was in sharp decline.

Initially, the authorities, aware that the country lacked sufficient capital to support this development, reached agreement formulas with the expropriated companies, taking the first step to restore seriousness in the treatment of foreign investment.

Subsequently, through the 1980 Constitution and the Constitutional Organic Law on mining concessions, the pertinent norms were established, providing the concession with the essential attributes for the right to explore and exploit the deposits. This legislation was later joined in 1983 by the Mining Code.

The Organic Constitutional Law on Mining Concessions reaffirmed the ownership of mining concessions in private hands. The Mining Code established clear and precise definitions, its main objective being to guarantee the stability and security of the concessions.

This legislation, which is applicable to nationals and foreigners, has now borne fruit, thanks to which the sector has benefited from strong investment, which to date amounts to US$18 billion. Copper exports have reached US$7,502.5 million (FOB), while non-copper metallic and non-metallic exports reached US$958 million (FOB) in 2003.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Electricity Sector===

As a result of the price freeze established in 1971, both state-owned and private companies in the electricity sector suffered serious financial difficulties. In the first years after 1974, the Military Government began a process of rationalization and normalization of the sector that sought to correct the preponderant state participation, the imposition of political price regulations and inefficient tariffs, defining a strategy consistent with the general development policy postulated by the country. That is, seeking the maximum welfare of the population within conditions of efficiency in a framework of State subsidiarity.

In 1978, the systematic process of institutional reorganization began with the objectives of decentralization, the search for efficiency, competition and private participation. Privatization itself was conducted with caution and a great deal of pragmatism as to its speed. The first privatizations did not take place before 1980. It should be noted here that this process favored not only institutional investors, but also numerous private individuals and the workers themselves through the so-called "popular capitalism".

Both privatizations and policy changes in the electricity sector have been of great importance for the country's development. First of all, it should be noted that the companies soon showed that their financial situation was in a healthy state. A second positive element was the overall efficiency of the sector, which was reflected in lower tariffs worldwide, benefiting consumers. To this must be added an increase in service coverage. Thirdly, the stability of the rules of the game has favored investment in the sector.

Currently, the energy generation activity operates as a competitive market and transmission and distribution are regulated by tariffs because they are considered natural monopolies. Both the regulatory institutional framework and the tariff law developed during the military government have been key in the development of this sector.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Telecommunications Sector===

The new National Telecommunications Policy that the Military Government elaborated at the beginning was legally materialized in the General Telecommunications Law enacted in 1982, which established the free and non-discriminatory access of individuals to the development of telecommunications services in the country. It also established the technical control of the development of these services through authorizations granted by the Undersecretary of Telecommunications SUBTEL. In relation to the tariffs of the services, the law established a general freedom, but empowered the authority to regulate them in case of monopolistic situations.

Meanwhile, as early as 1974, a process of normalization of the large state-owned companies in the sector (CTC andENTEL) began, which would make their privatization possible after 1985. In this sense, in an attempt to decentralize the sector, the CTC was subsidized.

In 1982, the state monopoly of national telegraph and telex services was abolished and Teles Chile S.A. was created as a subsidiary of CORFO. This company was 100% privatized in 1985.

Another important milestone in the modernization of the sector was to allow the transfer of telephone contracts between private individuals, which meant recognizing the holders of these contracts a property right over them and provided a market solution aimed at economically distributing the severe shortage of lines existing at that time.

In 1981, the first two private telephone companies were created: CMET and Manquehue.

In 1985, in view of the great investment needs, the sector was opened to national and foreign private participation. Since then, the development of telecommunications in Chile has been rapid and successful, which has placed it at the forefront in Latin America and with respect to many countries in the world. On the other hand, the country has been able to successfully introduce state-of-the-art technologies such as cellular telephony, network digitalization and the use of fiber optics, among others, and to introduce greater competition in the development of long distance through the multicarrier system.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

===Transportation Sector===
[[File:Carretera Austral Augusto Pinochet.jpg|250px|thumbnail|''[[Carretera Austral]]'' of 1240 km long in [[Aysén Region]], built during the Military Government and unofficially named after him by his supporters.]]
[[File:Pinochet en avión con ministros.png|thumbnail]]
In the cases of shipping, air transportation and port operations, modifications were made to the legal system in order to establish a competitive system and open up participation to the private sector.

The modernizations carried out in the port sector have been of great importance as a complement to foreign trade activities. In 1973, Chilean ports were extremely overcrowded. The main cause of this inefficiency was found in the low yields of the port labor sector, a product of its monopolistic position. From 1973 onwards, small reforms were carried out which made it possible to incorporate a greater number of casual workers and private entrepreneurs into port operations by freezing the registration system, preventing EMPORCHI from acquiring new equipment and rationalizing personnel. However, the main change was the end of the labor monopoly, with the enactment in 1981 of Law No. 18,032, which opened access to the port labor market to the entire labor force of the country. Beginning that same year, EMPORCHI's tariff system was rationalized and port work was increased to three shifts, thus improving the efficiency in the occupation of the existing infrastructure.

With respect to air transportation, the following important modernizations were carried out during the Military Government:

* Beginning in 1977, although only administratively, restrictions for foreign operators in cargo movement began to be lifted. Shortly thereafter, the Civil Aeronautics Board decided to approve all requests to provide passenger services unless Lan Chile demonstrated within one week that this was detrimental to it, thus laying the foundations for the deregulation of the air market.

* Freedom of tariffs for scheduled air cargo transportation between Chile and other countries was decreed in December 1978, together with another Supreme Decree approving the same freedom for international scheduled air passenger transportation. In June 1979, freedom of access to the market and freedom of tariffs were established, giving the authority, in accordance with international standards, the power to apply, on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, restrictions to third country companies on routes where Chilean companies are restricted by another state, and to set tariffs on those routes where, by provision of another state, such freedom does not exist.

* Subsequently, in November 1981, Law No. 18,063 was enacted, which gave the JAC the powers it still has today and provided it with the tools to better negotiate Chile's air rights with the authorities of other countries, thus seeking a greater degree of openness in the air markets.

* These implemented policies generated competitive conditions that resulted in increased frequency, lower costs and greater air coverage from the country.

In railroad transportation, progress was made by rationalizing the state-owned company, focusing it on its own tasks and on those in which it had comparative advantages. To a small extent, private participation was introduced, especially in maintenance and repair of equipment and infrastructure.

The ''[[Carretera Austral]]'' (Southern Highway) was built between 1976 and 1989 and connects several rural towns in the far south of Chile that previously didn't had direct transportation, it is 1240 km long, starting in [[Puerto Montt]] and ending in Villa O'Higgins. Today the highway is a touristic destination of Chile because of the beauty of the landscape. This huge and important geopolitical megaproject was built by military personnel, many died because of the rough climate.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Fight against Left Wing Terrorism (Irregular War)==
{{Main article|Left Wing Terrorism in Chile}}
[[File:FPMR Chile.SVG|250px|thumbnail|left|Manuel Rodríguez Front Flag.]]
[[File:Flag of the MIR - Chile.svg|250px|thumbnail|left|MIR Flag.]]
[[File:Miguel Krassnoff.jpg|250px|thumbnail|[[Miguel Krassnoff]] executed the leader of the terrorist organization, MIR. Nowadays he is unjustly in the [[Punta Peuco Jail|Punta Peuco prison]] for that.]]
The Armed Forces, through their intelligence agencies, had to face a difficult element to combat. Terrorism is an activity in which the means override the ends, in which the ultimate objective is above all value considerations, making it an immoral and delirious activity that stops at nothing.
Cowardly attacks, the blowing up of pylons, the detonation of explosives and robberies were the daily bread. The following are some newspaper reports of the time.

In June 1974, the National Intelligence Directorate, DINA, was created to continue the work against terrorism and subversion. The achievements of the DINA were real. But it was also between 1973 and Pinochet's abolition of DINA in 1977 that the most inexcusable abuses were committed, sometimes by senior DINA personnel.
Such abuses are, no doubt, deplorable. But there is no evidence of General Pinochet's involvement in them. Moreover, there should be no doubt as to the reality of the threat facing the country, and that it was essentially this continuing threat that guaranteed a degree of impunity to skeptics of the security apparatus.
The facts speak for themselves. For example: in 1974 fifty-two members of the armed forces and the police were killed or wounded in terrorist attacks.
In the same year [[Miguel Krassnoff]] killed the terrorist Miguel Enríquez, leader of the MIR, the maximum leader of Chilean terrorism, and the secretary general of the Coordinadora Revolucionaria para el Cono Sur (Revolutionary Coordinating Committee for the Southern Cone) while he was in a housed with the main members of the MIR. Krassnoff saved his wife who was pregnant of his son who later became a Socialist politician called Marco Enríquez-Ominami.

In 1975 there were 25 similar cases. Then there was a lull in terrorist activity, but not in the determination of the Marxists to overthrow the regime.

In 1979, the secretary of the Chilean Communist Party, Luis Corvalán, threatened that Chile "could become a second Nicaragua".

In 1980 he envisioned a new era of "acute violence". And indeed the early 1980s saw a major resurgence of terrorist attacks, as the communist forces of the "Manuel Rodriguez Popular Front" regrouped.
The action was organized mainly in Cuba, as the U.S. State Department acknowledged in a report to the Senate Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on December 14, 1981. Again the attempt to destabilize the country was put down.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|450px|thumbnail|Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.]]

In the period after 1980, the recorded terrorist deaths total 389 persons. (The information corresponds to the [[Rettig Report]])
We can observe how between the period 1973-1979 the extremist war power was drastically diminished, which correlates with the number of deaths in those years in frank decrease and in the number and type of attacks perpetrated.
From 1978/79 until the mid-1980s, the terrorist escalation was notorious. This was the beginning of a decade in which the Chilean State designed the outline of a new institutional framework based on a legal system in accordance with national values and with an evidently integrating intention.
The Communist Party took advantage of this moment to reinforce and optimize the "Propaganda War", from where it disseminated its doctrine and action plan.
The MIR restructured itself both politically and militarily. It received support from extremist leaders such as Pascal Allende who came to Chile to consolidate the movement and set objectives. A violent work plan was set up to be applied in 1979, called "offensive of the resistance" which consisted in programming 3 major armed propaganda actions and 10 explosive sabotages per month, in the central zone of Chile and an equivalent number in the rest of the country.
The repressive action of the Military Government was always directed against subversion and terrorism and although it managed to neutralize their action, it never achieved the total defeat of the extremist groups. Between 1982 and 1983, the creation of the Manuel Rodriguez Front marked a new era of violence and terrorism, which was reflected in an increase in the number of terrorist deaths.
Among the most violent attacks were the deaths of military and carabineros in the exercise of their duties, carried out by combat groups of the MIR.

* July 15, 1980: Murder of the Director of the Army Intelligence School, Lieutenant Colonel Roger Vergara Campos and two companions.
* August 30, 1983: Murder of Santiago Intendant General Carol Urzúa and 2 escorts.

Significantly, it was around the same time that Pinochet had already begun to put Chile back on the road to democracy that the most serious attempt to destroy him occurred.
In early 1986, Chilean security forces discovered a huge arsenal of Cuban weapons, enough to arm 5,000 men, although it was apparently only part of a larger quantity whose hiding place remains a mystery.
Some of this weaponry, hidden in the hands of 70 terrorists, was used in a carefully planned assassination attempt against Pinochet.
Fortunately he escaped unharmed but 5 of his bodyguards were killed. Nor were his security personnel the only victims that year; in all of 1986, 23 people died in terrorist acts, including subway passengers, bus passengers and pedestrians.
In the face of so much Soviet-backed and Cuban-sponsored terrorist action perpetrated by communists, it is not surprising that the military government stepped up the fight, and when a government steps up its fight, abuses occur. But the fact remains that order is better than disorder, and legality is better than illegality.
Pinochet's action restored legality and order in Chile.
Had it not been for the timing and effectiveness of the Military Intervention, the death toll could have reached millions. Plan Z could have been carried out and we would have become the second Cuba. That Cuba that today boasts 48,000 executed, 400,000 prisoners and one and a half million exiles and where there is a death penalty for those who try to leave the island.
On July 13, 1995, a tugboat with 72 Cubans trying to flee was intercepted killing 41 people among them 22 children.

The level reached by different paramilitary groups and the culture of destruction that guided their actions did not disappear with the presence of the military government. It only determined a change in the way they acted, since, apart from going underground, it meant a recomposition of their cadres, both from the outside and from the inside, making their actions more violent.

In 1978 close to a thousand terrorists were pardoned, commuted and amnestied according to the Amnesty Decree Law of 1978.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2014/07/este-pobre-pais-desmemoriado.html?m=0|title=Este Pobre País Desmemoriado|date=July 19, 2014|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

The Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), which was the most efficient expression of the extremist groups, sent its main members for guerrilla training to various countries of the Soviet orbit, mainly to Cuba and, from the first quarter of 1974, began to bring them in clandestinely.

Thanks to the action of disinformation, they achieved the desired economic support and, at the end of 1979, they began the self-styled "Operation Return", which allowed them to resume terrorist action in the country, which resulted in constant assaults on bank branches and financial institutions in general, as well as sabotage to road infrastructure, public service buildings and police facilities. A series of attacks against Carabineros and authorities took place, including the assassination of the Director of the Army Intelligence School, which marked the beginning of selective terrorist actions.

This movement managed to expand to rural areas and set up guerrilla stations and pockets, which sought to attract adherents among the peasantry and, at the same time, to organize arms and supplies depots. The best known was discovered in Neltume, in the [[Araucanía Region]].

As a result of the constant arrests to which they were subjected, this group was losing strength, although this did not mean the end of their war logic, since, for example, the year 1980 ended with a disastrous toll of deaths of civilians and police officers, who were in sectors called "armed propaganda". In line with these criminal acts, the murder of the Intendant of Santiago, Major General Carol Urzúa, and his two escorts in 1983, was also a crime.

As an illustrative example and according to existing statistical research, it can be stated that in the period 1974–1984, the MIR carried out more than 1,200 armed actions.

Apart from this movement, there were other armed subversive movements, among them the Manuel Rodriguez Front, which is the armed wing of the Communist Party, and the Lautaro Movement.

The Communist Party, obeying a party doctrine, continued with a public position, while reorganizing its paramilitary instance, which in 1975 was given an organic conformation at national level. Its first actions were registered in Antofagasta and Valparaíso, but it acquired greater strength and dynamics from 1983 onwards in the existing political-social agitation and effervescence, in which the so-called "Peaceful Protests" stood out, which generated support from popular sectors, due to the economic crisis that had to be faced. Gradually their presence became more aggressive and in 1984 alone they carried out 130 attacks with explosives.

Between 1984 and 1986, statistics show that more than 600 Chileans were affected by terrorist acts of the Manuel Rodriguez Front.

Their actions were normally centered in urban areas, but they used coastal sectors for the internment of weapons, the most notorious being the one discovered in the sector of Carrizal Bajo, in the [[Atacama Region]]. Of the material captured by the police and security agencies, which represented only 50% of the weapons seized, the following stand out:

Automatic, semi-automatic and anti-armor weapons in an amount close to 4000 units and a wide range of anti-personnel grenades, diverse and substantial ammunition of different calibers, plus explosives and other elements of war material and engineers.

On September 7, 1986, President Augusto Pinochet suffered a terrorist attack perpetrated by the Front Manuel Rodriguez (FPMR) in the Achupallas sector, Cajón del Maipo, when the motorcade in which he was traveling from his resting residence was attacked with rockets and machine guns. Pinochet suffered minor injuries to his left hand, but five of his escorts were killed. The attack used weapons from the war arsenal found in the [[Atacama Region]] on August 15, 1986, in a cove located in Carrizal Bajo, south of Copiapó, weapons sent by [[Fidel Castro]].<ref name=Biografia>{{cite web|url=https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/p/biografia_21.html|title=BIOGRAFIA|publisher=Chile Pinochet Nuestro}}</ref>

The head of the attack on Pinochet, was César Bunster, and the communist military chief who has publicly confessed to having been the mastermind of that attack, was Guillermo Teillier, both have never been prosecuted because the courts have held that prescription does operate for them.<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019}}</ref>

The men who were killed were:
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Miguel Angel Guerrero Guzmán.
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Cardenio Hernández Cubillos.
- Carabineros 2nd Corporal Pablo Antonio Silva Pizarro.
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Gerardo Rebolledo Cisternas.
- 2nd Corporal of the Army Roberto Rosales Martínez.

The most important criminal acts up to 1990 were:

* Repeated explosive attacks against municipalities and offices of public, private and international companies, including the one perpetrated against the National Defense Fund in Valparaíso, which left 17 wounded and one dead.

* Attacks on towns such as those in Contulmo, Los Queñes and Cabildo.

* Kidnappings of Gonzalo Cruzat, Sebastiano Bartolomé, Carabineros Corporal Sergio Ovando, Army Colonel Mario Haberle Rivadeneira and Army Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera.

* Massive illegal arms shipment.

* Murders of Army Colonel Miguel Rojas Lobos and Army Lieutenant Julio Zegers R. at the Army Aviation Command.

* Frustrated attempt against the Army Military Prosecutor, Brigadier General Fernando Torres Silva.

* Attempted assassination attempt against the President of the Republic, CGL. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, where 5 bodyguards were killed and countless wounded.

With regard to the Lautaro movement, known by various similar names, its most important actions began in 1982 with robberies, assaults, attacks on Carabineros and distribution of the products obtained in this way, in marginal populations and student centers.

In synthesis, this reality was a harsh interference to the spirit and proposal of the Military Government, to reach the different goals in harmony and stability, according to the itinerary that had been previously established. During the period analyzed, and as a result of the action of these extremist groups, the depressing balance, unknown by most of the public opinion, determines that more than 300 Chileans were murdered among civilians and military; they were the object of despicable actions until today forgotten or disfigured by the action of disinformation.

The facts have been distorted by various segments and sectors of Chilean society and the international community, due to disinformation as well as ideological or partisan positions. Unfortunately, it has reached such biased and unilateral levels that the image that is preserved is that of defenselessness and innocence of the actors representing pro-Marxist or paramilitary groups or sectors, and an image of intolerance, abuse of power and guilty acts of those who served in the military government prevails.

It is true that in the action against extremist movements since September 11, 1973, as well as in the periods of social effervescence and political polarization between 1982 and 1986, there may be responsibilities of officials of State agencies in the face of events labeled as human rights, but we must not forget and take into consideration the logic and reality of subversive warfare prevailing in those periods. On the other hand, in no case does this possible reality distort or minimize the responsibility of those who systematically used violence to achieve their ends.

The Government, in combating these devastating terrorist behaviors, was inspired by the common good of the country's citizens and never encouraged, systematized or organized forms of action to increase the spiral of violence that reigned.

The historical truth that must be kept in mind is that these irrational conducts were conceived and practiced by political and subversive sectors that today appear as victims alien to the real scenario that they themselves created.

It is worth mentioning, as an illustrative fact, that after 1990, both the Manuel Rodriguez Front and the Lautaro Movement continued to assassinate military and police personnel and kidnap national personalities. The judicial processes and those responsible for these serious crimes also seem to have been forgotten by public opinion.

343 of the people who died in this period were narcos eliminated along with the destruction of 33 cocaine processing laboratories.<ref>[https://youtu.be/PstCXq6xO-A https://youtu.be/PstCXq6xO-A?t=141]</ref>

==Civilian unrest==

Large-scale popular protests erupted in 1983 organized by the Left, and several opposition parties, the Christian Democratic Party being the largest, formed a new centre-left coalition, the Democratic Alliance (''Alianza Democrática'' or AD). The Roman Catholic Church also began openly to support the opposition. In August 1984, 11 parties of the right and centre signed an accord, worked out by the archbishop of Santiago, Raúl Cardinal Silva Henríquez, calling for elections to be scheduled before 1989. Additional pressure came from the [[Jimmy Carter]] presidency and other countries that had supported Chile economically but now showed signs of impatience with Pinochet's regime and with the numerous reports of so-called 'human rights violations' attributed to his military crackdown and his persecution of Left Wing Guerrillas.

The economic and political climate continued to be volatile in the late 1980s, with increasing pressure for governmental change by the opposition, acts of terrorism multiplying, and the economy suffered from two external crises as well as strikes and protests from the labor sector.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==National plebiscite and third stage (Normality or Consolidation)==
{{Main article|1988 Chilean national plebiscite}}
[[File:Logo Sí & No Pinochet Plebiscite 1988.png|thumbnail|''Sí'' and ''No'' logos of the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite]].]]
[[File:1538674148-pinochet.jpg|thumbnail|The [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]] was held to decide if Pinochet continued being [[President of Chile]] until 1997. Congress was planned to be reopened in both alternatives of the plebiscite.]]

This last phase would be materialized with the transfer of the government to the new authorities.

One aspect that cannot be overlooked is the fact that, while the military government was in power, there was special concern for not confusing or mixing the role that legally corresponded to the Armed Forces with the work of leading the country carried out by some of its members, which prevented a process of politicization of these institutions and allowed a full and expeditious return to their usual functions.

The country's complete political liberalization came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite. To organize opposition to Pinochet, who was chosen as the junta's candidate, 16 centrist and leftist parties formed the Command for No (Comando por el No). On October 5, 1988, the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes won, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. As the country prepared for its first free presidential and legislative elections since 1973, Command for No—renamed the Coalition of Parties for Democracy (Concertación de los Partidos por la Democracia; CPD)—and the government negotiated constitutional amendments that were approved in a national referendum in July 1989, among them the revocation of Article Eight, which banned Marxist parties. Two months later the leftist Chileans living abroad returned to the country. Presidential elections were held on December 11, 1989.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=186894|title=Ministro desclasifica vínculo de George Soros con Chile: apoyó campaña del No, ayudó a Ricardo Lagos con los empresarios y hoy respalda inversión en el país|language=es|publisher=Economía y Negocios|date=September 27, 2015}}</ref> and the [[National Endowment for Democracy]], which originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, and helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2020/12/se-me-cayeron-los-estados-unidos.html|title="Se Me Cayeron" los Estados Unidos|date=December 30, 2020|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref><ref name=aniversarioSi>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/09/otro-aniversario-del-si.html|title=Otro Aniversario del "Sí"|date=Septemebr 30, 2020|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref> Soros is a friend of the Chilean politician Máximo Pacheco who thanked the him for "his contribution in the recovery of our democracy, and we do not forget that in Chile" and also said that Soros was crusial "in conducting studies and obtaining data that gave us information that had been hidden from us for 17 years." "What we learned there was crucial for the preparation of the famous television program of the No campaign and for the victory in the plebiscite".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html|title=El multimillonario que apoyó la campaña del No y ayudó a Ricardo Lagos con empresarios (Soros helped the "No" campaign)|publisher=Emol|language=es|date=September 27, 2015}}</ref>

The "Sí" option would have probably won if the election was in 1987, but the majority verdict changed due to the enormous flow of money from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy and the millionaire European subsidies for a majority of anti-government print media that subsisted thanks to the prevailing freedom of the press (although each year the Inter-American Press Association maintained that there was none, which wasn't true due to the existing opposition magazines containing the worst criticisms to the military government).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/10/hoy-votaria-si-con-mayor-razon.html|title=Hoy Votaría "Sí" Con Mayor Razón|date=October 3, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

The NED financed numerous leftist entities like trade unions, academic and journalistic organizations. Pinochet knew this and described it as "an act of intervention that cannot be viewed with pleasure by the majority of Chileans, including broad sectors of the opposition".
The US ambassador, [[Harry Barnes]], who systematically contradicted the good omens that [[President Reagan]] expressed to the military government, pointed out that the aid to the opposition does not imply an intervention in Chile's internal affairs, but rather "to promote participation and civic education, processes that correspond to any real democracy".<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/05/historia-de-la-revolucion-militar_20.html}}</ref>

The international organizations ignored the historical truth to the same degree as the majority of Chileans, who did not know, because of that deceitful propaganda, that democracy would return the same whether the "Sí" or "No" vote won, because there were going to be the same elections, the same institutions and the same individual guarantees for all, after 1990. Because the "Sí" government so provided in the Constitution, which improved the country for all, including those who voted "No".<ref name=aniversarioSi/><ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Democracy restored==
[[File:Transmision de mando Aylwin-Pinochet.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Augusto Pinochet giving the Presidency to Patricio Aylwin, March 11, 1990.]]
[[File:Pinochet and Aylwin.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Pinochet as Commander-in-Chief and Aylwin as president.]]

In the December 1989 presidential election, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin|Patricio Aylwin Azócar]], leader of the [[Concertación|Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia]] (Concertation of Parties for Democracy), won by a large margin over his closest opponent, Hernán Büchi, a former finance minister and the government-endorsed candidate. The coalition also gained a majority in the lower chamber and nearly half the seats in the upper chamber.

On March 11, 1990, the President of the Republic, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, handed over the Presidential sash to his successor Patricio Aylwin Azócar in a sober ceremony presided over by the newly elected President of the Senate, Gabriel Valdés.
Everyone congratulated each other for this transfer of power full of symbolism.

The Armed Forces and the Forces of Order, which had had to take charge of the nation in 1973, were completing their work, faithfully fulfilling their word.
The country was once again on the democratic path after the military government had made the profound corrections that Chile required.
A thriving economy and a country confident in its future was the legacy that the Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of Order handed over to President Aylwin so that he could continue, for the good of Chile, the path that Chileans had traveled with so much effort and sacrifice during the last two decades.

This correct transition had unique and original features. He who had served for 17 years as President of the Republic continued as Commander-in-Chief of the Army for the next 8 years, that is to say, the entire presidential term of Patricio Aylwin and a good part of his successor's term.

President Aylwin did not feel comfortable with this situation and told the Commander-in-Chief of the Army that his government did not think it was good for the country or for the Army that he would continue as Commander-in-Chief, but that he recognized and respected his right to remain in office.

At the end of his term, former President Aylwin, in an interview with the newspaper ''[[Le Monde]]'', reproduced by the Santiago newspaper El Mercurio on April 30, 1994, praised the figure of Augusto Pinochet as a sort of guarantor of the transition: "If Pinochet had not been there during the transition, we would have had in Chile attempts of insurrection carried out by subordinates, "painted faces" as was the case in Argentina".
Later, in Japan, he declared that "during my government, General Pinochet fulfilled the task of Commander-in-Chief of the Army, subordinate to the President and respectful of the constitutional order" (La Época, July 9, 1994).

Aylwin, who took office in March 1990, supported Chile's free-market system but also emphasized social and political change. Before stepping down, Pinochet was able to appoint several new Supreme Court justices and to claim a lifetime senatorial seat; he also retained significant power as commander of the armed forces until his retirement from the military in 1998.<ref name=GobMilitar/>

==Smear campaign against the Military Government==
From the first day of the Military Government, a growing campaign of disinformation and criticism began from abroad, inspired and financed, mainly at the beginning, by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and to which, as has been said, other States gradually joined in. Priority support came from leftist sectors working in relevant information, communication and publicity centers at world and national level. In this context it is necessary to remember that disinformation seeks to psychologically destroy an image through the systematic propagation of lies or the dissemination of a half-truth.

The former Secretary of Defense of the United States of America, Robert Mc Namara, in reference to this point, explained in the context of the east–west conflict and exemplified with some postulates of the Soviets:

"The repeated lie is a method of propaganda; if the lie is spread by using all means of publicity, it concludes by being accepted as truth or at least half-truth".

The campaign remained relentless and uninterrupted throughout the Military Government and obviously, it increased after it. The persistence, consistency in the way of acting, together with a systematic use of lies, has its genesis in various meetings held abroad, with the participation of Chilean, Soviet and other nationalities' leaders, where ways were articulated to achieve the political, economic and moral isolation of Chile, with the intention of overthrowing the Military Government and reinstalling a socialist regime.

To achieve this, National Centers of Solidarity with Chile were created, which, through the spaces generated, carried out extensive disinformation campaigns. Since those years, the leftist sectors have used all academic, political and union instances, achieving, among other effects, the gradual incorporation of international, political, economic and governmental organizations to their aims, following the "Gramscian" line referring to the need to provoke a change in the existing social conditions on the basis of changing mentalities.

The level of coordination allowed them to carry out campaigns in most of the international forums, so that, together with denouncing the Military Government, even the economic policies of the country were interfered with, not to mention the high level of support they generated for the ideological opponents and mainly for the subversive apparatuses that operated clandestinely in the country.

This action had as a central axis the accusations related to human rights, which had a special receptivity in the United Nations Organization and other organizations of similar importance. This point was undoubtedly the one that caused the greatest interference and hindrance, significantly damaging national coexistence, as well as affecting the transition process conceived.

The peaceful and rational transition to democracy was slowly eroded by several factors. The main and most negative was the action of the left, which could never forgive President Augusto Pinochet for ending the chaotic government of Salvador Allende, sending a clear signal to the world that a socialist-communist regime, even if it was described as one of "empanadas and red wine", was clearly harmful and undesirable.

[[Leonid Brézhnev]] said in September 1973, "There should never be another Chile!"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2021/10/el-18-de-la-infamia.html|title=El 18 de la Infamia|date=October 17, 2021|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref> and the [[KGB]] started to make propaganda against the Chilean Military Government in collaboration with the Chilean Left claiming that in Chile there were "systematic Human Rights Violations".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2014/11/renegacion-nacional.html|title=¿Renegación Nacional?|date=November 21, 2014|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

===Guilt unjustly attributed===
When people in Chile and abroad speak of "Pinochet's crimes", they are referring mainly to what happened during the passage of General Arellano's retinue through the north, the details of which General Pinochet did not even know in advance and of which, subsequently, he was very badly and contradictorily informed.
And for the effects of the national and world image of the regime, the simultaneous case of Lonquén, which was only discovered five years later, in 1978, aggravated the situation created by an officer of Arellano's retinue, acting on his own, by killing numerous people without any form of trial.

This discovery was decisive, and although the Junta also bore no responsibility for the deaths, it constituted a "turning point" that was very poorly resolved by the Junta.
This case was originated by the unilateral and unauthorized action of the Carabineros, accompanied by civilians, who wanted to take justice into their own hands and also to take revenge on people who had committed abuses during the Allende Regime. They killed 16 leftists and tried to hide their remains in an abandoned oven in a mine in Lonquén. But these were discovered five years later, the news went around the world and the Chilean government found that it had nothing to say, because it ignored everything.

The Junta realized that there could be other similar situations undiscovered and that this could lead to a succession of macabre discoveries that would only accentuate its national and international discredit. He then ordered a confidential internal investigation, throughout the whole territory, so that those who knew of executions that had taken place without trial and without a superior order, would reveal them under the promise of secrecy and impunity. But, instead of ordering the delivery of the recovered remains to the respective families, he ordered them to be thrown into the sea. This was possibly the most unfortunate and clumsy decision of the Junta in its 1973-1981 period of government, and it has paid dearly for it.

As a result, throughout the country, the remains of 327 people killed in 1973 and 1974 and clandestinely buried were exhumed in an equally confidential manner, taken to airfields and thrown into the sea.
I know this because an officer who had to carry out this procedure in Calama, after the Lonquén discovery, told me all about his experience.
But the number of dead was determined and, by subsequent inquiries, the identities were determined. Strictly speaking, they were no longer people whose whereabouts were unknown, i.e., missing.

The [[Rettig Report]] made latter in Aylwin Government, and made to harm the perception of the Military Government, admits that in the case of Arellano's entourage "there was no talk of executions without trial; moreover, the message of the traveling delegate contained an express and repeated reference to facilitating the right of defense of the defendants".<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/05/historia-de-la-revolucion-militar_4.html}}</ref>

===Human right abuses were not a Government policy===
It is not true that the Military Government, as such, abused systematically on human rights. Its government policy consisted of trying to avoid such abuses.
Disproving the [[Rettig Report]] made latter in Aylwin's Government, which inculcates such a notion of "systematic policy of human rights abuses," the Junta made efforts to avoid them.
From the beginning, when it issued a resolution that was distributed to the Armed Forces and the Carabineros, delivered to the latter, transcribed to the personnel by its General Directorate, it expressed its concern to avoid abuses and excesses.
{{quotebox-float|"O. S. 3, Circular No. 1 (H. Junta de Gobierno: Dicta normas de conducta en procedimientos empleen Fuerzas Armadas y Carabineros). Santiago, January 7, 1974.
Our stage in the government of the Nation cannot and should not be characterized by inhuman acts that have to be hidden from the citizens and that only engender a reaction of violence, hatred and revenge. (...)
6.a.- The attitude of the Armed Forces and the Carabineros towards any Chilean or foreigner who is caught wielding arms, in criminal acts against the troops and civilian population or sabotage that affects our forces or the civilian population, must be oriented towards the annihilation in combat of these extremists or violent individuals or, by means of the quickest judicial procedure, if they have surrendered.
6.b.- Those who are caught promoting subversion, must be submitted to trial and punished according to the quick procedures granted by military tribunals in time of war.
6.g.- The concept of 'iron fist' does not authorize the use of procedures banished from civilization; the iron fist is rather a 'just fist', in order to better interpret the spirit of the Government Junta in the conduct of the country (...).
8.- The present Circular shall be disseminated, read and commented to all the commanders of the Armed Forces, Carabineros and Investigations, and the corresponding responsibilities, sanctions and penalties shall be established for any non-compliance with the provisions contained therein. AUGUSTO PINOCHET UGARTE, General of the Army, President of the Governing Board.<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion>{{cite book|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2013/09/el-libro-de-las-verdades-olvidadas.html|title=El Libro de las Verdades Olvidadas NI VERDAD NI RECONCILIACIÓN|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog|date=2013|language=es}}</ref>}}

In 1974 another document was distributed among all military and police units:

{{quotebox-float|(2) Decree Law No. 228 of December 24, 1973, published in the Official Gazette of January 3, 1974, Article 1°, which establishes that all the powers conferred by Article 72, No. 17, third paragraph, of the Political Constitution of the State to the President of the Republic by the declaration of the State of Siege, shall be exercised by the Board of Government by means of Supreme Decrees signed by the Minister of the Interior, with the formula "By order of the Board." (...)
(B) CONSEQUENTLY, THIS MINISTRY PROVIDES:
(1) The detention of persons in use of the powers of the State of Siege is solely and exclusively privative of the Military Government Junta and shall be exercised through Decrees of the Ministry of the Interior.
(2) The detention of persons by the Military Justice may only be carried into effect by virtue of an order issued by a competent Court and in accordance with the legal norms in force.
(3) No authority is authorized to make arrests outside the present provisions; the same applies to the Military Intelligence Services of any institution, which must also be subject to these rules. The above is without prejudice to compliance with orders issued by the competent authority and in cases in which the Criminal Law authorizes the detention of persons caught in flagrante delicto. (...)
(6) The Ministry of Defense shall provide that all C.A.J.S.I. (Justice and Internal Security Grouping Commanders) shall send a complete list of the persons who are detained to date, pursuant to this constitutional power, indicating the date on which they were detained. This list shall be sent to the Ministry of National Defense within ten days after receiving the instructions of that Ministry, which shall be sent through the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees to the Ministry of the Interior. (...)
(10) The Ministry of National Defense shall give the pertinent orders for the immediate fulfillment of these instructions. Sincerely yours faithfully,( sd.) OSCAR BONILLA BRADANOVIC, Major General, Minister of the Interior.<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/>}}

The DINA was abolished in 1977 precisely because supporters of the Junta pointed out that while it was very effective in controlling terrorists, it committed frequent human rights abuses. If the military government had had a "systematic policy of human rights abuses" it would not have disbanded DINA, but would have strengthened it. It was replaced by the CNI, under the command of General Odlanier Mena, a military officer admittedly respectful of legality and the rights of individuals. However, regulations had already been issued to prevent abuses.
Indeed, in January 1976, Supreme Decree 187 was issued, which prohibited secret places of detention and according to which all arrests had to take place with an order signed by the head of the responsible security agency, stating the names of the person who ordered it and of the person executing the order, as well as the place of detention, guaranteeing that family members should obtain a copy of this.<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/>

Historian Gonzalo Rojas Sánchez, in his work "Chile Elige la Libertad", Zigzag, 1998, volume I, p. 232, says about this visit:
"For his part, Duvauchelle personally reports burn marks on the hands of some detainees and hygienic conditions that allow the proliferation of fungus. Pinochet calls Contreras and speaks harshly to him. To Duvauchelle he simply adds: 'These things happen because there are people who do not understand. The DINA director waits for Duvauchelle at the exit and, in a threatening tone, refers to the undersecretary's family, to which Duvauchelle demands that he repeat these comments in front of the President, who reacts angrily with a 'that's not done, next time it's over'. In his recrimination to Contreras, Duvauchelle simply states that 'Pinochet served him'".<ref name=NiVerdadNiReconciliacion/>

===Truths about the disappeared detainees===

The other major theme of the slogans of the left, which most believe, is that of the so-called "disappeared detainees".
To begin with, the number of the same that the opposition to the military government denounced until 1990 was in the publications of the Vicariate of Solidarity, in seven volumes entitled "Where Are They?", and totaled 600 cases. That was the real extent of the problem.
Another uniformed officer and in particular of an officer who joined General Arellano's retinue on his tour to the north. Without the latter's knowledge, he proceeded to order the unconsulted execution of about 56 people, who in at least two places (Antofagasta and Calama) were buried in the desert, followed by the attempt of other officers, innocent of the executions, but without due judgment, to hide the remains afterwards.

The Military Junta did not know how to deal with this problem in the 1970s and relied on the CAJSI (Area Commanders of Justice and Internal Security), the highest authorities of each zone in a state of exception, who, if they had each fulfilled their duties properly, applying their own military regulations, would have minimized the number of disappeared detainees. There were CAJSI that after 2000 had problems with the justice system and there was one that had none (Washington Carrasco, III Army Division based in Concepción). This means that he always adhered to the regulations. On the other hand, General Joaquín Lagos Osorio, under whose command the worst things happened, after 1990 "went over to the enemy" and tried to blame everything on Pinochet and the Junta. But in 1973 he had the authority to have sanctioned everything that happened unduly under his jurisdiction, he knew it perfectly well and in time, and he did not do it.

The "disappearances" that had been denounced in the 70's and 80's, totaled, as of October 5, 1988, 600, contained in a publication of the Archbishopric, whose authors were Claudio Orrego and Patricia Verdugo. Later, the 1991 [[Rettig Report]] raised them to 979 and the Reparation and Reconciliation Commission increased them to 1,102. The Government claimed to have no information on these cases. But then it has been proven that the remains of people whose whereabouts are known, plus those who have been "reappearing", which are six (that is, they are not technically "disappeared") is greater than 1,102. As this has not been done in decades of Center-left governments, is it politically more profitable to continue talking about "the disappeared".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/11/manos-y-sangre.html|title=Manos y Sangre|date=November 1, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

There is so little interest in identifying remains that a bag with unidentified skeletal remains was discovered in the headquarters of the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared. And an Investigative Commission of the Chamber (which forms them under any pretext) has never been formed to determine the identity of the remains in the AFDD, the Forensic Medical Service and the General Cemetery; and to clarify the cases of "disappeared" who appear to have traveled abroad or have been seen alive by witnesses who so declare before a notary and also those who lack legal existence according to the Civil Registry, but are listed as disappeared. Blaming the Pinochet supporters for these omissions that have been going on for years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/10/el-exito-final-del-kgb.html|title=El Éxito Final del KGB|date=October 7, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

===Exile was not a government policy===
There is also talk of "thousands of exiles" during the Military Government, but that is another hoax. There never were. There were temporary expulsions of political figures who were harshly critical, but they can be counted on the fingers of one's hands and were very exceptional: Renán Fuentealba, Eugenio Velasco Letelier, Jaime Castillo Velasco, Manuel Bustos and the prohibition to re-enter for Andrés Zaldívar. Eventually, those who wanted to return to the country returned.
There was one notable one, former Minister Bernardo Leighton, who left of his own accord at the beginning of 1974. We will see later the case of the assassination attempt against him, after which he returned to live in Chile in 1977. There were other opponents who also left because they had attractive offers abroad.

They usually call themselves "exiles", but they were never exiles.
What is often confused with exile is the commutation of prison sentences for those convicted of terrorist behavior, that is, the possibility of completing their sentences abroad. As the external links of the left and the Christian Democracy were very good, especially in [[Europe]], there were 999 Mirists, communist and socialist prisoners who left prison and traveled to freedom with good jobs in Europe and [[Canada]], thus serving the sentence of exile.
In addition, parole was granted to 96 convicted by the Military Courts and to 22 convicted by special laws who also traveled abroad. These were not sanctions, but benefits for these convicts.
A private study made by General (r) Gastón Frez, details all these cases, which totaled 1,117.
This is what is called "mass exile" which, in reality, never existed but today strengthens the anti-Military Government slogans.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2020/04/miserias-de-la-chilenidad-actual-ii.html|title=Miserias de la Chilenidad: Ciudadanía renegó al gobierno militar, el giro traidor de la derecha y la prevaricación judicial|date=2016|publisher=El Roble|language=es}}</ref>

===Torture denounces===
The extreme left has always done, once its own violence has provoked an armed conflict it turned to the Catholic Church, in which, of course, and particularly in those years, there was no lack of priests and prelates sympathetic to the Popular Unity and the MIR.

Denouncing police torture is a well-known and long-standing tactic of terrorism, whether they exist or not. In a guerrilla instruction seized from the Uruguayan Tupamaros and reproduced in an article by the former President of Uruguay, Juan María Bordaberry, it is stated:
"The reports received (...) mark the stages of the interrogations in which the repressive force has to be attacked, using for this purpose real facts or mounting a great scandal by means of versions that shock the opinion of the people. This campaign must be mounted by indoctrinating our comrades for when they are arrested (...) The greatest number of denunciations must be used, as a system (...) Use the press as the main means, forcing it to publish what we want.
"The methods of torture that are denounced should be generalized to all the cities in order to demonstrate a whole system of illegal coercion and punishments (...) The stories should go into the greatest detail, trying to make them repugnant. One must always try to mention those military men whose surnames are better known by the population (...) One must always be attentive so that any casual event, illness, accident or death is exploited so that the blame falls on the repressive force". (Magazine "Gladius" N° 50, B. Aires, 2001).

Torture was a common practice in the police before the Military Government, even in the Frei Montalva and Allende's Government, but most of the alleged tortured of the Military Government were leftist following the manual exaggerating interrogatories (or nothing) in order to damage the Army's reputation.

Cardinal Silva Henríquez, whose inclination for center-left ideas was well known, but who in the last days of the UP government had evolved and saw that a military solution was inevitable, in spite of this could not but agree to establish an organization to defend the people massively detained by the military authorities under the State of Siege.

Thus was born the Pro-Peace Committee, which was later succeeded by the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago. Then, by natural gravitation, the extreme left, which formed the environment of the armed groups existing in all the parties of the Popular Unity, was integrated to the Vicariate, without, probably, this one could avoid it nor, perhaps, to warn it, but this last one only at the beginning...

Then the Vicariate provided, first, judicial assistance to the detainees. Explainable. But with time it even provided medical assistance to wounded terrorists, as happened under the responsibility of Monsignor Valech, in the 1980s. And some communists reached positions of command in the Vicariate. We saw the case of José Manuel Parada. This was indeed objectionable, since this division of the Church partially became a logistical wing of terrorism, as was demonstrated in the courts.

With this ecclesiastical support, the FPMR became, between 1985 and 1986 (as indicated in reports from the U.S. Embassy) the main cause of violent deaths in Chile. The link with the FPMR of the "Chief of Analysis" of the Vicariate became evident after the arrest, in 1986, of the guerrilla Alfredo Malbrich Labra, who referred in the following terms to his incorporation into the guerrilla through Parada:
"On May 1, 1979 I was arrested by Carabineros in the Alameda Bernardo O'Higgins and taken to the 1st Police Station. My wife went to the Vicaría de la Solidaridad and filed a writ of amparo in my favor. When I was released, I went to the Vicariate, where I made friends with José Manuel Parada, who asked me to collaborate by lending my home telephone as a mailbox and carrying small messages. Later he asked me if I would like to collaborate in a more systematic way; when I accepted, he told me that he would give me a link with Enrique".
From then on, Malbrich refers to his activities in buying and transporting arms, his trips to and from Argentina, Bolivia, Panama and Germany, as a courier for the Communist Party; his participation in the great arms landing of Carrizal Bajo, "to establish a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary government, following the example of Cuba and Nicaragua", according to his words in "El Mercurio" of August 28, 1986.

Then, the files of testimonies of people detained in the anti-terrorist fight of the Vicariate were in charge of a high terrorist leader who followed what Bordaberry's article indicates and what the Brazilian guerrilla theorist, Carlos Marighella, author of the "Marighella's Manual"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://punto-final.org/PDFs/1970/PF_103_doc.pdf|title=Mini-manual de la guerrilla urbana|language=es|author=Carlos Marighella|publisher=Punto Final|date=April 28, 1970}}</ref> advises: to induce the declarant to declare himself always, but absolutely always, tortured by his captors.
Thus, over the years thousands of pages of accounts of torture were accumulated, real (we saw that it was an immemorial and habitual practice in Chile) or fictitious, because many people were not tortured during their detention.

There were approximately thirty-four thousand declarations received by the Valech Commission, which is Valech Commission received, which is not excessively numerous for a subversion made up of ten thousand Chileans and some twelve thousand foreigners who clandestinely entered the country; and in the face of the prize of a lifetime pension for only declaring.
Well, but what happened to these thousands of pages of testimonies deposited in the Archive of the Vicariate of Solidarity? They remained in storage. They had to wait until the country was "mature." Until the brainwashing had been sufficiently prolonged and repeated. And the moment came in 2004, when the Commission for Political Prisoners and Torture was formed, presided over by Monsignor Valech.

He was a person trusted by the Concertación, especially by the left.
Then President [[Ricardo Lagos]] announced that all those tortured under the Military Government, and only under the Military Government (obviously, they were not going to encourage those tortured under their governments, that is, those of the Popular Unity of Allende and the Christian Democrat Frei Montalva's one), would be given economic compensation. All they had to do was to present themselves and state their case. And if the information provided was reliable (and more than 28,000 of the 34,000 who presented themselves were reliable), they were given a pension for life, which initially amounted to around $120,000 pesos a month.

The wide publicity of the Valech Commission's work operated as the most effective brainwashing practiced by the Concertación. But this has little to do with the truth, since the fact of having described tens of thousands as victims of "political imprisonment and torture" and having lured them to testify through a pecuniary retribution does not stand up to any requirement of valid proof within a due process.

===Quemados Case/Julio Castañer Case===
The ''Quemados'' Case (Burnt People Case), (or Quemadores as it should be properly named) was an incident occurred on July 2, 1986, in Santiago where the leftist activists, Carmen Gloria Quintana and Rodrigo Rojas de Negri who were participating in marches against the Military Government, ended out burned after they had materials to burn buses and their passengers and they failed in the process. A former conscript, through an involuntary clumsiness, hit some bombs while they were searching the two detainees, who were carrying smaller bombs in their clothes, which caught fire. They were devices made with aluminum powder, beeswax and kerosene; the wax was the insulator between the reagents. They were not the Molotovs made with benzine and guaipe. The soldiers in the statements contradict themselves grossly.

Julio Castañer Gonzalez is falselly accused by the left as the burner of the leftists. Former conscript Fernando Guzman acted as a fake informer to the judicial system, who was the first and only one to accuse Colonel Julio Castañer Gonzalez (and all the rest of the soldiers contradict Fernando Guzman), arrived at the scene of the events after the arrest of the two young communist terrorists, because he was in the truck driven by Ivan Figueroa. Colonel Castañer was brought, by order of Carroza, by PDI personnel from Punta Arenas, where he lives. Then the judge prosecuted him and he is still being held at the Army Telecommunications Command in Peñalolén.

Immediately after, the current Army command reported that he was dismissed from the position he held as a civilian in his former institution, in Magallanes. However, in his statements to Minister Carroza, Fernando Guzmán has given him details of the arrest of the two communists.

It is impossible that it could be true, since he was not an eyewitness of what happened. On the other hand, it is now known that, since last year, the former conscript Leonardo Riquelme Alarcón confesses that he was the one who accidentally hit the bomb that the extremists were carrying and that, at that moment, he was on the ground. This was declared by former soldier Riquelme himself to Minister Carroza. He would be the involuntary author of the accident.

The trial for the burned burners would be the most scandalous of all those initiated by the Judicial Dictatorship of the Left that reigns in the country, with the co-authorship and complete complicity of the Piñera Administration.

Castañer was completely oblivious to the outcome suffered by the burned burners, Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana, but he has been sentenced to ten years in prison, which he must soon begin to serve. The important thing is that he has managed to publicly prove his innocence in the facts, with which the discredit of Minister Carroza, who imposed the sentence, has fallen to the lowest level, because not only has it become evident that he has prevaricated by passing over ''res judicata'' and the statute of limitations, but also for having contravened the truth of the facts: as Colonel (r) Cristián Slater has proven, Carmen Gloria Quintana declared that she had been sprayed with fuel by a soldier in camouflage uniform and painted face. ... and Castañer has proven that on that day he was wearing civilian clothes, without face paint and was twenty meters away from the events.

Jeannette Reyes de Castañer has conducted, in the social networks, the defense of her husband with a tenacity and courage that every men would like and has provided documentary evidence that by itself removes any basis for the fundamental argument of Minister Carroza to reopen a case that was closed: he has proven that the only conscript (among those who participated in the events) who, 29 years after his 1986 declarations, has contradicted himself and changed his version, lurked in 2015 with center and leftist politicians and has a psychiatric background that detracts from his credibility.

Minister Carroza's actions ''contra legem'' have been of great cruelty with modest people who live from their work, such as the conscripts involved in the case in 1986, who have been subjected to prison by him and some of whom have lost their jobs, being people of scarce resources. But among them Leonardo Riquelme Alarcón has stood out, who in this illegal process voluntarily revealed something that nobody knew: that it was him who, in the episode of 1986, when the bus and people burners were caught carrying highly combustible elements, in a casual way stumbled with a container, breaking it and causing the flames that burned both extremists. This testimony alone further exculpates Colonel Castañer.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2019/07/castaner-duro-de-roer.html|title=Castañer Duro de Roer|date=July 15, 2019|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

One of the former conscripts, Pedro Franco Rivas (who lives in a street condition) and for that same situation, they set up a special figure to leave him in night confinement. All the above facts of this illegal investigation carried out by Carroza are manipulated by people from the Human Rights program of the Ministry of the Interior. Clearly this comes from the Government itself. The one who accused Colonel Julio Castañer is the former conscript Fernando Guzmán, who was prepared for a year to play this role.

Guzman is also a relative of Mayor Sady Melo, a socialist of the most left wing. To the former conscript soldier who spoke on TV about the "pact of silence" in the Quemados case, I would like to comment that: The Communist Party paid him $15,000,000 Chilean Pesos, took him off the streets as a beggar and kept him for two weeks, to detoxify him for alcohol and drugs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/1494510130786585/photos/el-vuelco-no-contado-por-el-juez-carroza-en-el-caso-quemadosescribe-aldoal-ex-so/1657118881192375/|title=EL VUELCO NO CONTADO POR EL JUEZ CARROZA EN EL CASO QUEMADOS|date=August 12, 2015|author=Aldo|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://inocentesinjusticia.cl/|title=Inocentes Sin Justicia|quote=La Verdad del Caso Castañer|language=es}}</ref>

===Orlando Letelier, Carlos Prats & Bernardo Leighton Cases - the CIA uses Chile as a scapegoat===
{{Main article|Orlando Letelier, Carlos Prats & Bernardo Leighton Cases}}{{See also|Central Intelligence Agency}}
[[File:Michael Townley.jpg|thumbnail|150px|Michael Townley, the CIA agent who attacked Chilean Citizens and an American one to discredit Pinochet's Administration worldwide by commandment of the CIA.]]
[[File:Orlando Letelier's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack.jpg|left|250px|thumbnail|Orlando Letelier's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack. Letelier and his American secretary, Ronnie Moffit were killed, Pinochet is falsely accused of ordering the attack.]]
On 21 September 1976 the assassination of Orlando Letelier and his American secretary Ronni Moffitt happen in [[Washington, D.C.]], in which it has been proved that President Pinochet did not participate. It is reported by the [[fake news]] that [[CIA]] information has been "declassified" blaming Pinochet for having supposedly ordered the attack. President [[Michelle Bachelet]] while in Washington lay a wreath at the site of the attack and "thanked" the CIA for the "declassification". The media published that "Pinochet ordered Letelier's assassination". This is another set-up, because the CIA did not investigate the case and its "declassified" documents are mere opinions of fourth level US officials, which do not provide any proof of Pinochet's responsibility.

"La Tercera", the only local newspaper that, apart from publishing the headline, went into a little more detail about the alleged "declassifications", only presents the opinions of subordinate officials. Among them there is only one direct testimony, that of former Chilean lieutenant and deserter, Armando Fernandez Larios, who is in asylum in the U.S. in exchange for a "compensated confession", that is to say, in exchange for revealing everything he knew about the "Letelier case". He contradicted the headline of "Pinochet Ordered Letelier's Assassination", since he affirmed that "he did not know if Pinochet was involved in the preparation of the assassination".<ref>"La Tercera", 24.09.16, p. 14</ref> Then, the only valid witness that appears in the "declassification" denies the title of the information.

Senator Juan Pablo Letelier, son of the assassinated, who declared in "El Mercurio" of the 4th of June 1995 the following: "What I have said again and again, because I was taught to speak with the truth, is that there is no evidence that flows from the process of thousands of pages that allows sustaining that there is participation of the Army nor of its commander in chief in the assassination of Orlando Letelier".

In fact, the CIA had no part in the US investigation of the assassination, which was always and from the beginning in charge of the [[FBI]]. In Chile, it was investigated by the courts of justice and no conviction against Pinochet emerged from them, as he was not involved in the case. He was so oblivious that, when it was discovered that the person who had planted the bomb was the North American resident in Chile, Michael Townley, Pinochet commissioned the CNI, led by General (r) Odlanier Mena, to find out who that person was, because he knew nothing about him. Naturally, the first person Mena interrogated was General Manuel Contreras, former director of the dissolved DINA. Contreras also denied knowing Townley. But Mena took him to Pinochet.

"El Mercurio" of April 2, 2000 reported the following, in a chronicle titled "And He Denied It Three Times": "Pinochet asked Contreras: 'Categorically, tell me if you have any distant relationship, or that you do not know, with this individual'. 'No, none, General,' Contreras replied. Three times he asked him the same question. At most he could have been an informant, but never a DINA agent,' Contreras reiterated. Then Pinochet asked: 'You mean we have to expel Townley. Do you oppose that?' 'No, for any reason, if he has nothing to do with us,' Contreras said.

Hermógenes Pérez de Arce had a personal testimony of Pinochet's ignorance about the assassination attempt a year after it, since he was invited in 1977, together with other newspaper editors (he was from "La Segunda") to attend with the Head of State the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty in Washington. One morning Pérez de Arce readed in the "Washington Post" a column by Jack Anderson according to which there were "Chilean officials involved in Letelier's assassination". It was the first time something like that had been published. That afternoon we met with the President at the Chilean embassy, and he made him see what Anderson was saying, which infuriated him. He said to me something like this: "How can you even repeat that, which is an outrage! You don't know the damage caused by that attack, which interrupted the granting of loans to Chile that were being processed in those very days". When Hermógenes insinuated that it could have been a DINA action of which he had no knowledge, he told me (evidently mistaken): "I know everything that DINA does and I could never have been involved in that".

After Townley's asylum in the U.S. following his plea bargain, he stated that, upon learning from General Contreras that nothing had been reported to President Pinochet about the attack, he would have replied: "Such a decision should not have been taken without his knowledge".

[[File:Carlos Prats's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Carlos Prats's car after CIA's Michael Townley attack in [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]].]]
What will never be clarified is the role of the American Deep State in that attack and in that of General Carlos Prats. It will never be clarified, because there is no interest or means to investigate it and because the main witness and protagonist of the events has died, the American General Vernon Walters, a notorious secret agent who was a close friend of General Contreras.

Letelier was an active and uncomfortable (for the U.S.) agent of Fidel Castro in Washington. And the contents of his briefcase, recovered by the Americans after the attack, have never been found out.

In short, this new set-up by leftist CIA underlings, lacking all seriousness and substance, will be added to the list of others, such as "Pinochet's gold" in the Bank of Hong Kong and Shanghai, a complete fabrication; Pinochet's "fortune of 27 million dollars", which never appeared anywhere, as it is limited to the two million seized by the Chilean courts and some properties owned by him whose contributions his widow pays four times a year asking the court to release funds to be able to pay them and prevent the judicial auction of the properties; and the alleged torture of a young man, in 1989, in a remote police station in Curacautín, which was the only thing the British "high lords" found, to maintain his detention in London in 1998.

There is a historical irony in all this: historian Paul Johnson, in his book "Heroes", designates Pinochet as such, but acknowledges that the Soviet KGB, "before being thrown into the dustbin of history", managed to demonize the general in the eyes of the world. The irony is that the role of the KGB is now assumed by the CIA.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2016/09/mi-mision-imposible.html|title=Mi Misión Imposible|date=September 24, 2016|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref>

Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann is falsely accused of being the author of the assassination of Letelier, the leftist judges try to link the DINA with the assassination and Iturriaga as part of the DINA to the incident, but nor the DINA was the author, and Iturriaga Neumann was not on the DINA in 1976 since he left in December 1975 to study.<ref>[https://youtu.be/pD-0zDKtndw Declaración de Eduardo Iturriaga por su juzgamiento en el caso de Ronni Moffitt]</ref> Iturriaga is in the [[Punta Peuco Jail]] for this kind of accusations and is one of the [[Military Political Prisoners of Chile]].

Townley arrived in Chile with his father, Vernon Townley, in 1957. Five years later, his father was appointed general manager of General Motors Chile. That same year, 1964, his father Vernon began to serve as head of the CIA Station in our country and Michael was sent to work in Chile. As head of the CIA Station in Chile was sent to work at Ford Motors Peru. In 1966 he returned to Chile and from here he went to Miami, where he worked at the "AMCO Transmission Center", repairing automatic transmissions of automobiles. He did this job for Felipe Riveros, who was head of the Cuban Nationalist Movement (MNC) in Miami. Townley's contacts with that movement date back to that time.

On November 25, 1970, in Miami, Townley contacted a representative of the CIA in that city to offer a CIA representative in that city to offer his services. This is stated by Robert W. Gambino, Director of Security of the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, on November 9, 1978, in a sworn affidavit. This affidavit was filed with federal fi scal Earl J. Silbert, and his deputy, Eugene M. Propper, in the proceedings of "The United States of America vs. Contreras, Pedro Espinoza, Guillermo Novo, Ignacio Novo and Alvin Ross...", by the United States of America against Ross...", for the assassination attempt on the former Chilean ambassador in Washington, Orlando Letelier. There is also information on the extradition process to the U.S. of General Manuel Contreras and Brigadier Pedro Espinoza. Point 4 of this affidavit states, textually: "4. The result of the investigation mentioned in the previous paragraph 3, has been communicated to me by
The result of the investigation mentioned in paragraph 3 above has been communicated to me by the employees of the Security Office in charge of it. The investigation revealed that, in December 1970, in response to the Directorate of Operations, a check was carried out in
a name check was carried out in December 1970. Security Office records also revealed that in February 1971, the Directorate of Operations requested preliminary security approval to use Mr. Townley in an operational capacity. The investigation revealed that, in response to the Operations Directorate, a name check was conducted in December 1970.

There is another affidavit, also dated November 9, 1978, submitted by the same Silbert and Propper affidavits. This second affidavit is signed by Marvin L. Smith, head of the CIA Operations Group, who in item 4 states the following:
"... The employees of the Directorate of Operations in charge of the investigation referred to in in paragraph 3 above, have communicated to me the results of the investigation. The investigation revealed that Mr. Michael Vernon Townley contacted a declared representative of the agency, on November 25, 1970, in Miami, Florida, to offer his services to the agency...". Next, in item 5, Marvin L. Smith states: "On June 14, 1973, Mr. Townley telephoned a declared agent of the agency in Miami, Florida, to notify the agency of his presence in the U.S. in in case they wished to question him.

And with the same date there is a third affidavit, also filed by the ficials. This is the affidavit of F.W.M.
Janney, Director of Personnel of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who, at the point
(CIA), which in item 4, says: ".... The employees in charge of conducting the investigation referred to in paragraph 3 above
above, have communicated to me the result of the same. The result is that the Personnel Office records do not contain the name of Michael Vernon Townley.

The defense counsel for the Cubans, the brothers Guillermo and Ignacio Novo, and for Alvin Ross, attorney Goldberger, testified on page 1.797 of Volume IX: "I will tell the court one thing. This will not be the first time that the CIA denies in a trial in this country that a certain person is working for them. U.S. trial judge Barrington Parker replied to attorney Golderberg: "I'm not going to allow you to put the CIA on trial in this case".
On pages 1,811 to 1,814, among other similar statements, the same Judge Barrington Parker says he is "upset that there appears to be CIA and of Townley, Propper and Barcella. They should communicate to the CIA that I am concerned about this [...] I will not permit cross-examination of him (Townley) regarding incidents in Argentina, South America, Italy or Europe. This is the decision of the Tribunal. And it is justified by the fact that, as to other offenses, they cannot contemplate a situation which would can contemplate a situation that would go beyond the bounds of what happened in the District of Columbia.

[[Image:CIA Logo.gif|thumb|right|The U.S. government used the Chileans and the DINA as scapegoats. The Annual Assembly of the United Nations, in its 1977 session, approved a condemnation of Chile for violation of human rights mainly because of Townley's actions. From that year on, the string of assassinations and attacks perpetrated by the agent also came to an end. The goal of the CIA was to replace the Military Government with an Open Liberal Democracy.]]
Very revealing was what was expressed by the defense attorney, Goldberger, and which was incorporated in the respective file in Volume XXI A, at pages 4,576 to 4,577, in 1981: "'''The U.S. government used the Chileans and the DINA as scapegoats in this case'''".

In Volume XV, pages 1,644 to 1,653, of 1981, the defense attorney, Goldberger, states that according to Townley's statement, Townley "joined the DINA in December 1974 and does not see why he was denied the possibility of interrogating him about the trip to Argentina when it is presumed that he went to assassinate General Carlos Prats". Judge Parker said: "Listen: I don't want to hear anything about the investigation of the Prats and Leighton murders". Attorney Goldberger reactsto Judge Parker's prohibitions by saying, "You are not allowing this jury to know who the real Michael Vernon Townley is and I think, if there has ever been a witness in this country that the jury really ought to know the whole story about, it is certainly this one" (Volume XXVII).

In Volume XXII, on pages 4,780 to 4,788 and pages 4,797 to 4,798 of 1981, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Paraguay, and later Ambassador to Chile, George Walter Landau, declares in the process making clear that: "Not being able to communicate with the deputy director of the CIA, General Vernon Walters in the year 1976, visas were extended to the Paraguayan passports of Williams and Romeral"... Michael Townley and the Chilean Captain Armando Fernández Larios traveled to Washington D.C. with those names and passports in the year 1976... "ordering that the passports be photocopied from the first to the last page, including the photographs of the persons, which he sent by diplomatic pouch to General Vernon Walters and together with an explanatory message". Ambassador Landau further states that he "received an ordinary message, acknowledging receipt of the shipment, but that it had been delivered to Mr. [[George Bush]], director of the Central Intelligence Agency, because General Walters was no longer working with the Agency."

It is interesting to note the statement of former Ambassador Walter Landau, made in Miami, in an interview given in that city to the newspaper La Segunda, on May 31, 1995. Question: "With all due respect... may I ask you a question that is part of Chilean public opinion...? It has been said that you are from the CIA.

Landau answers: "The CIA never confirms or denies if someone is a member of it, as is normal in any intelligence office".

It all relates to Townley's joining the CIA in 1971. That same year, Townley returned to Chile with his family. Already had married Mariana Callejas Honores. For him, it was his first marriage. For Mariana Callejas, it was her third.

After the Military Pronouncement of September 11, Townley set out to return to Chile, for which he adopted a different identity, falsifying his identity documents adopting the name of a deceased American citizen. Thus he obtained the American passport No. 5 D2287732, in the name of Kenneth Enyart, under whose name he entered Chile.

On September 30, 1974, there was an attack against the former Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army, General Carlos Prats, and his wife, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Townley had entered Argentina under the name of Kenneth Enyart and the same passport number mentioned above. He arrived in Buenos Aires on September 10 and left on September 30 for Montevideo, Uruguay, with the same name and passport number.

The attack was carried out with the help of Mariana Callejas, who was traveling under the false name of Ana Luisa Pizarro.
Avilés.

On October 1, 1974, both entered Chile from Montevideo, always under the names of Kenneth Enyart and Ana Luisa Pizarro.
Pizarro. The data are registered in the respective international police.

At the end of November, or perhaps in December 1974, Townley made contact with the DINA through through Major Pedro Espinoza, to whom he made his technical-electronic skills known. Espinoza put him in contact with Major Daniel Valdivieso, in charge of that area in the organization. Townley himself testified to this in several declarations. In some of them he says that his contacts with
the Chilean DINA began at the end of November and in others in December 1974. Both dates, after his attempt on
attempt on the Prats husband and wife.

Minister Jorge Rodríguez, appointed by the Supreme Court to study the extradition of Chilean citizens to, accused of the attack on the Prats couple, in his ruling of July 12, 2002, details seven statements made by Townley. In all of them he states that his first contacts with the DINA were at the end of November or in December 1974, that is, more than two months after the Prats murders.

In December 1974, Townley traveled to the U.S. for the purpose of acquiring electronic items for the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA). He contacted mainly the AID company, whose president was John Holcoms, a well-known member of the CIA. Upon his
return, he brought a series of electronic items of special use for intelligence services.

It was around that time that General Raúl Iturriaga Neumann met Andrés Wilson, which was the name used by Townley at the time. From the end of 1974 and during 1975, Townley combined his activities as an informant and electronic technical collaborator of the DINA with a series of trips. Among other countries he visited Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, USA and several European countries, using different passports and names, among them Andrew Brooks and Kenneth Enyart. On some of these trips he was accompanied by Mariana Callejas, who traveled with him under the name of Ana Brooks.

In September 1975 his tracks appeared in Rome, where he made contact with the neo-Nazi movement ''Avanguardia Nazionale'', and mainly with its leader, the Italian Stéfano delle Chiaie.

On October 6, 1975, some members of ''Avanguardia Nazionale'' attacked the former minister of Chilean President [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] in Rome. Bernardo Leighton was seriously wounded along with his wife, Anita Fresno. Following this attack, Townley smuggled Stéfano delle Chiaie out of Italy, who was pursued by car by the police on his way to France. In Rome, especially in his registration in hotels, Michael Vernon Townley used his real name.

In 1976, Townley made further trips abroad, using different identities. In the Dominican Republic he used the name
name of Juan Torres; entered and left Paraguay under the name of Juan Andres Wilson; entered the U.S. on September 8, 1976, under the name of Juan Andres Wilson; he entered the U.S. on September 8, 1976, with a passport in the name of Hans Petersen Silva, a document that was made and forged by Townley himself, in his workshop.

On September 21, 1976, in Washington D.C., Michael Townley electronically detonated a bomb in the car in which the former foreign
former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his secretary Ronnie Moffit, resulting in the death of both. This attack was carried out with the with the collaboration of some members of the Cuban Nationalist Movement, MNC.

Thus, Townley carried out three attacks against Chilean citizens:
He assassinated the Prats couple in Buenos Aires; he made a criminal attempt against the Leighton couple in Rome, through the Italian neo-Nazi movement ''Avanguardia Nazionale''; and he assassinated Orlando Letelier and his secretary, Ronnie Moffit, in Washington D.C.

Three attacks in a row, in the first three years of the Military Government, and immediately prior to the Annual meeting of the United Nations in New York.

In the first of them, against the Prats couple, he had not yet established contacts with the DINA, according to his own statements, recorded in seven declarations statements collected by Minister Jorge Rodriguez Ariztía and existing in the file of the
in the file of the Argentine extradition request.

Until 1976 it was not known who had carried out these attacks. As soon as the Military Pronouncement took place, there were national and international political sectors that expected that, as soon as possible, the Military Junta would hand over the Government or call for democratic elections.

Neither happened. On the contrary, the Military Government issued the "Declaration of Principles of the Government of Chile", stating that goals were set, but not deadlines. The U.S. Government and the CIA, as a consequence, were against Allende's socialist government, they did not want that in the southern cone of South America to establish a "dictatorship of the proletariat" in a Marxist spirit. Without directly supporting the Military Pronouncement of September 11, the U.S. government welcomed the end of the Popular Unity Government. But,
according to them, a "military dictatorship" could not be allowed to hold sway for long in South America.

When the CIA documents corresponding to those years were declassified, we learned that during the Popular Unity Government, the US agency collaborated economically with several Chilean organizations, opponents of the government, and with several Chilean organizations, opponents of Allende. This aid, especially in dollars, even reached members of the Christian Democratic Party, who acknowledged the fact. This political party, which agreed with the Military Pronouncement, was the most interested in having the Government of the Nation handed over to it as soon as possible.

General Pinochet recalls in his memoirs that: "A certain well-known personage, from a well-known political party, has called me several times, telling me where he is, leaving telephone numbers and stating that he is available for whatever is offered...".

The then Colonel Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda was sent by the Junta to Washington at the beginning of 74, in order to meet with General Vernon Walters, deputy director of the CIA.

The purpose of the interview was to explain what in its beginnings was our intelligence service, to inform about the situation in Chile and, in particular, the work to be done to dismantle the subversion in Chile.

In the interview, General Walters expressed the wishes of his government. They wanted that, in the course of that year, open elections be called and political parties be allowed to function again.

In 1975, the Junta arranged for the Director of National Intelligence to meet, again in Washington, with the vice director of the CIA, who was still General Walters. At this time it was particularly important to detail the situation in the country in order to counteract the opinion of numerous U.S. officials and representatives of other countries at the United Nations, who were calling for the expulsion of Chile from the United Nations.

On that occasion, Walters stated that Kissinger was opposed to this type of measures against our country, but not Senator Frank Church, a declared opponent of the Chilean government junta and the main promoter of the idea of expelling Chile from the United Nations.

General Walters also expressed the CIA's desire for DINA to collaborate in establishing contacts with European nationalist groups... for the benefit of its own intelligence agency. The CIA was in question because Senator Church himself had denounced several CIA activities as criminal and the former CIA director, Richard Helms, had just been sentenced to two years in prison.

Colonel Manuel Contreras explained to General Walters that Chile and the DINA did not have the capacity to carry out what was being asked of them, and that he did not want to be involved in events that could be questionable, precisely because the Chilean Government was under diplomatic attack by several countries.

The two trips to the U.S. by the National Intelligence Director are detailed in declarations and reports delivered by him in the extradition process requested by Italy as a result of the attack against the Leighton couple.

The [[Kennedy Amendment]], specially sponsored by Democratic Senator [[Edward Kennedy]], was published in February 1976, by means of which the U.S. hardened even more its position against the Chilean government, suppressing military aid and even prohibiting the sale of arms to the country.

The Annual Assembly of the United Nations, in its 1977 session, approved a condemnation of Chile for violation of human rights.
There were 96 votes against 14. From that year on, the string of assassinations and attacks perpetrated by Michael Townley also came to an end.

In March 1978, the national press published the photos of Michael Townley and Captain Armando Fernandez Larios, identifying them as the characters Williams and Romeral, both involved in the assassination attempt that took the lives of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his secretary, Ronnie Moffit, in Washington D.C.

The FBI was convinced that Townley was directly implicated in the events that led to the death of Orlando Letelier; it had, among other evidence, the originals of the forged passports issued in Paraguay. Walter Landau, former U.S. ambassador in that country, had sent them to the CIA. To this must be added the denunciation, addressed in writing to President Pinochet, by the director of the CNI, retired General Odlanier Mena, reporting the various purchases of electronic material in the U.S. made by Townley, of his trips to the U.S. and of his trips to Paraguay and of the use of false passports; among others, those obtained in Paraguay.

This denunciation was the one that gave rise to the process for passport forgery initiated in the Chilean military courts, known later as the Letelier Case.

These events caused great commotion in the country and, in particular, within the CNI. Due to the pressure exerted by the U.S. Government, the Chilean Junta, relying on certain articles of the Immigration Law, expelled Townley from the country.

In his activities in Chile, Michael Vernon Townley Welch used more than 15 false names, registered more than 100 trips abroad and committed a series of criminal acts, such as forging documents, identity cards and passports. A brief calculation of the money needed to cover all his activities, especially his trips and stays abroad, adds up to a stratospheric amount, impossible to be covered by the Chilean National Intelligence Directorate. Nor was it the DINA that taught him to make remote-controlled bombs or the sophisticated electronic techniques he displayed, or to be a specialist in document forgery.

Townley was never a DINA agent, only an informant and collaborator in electronic matters. The officials of the National Intelligence Directorate came in their totality from the institutions of the National Defense, the Carabineros de Chile, the Investigative Police or the Gendarmerie.<ref>En las Alas del Cóndor, 2021, Eduardo Raúl Iturriaga Neumann</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2022/03/caso-prats-juzguelo-usted.html|Caso Prats: Júzguelo Usted|date=March 5, 2022|publisher=Blog de Hermógenes|author=Hermógenes Pérez de Arce|title=Caso Prats: Júzguelo Usted}}</ref>

===Eduardo Frei Montalva Case===
[[File:Patricio Aylwin & Eduardo Frei Montalva.jpg|250px|thumbnail|[[Patricio Aylwin]] and [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] in 1965, both [[Christian Democrat]] Presidents of Chile and icons of their party.]]
A typical example of how a baseless story is the Frei case. At the end of 1981, the former president underwent surgery for an esophageal obstruction performed by Augusto Larraín. An error in the operation caused an infection and peritonitis, which led to another operation. The former president could not survive this one.

No one then said anything about "poisoning" or third party intervention or even less about "assassination", because Frei lived his last days protected and surrounded by those closest to him, especially his closest friends and former ministers, Patricio Rojas and Patricio Silva, and the former senator Dr. Osvaldo Olguín.

The doctor who performed Frei's first operation, Augusto Larraín, suffered the consequent discredit as a result of the poor outcome, but for more than twenty years he never said anything about the intervention of third parties in the outcome. On the contrary, when shortly after the death of the former president he had a daughter and received a bouquet of flowers from his widow, Mrs. María Ruiz-Tagle de Frei, he took care to send a letter to "El Mercurio" making public this gesture that vindicated him and highlighting the nobility of Mrs. Maruja in expressing her no resentment for the fatal outcome of her husband's operation.

It was only about fifteen years after Frei Montalva's death that his daughter, Carmen, began to voice suspicions of third party intervention in her father's death. It had become fashionable to blame everything on the Pinochet regime without proof. And the totalitarians had already become "democrats", the aggressors had become "attacked" and the perpetrators who were preparing the 1973 self-coup, denounced by Aylwin in October of that year, had become "victims", declared and compensated as such by Aylwin himself.

But nobody took Carmen Frei's suspicions seriously, so much so that the then director of "El Mercurio", Juan Pablo Illanes, told us in a meeting of editors that, after asking President Frei Ruiz-Tagle about his sister's denunciation, he had replied: "These are Carmen's things". His government never took part in them or investigated anything, because there was nothing. But in Chile, if you get the support of the left, you can fabricate a case out of nothing, especially against Augusto Pinochet.

In 1997, Dr. Augusto Larraín also operated on Isabel Allende for the same thing that had affected Frei and when she, like him, was at death's door with a generalized infection, he went to Dr. Arturo Jirón, former doctor of La Moneda under Allende, who operated correctly, cleaned and sterilized her and, partly thanks to the younger age of the patient, saved her. Isabel Allende had had no problem in declaring publicly that she did not believe in the "Frei assassination" because she had had the experience with Dr. Augusto Larraín and knew that his procedures had left her on the verge of death. But a few days ago I saw in a tweet of hers, in "La Tercera", that she has changed her position, as she now expressed her support to the Frei family in their thesis of the "assassination".

At the same time, [[Sebastián Piñera]], already in his first presidency climbed on the Frei's bandwagon and promised them help to get an American expert opinion to prove the poisoning, but the expert from there did not find any traces of poison.

Before that, the country had been shaken when, under the first Bachelet government, the Frei's lawyer announced that there was a report from the University of Ghent, in [[Belgium]], confirming the poisoning. Then the ineffable president summoned the national and international press to La Moneda to denounce the assassination of Frei Montalva, an occasion in which her minister Vivianne Blanlot launched a phrase that made headlines: "The horror does not end". The bad thing was that "La Segunda" called the University of Ghent and they replied that there was no such report on Frei's poisoning. But the family's lawyer replied: "There is a report, there is a report! However, he never showed it. Finally, he resigned his sponsorship of the case.

Almost a quarter of a century after the ill-fated operation, Dr. Augusto Larraín, who had never said anything, appeared on Chilevisión and the following day, August 19, 2006, in "El Mercurio", saying that he had been summoned by Judge Madrid to testify in the case opened at the initiative of Carmen Frei: "I kept for 25 years the secret of my impressions regarding the reasons that had complicated the health of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva", he said. I ask myself: what doctor who has had a patient poisoned stays silent for 25 years and does not denounce it? Well, Dr. Larraín told "El Mercurio" that he had kept his doubts secret and had only expressed them to his cousin and DC senator, Andrés Zaldívar, who did not say anything either.

In that version of "El Mercurio" of August 19, 2006, Dr. Larraín appears adding that Judge Madrid asked him "if there could have been any external contamination", to which Larraín responded in the affirmative. "He also said that Madrid gave him information that he did not know". And the newspaper goes on to say: "Regarding the way in which this external contamination could have been produced, Larraín admitted that there could have been no intentionality, since it could have been caused by a bad sterilization".

The Christian Democracy has closed ranks behind its "flagship family" in the dubious crusade it has undertaken, they pretended that the second government of Sebastián Piñera took part, since he was known for yielding to all pressures and was characterized, just like his first presidency, by columnists and opinion makers changing his ministers. The Christian Democrats demanded the resignation of his Undersecretary of Health Care Networks, Dr. Luis Castillo, who held the same position during his first administration, but then the Frei family had not realized that he had been in charge of Frei Montalva's pathological anatomy samples at the Catholic University. Now when they found out, they decided to accuse him of having hidden them and, therefore, of being an "accessory" to the assassination, all of which is false, because those samples were taken at the request of the former president's medical team (there is a document), the results were delivered to that medical team (there is a document) and until October 2002 (twenty years after the operation) no one from the family or the medical team requested that information, according to what the former dean of Catholic University Medicine, Dr. Gonzalo Grebe, expressed in a letter to the newspaper. He added that when Mrs. Carmen Frei asked for it, it was given to her ("there is a document that can be made public", he affirms). In other words, zero cover-up and zero blame for Dr. Castillo, but the DC continues to pressure Piñera to defend him, something that no one, knowing Piñera, can dismiss.

In addition, one of Frei Montalva's closest friends, his former minister Patricio Silva Garín, who wanted to help him in the infectious aftermath of Augusto Larraín's operation, has been indicted as the author of the "assassination"; and another, Patricio Rojas, former Minister of the Interior, who also said he did not believe in the "assassination" thesis, suffered such an onslaught of insults from within the Christian Democracy that Patricio Aylwin had to come out in defense of his good name.

All of which proves that in Chile, if you want to blame Pinochet, you can put together any story and transform it into a judicial process in the hands of a leftist judge, with good prospects.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/08/el-caso-frei.html|title=El "Caso Frei"|date=August 21, 2018|language=es|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=PRESIDENTE PINOCHET LIBERTADOR DE CHILE - Por la verdad histórica del 11 de Septiembre de 1973|date=2023|author=[[Gonzalo Townsend Pinochet]]|url=https://www.amazon.com/PRESIDENTE-PINOCHET-LIBERTADOR-CHILE-Septiembre/dp/B0C7T7V4GV}}</ref>

===The Truth about Operation Cóndor===
Operation Cóndor is sometimes mentioned as an alleged “terror operation”, agreed between the military governments of Argentina, Chile and other countries in the 1970s.
The operation was not “of terror”, but quite the opposite, to defend the citizens from terror.

When subversion was ravaging South America the most was in the mid 70's, in 1974, the year in which a “Revolutionary Coordination Board” met in Paris, composed of the National Liberation Army (ELN) of Bolivia, the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) of Argentina, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral and the National Liberation Movement Tupac Amaral, the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Tupamaros of Uruguay and the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) of Chile (of which that same year a young woman named Michelle Bachelet was an active helper, according to her most recognized biography, Insunza and Ortega, 2005).
The secretary of the “Junta de Coordinación Revolucionaria” was the Cuban and member of the DGI (Cuba's KGB) Fernando Luis Álvares, married to Ana María Guevara, sister of a well-known serial killer who served in Cuba, [[Ernesto Che Guevara|Ernesto “Ché” Guevara]].
In October of that year the MIR informed me of the above by means of a mimeographed newspaper, which they promptly delivered to my private office on Doctor Carlos Charlín Street, in Providencia.
The governments of the Southern Cone, then, decided to face together this terrorist coordination, which was to commit attacks and assassinate uniformed and civilians. That is how “Operation Condor” was born, to defend against terror, not to practice it.

Of course, years later in Chile (and before that in Argentina) the rulers, legislators and judges began to persecute the military who participated in “Operation Condor” and, at the same time, the civilian governments have amnestied and compensated the real victimizer of the countries, the extreme [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|left-wing terrorism]], as if those who promoted it had been the “victims”.
A true continental “Operation Historical Lie” has been imposed in this way for decades and extensively. And in virtiud of that gigantic imposture, in our countries the aggressors have become “attacked”, the victimizers have become “victims” (“our comrades and the victims”, as the CJE Juan Emilio Cheyre, whose brain was as well washed of all truth as Ambassador Bielsa's, used to say in his time). And, in short, the totalitarians have now officially become “democrats”.

In Chile, a weak, inept and surrendered political and business ruling class has allowed, in its turn, to brainwash itself and everybody else and to censor or suppress the truth from the media it controls or thinks it controls, because in fact they are managed by the left. If not, they “takes over” the newspaper facilities. Successful disinformation to such an extreme that even the new high class new generations in Chile today believe that the “terror” was brought by the military.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2022/01/y-volvimos-tropezar.html|title=Un Embajador con Cerebro Lavado|date=January 20, 2022|publisher=Blog de Hermógenes|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]}}</ref>

==Pinochet's detention==

Chile became embroiled in an unprecedented controversy in 1998. While visiting Great Britain, Pinochet was detained when left-wing Spanish judge [[Baltasar Garzón]] requested his extradition with the charges of supposed "torture" of Spanish citizens in Chile during his military regime. The case caused the United States and other countries to release documents relating to those who had "disappeared" in Chile under Pinochet's rule. In January 2000 Pinochet with the help of Baroness [[Margaret Thatcher]] won an appeal on medical grounds and was permitted to return home, but Chilean authorities continued to investigate numerous charges of earlier so called "human rights abuses". Stripped of the immunity from prosecution he had enjoyed as a former president, Pinochet was indicted later that year, though the case was later dismissed. In January 2005, however, Chile's Supreme Court upheld another indictment of Pinochet, who was once again without immunity (which is removed on a case-by-case basis under Chilean law).<ref name=EUvsPinochet>{{cite book|url=https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/2022/12/europa-vs-pinochet-indebido-proceso.html|title=Europa vs. Pinochet, Indebido Proceso|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|date=1998|language=es}}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
*[https://odysee.com/THE-PINOCHET-DOCUMENTARY-360p:4?lid=1fd9653478d44db1f87cc8647f820a8669cc3b81 The Pinochet Documentary - English subtitles]
*[https://odysee.com/the-augusto-pinochet-story-never-told:5 Pinochet, the story never told]
*[https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/ Pinochetist Books]
*[https://www.britannica.com/place/Chile/The-military-dictatorship-from-1973 Encyclopædia Britannica article]

==See also==
*[[Augusto Pinochet]]
*[[Mi General Augusto Pinochet (song)]]
*[[Military Political Prisioners of Chile]]
*[[Salvador Allende]]
*[[José Piñera]]
*[[Hernán Büchi]]

[[Category:Chilean History]]
[[Category:Wars]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Augusto Pinochet]]
[[Category:Cold War in Chile]]

Augusto Pinochet

2026-03-23T13:23:29Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Military Government */

{{Officeholder
|name=Augusto Pinochet Ugarte
|image=Augusto Pinochet President of Chile.jpg
|offices={{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Presidential Standard of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]][[President of Chile]]
|terms=December 17, 1974 – March 11, 1990
|preceded=[[Salvador Allende]]
|succeeded=[[Patricio Aylwin]]
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=President of the Government Junta of Chile
|terms=September 11, 1973 – March 11, 1981
|preceded=''Position established''
|succeeded=[[José Toribio Merino]]
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=Senator-for-life of Chile
|terms=11 March 1998 – 4 July 2002
|preceded=''Position established''
|succeeded=''Position disbanded''
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army
|terms=23 August 1973 – 11 March 1998
|preceded=Carlos Prats
|succeeded=Ricardo Izurieta
}}
|religion=[[Catholic]]
|military=y
|allegiance=[[File:Flag of Chile.png|20px]] [[Chile]]
|branch=[[File:Coat of arms of Chile.png|20px]] [[Chilean Army]]
|serviceyears=1931–1998 (67 years)
|rank=Captain General
|unit= 
* "Chacabuco" Regiment
*"Maipo" Regiment
*"Carampangue" Regiment
*"Rancagua" Regiment
*1st Army Division
|commands= 
*"Esmeralda" Regiment
*2nd Army Division
*6th Army Division
*Santiago Army Garrison
*Chilean Army
|battles= 
*[[Cold War]]
*El Tanquetazo
*1973 Chilean military intervention
*[[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|Fight against guerrillas]]
*Beagle Conflict
|spouse=[[Lucía Hiriart]]
}}
General and President '''Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte''' (b. [[Valparaíso]], on November 25, 1915–d. [[Santiago]], on December 10, 2006) was a [[Chile]]an [[general]] who became Chile's head of state (or leader) from September 11, 1973 to March 11, 1990 ([[President of Chile|President]] from 1974 to 1990). He came to power as a member of a council of military leaders after the overthrow of the [[communism|communist]] government of President [[Salvador Allende]]. Pinochet restored the [[free market]], traditional [[Western]] values, and prosperity to Chile after [[tyranny]] under communism. [[Leftist]]s hated Pinochet for his [[conservative]] policies, to the point of wrongly imprisoning him in [[England]] on political charges long after Pinochet had relinquished power. He was ultimately released.<ref name=EUvsPinochet>{{cite book|url=https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/2022/12/europa-vs-pinochet-indebido-proceso.html|title=Europa vs. Pinochet, Indebido Proceso|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|date=1998|language=es}}</ref>

A polling expert, Marta Lagos, observed in 2023 while thousands of migrants seek prosperity and freedom in [[Chile]] rather than its [[Marxist]] [[South America]]n neighbors:
{{cquote|“Pinochet, I believe, is the only dictator in Western contemporary history, during this century and the last century, who, 50 years after his coup, is still appreciated by 30 or 40% of a country’s population.<ref>https://apnews.com/article/chile-pinochet-dictatorship-5d500715f016804990d0898ff6d89907</ref>}}

The Military Government managed to break the communists, who were heavily armed and trying to start a civil war; rebuilt an economy destroyed by the previous regime; Pinochet's administration grew the middle class until it became the majority of the country, and eradicated extreme poverty; built a health care system that was affordable, efficient, and available to all; created a private retirement pension account system that gave people free choice while at the same time amassing a huge pool of capital that could be invested in the growth of the country; expunged corruption at all levels, most especially among the oligarchs, whom the government broke on in 1980–82; and created a legal and [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|constitutional framework]] that has given Chile peace, order and prosperity since.<ref>{{cite book|title=Pinochet: las "incómodas" verdades|author=Mario Spataro|date=2006|url=https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/2023/01/pinochet-las-incomodas-verdades-mario.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=CHILE ESCOGE LA LIBERTAD LA PRESIDENCIA DE AUGUSTO PINOCHET UGARTE|author=Gonzalo Rojas Sanchez|publisher=Zig Zag|date=2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://t.me/realCRP/1701|publisher=Telegram|title=Telegram Statement about Pinochet}}</ref>

As the historian Sebastián Hurtado summarizes it "The United States ([[CIA]]) had no direct participation in the coup (itself), neither in its planning nor in its coordination, and I would dare to say that not even in its incitement [...] but it did want Allende to fall (and did actions to promote that with no relation with the successful coup itself)."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latercera.com/la-tercera-sabado/noticia/sebastian-hurtado-historiador-estados-unidos-no-tuvo-participacion-directa-en-el-golpe-pero-si-queria-que-allende-cayera/3UXITS4IUNB3RPPB57ILMYDO64/|title=Sebastián Hurtado, historiador: “Estados Unidos no tuvo participación directa en el Golpe, pero sí quería que Allende cayera”|date=August 26, 2023|publisher=La Tercera|language=es}}</ref>

==Family==
He was the first-born of six siblings, so his parents raised him in a strict environment of discipline. Despite the rigorous education he received, he only managed to enter the Military School after two unsuccessful attempts, which, however, did not prevent him from becoming Commander in Chief of the institution in 1973 and leading one of the most important episodes in Chilean history.
Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was born on November 25, 1915, in the Almendral neighborhood of Valparaíso. Son of Augusto Pinochet Vera and Avelina Ugarte Martínez, at the age of four he entered a nursery school near his home and then attended the Sara Vives School, where he studied for two years. When he was eight years old, he boarded at the San Rafael Seminary, where he excelled in history and religion.
Later, Pinochet attended the Marist Brothers Institute in Quillota and then the Padres Franceses School in Valparaíso.

==Military vocation==
[[File:Augusto Pinochet 1971.jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Augusto Pinochet in 1971.]]
In 1933 he entered the Military School, graduating four years later with the rank of Infantry Ensign. He was immediately assigned to the school of that weapon located in the city of San Bernardo. After a few months, in September 1937, he was assigned to the "Chacabuco" Regiment in Concepción.

In 1939 and with the rank of second lieutenant, Augusto Pinochet was transferred to the "Maipo" Regiment garrisoned in Valparaiso, returning in 1940 to the Infantry School. The following year, together with his promotion to lieutenant, he was assigned to the Military School.

During a hectic military life, on January 30, 1943, he married Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez in the Sagrados Corazones Church in Santiago. They had five children: Inés Lucía, Augusto Osvaldo, María Verónica, Marco Antonio and Jacqueline Marie.

At the end of 1945 he was assigned to the "Carampangue" Regiment in Iquique, and in 1948 he entered the War Academy, where he had to postpone his studies because, despite being the youngest officer, he was assigned to a service commission in the coal zone in Lota.

The following year, Pinochet returned to his studies at the academy. After obtaining the title of Staff Officer, in 1951 he transferred to the Military School, where he was appointed commandant of the sixth years and professor of the Military Course. At the same time, he taught as an assistant professor at the War Academy in the subjects of Military Geography and Geopolitics. At the same time, he worked as director of the institutional magazine "Cien Águilas" (Hundred Eagles), an organ of diffusion of the officers' headquarters.

At the beginning of 1953, with the rank of major, he was assigned for two years to the "Rancagua" Regiment in Africa. Subsequently, he was appointed professor at the War Academy and returned to Santiago to resume his teaching work. He later furthered his studies and obtained his bachelor's degree, with which he entered the Law School of the University of Chile.

At the beginning of 1956, he was selected together with a group of officers to form a Military Mission that collaborated with the organization of the Ecuadorian War Academy in Quito, which forced him to suspend his law studies. He remained in that mission for three and a half years, a period in which, along with teaching, he continued his studies in geopolitics, Military Geography and Intelligence Service. At the end of 1959, he returned to Chile and was assigned to the Headquarters of the I Army Division in Antofagasta.
The following year he was appointed Commander of the "Esmeralda" Regiment, glorious 7th Line. His command was rewarded with his appointment, in 1963, as deputy director of the War Academy.

In 1968 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the II Army Division in Santiago and, at the end of that year, he was promoted to Brigadier General, when he was appointed Commander in Chief of the VI Division, garrisoned in Iquique. In his new functions, he was appointed Intendant (s) of Tarapacá, a position in which he tried to put an end to a strike at the Escuela Industrial Superior de Iquique, whose students had taken over the establishment's premises.<ref name=Biografia>{{cite web|url=https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/p/biografia_21.html|title=BIOGRAFIA|publisher=Chile Pinochet Nuestro}}</ref>

General Pinochet was a graduate of the [[School of the Americas]] at Fort Benning, [[Georgia]].

==Salvador Allende Socialist Regime (The Dark 1000 Days of Chile)==
{{main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Salvador Allende]] and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
[[File:Intervención militar de 1973.jpg|215px|thumbnail|Military intervention, [[La Moneda|La Moneda Presidential Palace]], 11th of September 1973.]]
[[United States]] intelligence reports implicated the Marxist Allende in the assassination of several opponents,<ref>http://nixontapeaudio.org/chile/517-004.pdf</ref> while [[KGB]] files smuggled out of Russia by Vasily Mitrokhin indicate that Allende received funds from the Soviet Union.<ref>https://www.nationalreview.com/articles/219461/pinochet-history-nro-symposium</ref> Allende was formally condemned by Chile's parliament for systematically destroying democracy in Chile.<ref>“Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile’s Democracy,” Resolution of the Chamber of Deputies, Chile, August 22, 1973.</ref> The Chilean Chamber of Deputies Resolution of August 22, 1973, accused Allende of support of armed groups, torture, illegal arrests, muzzling the press, confiscating private property, and not allowing people to leave the country. In the infamous "Cuban Packages Scandal" that precipitated the coup, large quantities of weapons were sent from Castro's Cuba to arm pro-Allende terrorists in Chile.<ref>https://www.nationalreview.com/articles/219461/pinochet-history-nro-symposium</ref> Kissinger privately told Nixon that Allende might declare martial law.<ref>http://nixontapeaudio.org/chile/517-004.pdf</ref>

By 1973, as a result of covert U.S. aid to Chilean dissidents and financing of pro-democracy protesters, US intelligence indicated Allende would likely lose the next Chilean election if it was held.<ref>http://archive.frontpagemag.com/Printable.aspx?ArtId=15648</ref> According to ''The Wall Street Journal,'' faced with illegal seizures of farms and factories, defiance of judicial orders, unchecked street violence and death threats against the judges themselves, the Supreme Court warned on May 26, 1973, in a unanimous and unprecedented message, that Chile faced "a peremptory or imminent breakdown of legality."<ref>https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20040108221609/http://lyd.org/noticias/violencia/what_really.html</ref> Volodia Teitelboim, the chief ideologue of the Communist Party in Chile, declared that if civil war came, "it probably would signify immense loss of human lives, between half a million and one million."<ref>https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20040108221609/http://lyd.org/noticias/violencia/what_really.html</ref>

In January 1971 Pinochet was promoted to Major General and appointed General Commander of the Santiago Army Garrison. Subsequently, at the beginning of 1972, he was appointed Chief of the Army General Staff. Within a convulsed internal political situation, on August 23, 1973, Pinochet was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army, following the removal of General Carlos Prats González.

His appointment came one day after the Chamber of Deputies accused the Executive of breaking the Constitution and falling into illegality, demanding the military members of the cabinet to withdraw from the Popular Unity government and urging the Armed Forces to put an end to the permanent violations of the Constitution.

The chaotic situation of the country, the total paralysis of its activities, the daily armed confrontations and the civil war that threatened the nation provoked the military pronunciation (commonly called military coup, however wasn't a coup because it came from the institutions to restore them).

On September 11, 1973 [[La Moneda|La Moneda Palace]] was bombed and Salvador Allende committed suicide, after he rejected the offers made to him to leave the country and surrender.
The control of the government passed into the hands of a Military Junta headed by Pinochet, who thus became the ruler whose stay in power is the longest in the republican history of the country, followed only by Presidents Joaquín Prieto, Manuel Bulnes, Manuel Montt and Joaquín Pérez, whose terms lasted a decade each.

==Military Government==
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Junta Militar de Chile.jpg|250px|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile.]]
[[File:Government Junta of Chile 1973.jpg|250px|thumbnail|left|The Junta in 1973.]]
[[File:A. Pinochet Stamp (cropped).jpg|150px|thumbnail|Pinochet in 1974.]]
[[File:President Pinochet and his wife Lucía Hiriart.jpg|215px|thumbnail|President Pinochet and his wife Lucía Hiriart.]]
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|215px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
As President of the Military Junta between 1973 and 1981 and as President of the Republic between 1981 and 1990, Augusto Pinochet carried out a series of visits to different cities and towns in Chile, mainly inaugurating numerous development works such as schools, high schools, health clinics, hospitals, housing, bridges and roads, sports centers and CEMA Chile headquarters, attended the inauguration of different private companies and met with the presidents of Bolivia and Argentina seeking a peaceful solution to the border problems. The Military Government Junta carried out a series of reforms as a legislative body. Two major world recessions damaged the economic activity that was beginning to recover.

General Pinochet headed a [[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)|military government for 17 years (1973-1990)]] which suppressed [[communist]] revolutionaries in Chile. In Pinochet's military government, the Ortúzar Commission (integrated by [[Jaime Guzmán]] as well as other experts) drafted a [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|new Constitution (1980)]], which was approved in a referendum with 67% of the vote. The text established a gradual and legal path for the return to full democracy and introduced a new binomial electoral system that was also made by Guzmán. The constitution introduced an amnesty law for all military officials, and Pinochet granted himself the title of senator for life (''Senador vitalicio'') that would be enacted once Pinochet left the charge of Commander in Chief of the Chilean Armed Forces.

General Pinochet instituted [[Free market|free-market]] reforms in Chile in the 1970s that resulted in lower [[inflation]] and an economic boom. During this period, he held a plebiscite on his rule and 75% of the people affirmed their support for his emergency government.

During his time in power, including the 1973 coup, at least 1,200 people were killed or vanished in the military crackdown on [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]]. The most common estimate is that 3,000 were killed but that number comes from the questionable [[Rettig Report]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.u999999k/2/hi/americas/6167237.stm BBC profile]</ref> Of the confirmed 2,774 Marxist guerrillas and left-wing radicals killed or missing in the 17 years of the Chilean military government, 1,522 died or disappeared between 11 September and 31 December 1973.<ref>[http://www.lahistoriaparalela.com.ar/2008/01/16/la-verdad-olvidada-del-terrorismo-en-chile/ La verdad olvidada del terrorismo en Chile]</ref> In addition, over a quarter million Chileans were arrested. Universities were purged of terrorist sympathizers, Marxist books were burned, and rival political parties banned. Thousands of members of the Socialist Party of Chile and the Communist Party of Chile fled the country out of fear of the [[secret police]], which allegedly tortured citizens.<ref>Augusto Pinochet Biography http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/pinochet.html</ref>

A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution of the Republic]] was promulgated in Chile in 1980, which authorized General Pinochet to serve as president for another eight-year term, to be followed by a plebiscite on his presidency.

Pinochet allowed the [[Chicago Boys]] to move Chile into a market economy, privatizing many inefficient government businesses, and opening the country to foreign investment. The stability that his government gave encouraged foreign investors to come to Chile. His minister, [[José Piñera]], started one of the first [[private pension accounts|Individual capitalization]] pension systems in the world, which has been highly successful. [[Hernán Büchi]] was responsible for reintroducing economic liberal policies at the end of the government.
[[File:Pinochet in La Moneda.jpg|250px|thumbnail|President Augusto Pinochet in [[La Moneda|La Moneda Palace]].]]
Between 1977 and 1978 Pinochet had to put up with [[Argentina]]'s tough stance on the dispute over the Beagle Channel islands, which almost caused a war. Augusto Pinochet reinforced the [[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|southern zone]] preparing the Armed Forces for a possible war, but it would not be the Chileans who would start a war. The interest of [[Pope John Paul II]] in the conflict made the presidents of Chile and Argentina accept the mediation of the Vatican. In 1982 during the [[Falklands War]], Chile helped the United Kingdom since Argentina was a real threat for the country, and if they won the war they were going to attack Chile after. [[Margaret Thatcher]] thanked the Chilean support when Pinochet was captured in London in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/mar/26/pinochet.chile2|title=Thatcher visits her old friend Pinochet|date=March 26, 1999|publisher=The Guardian}}</ref> On May 2, 1985, the Foreign Ministers of Chile and Argentina signed the Peace Treaty before Pope John Paul II. That same day, President Pinochet announced the importance of the signing of this border treaty to the country on national radio and television. In April 1987 Pope John Paul II visited Chile.

Chile was blocked on the international weapon market, however the country bought weapons from [[Israel]], [[Spain]], [[Rhodesia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1987/04/12/espana/545176811_850215.html|title=Las armas que España vendió a Pinochet|date=April 11, 1987|language=es|publisher=El País}}</ref> and [[South Africa]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-11-28-declassified-apartheid-profits-pals-with-pinochet/|title=Declassified: Apartheid Profits –Pals with Pinochet|date=November 28, 2017|publisher=Daily Maverick}}</ref><ref>[https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-relationship-between-Chile-under-Pinochet-and-Apartheid-South-Africa]</ref> as well as making their own mainly in FAMAE and made by Carlos Cardoen. Chile sold weapons produced by Carlos Cardoen to [[Saddam Hussein]] from [[Irak]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nacla.org/article/pincohet-arms-merchant|title=Pincohet, Arms Merchant|date=March 6, 2008|publisher=Nacla}}</ref><ref>[https://rebelion.org/recordando-los-pinochet-e-irak/]</ref> and supposedly to China.

China was one of the few in the socialist orbit that did not break diplomatic relations with Pinochet's military junta. The Asian country granted a credit of 62 million dollars to the Chilean military government presided by General Augusto Pinochet in 1977.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://elpais.com/diario/1977/08/16/internacional/240530424_850215.html|publisher=El País|date= August 16, 1977|language=es|title=Crédito de China a Pinochet}}</ref>

[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
The US adopted sanctions to Chilean Fruit exports for 'human right abusses' and pressured Chile to introduce a series of economic reforms, a process that escalated sharply in the eighties. This led to a period of rapid economic expansion and development without precedent in Latin America, in which growth averaged 7% annually, that came to be known as the "''miracle of Chile''" (it also included the region's greatest reductions in infant mortality<ref>Nick Eberstadt, The Poverty of Communism (Transaction Publishers, 1990), pp188, 196-206, 240-6, in which he discusses living standards in [[Communist]] [[Cuba]] versus Pinochet's Chile.</ref>). In turn, this allowed Chile to make a long-term transition to sustainable democratic rule that would likely have been otherwise inconceivable.<ref>http://www.lyd.com/noticias/violencia/what_really.html</ref>
[[File:Augusto Pinochet 1986.jpg|250px|thumbnail|left|Augusto Pinochet in 1986]]
On September 7, 1986, President Augusto Pinochet suffered a terrorist attack perpetrated by the Patriotic Front Manuel Rodriguez (FPMR) in the Achupallas sector, Cajón del Maipo, when the motorcade in which he was traveling from his resting residence was attacked with rockets and machine guns. Pinochet suffered minor injuries to his left hand, but five of his escorts were killed. The attack used weapons from the war arsenal found in the [[Atacama Region]] on August 15, 1986, in a cove located in Carrizal Bajo, south of Copiapó, weapons sent by [[Fidel Castro]].

The head of the attack on Pinochet, was César Bunster, and the communist military chief who has publicly confessed to having been the mastermind of that attack, was Guillermo Teillier, both have never been prosecuted because the courts have held that prescription does operate for them.<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019}}</ref>

[[File:Pope John Paul II and President Augusto Pinochet.jpg|thumbnail|left|President Augusto Pinochet with [[Pope John Paul II]] visiting Chile in 1987.]]
The men who were killed were:
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Miguel Angel Guerrero Guzmán.
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Cardenio Hernández Cubillos.
- Carabineros 2nd Corporal Pablo Antonio Silva Pizarro.
- Army Corporal 1st Corporal Gerardo Rebolledo Cisternas.
- 2nd Corporal of the Army Roberto Rosales Martínez.

The ''[[Carretera Austral]]'' (Southern Highway) was built between 1976 and 1989 and connects several rural towns in the far south of Chile that previously didn't have direct transportation, it is 1240 km long, starting in [[Puerto Montt]] and ending in Villa O'Higgins. Today the highway is a touristic destination of Chile because of the beauty of the landscape. This huge and important geopolitical megaproject was built by military personnel, and many died because of the rough climate.

[[File:Logo Sí & No Pinochet Plebiscite 1988.png|thumbnail|''Sí'' and ''No'' logos of the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite]].]]
Pinochet's firm decision to hand over the presidential command was not broken either by his own will or by the terrorist actions that since 1983 had been accentuated, causing deaths and serious damage to public and private property. President Pinochet was nominated by the Military Government Junta as a candidate to continue as President of Chile for another few years, and a plebiscite was called for the people to accept or reject such nomination. On October 5, 1988, Pinochet was defeated in the vote to decide the continuity of his government. On that occasion, the "Yes" option obtained 44.01% and the "No" 55.99%, so the President had to call elections for the following year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=186894|title=Ministro desclasifica vínculo de George Soros con Chile: apoyó campaña del No, ayudó a Ricardo Lagos con los empresarios y hoy respalda inversión en el país|language=es|publisher=Economía y Negocios|date=September 27, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html|title=El multimillonario que apoyó la campaña del No y ayudó a Ricardo Lagos con empresarios (Soros helped the "No" campaign)|publisher=Emol|language=es|date=September 27, 2015}}</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

The NED financed numerous leftist entities like trade unions, academic and journalistic organizations. Pinochet knew this and described it as "an act of intervention that cannot be viewed with pleasure by the majority of Chileans, including broad sectors of the opposition".<ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/05/historia-de-la-revolucion-militar_20.html}}</ref>

The subsequent free presidential elections were won by the [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]] with 55.2% of the vote, to whom Pinochet handed over the presidency on March 11, 1990. Nevertheless, Pinochet remained at the head of the Army until 1998.

==Concertación governments==

[[File:Transmision de mando Aylwin-Pinochet.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Augusto Pinochet giving the Presidency to Patricio Aylwin, March 11, 1990.]]
[[File:Augusto Pinochet 1995.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Pinochet in 1995 as Commander in Chief.]]

As the highest authority of the military branch, the former general complied with the presidential hierarchy. However, during Patricio Aylwin's term of office, the Army expressed its dissatisfaction on two key occasions.

A judicial case known by [[Leftist]]s as "''Pinocheques''" was an investigation of Augusto Pinochet Hiriart, son of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, for receiving payment of 971 million pesos (three million dollars) from the Army, following the sale of the armaments factory "Valmoval" which was part of the Army. But a Chamber of Deputes investigative commission examined every detail of that sale and concluded that the transaction had been convenient for the Army. The involvement of a relative so close to the Commander-in-Chief, was a lack of delicacy, but there was no evidence of malice or fiscal damage.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2019/02/de-poncio-pilatos-pinochet.html|title=De Poncio Pilatos a Pinochet|language=es|date=February 24, 2019|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/05/historia-de-la-revolucion-militar_21.html}}</ref>

The "liaison exercise" (''ejercicios de enlace'') happened in December 1990, treated as a routine military maneuver, was actually an expression of the Army's rejection of the possible request for Pinochet's resignation by the Minister of Defense, Patricio Rojas. This possible request would have been motivated by the judicial investigations of officers and by attacks by parliamentarians on the Commander-in-Chief and the military institution.

On May 28, 1993, the headline "Pinochet's son's checks case reopened" appeared on "La Nación" Newspaper. After the press release, the building of the Armed Forces - a few steps away from [[La Moneda]] - was surrounded by soldiers with war uniforms, painted faces and black berets, this is known as the "''boinazo''". There was no evidence of malice or fiscal damage in the case.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2019/02/de-poncio-pilatos-pinochet.html|title=De Poncio Pilatos a Pinochet|language=es|date=February 24, 2019|publisher=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]'s blog}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Historia de la Revolución Militar Chilena 1973 - 1990|author=[[Hermógenes Pérez de Arce]]|publisher=Editorial El Roble|date=2019|url=https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/05/historia-de-la-revolucion-militar_21.html}}</ref>

The "''boinazo''" consisted of a reinforcement of the guard of the Armed Forces building by a special group of commandos, carried out during a meeting of the Corps of Generals that lasted eight hours. The cause was similar to that of the previous episode. Given the lack of communication between the Executive and the Army, they sought to avoid what the military branch considered to be a campaign against them.

Pinochet embarked the Army on a modernization process known as the "Alcazar Plan," which was governed by the concept of "consolidating a professional, technified, flexible and powerful Army."

The innovations contemplated in the program ranged from modifications to the uniform to the renewal of military equipment. Likewise, the uniformed officers began to open up to the civilian world, entering universities and some attaining master's or doctorate degrees in various areas, ranging from administration to international relations, including political science.

On March 10, 1998, Augusto Pinochet handed over military command to General Ricardo Izurieta Caffarena, appointed by then President of the Republic [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]].

The choice of the replacement caused surprise, since Izurieta was selected from a list of names in which he was in last place. In spite of the turbulent succession of the position -especially due to the presidential veto to the promotion of Brigadier Jaime Lepe, a close collaborator of Pinochet-, all sectors approved Izurieta's appointment and the generational change it implied.

On March 6, 1998, the Chilean Army decorated Pinochet with the rank of "Comandante en Jefe Benemérito", an honorary title that reflects the loyalty of the Army to the man who headed this military institution for almost 25 years.

In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, on March 11, 1998, Pinochet was sworn in as senator for life in the National Congress.

==Detention in London==
{{See also|Letter to the Chileans, by Augusto Pinochet}}
[[File:Pinochet and his wife with Margaret Thatcher.jpg|thumbnail|Pinochet and his wife with Margaret Thatcher.]]
In 1998, the [[leftists]] who had long hated Pinochet arranged for his arrest while he was in [[London]] receiving medical treatment. An unprecedented arrest warrant was issued in [[Spain]] by judge [[Baltasar Garzón]] for alleged [[human rights]] violations with the charges of "genocide, terrorism and torture" that is accused of being responsible during his government. [[Margaret Thatcher]] was a vocal supporter of Pinochet during the arrest. The stunt failed, and Pinochet was subsequently returned to Chile due to his ill health after a year and five months of detention in England. He returned to his country on March 3, 2000. Upon his return, he had to face numerous lawsuits filed against him in the courts. On June 5, the Court of Appeals decided -by 13 votes to nine- to strip the senator for life of his immunity, a measure that was ratified by the Supreme Court by 14 votes to six. He was later indicted and charged with '[[kidnapping]]' 19 supporters of Salvador Allende (Left Wing Terrorists) during the 1973 coup in which Pinochet took power. The Chilean [[Supreme Court]] suspended the prosecution in July 2002, again due to Pinochet's continuing poor health.<ref name=Biografia/><ref name=EUvsPinochet/>

==Trials, persecution and revenge against him==
{{See also|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)#Smear campaign against the Military Government}}
[[Image:342px-Pinochet de Civil.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Augusto Pinochet in civilian outfit.]]
On January 29, 2001, Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia put him on trial "as the author of the crimes of kidnapping and aggravated homicide" in the "Caravan of Death" case, after medical examinations proved that his state of health allowed him to face justice.
On March 8 of the same year, by two votes to one, the Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed Judge Guzmán's decision but changed the classification of the crime from "perpetrator" to "accessory after the fact".
Hypertension and dental problems, as well as his diabetes, led him to remain hospitalized in the Military Hospital on several occasions and influenced Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia not to order his affiliation, a legal procedure that is carried out for those who are declared prisoners.
Subsequently, on July 9, 2001, by two votes to one, the Sixth Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Santiago, formed by Justices Amanda Valdovinos, Cornelio Villaroel and Hugo Dolmetsch, decided to dismiss temporarily Augusto Pinochet for health reasons.

However, the process against the senator for life ended definitively on July 1, 2002, when the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court decided to dismiss him definitively, considering that the vascular dementia he was suffering from was irreversible.
Three days later, Augusto Pinochet resigned as senator for life, thus making his definitive retirement from political life official.
Pinochet justified his resignation on the grounds of "insurmountable health problems and the relentless passage of time" and because "it would not be consistent with my conduct and my ideals if I were to maintain the dignity (of senator for life), unable to do so as I am...".
The former general began to make his decision hours after the highest court put an end to the process against him. Subsequently, he summoned the Cardinal Archbishop of Santiago, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, to his residence, in whose presence he signed his letter of resignation. The cardinal then went to the Senate in Santiago to deliver the document to the president of the Senate, Andrés Zaldívar.
With the letter in hand, Zaldívar summoned the heads of the Senate committees, who resolved to make it public four days later in a floor session that was marked by more than half an hour of confrontations between detractors and supporters of the former senator for life, and which culminated in the eviction of the room and fights outside the Congress.

After his resignation, Pinochet stayed for ten days in [[Iquique]]. Subsequently, he returned to Santiago on the recommendation of his doctors, according to whom the former senator for life should no longer be exposed to strong emotions derived from the tributes received in the capital of the [[Tarapacá Region]].
In the following months, the former general was seen sporadically in different areas of the country, especially in the [[Valparaíso Region]], and on November 25 he celebrated his 87th birthday at the Los Boldos estate with a luncheon attended by 150 guests including family, friends and former collaborators.
In March 2003, Pinochet underwent an operation to change the battery of his pacemaker and a month later he had to be hospitalized again in the Military Hospital due to a blow to his ribs caused by a fall in the bathroom of his house.
In May of the same year, the former president attended a cocktail party offered on the occasion of the launching of a car distributor in Santiago and in August he accompanied the independent senator pro [[UDI]] Marco Cariola at the funeral of his son.
Three months later, while he was in his apartment in Reñaca Alto, Valparaíso Region, Pinochet suffered a fall in the bathroom which caused him to fracture his left wrist. The former military officer was rushed to the "Almirante Neff" Naval Hospital and then transferred to the capital, where he remained hospitalized for a couple of days.

A day before his 88th birthday, Latin television in Miami broadcast an exclusive interview with the General (r). In it Pinochet affirmed that he did not have to ask for forgiveness, that he did not murder anyone, that "justice was not fair with me" and that he would do everything he did again.
On the judicial level, 2003 was a relatively quiet year, marked only by the filing of some lawsuits against him and ending with a new dismissal, this time in the so-called "Calle Conferencia" case.

==The hoax about the General's money accounts==

On May 28, 2004, the Court of Appeals approved the dismissal of the former military officer in the "[[Operation Cóndor]]" case, a decision that was ratified by the Supreme Court three months later.
Likewise, the existence of millionaire accounts in the name of Augusto Pinochet in the [[Riggs Bank]] in the [[United States]], an entity strongly questioned for irregularities and money laundering, was made public.
In view of the uncertainty about the origin of the funds, Judge Sergio Muñoz took charge of the investigation as a jurisdictional minister. Both Pinochet and his family members were questioned, while the Internal Revenue Service filed a complaint against him for possible "maliciously incomplete or false" declarations and his assets were seized.

At the same time, the retired soldier underwent new medical examinations, which confirmed that he suffered from moderate subcortical dementia. However, the diagnosis did not prevent Minister Juan Guzmán from putting him on trial as the author of nine aggravated kidnappings and one aggravated homicide in the "Operation Cóndor" case.

Days before, Pinochet had been disqualified for the third time for his alleged responsibility in the murder of former Army Commander-in-Chief Carlos Prats and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert, which took place in [[Buenos Aires]] in 1974. But that was not all. Almost at the end of the year, a serious vascular accident that caused him to lose consciousness forced him to be hospitalized in the Military Hospital, where he remained for some days. 2005 did not start off much better. On January 4, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal filed by his defense to annul his indictment, so the following day he was notified of his house arrest, which he served in his plot of land in Los Boldos, [[Valparaíso Region]].

A couple of days later, his office located on Malaga Street, in the Las Condes district, was raided by order of Judge Sergio Muñoz, who seized two computers, a series of documents and a briefcase of the general (r), all within the framework of his investigation into the Riggs Bank accounts.
In April, the court judge Alejandro Solís dismissed Pinochet in the case of the murder of former Army Commander-in-Chief Carlos Prats and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert, which occurred in Argentina in 1974.
The following month, the former officer suffered a new health crisis and had to be transferred to the Military Hospital after suffering a fainting spell due to a decrease in blood flow.

On June 7, the full Court of Appeals decided to strip him of his immunity in the context of the investigation into the secret accounts at Riggs Bank. However, on the same day, the Fourth Chamber of the Court of Appeals revoked the indictment against him in the Operation Cóndor case. Two weeks later, Pinochet was again hospitalized in the Military Hospital after suffering two consecutive fainting spells while having breakfast at home.
At the beginning of July, justice stripped him of his immunity for the fifth time in the framework of the so-called Operation Colombo. A month later, his wife and his son Marco Antonio were prosecuted as accomplices to tax fraud, being detained in the Military Hospital and in the Capuchinos Prison annex, respectively.
In October, the Plenary of the Supreme Court confirmed his dismissal for four offenses investigated in the "Riggs" case and during November he was interrogated on several occasions by Ministers Carlos Cerda and Víctor Montiglio.

The latter ordered a confrontation between the retired military officer and former DINA director Manuel Contreras, which took place on the 18th of the same month at the Lo Curro Military Club.
A few days later, Judge Cerda ordered his indictment and house arrest as the alleged perpetrator of four crimes in the context of the investigation into the secret accounts at Riggs Bank. Pinochet regained his freedom after paying a $6 million bail.
Also in November, the former president was indicted and convicted by Minister Montiglio for his responsibility in the so-called "Operation Colombo" case. On December 28, Pinochet was remanded in custody at his home in La Dehesa.
In January 2006, the Plenary of the Court of Appeals of Santiago decided to strip him of his immunity in the trial for kidnapping and torture in Villa Grimaldi.
That same month, Judge Cerda indicted the entire Pinochet Hirart family for tax evasion, alteration and use of false passports. The wife and children of the former commander-in-chief of the Army quickly regained their freedom, except for his eldest daughter, Inés Lucía, who at the time of the notification was in Argentina.
She then traveled to the United States where she stayed for only two days and then returned to Chile, where she was detained at the Gendarmerie School until her bail was paid.

In April, the Fifth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals revoked two of the four crimes for which Pinochet was indicted in the "Riggs" case.
In May, the general (r) is indicted for the aggravated kidnapping of Arturo Barría Araneda, a victim of the Operation Colombo case. Pinochet was detained, but regained his freedom in early June.
A month later, the former ruler is stripped of his immunity in the Caravan of Death case. In July he is also interrogated by Minister Alejandro Solís about the crime of General Carlos Prats and his wife Sofía Cuthbert. On August 18, Pinochet was stripped of his immunity for the crime of embezzlement of public funds in the Riggs case.
In September and October, the courts ordered two new disqualifications of the former ruler: for kidnapping and torture in Villa Grimaldi, and for illicit association and kidnapping in the Berríos case.<ref name=Biografia/>

===Gold bullion hoax===

At the end of October, the press published information about the detection of deposits of nine thousand kilos of gold in the name of Augusto Pinochet in the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking (HSBC). Finally, the institution confirmed that the documents were false and that the former military officer did not have any bank accounts in his name.<ref>[https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2013/08/y-donde-esta-la-fortuna-de-pinochet.html]</ref><ref>[https://blogdehermogenes.blogspot.com/2018/05/historia-de-la-revolucion-militar_21.html]</ref> After this, Pinochet was again indicted, this time as the author of 35 kidnappings and 23 cases of torture in the Villa Grimaldi case, and for the murder of PC university professor Alejandro Avalos Davison. The retired military officer was detained at his home in La Dehesa.
On November 8, the Court of Appeals decided to strip the former president of his immunity for his alleged responsibility in the kidnapping of Spanish priest Antonio Llidó.

HSBC (Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation) declared that the gold certificate, supposedly issued by him, was a fake. Yes, but who remedies the national and international damage to the general's image?
When they were caught, the perpetrators of the hoax vanished, but not without cynicism. For even a German named Schell appeared, who declared that in his signature there was a deposit receipt from HSBC for the 9,620,000 kilos of gold or 9.62 metric tons, of 99.9% purity. And he gave the facsimile of his certificate, which was published in El Mercurio of 27.10.06, p. C 3. Despite being from a German firm, it was in English, but with a spelling mistake: instead of saying "safe deposit", which is something like "safe deposit box", it read "save deposit", a very rare error in a serious financial institution.
And this supposed original HSBC certificate, a facsimile of which was also published, did not even have the name of the bank spelled correctly, calling it "Hong Kong Shanghai Corporation Bank" instead of "Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation". There is no bank with the former name. A crude and rudimentary fraud.

The whole thing collapsed like a house of cards. So much so that the commentator Patricio Navia, who although leaning towards the Concertación, lived for some time in the United States, where lying -unlike here- has consequences, wrote a column entitled "9,000 Kilos de Errores" (9,000 Kilos of Errors). In it, along with laughing at Foxley, who "dared to say that the information that had reached him deserved 'to be taken into account, seriously, in the courts'", he added:

"In addition, a notorious case of corruption in Chiledeportes had just been uncovered. The revelations about Pinochet's alleged gold seemed to fit the government like a glove: the biggest scandals make you forget the minor fuss."

A frustrated image assassination, with official complicity (or authorship?). All false. Who responds? Nobody. Who perpetrated it? No one.

==His final days==

[[File:Carretera Austral Augusto Pinochet.jpg|250px|thumbnail|''Carretera Austral'' in [[Aysén Region]], built during the Military Government and unofficially named after him by his supporters.]]

On November 25, 2006, Pinochet turned 91 years old and was seen in public for the last time. From the door of his La Dehesa residence and seated in a chair, the General (r) greeted the supporters who came to greet him on the occasion of his birthday. At the same time, his wife read a speech prepared by Pinochet himself. "Today, near the end of my days, I want to state that I bear no grudge against anyone, that I love my country above all, and that I assume political responsibility for everything I have done...", read one of the paragraphs read by Lucia Hiriart.

Two days later, the former ruler was re-arrested after being notified of his indictment for kidnapping and aggravated homicide in one of the aspects of the Caravan of Death case.

Free of guilt and convictions, he spent his final days in Santiago and Bucalemu.

Pinochet died of a heart attack on December 10, 2006.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/world/americas/10cnd-pinochet-timeline.html NYTimes</ref>

== Quotes ==
{{cquote|When Chileans see what [[communism]] is, when Chileans understand the lies, the fallacies, how they are being deceived!, they will realize that this government was right.<ref>[https://twitter.com/MaxiPatriota/status/1625521369420005378]</ref>}}
{{cquote|If I were a politician, I would have given them the pill right now here (lie), as I am not a politician I speak frankly, that is the difference between the others and the speaker.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TsknQaB4d9k]</ref>}}
{{cquote|I believe that no political event, since the birth of Chile to independent life, will have as much transcendence as September 11.}}
{{cquote|Human rights are a very wise invention of the Marxists.}}
{{cquote|Between securing the rights of some 10,000 disassociated persons or guaranteeing those of ten million, we had no hesitation.}}
{{cquote|At the origins of the Catholic religion were St. Peter and St. Paul. These two gentlemen quarreled for six years and almost came to blows. Now, if these holy men could not come to an agreement, calculate for us.}}
{{cquote|I'm the General of the poor.}}
{{cquote|We must take care of the rich so that they give more.}}
{{cquote|We are trying to make Chile a country of owners and not of proletarians.}}
{{cquote|One out of every ten Chileans will have a car, one out of every five will have a television and one out of every seven will have a telephone.}}
{{cquote|(The current German Army) has become a group of potheads, that is to say, long-haired, homosexuals and trade unionists.}}
{{cquote|Reflecting and meditating, I am good. I have no resentment, I have kindness.}}
{{cquote|Thank you, my Motherland, I have been your soldier and that makes me happy.}}
{{cquote|Ask for forgiveness? They should ask for it instead.}}
{{cquote|Near the end of my days, I want to state that I bear no grudge against anyone, that I love my country above all else, that I assume political responsibility for everything I have done.}}<ref>[https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/180543/0/pinochet/frases/polemicas/]</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Letter to the Chileans, by Augusto Pinochet]]
*[[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)]]
*[[Chilean Constitution of 1980]]
*[[Military Political Prisioners of Chile]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[Right-wing dictatorship]]
*[[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]]
*[[Mi General Augusto Pinochet (song)]]
*[[Miguel Krassnoff]]
*[[Jair Bolsonaro]]
*[[Orlando Letelier, Carlos Prats & Bernardo Leighton Cases]]
*[[Kennedy Amendment]]
*[[National Endowment for Democracy]]
*[[1988 Chilean national plebiscite]]
*[[Salvador Allende#The truth about CIA involvement]]

== External links ==
*[https://odysee.com/THE-PINOCHET-DOCUMENTARY-360p:4?lid=1fd9653478d44db1f87cc8647f820a8669cc3b81 The Pinochet Documentary - English subtitles]
*[https://odysee.com/the-augusto-pinochet-story-never-told:5 Pinochet, the story never told]
*[https://librospinochetistas.blogspot.com/ Pinochetist Books]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Chilean Historic Characters}}
{{Conservative Presidents}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinochet, Augusto}}

[[Category:Augusto Pinochet]]
[[Category:Presidents of Chile]]
[[Category:Former Heads of State]]
[[Category:Former Heads of Government]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Patriots]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Cold War in Chile]]
[[Category:Anti-Communists]]

Carretera Austral

2026-03-23T13:22:56Z

CatolicoAustral: /* References */

[[File:Carretera Austral Augusto Pinochet.jpg|300px|thumbnail|''Carretera Austral'' of 1240 km long in [[Aysén Region]], built during the Military Government and unofficially named after him by his supporters.]]
The '''Carretera Austral Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte''' (Sothern Highway in English) is a road constructed to connect rural towns of the [[Aysén Region]] in [[Chile]]an [[Patagonia]] which were previously disconected or depended more on ships to move in between them. It was built between 1976 and 1989, it is 1240 km long, starting in [[Puerto Montt]] and ending in Villa O'Higgins. Today the highway is a touristic destination of Chile because of the beauty of the landscape. This huge and important geopolitical megaproject was built by military personnel, many died because of the rough climate. The project was proposed by [[Pinochet]] since 1958 in the [[Chilean Army]] and his [[Geopolitics]] works from 1965, to finnally start its implementation during his [[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)|Government]]. Eduardo Frei Montalva's Government considered the project but didn't make it happen.

{{quote|Our goal is for these regions to become fully integrated into the nation’s development and for each of you and your families to be able to enjoy the country’s progress and advancements|Augusto Pinochet <ref>Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, Capitán General, Presidente de la República, Puerto Cisnes, febrero 1986 / Book: "Carretera Austral Presidente Pinochet, The Austral Road", Banco Osorno-SERNATUR, 1987</ref>}}

President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte cut one tricolor ribbon after another as he inaugurated numerous projects in Palena and Aisén, along the Carretera Austral and in the surrounding area. Inaugurating mainly bridges, paved roads, and hydroelectric plants, President Pinochet’s voice echoed through the forests, valleys, lakes, and towns, leaving in the memory of those who heard and saw him the image of “a true soldier” fighting for his country.

== History & characteristics ==
Given the natural characteristics of Palena and Aisén, the locals themselves expected to continue relying on Argentine roads and the sea route for many decades to come.
The ranchers themselves—those who, in rain and snow, crossing rivers and cliffs, herded their cattle through dense forests for miles on end and for days at a time—perhaps never imagined that a road would connect their destinations in just a few hours.
Of the 56 km of existing roads in Aisén as of 1975, the Carretera Austral Presidente Pinochet had already inaugurated its main section between Chaitén and Coyhaique in 1982, spanning 420 km.

Six years later, in 1988, the Coyhaique-Cochrane section was inaugurated, covering 337 km.
Unfortunately, the political situation Chile faced between 1989 and 1992—marked by a plebiscite that ended the military government and ushered in “the new era of democratic governments” (?)—halted the planned development of the Southern Road Network, which was intended to be completed in 1992 with its final section definitively connecting Villa O’Higgins. The Southern Highway did not reach Villa O’Higgins until September 2000.
The vindictive politicking of those who assumed power in the “democratic governments” forced a reduction—not in the budget, but rather in the construction work on the Southern Highway—due mainly to the route’s significance in relation to the figure of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.
The total length of roads planned by the Military Government by 1992 was 1,780 km, completed between Puerto Montt-Ralún (latitude 41°20“) and Villa O’Higgins (latitude 48°28”), with an estimated investment of $200 million, reaching approximately $300 million in actual costs—expenses that represent roughly 17% to 20% of the costs of the Colbún Machicura Hydroelectric Plant and 33% to 35% of the costs of Lines 1 and 2 of the Santiago Metro.

The climate and nature as natural barriers, which require constant maintenance of the route, would not be obstacles to General Pinochet’s “geopolitical vision.” He did not hesitate for a second to decide on the construction of the Carretera Austral, which would bear his name—a name bestowed not of his own volition, as his Marxist executioners continue to claim even after his death on December 10, 2006.
The physical incorporation of more than 220,000 km² of territory, the extension of national sovereignty, and economic, social, tourism, and scientific development were the primary concerns of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, guided by his lifelong passion: “geopolitics.”
His interest lay in “connecting the southern regions, accessible only via Chilean territory between Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas.”
The development that the Carretera Austral would bring to the areas of the Municipality of Puerto Montt, the Municipality of Cochamó, the Province of Palena, and the XI. Aisén Region of General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, was viewed with skepticism by many, despite the fact that a 1980 report by the Department of Geology at the University of Chile had already indicated “significant mineralization of silver, copper, and iron in Aisén.” The Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Chile did not offer a positive opinion until 1988, when it demonstrated “its economic profitability in the short, medium, and long term” and that “its social profitability is even greater.”

The stance of political groups opposed to the military government—who were staunch enemies of President Pinochet—was extremely strong and even excessive; in one of the opposition publications of that time, they demonstrated their unrelenting hostility.
In a report on the Carretera Austral in Cauce Magazine, No. 9, March 1984, it was stated: “The structural breakdown of Aisén’s productive and developmental base,” the residents of Aisén “will benefit nothing from it” (the southern route), “the maritime route or the Argentine route will continue to be more economical for many years to come,” the route “will not play... the role of a true axis of integration,” Aisén is an “area of limited resources not susceptible to development,” it is “a broken region.”
Dirty politics, revenge, and hatred lead to blindness and absolute mediocrity, and ultimately to contradiction.
Today we can see on the Chilean government’s website that Region XI of Aisén is promoted as it always should have been: “The Carretera Austral changed the lives of the locals, gave a major boost to regional development, and tourism has flourished around it, constituting one of the foundations of the local economy.”
In this monumental undertaking, we must not forget the civilians and military personnel who worked on it: conscripted soldiers, technicians, and military engineers from the Chilean Army, through the Military Labor Corps (CMT); private companies; regional authorities from the Road Administration of the Ministry of Public Works; and laborers, people from the PEM and POJH programs, and even inmates from the Coyhaique prison. We especially honor those who lost their lives during the exploration, planning, and construction of the Southern Highway.

=== Opinions about the road ===

Remarks by the Bishop of Aisén, Monsignor Bernardo Cazzaro
(appointed as the new Bishop of Puerto Montt), in Puerto Aisén, on March 5, 1988:

{{quoteMr. President, as a Chilean, I must also express my gratitude for all the contributions that you and your government have made to this region. We have seen tangible progress... As a foreign priest, I have lived here for many years and have witnessed so much hardship, isolation, and neglect. We are grateful first to God and then to the instruments He has used to promote progress in the region.}}

Words from the German settler and founder of the Puyuhuapi carpet factory, Mr. Walter Hopperdietzel (Ercilla Magazine, October 11, 1989, p. 28):

{{quote|Before, we had to travel by boat to get anywhere... This change has brought enormous development to agriculture. Then came electricity, which allows us to have refrigerators and safely store perishable foods. This has an impact on the well-being and health of the population... And now this (referring to the telephone), which has allowed us to talk with our families in Santiago and Germany... I hadn’t seen any congressmen or senators around here. However, during this time we’ve had President Pinochet visit four times. We know each other now, and when he comes, he greets me by name. I already consider him my friend, and that’s a very nice thing.}}

===Puerto Montt–Chaitén===

The Austral Highway begins in Puerto Montt and stretches over 1,240 kilometers to Villa O’Higgins near the Southern Ice Field. The first section we’ll cover runs from Puerto Montt to Chaitén (160 km), with a transfer between Hornopirén and Caleta Gonzalo (5 hours, operates only during the summer months). The rest of the year, you can travel directly from Puerto Montt to Chaitén (12 hours) or from Quellón to Chaitén (5.5 hours). This service operates twice a week. There is also an air route with three daily flights between Puerto Montt and Chaitén (35-minute flight). Traveling this section of the route takes one day, though it is best to take two days to include excursions in the Hualaihué district, Comau Fjord, and Caleta Gonzalo. Construction of this section took place between 1976 and 1987, except for the first 10 km, which were completed before 1976. The Military Labor Corps (CMT), the Ministry of Public Works (MOP), and private construction companies played a significant role.

===Chaitén–Coyhaique===

The challenge posed in 1976, based on the work carried out by the Road Administration to establish a road network on mainland Chiloé and in the Aisén region, set as its goal the physical connection between Chaitén and Coyhaique. Apart from the inherent difficulties involved in road construction—particularly given the isolated location in this part of the country, with its varied topography, narrow U-shaped valleys, dense vegetation, and the presence of forests and undergrowth, as well as the necessity of routing the road through coastal areas, parks, and sectors near the pampa and in rugged terrain— in short, due to the need to develop a mountain road, a demonstration of technical and economic feasibility had to be provided, showing that a network under the conditions described could be built within a specified timeframe. Ultimately, the exploration and reconnaissance work, carried out and led by Hans Steffen at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, by Augusto Grosse from the 1930s through the 1960s, and by Antonio Horvath between 1976 and 1986, bore its first fruits with the completion of the Chaitén - Coyhaique section; specifically, 272 kilometers of road were built between 1976 and 1981 between Chaitén and Coyhaique, and in parallel, part of the cross-country roads defined for the program were constructed. The construction reflected the efforts of consulting firms, construction companies, the Military Labor Corps, and the Road Administration of the Ministry of Public Works through planners, engineers, designers, inspectors, builders, operators, miners, administrative staff, and workers in general. Thus, in 1982, with the inauguration of the Chaitén–Coyhaique highway, the skepticism that had always surrounded road construction in Central Patagonia, Chile, was largely overcome. The importance of the Chaitén–Coyhaique connection can be summarized, among other things, by: the integration of the area into the national territory; improved and greater access to health, education, and technical assistance services; increased land value; the consolidation of existing productive activities; and the initiation of new productive activities. The towns directly affected were Chaitén, Palena, Futaleufú, La Junta, Puerto Puyuhuapi, Puerto Cisnes, Villa Amengual, and Tapera. Currently, paving work is underway in the northern sector of Coyhaique, between kilometers 66 and 100, with completion expected in March 2001. Additionally, in the Aisén Region, programs and studies are being prepared to continue paving from the area where Lake Pedro Aguirre Cerda is located (km 100) to Puerto Puyuhuapi (km 220), and in the 10th Region, work is underway on a program to pave the approximately 75 km stretch from Chaitén to Villa Santa Lucía; all with the goal of having the Coyhaique–Chaitén section fully paved within the next 12 years.

===Ruta Austral: Coyhaique–Cochrane Section===

The Coyhaique–Cochrane road is 345 kilometers long. Its construction has been carried out in sections over time. In the 1940s, the Coyhaique–Balmaceda section was built; in the 1950s, the road providing access to Puerto Ingeniero Ibañez and Villa Cerro Castillo was constructed; and subsequently, the Villa Cerro Castillo–Murta–Puerto Tranquilo–El Maitén section was built between 1980 and 1988. The El Maitén–Cochrane section was built in the 1960s. Thus, for a long time, access to Cochrane was via boats on Lake General Carrera, which covered the Puerto Ingeniero Ibañez–Guadal section. Before this mode of transport existed, Cochrane was accessed via Argentine territory (Route 40), entering through the Chacabuco Valley. The information in the preceding paragraph explains why the route is not uniform along its entire length. The sections built were designed to meet the needs and resources available in the province of Aisén at that time. Additionally, it highlights the importance of civil aviation, which for many years was the sole means of transportation serving the region’s various population centers.

===Ruta Austral Cochrane - Villa O'Higgins===

The Cochrane-Villa O'Higgins road consists of two sections: The first section runs between Cochrane and Puerto Yungay, is 120 kilometers long, and its construction presented significant difficulties in the area known as Vagabundo (100 kilometers south of Cochrane), to the extent that five people lost their lives there. The second section corresponds to the so-called Transversal #7 Puerto Yungay–Villa O’Higgins and currently serves as an extension of the Southern Highway. This section is 100 km long. The importance of constructing this part of the network lies in providing land access to the region’s most remote settlement, Villa O’Higgins. In fact, Villa O’Higgins is the capital of the O’Higgins commune, and from the time the settlers first arrived in the area until the road opened in September 1999, supplies were brought in from Argentina and people were transported by air. Likewise, the limited livestock production was transported by pack animals from Villa O’Higgins to Cochrane, a journey that could easily take up to a month depending on weather conditions. The initial idea for this part of the network was to build a road without a transfer point; however, economic assessments and the potential traffic demand led to the determination that the solution in the first phase would involve a 13-kilometer transfer between Puerto Yungay and Río Bravo; this transfer takes 45 minutes. In the Río Bravo sector, the route begins that addresses the most significant challenge of the next 25 to 30 years: connecting Puerto Yungay with Puerto Natales in the Esperanza Province of Region XII by land; that is, continuing the Southern Road to unite all of Chile. This route has a preliminary length of 953 kilometers and includes 9 crossings ranging in length from 19 to 0.5 kilometers. Currently (1999), studies are underway at a 1:2000 scale using aerial surveying for the Río Bravo–Ventisquero Montt section, with the aim of beginning construction in the year 2000. In the XII Region, construction began on the first kilometers from Puerto Natales toward Fiordo Steines. From Villa O’Higgins, a 5-kilometer road was built providing access to the binational O’Higgins Lake (Lago San Martín in Argentine territory); this is also possible thanks to the suspension bridge over the Mayer River named Augusto Grosse in honor of the distinguished explorer from the Ministry of Public Works; the structure is a 138-meter suspension bridge. There are several vessels on the lake, notably the barge Integración, which provides access to and services for the residents living on the lake and in the southern ice field. An area of great scenic beauty.

===Transversal Highway No. 1 – Frontera – Lago Verde – Puerto Raúl Marín Balmaceda===

Transversal Highway No. 1 is one of the most important transversal highways in Region XI and ranks second in importance only to Transversal Highway No. 3, which runs from Frontera to Balmaceda, Coyhaique, and Puerto Aisén, ending at Puerto Chacabuco. It connects the towns of Lago Verde, the capital of the Lago Verde commune, La Junta, and Puerto Raúl Marín Balmaceda. It is expected that this transversal will eventually become the northern bioceanic corridor of the Aisén Region. Construction of this road has been carried out in stages. Thus, the La Junta–Lago Verde section was built between 1982 and 1992, providing access to Lake Rosselot, Lake El Ensueño, the Figueroa River, and Lago Verde itself, as well as other areas with potential for tourism, logging, and forestry. Lago Verde hopes that on the Argentine side, the road between the border and the village of Las Pampas (19 kilometers), in the Province of Chubut, will be completed to create tourist circuits in areas of great scenic beauty. La Junta, a town that owes its name to the confluence of the Palena and Rosselot rivers, is the one that has shown the greatest relative development over time, and it is expected that, with the 2001 connection, this development will gain further momentum. This should occur to the extent that the connection to the province of Chiloé is made via this cross-country route rather than via the Chaitén route. In the past, residents reached La Junta by air, on horseback, and/or by boat traveling up the Palena River. Currently, a trip from Coyhaique takes about 6 hours under normal conditions, covering a distance of 268 kilometers. The distance from La Junta to Chaitén is approximately 150 kilometers, and given the services Chaitén is offering, residents of La Junta are gradually forming stronger ties with Chaitén rather than with the regional capital, Coyhaique.

===Chile Chico–Tranquilo–Exploradores Road===

TRANSVERSAL 5 Transversal #5 is expected to become the bi-oceanic corridor for the southern part of the region, connecting with the province of Santa Cruz in Argentina. The road has been built in stages over time, and it is known that the Mechanized Agricultural Service participated in the construction of certain sections in the 1970s. The most complex section was between Fachinal and Mallín Grande, particularly the stretch known as Paso Las Llaves, which is characterized by a route that winds along a steep slope, where rockfalls also occur in certain ravines. The terrain’s characteristics necessitated a highly constrained design, with steep gradients, tight curve radii, and ultimately a design speed in certain sections not exceeding 30 km/h. The scenic beauty and surroundings of the area are captivating. The Puerto Tranquilo–Bahía Exploradores section is currently under construction, with completion expected in March 2001: 30 kilometers remain to be built starting from Lake Bayo. The completion of the Tranquilo–Bahía Exploradores section (75 km) will facilitate access for residents of the Bahía Exploradores area to healthcare, education, communications, and daily transportation to Coyhaique. Furthermore, this road will provide access via the Southern Longitudinal Highway to the San Rafael Glacier, a tourist attraction whose appeal has transcended national borders.

== References ==
* [https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/p/carretera-austral.html CARRETERA AUSTRAL]
<references/>

[[Category:History of Chile]]
[[Category:Chile]]

Carretera Austral

2026-03-23T13:22:39Z

CatolicoAustral: Created page with "''Carretera Austral'' of 1240 km long in [[Aysén Region, built during the Military Government and unofficially..."

[[File:Carretera Austral Augusto Pinochet.jpg|300px|thumbnail|''Carretera Austral'' of 1240 km long in [[Aysén Region]], built during the Military Government and unofficially named after him by his supporters.]]
The '''Carretera Austral Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte''' (Sothern Highway in English) is a road constructed to connect rural towns of the [[Aysén Region]] in [[Chile]]an [[Patagonia]] which were previously disconected or depended more on ships to move in between them. It was built between 1976 and 1989, it is 1240 km long, starting in [[Puerto Montt]] and ending in Villa O'Higgins. Today the highway is a touristic destination of Chile because of the beauty of the landscape. This huge and important geopolitical megaproject was built by military personnel, many died because of the rough climate. The project was proposed by [[Pinochet]] since 1958 in the [[Chilean Army]] and his [[Geopolitics]] works from 1965, to finnally start its implementation during his [[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)|Government]]. Eduardo Frei Montalva's Government considered the project but didn't make it happen.

{{quote|Our goal is for these regions to become fully integrated into the nation’s development and for each of you and your families to be able to enjoy the country’s progress and advancements|Augusto Pinochet <ref>Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, Capitán General, Presidente de la República, Puerto Cisnes, febrero 1986 / Book: "Carretera Austral Presidente Pinochet, The Austral Road", Banco Osorno-SERNATUR, 1987</ref>}}

President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte cut one tricolor ribbon after another as he inaugurated numerous projects in Palena and Aisén, along the Carretera Austral and in the surrounding area. Inaugurating mainly bridges, paved roads, and hydroelectric plants, President Pinochet’s voice echoed through the forests, valleys, lakes, and towns, leaving in the memory of those who heard and saw him the image of “a true soldier” fighting for his country.

== History & characteristics ==
Given the natural characteristics of Palena and Aisén, the locals themselves expected to continue relying on Argentine roads and the sea route for many decades to come.
The ranchers themselves—those who, in rain and snow, crossing rivers and cliffs, herded their cattle through dense forests for miles on end and for days at a time—perhaps never imagined that a road would connect their destinations in just a few hours.
Of the 56 km of existing roads in Aisén as of 1975, the Carretera Austral Presidente Pinochet had already inaugurated its main section between Chaitén and Coyhaique in 1982, spanning 420 km.

Six years later, in 1988, the Coyhaique-Cochrane section was inaugurated, covering 337 km.
Unfortunately, the political situation Chile faced between 1989 and 1992—marked by a plebiscite that ended the military government and ushered in “the new era of democratic governments” (?)—halted the planned development of the Southern Road Network, which was intended to be completed in 1992 with its final section definitively connecting Villa O’Higgins. The Southern Highway did not reach Villa O’Higgins until September 2000.
The vindictive politicking of those who assumed power in the “democratic governments” forced a reduction—not in the budget, but rather in the construction work on the Southern Highway—due mainly to the route’s significance in relation to the figure of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.
The total length of roads planned by the Military Government by 1992 was 1,780 km, completed between Puerto Montt-Ralún (latitude 41°20“) and Villa O’Higgins (latitude 48°28”), with an estimated investment of $200 million, reaching approximately $300 million in actual costs—expenses that represent roughly 17% to 20% of the costs of the Colbún Machicura Hydroelectric Plant and 33% to 35% of the costs of Lines 1 and 2 of the Santiago Metro.

The climate and nature as natural barriers, which require constant maintenance of the route, would not be obstacles to General Pinochet’s “geopolitical vision.” He did not hesitate for a second to decide on the construction of the Carretera Austral, which would bear his name—a name bestowed not of his own volition, as his Marxist executioners continue to claim even after his death on December 10, 2006.
The physical incorporation of more than 220,000 km² of territory, the extension of national sovereignty, and economic, social, tourism, and scientific development were the primary concerns of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, guided by his lifelong passion: “geopolitics.”
His interest lay in “connecting the southern regions, accessible only via Chilean territory between Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas.”
The development that the Carretera Austral would bring to the areas of the Municipality of Puerto Montt, the Municipality of Cochamó, the Province of Palena, and the XI. Aisén Region of General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, was viewed with skepticism by many, despite the fact that a 1980 report by the Department of Geology at the University of Chile had already indicated “significant mineralization of silver, copper, and iron in Aisén.” The Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Chile did not offer a positive opinion until 1988, when it demonstrated “its economic profitability in the short, medium, and long term” and that “its social profitability is even greater.”

The stance of political groups opposed to the military government—who were staunch enemies of President Pinochet—was extremely strong and even excessive; in one of the opposition publications of that time, they demonstrated their unrelenting hostility.
In a report on the Carretera Austral in Cauce Magazine, No. 9, March 1984, it was stated: “The structural breakdown of Aisén’s productive and developmental base,” the residents of Aisén “will benefit nothing from it” (the southern route), “the maritime route or the Argentine route will continue to be more economical for many years to come,” the route “will not play... the role of a true axis of integration,” Aisén is an “area of limited resources not susceptible to development,” it is “a broken region.”
Dirty politics, revenge, and hatred lead to blindness and absolute mediocrity, and ultimately to contradiction.
Today we can see on the Chilean government’s website that Region XI of Aisén is promoted as it always should have been: “The Carretera Austral changed the lives of the locals, gave a major boost to regional development, and tourism has flourished around it, constituting one of the foundations of the local economy.”
In this monumental undertaking, we must not forget the civilians and military personnel who worked on it: conscripted soldiers, technicians, and military engineers from the Chilean Army, through the Military Labor Corps (CMT); private companies; regional authorities from the Road Administration of the Ministry of Public Works; and laborers, people from the PEM and POJH programs, and even inmates from the Coyhaique prison. We especially honor those who lost their lives during the exploration, planning, and construction of the Southern Highway.

=== Opinions about the road ===

Remarks by the Bishop of Aisén, Monsignor Bernardo Cazzaro
(appointed as the new Bishop of Puerto Montt), in Puerto Aisén, on March 5, 1988:

{{quoteMr. President, as a Chilean, I must also express my gratitude for all the contributions that you and your government have made to this region. We have seen tangible progress... As a foreign priest, I have lived here for many years and have witnessed so much hardship, isolation, and neglect. We are grateful first to God and then to the instruments He has used to promote progress in the region.}}

Words from the German settler and founder of the Puyuhuapi carpet factory, Mr. Walter Hopperdietzel (Ercilla Magazine, October 11, 1989, p. 28):

{{quote|Before, we had to travel by boat to get anywhere... This change has brought enormous development to agriculture. Then came electricity, which allows us to have refrigerators and safely store perishable foods. This has an impact on the well-being and health of the population... And now this (referring to the telephone), which has allowed us to talk with our families in Santiago and Germany... I hadn’t seen any congressmen or senators around here. However, during this time we’ve had President Pinochet visit four times. We know each other now, and when he comes, he greets me by name. I already consider him my friend, and that’s a very nice thing.}}

===Puerto Montt–Chaitén===

The Austral Highway begins in Puerto Montt and stretches over 1,240 kilometers to Villa O’Higgins near the Southern Ice Field. The first section we’ll cover runs from Puerto Montt to Chaitén (160 km), with a transfer between Hornopirén and Caleta Gonzalo (5 hours, operates only during the summer months). The rest of the year, you can travel directly from Puerto Montt to Chaitén (12 hours) or from Quellón to Chaitén (5.5 hours). This service operates twice a week. There is also an air route with three daily flights between Puerto Montt and Chaitén (35-minute flight). Traveling this section of the route takes one day, though it is best to take two days to include excursions in the Hualaihué district, Comau Fjord, and Caleta Gonzalo. Construction of this section took place between 1976 and 1987, except for the first 10 km, which were completed before 1976. The Military Labor Corps (CMT), the Ministry of Public Works (MOP), and private construction companies played a significant role.

===Chaitén–Coyhaique===

The challenge posed in 1976, based on the work carried out by the Road Administration to establish a road network on mainland Chiloé and in the Aisén region, set as its goal the physical connection between Chaitén and Coyhaique. Apart from the inherent difficulties involved in road construction—particularly given the isolated location in this part of the country, with its varied topography, narrow U-shaped valleys, dense vegetation, and the presence of forests and undergrowth, as well as the necessity of routing the road through coastal areas, parks, and sectors near the pampa and in rugged terrain— in short, due to the need to develop a mountain road, a demonstration of technical and economic feasibility had to be provided, showing that a network under the conditions described could be built within a specified timeframe. Ultimately, the exploration and reconnaissance work, carried out and led by Hans Steffen at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, by Augusto Grosse from the 1930s through the 1960s, and by Antonio Horvath between 1976 and 1986, bore its first fruits with the completion of the Chaitén - Coyhaique section; specifically, 272 kilometers of road were built between 1976 and 1981 between Chaitén and Coyhaique, and in parallel, part of the cross-country roads defined for the program were constructed. The construction reflected the efforts of consulting firms, construction companies, the Military Labor Corps, and the Road Administration of the Ministry of Public Works through planners, engineers, designers, inspectors, builders, operators, miners, administrative staff, and workers in general. Thus, in 1982, with the inauguration of the Chaitén–Coyhaique highway, the skepticism that had always surrounded road construction in Central Patagonia, Chile, was largely overcome. The importance of the Chaitén–Coyhaique connection can be summarized, among other things, by: the integration of the area into the national territory; improved and greater access to health, education, and technical assistance services; increased land value; the consolidation of existing productive activities; and the initiation of new productive activities. The towns directly affected were Chaitén, Palena, Futaleufú, La Junta, Puerto Puyuhuapi, Puerto Cisnes, Villa Amengual, and Tapera. Currently, paving work is underway in the northern sector of Coyhaique, between kilometers 66 and 100, with completion expected in March 2001. Additionally, in the Aisén Region, programs and studies are being prepared to continue paving from the area where Lake Pedro Aguirre Cerda is located (km 100) to Puerto Puyuhuapi (km 220), and in the 10th Region, work is underway on a program to pave the approximately 75 km stretch from Chaitén to Villa Santa Lucía; all with the goal of having the Coyhaique–Chaitén section fully paved within the next 12 years.

===Ruta Austral: Coyhaique–Cochrane Section===

The Coyhaique–Cochrane road is 345 kilometers long. Its construction has been carried out in sections over time. In the 1940s, the Coyhaique–Balmaceda section was built; in the 1950s, the road providing access to Puerto Ingeniero Ibañez and Villa Cerro Castillo was constructed; and subsequently, the Villa Cerro Castillo–Murta–Puerto Tranquilo–El Maitén section was built between 1980 and 1988. The El Maitén–Cochrane section was built in the 1960s. Thus, for a long time, access to Cochrane was via boats on Lake General Carrera, which covered the Puerto Ingeniero Ibañez–Guadal section. Before this mode of transport existed, Cochrane was accessed via Argentine territory (Route 40), entering through the Chacabuco Valley. The information in the preceding paragraph explains why the route is not uniform along its entire length. The sections built were designed to meet the needs and resources available in the province of Aisén at that time. Additionally, it highlights the importance of civil aviation, which for many years was the sole means of transportation serving the region’s various population centers.

===Ruta Austral Cochrane - Villa O'Higgins===

The Cochrane-Villa O'Higgins road consists of two sections: The first section runs between Cochrane and Puerto Yungay, is 120 kilometers long, and its construction presented significant difficulties in the area known as Vagabundo (100 kilometers south of Cochrane), to the extent that five people lost their lives there. The second section corresponds to the so-called Transversal #7 Puerto Yungay–Villa O’Higgins and currently serves as an extension of the Southern Highway. This section is 100 km long. The importance of constructing this part of the network lies in providing land access to the region’s most remote settlement, Villa O’Higgins. In fact, Villa O’Higgins is the capital of the O’Higgins commune, and from the time the settlers first arrived in the area until the road opened in September 1999, supplies were brought in from Argentina and people were transported by air. Likewise, the limited livestock production was transported by pack animals from Villa O’Higgins to Cochrane, a journey that could easily take up to a month depending on weather conditions. The initial idea for this part of the network was to build a road without a transfer point; however, economic assessments and the potential traffic demand led to the determination that the solution in the first phase would involve a 13-kilometer transfer between Puerto Yungay and Río Bravo; this transfer takes 45 minutes. In the Río Bravo sector, the route begins that addresses the most significant challenge of the next 25 to 30 years: connecting Puerto Yungay with Puerto Natales in the Esperanza Province of Region XII by land; that is, continuing the Southern Road to unite all of Chile. This route has a preliminary length of 953 kilometers and includes 9 crossings ranging in length from 19 to 0.5 kilometers. Currently (1999), studies are underway at a 1:2000 scale using aerial surveying for the Río Bravo–Ventisquero Montt section, with the aim of beginning construction in the year 2000. In the XII Region, construction began on the first kilometers from Puerto Natales toward Fiordo Steines. From Villa O’Higgins, a 5-kilometer road was built providing access to the binational O’Higgins Lake (Lago San Martín in Argentine territory); this is also possible thanks to the suspension bridge over the Mayer River named Augusto Grosse in honor of the distinguished explorer from the Ministry of Public Works; the structure is a 138-meter suspension bridge. There are several vessels on the lake, notably the barge Integración, which provides access to and services for the residents living on the lake and in the southern ice field. An area of great scenic beauty.

===Transversal Highway No. 1 – Frontera – Lago Verde – Puerto Raúl Marín Balmaceda===

Transversal Highway No. 1 is one of the most important transversal highways in Region XI and ranks second in importance only to Transversal Highway No. 3, which runs from Frontera to Balmaceda, Coyhaique, and Puerto Aisén, ending at Puerto Chacabuco. It connects the towns of Lago Verde, the capital of the Lago Verde commune, La Junta, and Puerto Raúl Marín Balmaceda. It is expected that this transversal will eventually become the northern bioceanic corridor of the Aisén Region. Construction of this road has been carried out in stages. Thus, the La Junta–Lago Verde section was built between 1982 and 1992, providing access to Lake Rosselot, Lake El Ensueño, the Figueroa River, and Lago Verde itself, as well as other areas with potential for tourism, logging, and forestry. Lago Verde hopes that on the Argentine side, the road between the border and the village of Las Pampas (19 kilometers), in the Province of Chubut, will be completed to create tourist circuits in areas of great scenic beauty. La Junta, a town that owes its name to the confluence of the Palena and Rosselot rivers, is the one that has shown the greatest relative development over time, and it is expected that, with the 2001 connection, this development will gain further momentum. This should occur to the extent that the connection to the province of Chiloé is made via this cross-country route rather than via the Chaitén route. In the past, residents reached La Junta by air, on horseback, and/or by boat traveling up the Palena River. Currently, a trip from Coyhaique takes about 6 hours under normal conditions, covering a distance of 268 kilometers. The distance from La Junta to Chaitén is approximately 150 kilometers, and given the services Chaitén is offering, residents of La Junta are gradually forming stronger ties with Chaitén rather than with the regional capital, Coyhaique.

===Chile Chico–Tranquilo–Exploradores Road===

TRANSVERSAL 5 Transversal #5 is expected to become the bi-oceanic corridor for the southern part of the region, connecting with the province of Santa Cruz in Argentina. The road has been built in stages over time, and it is known that the Mechanized Agricultural Service participated in the construction of certain sections in the 1970s. The most complex section was between Fachinal and Mallín Grande, particularly the stretch known as Paso Las Llaves, which is characterized by a route that winds along a steep slope, where rockfalls also occur in certain ravines. The terrain’s characteristics necessitated a highly constrained design, with steep gradients, tight curve radii, and ultimately a design speed in certain sections not exceeding 30 km/h. The scenic beauty and surroundings of the area are captivating. The Puerto Tranquilo–Bahía Exploradores section is currently under construction, with completion expected in March 2001: 30 kilometers remain to be built starting from Lake Bayo. The completion of the Tranquilo–Bahía Exploradores section (75 km) will facilitate access for residents of the Bahía Exploradores area to healthcare, education, communications, and daily transportation to Coyhaique. Furthermore, this road will provide access via the Southern Longitudinal Highway to the San Rafael Glacier, a tourist attraction whose appeal has transcended national borders.

== References ==
* [https://chile-pinochet-nuestro.blogspot.com/p/carretera-austral.html CARRETERA AUSTRAL]

[[Category:History of Chile]]
[[Category:Chile]]

Chile

2026-03-23T13:11:52Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Sports */

{{Country
|name =''República de Chile''
|map =Tricontinental Chile Map.jpg
|map2 =Chile location map.png
|flag =Flag of Chile.png
|arms =Coat of arms of Chile.png
|capital-raw =[[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]]
|government-raw =[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Unitarian & Presidentialist Republic]]
|language =Spanish
|president =José Antonio Kast
|president-raw=
|conservative-leader=
|conservative-leader-raw=[[José Antonio Kast]]/[[Johannes Kaiser]]
|area =774,657 sq. mi. (Tricontinental Chile) 292,183 sq. mi. (Only Continental and Insular Chile)
|pop =19,100,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$280,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$14,660 (2020)
|currency =Chilean Peso (CLP)
|idd =+56
|tld =.cl
}}
'''Chile''' (official name: '''Republic of Chile''') is a [[nation]] on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of [[South America]], [[Antarctica]] and [[Oceania]] which is organized as a Centralized Unitary Presidential [[Democracy]]. It has a population of 17.5 million and the capital city is [[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]] which is also the biggest city of the country. Chile borders [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Peru]].

Between 1975 and 2014, Chile followed the path of the [[free market]] and [[Capitalism]] been the best place to make business of [[Latin America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iberglobal.com/files/2019-1/economic_freedom_index_2019.pdf|title=Economic Freedom Index 2019}}</ref> This has made the country the most developed of the Region according to the [[Human Development Index]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=505045|title=Chile sigue al tope de A. Latina en Índice de Desarrollo Humano|date=September 15, 2018|publisher=Economía y Negocios|language=es}}</ref> Chile went from a [[Gross domestic product]] of 100 in 1973 to 515 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobierno.udd.cl/files/2016/05/PPT-FPP.pdf|author=Lucas Palacios Covarrubias|title=Pobreza vs Desigualdad|date=April 2016|publisher=[[Universidad del Desarrollo]] - Facultad de Gobierno|language=es}}</ref> However that was put at risk with the leftist insurrection from 2019 and the Boric presidency. Right-wing [[President of Chile|President]] [[José Antonio Kast]] promises to retake the path to develop the country.

In early September 2022, by a resounding 62-38% landslide margin, Chileans rejected a progressive new constitution proposal and thereby decided to retain [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|the one written under]] [[conservative]] leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1980, which was reformed over 70 times in democracy in more than half of its content.<ref>https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1121065756/chile-constitution-referendum</ref><ref>[https://www.uandes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CPR-Edicio%CC%81n-Histo%CC%81rica.pdf]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220929111026/https://plataformacontexto.cl/contexto_factual/cuanto-queda-de-la-constitucion-de-pinochet/ Cuánto queda de “la Constitución de Pinochet”]</ref> A new proposal from the center-right with globalist elements was rejected on December 2023 with a 56-44% landslide margin.

==Geography==
[[File:Volcano Osorno and Petrohué waterfalls.JPG|thumb|left|Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano in the background.]]
The northern Chilean [[Atacama Desert]] contains great mineral wealth, principally [[copper]], and also contains locations where rainfall has never been recorded. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in [[forest]]s and grazing lands and features a string of [[volcano]]es and [[lake]]s. The southern coast located in [[Patagonia]] is a labyrinth of [[fjord]]s, [[inlet]]s, [[canal]]s, twisting [[peninsula]]s, and [[island]]s. The [[Andes]] Mountains are located on the eastern border.
*Area of Tricontinental Chile: 2,006,354 km2 (774,657 sq. mi.) including the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]] which reaches the [[South Pole]].
*Area considering Continental and Insular Chile: 756,945 km2. (302,778 sq. mi.), or nearly twice the size of California.
*Cities: Capital—[[Santiago]] (metropolitan area est. 6.25 million). Other cities: [[Concepción]]-[[Talcahuano]] (840,000), [[Viña del Mar]]-[[Valparaíso]] (800,000), [[Antofagasta]] (245,000), [[Temuco]] (230,000).
*Terrain: Desert in north; fertile central valley; volcanoes and lakes toward the south, giving way to rugged and complex coastline; Andes Mountains on the eastern border.
*Climate: Arid in north, Mediterranean in the central portion, cool and damp in south.

Chile has experienced numerous massive earthquakes, being located within the "Ring of Fire": of the 46 known earthquakes estimated at magnitude >= 8.5, one-third have occurred in Chile, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was measured at magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever recorded. On four occasions, two earthquakes with magnitude >= 8.5 have had the same Chilean epicenter. Furthermore, the strongest estimated earthquake (before seismographs were invented) also took place in Chile around 1800 BC, also estimated in the magnitude 9.5 range.

==People==
[[File:Chilean dance.jpg|left|140px]]
About 85% of Chile's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in greater Santiago. Most have [[Spain|Spanish]] ancestry. A small, yet influential number of [[Irish]] and [[English]] immigrants came to Chile during the Spanish Empire period. [[German]] immigration began in 1848 and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of [[Valdivia]], [[Llanquihue]], and [[Osorno]] show a strong German influence. Other significant historic immigrant groups are [[Italian]], [[Croatian]], [[Basque]], [[Palestinian]] and [[Peruvian]]. About 800,000 Native Americans, mostly of the [[Mapuche]] (Araucan) tribes, reside in the south-central area. The [[Aymara]] and [[Diaguita]] groups can be found mainly in Chile's northern desert valleys.

Since 2014 Chile has been experiencing [[open borders|mass]] [[immigration]] from [[Haiti]], [[Venezuela]], [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]], something that was unusual and has drastically changed the demographics of the country in the recent years (The immigrants went from 1.1% to 6.1% and is still growing)<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> a lot of them are [[Illegal immigration|illegally]] (See ''[[Colchane#Mass_immigration_problem|Colchane's Mass immigration problem]]'').

*Population (2019): 17.5 million.
*Annual population growth rate: 0.881%.
*Ethnic groups: Spanish-Native-American (mestizo), European, Native-American, Blacks (since 2014 with mass Haitian immigration).
*Religions: [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] 70%, [[Evangelical]] 15.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.1%, other Christian 1%, other 4.6%, none 8.3%.
*Language: [[Spanish]].
*Education: Years compulsory—13. Attendance—3 million. Adult literacy rate—96%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate—8.9/1,000. Life expectancy—80 yrs. for men, 85 for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsuss.cl/ipsuss/analisis-y-estudios/esperanza-de-vida-al-nacer-en-chile-llega-a-85-anos-en-mujeres-y-80-anos/2017-09-26/154547.html|title=Esperanza de vida al nacer en Chile llega a 85 años en mujeres y 80 años en hombres|date=September 26, 2017|language=es|publisher=Ipsuss}}</ref>
*Work force (6.94 million); employed 6.45 million: Community, social and individual services—26%; industry—14.4%; commerce—17.6%; agriculture, forestry, and fishing—13.9%; construction—7.1%; financial services—7.5%; transportation and communication—8.0%; electricity, gas and water—0.5%; mining—1.2%.

==Government==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Palacio de La Moneda.jpg|thumbnail|250px|[[La Moneda]] Palace, seat of Executive Branch.]]
[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Chile's Constitution]] was approved in a September 1980 national plebiscite with 67% of the vote. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]], the Constitution was reformed and another referendum was held over the reforms in which 91% voted in favor. In 2005 President Lagos made several reforms to the Constitution, even changing the Pinochet sign with his.
The President term is 4-year long, however is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms. The political system of Chile is an exacerbated [[Presidential system|Presidential]] one.
Chile has a bicameral Congress, which meets in the port city of [[Valparaíso]], about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago (since 1990). Deputies are elected every 4 years, and Senators serve 8-year terms.
There are currently 43 Senators and 155 Deputies.
The Chilean elections are judged free and fair.

Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nationwide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform replaced old proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.

The Central Bank in Chile is autonomous since 1981.

===Principal Government Officials===
{{See also|President of Chile}}
[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio Kast Rist]], a pro-life, anti illegal immigration conservative.]]
*[[President of Chile|President]]—[[José Antonio Kast]] since 11 March 2026.
*Minister of Interior—Claudio Alvarado
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Francisco Pérez Mackenna
*Ambassador to the United States—Andrés Ergas
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)—José Miguel Castro
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Roberto Ampuero
*Ambassador to the OECD—Sebastián Schneinder
*Mayor of Santiago—[[Mario Desbordes]]

===Foreign Relations===
Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. [[Jose Miguel Insulza]], a Chilean national, was Secretary General of the Organization of American States from May 2005 to 2015. Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002 and the [[APEC]] summit and related meetings in 2004. Chile hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial in April 2005. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade. The APEC 2019 was planed to be hosted on Chile and the COP25 but was cancelled due to the [[2019 Chilean State of Emergency|State of Emergency]]. President [[Donald Trump]] planed to sign an agreement with [[Xi Jinping]] to end the 'Trade War' in the APEC hosted in Chile, however it was canceled.

Chile was one of the four countries (along with [[Singapore]], [[Brunei]] and [[New Zealand]]) that started the [[TPP (treaty)|TPP-11]].

Chile signed many Free Trade Agreements since the 90s.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. It settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s except for a part in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and the Antarctic claims overlap between both countries, however the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow modification to the claims and they are ineffective.

In 2007 Peru demanded Chile in the International Court of Justice due to a maritime dispute. The case was closed in 2013 in which half of the disputed sea was ceded to Peru and half to Chile. In Chile it was seen as a lost case.

Chile and Bolivia have bad diplomatic relations since [[Evo Morales]], Bolivia's president, reintegrated the desire to reacquire territory Bolivia lost to Chile in 1879-83 [[War of the Pacific]] in his Foreign Affairs Policy and he demanded Chile in the Internation Couth of Justice, a case which Chile won. There is currently a case to determine if Silala is a river (Chile's position) or is a spring artificially modificated by Chile (Bolivia's position). The two countries maintain consular relations and are represented at the Consul General level but doesn't have embassies in each other.

===Political parties and coalitions===
Important parties without coalition:
*[[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (right-wing) ([[José Antonio Kast]]'s party).
*[[National Libertarian Party]] ([[Paleolibertarian]] party) ([[Johannes Kaiser]]'s party).
*[[Broad Front (Chile)|Broad Front]] (far-left) ([[Gabriel Boric]]'s party).
*[[Communist Party]] (far-left) ([[Daniel Jadue|Jadue]]'s party).
*[[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]] (from center to center-right) ([[Franco Parisi]]'s party).
*''[[Communist Party]] of Chile - Proletarian Action/Patriotic Union'' (dissolved) (far-left) (Eduardo Artes' party).
*''[[Social Christian Party (Chile)|Social Christian Party]]'' (dissolved) ([[Evangelical]] party) (Evangelical party).

The main coalitions are:
*[[Chile Vamos]] (Globalist center-right) ([[Sebastián Piñera|Piñera]] and [[Evelyn Matthei|Matthei]]'s coalition) composed by the [[Independent Democrat Union]], [[National Renewal]] and ''[[Evópoli]]'' (dissolved party).
*Democratic Socialism (left) composed by old leftist parties such as: the [[Socialist]] Party, Party for Democracy, and the Liberal Party.

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Chile (+Antarctica & Islands), administrative divisions - en - colored.png|230px|thumbnail|Map of the Chilean Regions.]]
{{Main article|Regions of Chile}}
Chile is divided in 16 Regions, 56 provinces and 346 communes. Chile is a Unitary Centralized State in which the law is the same in every place of the country.

'''List of the Regions and their Capital''':
*[[Arica & Parinacota Region|Arica & Parinacota]] - Capital: [[Arica]]
*[[Tarapacá Region|Tarapacá]] - Capital: [[Iquique]]
*[[Antofagasta Region|Antofagasta]] - Capital: [[Antofagasta]]
*[[Atacama Region|Atacama]] - Capital: [[Copiapó]]
*[[Coquimbo Region|Coquimbo]] - Capital: [[La Serena]]
*[[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]] - Capital: [[Valparaíso]]
*[[Metropolitan Region|Metropolitan]] - Capital: [[Santiago]]
*[[O'Higgins Region|O'Higgins]] - Capital: [[Rancagua]]
*[[Maule Region|Maule]] - Capital: [[Talca]]
*[[Ñuble Region|Ñuble]] - Capital: [[Chillán]]
*[[Biobío Region|Biobío]] - Capital: [[Concepción (Chile)|Concepción]]
*[[Araucanía Region|Araucanía]] - Capital: [[Temuco]]
*[[Los Ríos Region|Los Ríos]] - Capital: [[Valdivia]]
*[[Los Lagos Region|Los Lagos]] - Capital: [[Puerto Montt]]
*[[Aysén Region|Aysén]] - Capital: [[Coyhaique]]
*[[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica]] - Capital: [[Punta Arenas]]

The most conservative commune of Chile is [[Colchane]] as well with Antártica, Lo Barnechea, Vitacura & Las Condes.

==Defense==
Chile's Armed Forces are subject to civilian control exercised by the President through the Minister of Defense. The President has the authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.

===Army===
The Chilean Army is 45,000 strong and is organized with an Army headquarters in Santiago, seven divisions throughout its territory, an Air Brigade in Rancagua, and a Special Forces Command in Colina. The Chilean Army is one of the most professional and technologically advanced armies in Latin America habing inherited the [[Prussian]] military doctrine.

===Navy===
The Navy has 23,000-person, including 2,500 Marines. Of the fleet of 29 surface vessels, only eight are operational major combatants (frigates). Those ships are based in [[Valparaíso]]. The Navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no Navy fighter or bomber aircraft. The Navy also operates four submarines based in [[Talcahuano]].

===Air Force (FACH)===
The FACH is a force of 12,500. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on [[Villa Las Estrellas]], [[King George Island]], [[Antarctica]]. The FACH was created in 1930 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]].

===Carabineros===
[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|250px|thumbnail]]
[[Carabineros de Chile]] is the national police force of 30,000 men and women who are responsible for law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control, and counter-terrorism throughout Chile. The Carabineros were created in 1927 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]]. Carabineros is the best police in Latin America and least corrupt.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/best-worst-latam-police|title=From Chile to Mexico: Best and Worst of LatAm Police|publisher=InSight Crime|date=March 20, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

Carabineros enjoys significant international prestige due to its professionalism and efficiency. Through the Chilean government's Cooperation Programme for Uniformed Foreign Police Forces (CECIPU), it has trained and specialized over thousands of officers from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. As a founding member of AMERIPOL (Community of American Police Forces) since 2007 and an associated member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (FIEP) since 2005, Carabineros has even chaired AMERIPOL, highlighting its regional leadership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cecipu.interior.gob.cl/|title=CECIPU: Programa de cooperación internacional del Gobierno de Chile para policías uniformadas|publisher=Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gob.mx/epn%7Cpoliciafederal/articulos/cuerpo-de-carabineros-de-chile-condecora-al-comisionado-general-de-la-policia-federal-de-mexico|title=Cuerpo de Carabineros de Chile condecora al Comisionado General de la Policía Federal de México|publisher=Gobierno de México|date=April 27, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
[[File:Gran Torre Santiago (39693576311).jpg|thumbnail|300px|Gran Torre Santiago, in the financial district of the city.]]
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 3.3% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.1%. Real GDP growth reached 6.3% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile signed the OECD Convention, becoming the first South American country to join the OECD.

*GDP (official exchange rate): $150.4 billion. (GDP (purchasing power parity):$335.4 billion (2013 est.))
*Annual real growth rate: -1.5%.
*Per capita GDP (purchasing power parity): $27,058 (GDP - per capita (PPP) 2019 est.)
*Forestry, agriculture, and fisheries (6% of GDP): Products—fruits, wheat, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions, beans, livestock, fish.
*Commerce (8% of GDP): Sales, restaurants, hotels.
*Manufacturing (17% of GDP): Types—mineral refining, metal manufacturing, food processing, fish processing, paper and wood products, finished textiles.
*Electricity, gas, and water: 3% of GDP.
*Transportation and communication: 7% of GDP.
*Construction: 8% of GDP.
*Financial services (12% of GDP): Insurance, leasing, consulting.
*Mining (13% of GDP): Copper, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, and molybdenum.
*Trade: Exports--$57.61 billion: copper, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and wood products. Major markets—U.S., Japan, China, Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Mexico. Imports--$40.91 billion: fuels, heavy industrial machinery, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, plastic. Major suppliers—U.S., China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. (GDP (official exchange rate):$281.7 billion (2013 est.))

Chile has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by [[negotiating]] in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[José Piñera]] creator of the Individual capitalization pension system.]]
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], economist during the Military Government that re-implemented liberal economic policies.]]
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.

Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile's consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a family of four's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 18% by 2004.

Chile's independent Central Bank pursues an inflation target of between 2% and 4%. Inflation has not exceeded 5% since 1998. Chile registered an inflation rate of 3.2% in 2006. The Chilean peso's rapid appreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent years has helped dampen inflation. Most wage settlements and loans are indexed, reducing inflation's volatility. Under the compulsory private pension system, most formal sector employees pay 10% of their salaries into privately managed funds.

[[File:Countries with a private pension system.jpg|thumbnail|Countries that applied Chile's private pension system.]]
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) was only $3.4 billion in 2006, up 52% from a poor performance in 2005. However, 80% of FDI continues to go to only four sectors: electricity, gas, water and mining. Much of the jump in FDI in 2006 was also the result of acquisitions and mergers and has done little to create new employment in Chile. The Chilean Government has formed a Council on Innovation and Competition, which is tasked with identifying new sectors and industries to promote. It is hoped that this, combined with some tax reforms to encourage domestic and foreign investment in research and development, will bring in additional FDI and to new parts of the economy. As of 2006, Chile invested only 0.6% of its annual GDP in research and development (R&D). Even then, two-thirds of that was government spending. The fact that domestic and foreign companies spend almost nothing on R&D does not bode well for the Government of Chile's efforts to develop innovative, knowledge-based sectors. Additionally, on January 8, 2007, Chile was placed on the U.S. Trade Representative's Priority Watch List due to its poor record on protecting intellectual property rights. Chile is only the second U.S. FTA partner ever to be placed on the Priority Watch List. Chile has a poor and deteriorating record of protecting copyrighted music, films, and software. Combined with this is its institutional structure allowing local companies to produce and market pharmaceutical generics that violate existing patents. Beyond its general economic and political stability, the government also has encouraged the use of Chile as an "investment platform" for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region, but this will have limited value given the developing business climate in Chile itself. Chile's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Chileans. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital. While Chile and the EU have signed a double taxation treaty, no such agreement exists between the U.S. and Chile.

Mining was temporarily curtailed following an accident in which 33 miners were trapped after a cave-in at the San Jose mine<ref>http://www.minandes.com/s/RoadtoProduction.asp</ref> near Copiapo on August 5, 2010. A rescue attempt - bolstered by national pride at getting the men out alive - ended 67 days later on October 13 as the last of the men were pulled out to safety.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/12/rescued-chilean-miner-returns-surface/</ref><ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7961923/Chilean-miners-trapped-in-San-Jose-mine.html</ref>

===Foreign Trade===
[[File:Commercial Treaties Chile 2012.jpg|thumb|295px|Commercial Treaties, 2012.]]
2006 was a record year for Chilean trade. Total trade registered a 31% increase over 2005. During 2006, exports of goods and services totaled U.S. $58 billion, an increase of 41%. This figure was somewhat distorted by the skyrocketing price of copper. In 2006, copper exports reached a historical high of U.S. $33.3 billion. Imports totaled U.S. $35 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. Chile thus recorded a positive trade balance of U.S. $23 billion in 2006.

The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion). Seen as shares of Chile's export markets, 42% of exports went to the Americas, 30% to Asia and 24% to Europe. Within Chile's diversified network of trade relationships, its most important partner remained the United States. Total trade with the U.S. was U.S. $14.8 billion in 2006. Since the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004, U.S.-Chilean trade has increased by 154%. Internal Government of Chile figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has grown over 60% since then.

Total trade with Europe also grew in 2006, expanding by 42%. The Netherlands and Italy were Chile's main European trading partners. Total trade with Asia also grew significantly at nearly 31%. Trade with Korea and Japan grew significantly, but China remained Chile's most important trading partner in Asia. Chile's total trade with China reached U.S. $8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66% of the value of its trade relationship with Asia.

The growth of exports in 2006 was due mainly to a strong increase in sales to the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. These three markets alone accounted for an additional U.S. $5.5 billion worth of Chilean exports. Chilean exports to the United States totaled U.S. $9.3 billion, representing a 37.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $6.7 billion). Exports to the European Union were U.S. $15.4 billion, a 63.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $9.4 billion). Exports to Asia increased from U.S. $15.2 billion in 2005 to U.S. $19.7 billion in 2006, a 29.9% increase.

During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).

Chile's overall trade profile has traditionally been dependent upon copper exports. The state-owned firm CODELCO is the world's largest copper-producing company, with recorded copper reserves of 200 years. Chile has made an effort to expand nontraditional exports. The most important non-mineral exports are forestry and wood products, fresh fruit and processed food, fishmeal and seafood, and wine.

Successive Chilean governments have actively pursued trade-liberalizing agreements. During the 1990s, Chile signed FTAs with Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Chile also concluded preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. An association agreement with Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—went into effect in October 1996. Continuing its export-oriented development strategy, Chile completed landmark free trade agreements in 2002 with the European Union and South Korea. Chile, as a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, is seeking to boost commercial ties to Asian markets. To that end, it has signed trade agreements in recent years with New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, and most recently Japan. In 2007, Chile plans to begin negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

After two years of negotiations, the United States and Chile signed an agreement in June 2003 that will lead to completely duty-free bilateral trade within 12 years. The U.S.-Chile FTA entered into force January 1, 2004 following approval by the U.S. and Chilean congresses. The bilateral FTA has inaugurated greatly expanded U.S.-Chilean trade ties, with total bilateral trade jumping by 154% during the FTA's first three years.

Chile unilaterally lowered its across-the-board import tariff for all countries with which it does not have a trade agreement to 6% in 2003. Higher effective tariffs are charged only on imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar as a result of a system of import price bands. The price bands were ruled inconsistent with Chile's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in 2002, and the government has introduced legislation to modify them. Under the terms of the U.S.-Chile FTA, the price bands will be completely phased out for U.S. imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar within 12 years.

Chile is a strong proponent of pressing ahead on negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is active in the WTO's Doha round of negotiations, principally through its membership in the G-20 and Cairns Group.

===Finance===
Chile's financial sector has grown quickly in recent years, with a banking reform law approved in 1997 that broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001, and there is further pending legislation proposing further liberalization. Over the last ten years, Chileans have enjoyed the introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has also been accompanied by an increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $70 billion at the end of 2006, has been an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S&P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways for Chilean firms to raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stocks on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Nearly all of the funds raised through these means go to finance domestic Chilean investment. The government is required by law to run a fiscal surplus of at least 1% of GDP. In 2006, the Government of Chile ran a surplus of $11.3 billion, equal to almost 8% of GDP. The Government of Chile continues to pay down its foreign debt, with public debt only 3.9% of GDP at the end of 2006.

==History==
===Discovery and Hispanic period===
[[File:Pedro de Valdivia.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Pedro de Valdivia]], founder of several cities and conqueror of Chile.]]
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]], one of the founding fathers of Chile.]]
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first European to see Chilean land was [[Ferdinand Magellan]] when he discovered the [[Strait of Magellan]] in 1520, however the first one to arrive in Chile were [[Diego de Almagro]] and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in 1535. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of [[Santiago]] on February 12, 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

===19th Century, Independence, State Consolidation and Wars with neightbours===
[[File:Pedro Subercaseaux Jura de la Independencia Chile.jpg|thumb|300px|Fray Pedro Subercaseaux, Jura de la Independencia de Chile.]]
[[File:Diego Portales-2.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Diego Portales]] author of the 1833 Constitution which prioritized order over democracy.]]
[[File:Arturo Prat Chacón.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Arturo Prat|Arturo Prat Chacón]], the maximum naval hero of the Chilean Nation.]]
[[File:Sinking of the Esmeralda during the battle of Iquique.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Sinking of the Esmeralda during the [[battle of Iquique|naval battle of Iquique]].]]
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national [[junta]] in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence which [[José Miguel Carrera]] started soon won a wide following. After the [[Battle of Rancagua]], a Spanish attempt to reimpose arbitrary rule started, during what was called the "Reconquista" led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army led by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], Chile's most renowned patriot, and [[José de San Martín]], hero of Argentine independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership.

During the Ramón Freire Presidency in 1826 the last royalist bastion was defeated, the [[Chiloé]] archipelago and the Tantauco Treaty was signed between Chile and Spain.

Between 1823 and 1829 there was a period of Constitutional Attempts, and there were four of them.

The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the 1833 Constitution made by [[Diego Portales]]. After the [[Civil War]] of 1829–30, a strong presidency emerged, but wealthy landowners remained extremely powerful.

Between 1836 and 1839, Chile fought a [[War against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] which Chile won and separated Peru and Bolivia again.

In 1865 and 1866 Chile, Peru and Ecuador fought against Spain in the [[Chincha Islands War]], Chile and it's allies won.

[[Image:Easter_island_statues.jpg|thumb|right|On September 9, 1888 the Council of Rapanui Chiefs asked the Chilean Navy Captain, Policarpo Toro, to accept the sovereignty of [[Easter Island]] without giving up their chieftaincy titles, the ownership of their lands, the validity of their culture and traditions and on equal terms. This known as the "Agreement of Wills".]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by founding the [[Fort Bulnes]] in 1843 (near the current city of [[Punta Arenas]] in the [[Strait of Magellan]]) and incorporating the zone of the south of the [[Biobío river]] in a process called the [[Pacification of the Araucanía]], the government plan was to building roads, schools, and public infrastructure where the [[Mapuche]] Indians live, they were incorporated as citizens, however the rebel Mapuches were crushed.

There was also a process of Colonization in which the Government gave [[German]] [[settlers]] lands in [[Valdivia]] and the [[Llanquihue Lake]] where they founded several towns and cities. To this day the German influence can be noted in cities like Valdivia, [[Puerto Varas]], [[Frutillar]], [[Puerto Octay]], [[Nueva Braunau]], Ensenada, [[Puerto Montt]] and [[Osorno]].

In 1881, Chile signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan but also loosing its colonial rights over Eastern Patagonia. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. After a [[Civil war]] in 1891 in which President [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] committed suicide, a parliamentary democracy was established, but degenerated into a system protecting the interests of the ruling oligarchy.
In 1888 Chile incorporated [[Easter Island]] to the national territory.

===20th Century===
[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|175px|thumbnail|The [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.
Continuing political and economic instability resulted with the rule of the quasidictatorial Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] (1924–32).
In June there was a Coup and between that month and September 1932 there was an attempt to establish a [[Socialist]] Republic that failed.
When constitutional rule was restored later that year, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy.
In 1940 Chile started to claim officially the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].

In 1962 the "right-wing" President [[Jorge Alessandri]] started the agrarian reform in a small portion, that expropriated part of big land properties. This reform was deepened by the next two governments.

The 1964 presidential election of [[Christian Democrat]] [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

He also made the "Chileanization of the copper" which introduced the State into the copper industry.
====Unidad Popular Marxist Regime (1970-1973)====
{{Main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
In 1970, Senator [[Salvador Allende]], a [[Marxist]] and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the "Popular Unity" (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats (the lasts ones supported him with the condition of respecting the laws and private property), won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest and was named president by the Chilean Congress. His program included the nationalization of private industries and banks, massive land expropriation, and collectivization, implementation of a Marxist education system, repartition of food collectively (with a limit of one stock per family). Allende's program also included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major copper mines.

[[Fidel Castro]] visited Chile in 1971 where he stayed for months.
Allende said in the same year "The major role of a journalist is not to server the truth, but to server the revolution" and in 1972 "I'm the President of the Unidad Popular, but I'm not the president of all Chileans".

Elected with only 36% of the vote and by a plurality of only 36,000 votes, Allende never enjoyed majority support in the Chilean Congress or broad popular support. Domestic production declined; severe shortages of consumer goods, food, and manufactured products were widespread; and inflation reached 1,000% per annum. Mass demonstrations, recurring strikes, violence by both government supporters and opponents, and widespread rural unrest ensued in response to the general deterioration of the economy.

The 22th of August 1973 the Chamber of Deputies called for a military intervention since the Allende's Government was Unconstitutional for not respecting basic laws like [[private property]].<ref>[https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2013/08/23/40-anos-del-acuerdo-de-la-camara-que-declaro-la-ilegitimidad-del-gobierno-de-allende/ 40 años del acuerdo de la Cámara que declaró la ilegitimidad del Gobierno de Allende]</ref> By the time the Christian Democrats stopped supporting Allende and started to support an intervention.

[[Carlos Altamirano]], General Secretary of the Socialist Party in July 1973 called to "crush the opposition" and to "not negotiate with the enemies of Chile"<ref>https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304093123/rev91_documento.pdf</ref> he also called for a violent Marxist revolution in 1968.

====Military Government (1973-1990)====
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990).jpg|300px|thumbnail|President and General [[Augusto Pinochet|Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], President of Chile (1973-1990), fighter against [[Marxism]], father of Chile's development, and restorer of the order and the institutions.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|1980 Constitution]] and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
A military pronouncement overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace, Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime in particular were marked by an irregular war against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|leftist terrorists]] who wanted a violent Marxist revolution. A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] was approved by a plebiscite on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. The Constitution writing had an important participation of [[Jaime Guzmán]] who also founded the [[Independent Democrat Union]].

The Armed Forces had to assume the leadership of the country, aware that this task did not mean a mere restoration of the broken institutionality, since the systematic destruction to which the Homeland had been subjected had deeply undermined coexistence and national development; therefore, it was imperative to go further and create a modern, profound system of the country, with a clear social content and democratic character. From the structuring of the stages and objectives of the Government and the determination of the principles that would govern the project, the Armed Forces marked with height, coherence and consequence the national reality and the itinerary designed.

This great work was not exempt from interferences, demands and sacrifices, since at the beginning it was necessary to overcome the disastrous consequences of the previous administrations and the prevailing polarization. Subsequently, it was necessary to face defamation, the economic crises in the neighborhood, and the wily terrorist and subversive actions. These, together or in isolation, ([[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] made the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]" that blocked any selling of weapons to Chile, and also the U.S. imposed a blockade on fruit exports) in could have led any government to political, economic and social collapse. However, the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, based on efficiency, patriotism and joint effort, with a more than important part of society, managed to overcome the obstacles and deliver a better future for all Chileans.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Military men victims of [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]].]]

There is an evident reality that shows that important sectors of the political spectrum not only tried gradually and systematically to delegitimize the Military Government, but even, once they determined the impossibility of achieving their goals, they used means and tools contrary to peaceful coexistence, even seeking its destabilization, accepting, encouraging or participating in Chilean and foreign extremist organizations contrary to the idiosyncrasy and national identity.
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
The successful model and the change of life generated in Chileans by the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, in general, has not been accepted or recognized at the national and international level. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it would be pernicious for national coexistence that a government defined as authoritarian has been so successful and profound. Undoubtedly, this is a biased point of view, since this line of argument tends to homologate our reality with caudillisms or military irruptions that lacked ethical imperatives and national needs and that did occur systematically or cyclically in other nations.

The deed of September 11, 1973 and the foundational work of the Military Government, apart from signifying for the Armed Forces and the Carabineros and, particularly, for the Army, a feeling of honor and pride that must be preserved, is an event that must necessarily be included in national and universal history in all its truth and dimension.
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|250|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile in 1985.]]
[[File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Pinochet]] inaugurating [[Villa Las Estrellas]] in [[Chilean Antarctic Territory|Chilean Antarctica]] in 1984.]]

In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. In contrast to its authoritarian political rule, the military government pursued decidedly [[laissez-faire]] economic policies.

[[Milton Friedman]] said,
* "... the really extraordinary thing about the Chilean case was that a military government followed the opposite of military policies. The military is distinguished from the ordinary economy by the fact that it's a top-down organization. The general tells the colonel, the colonel tells the captain, and so on down, whereas a market is a bottom-up organization. The customer goes into the store and tells the retailer what he wants; the retailer sends it back up the line to the manufacturer and so on. So the basic organizational principles in the military are almost the opposite of the basic organizational principles of a free market and a free society. And the really remarkable thing about Chile is that the military adopted the free-market arrangements instead of the military arrangements."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10 Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman on PBS]</ref>

During its 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that fostered an increase in domestic and foreign private investment. The complete political liberalization of the country came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite, which finally took place on October 5. On that day, the triumph of the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans voted for elections to choose a new president in 1989 and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress. The Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution on the same year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>[https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html Soros helped the "No" campaign]</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

===Democratic governments===
[[File:Izamiento de la Gran Bandera Nacional - Presidentes de Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|The five [[President of Chile|Chilean Presidents]] between the years 1990 and 2022 (two of them were elected twice in non-consecutive terms).]]
On December 14, 1989, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the Concertación, was elected president. In a ceremony held in the Congress building in Valparaíso, Pinochet handed over the presidency to the new constitutional President.

Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994 and was succeeded by another Christian Democrat, [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (son of the previous President), leading the same coalition, for a 6-year term. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy led the Concertación to a narrower victory in 2000 presidential elections.

During the ''Concertación'' Governments, Military personnel who fought terrorism were jailed unfairly using an old judicial system and without proof, these can be called the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisioners]] that were destined to the [[Punta Peuco Jail]]. Also during these Governments the private pension system was reformed to benefit the companies that manage pension funds by making the users assume the economic losses and increased the retirement age by approximately 20 years, which directly lowered pensions. This changes are the main factor of the problems in the system that can be reversed.

In September 2005, President [[Ricardo Lagos]] signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.

On January 15, 2006 [[Michelle Bachelet|Michelle Bachelet Jeria]] (center-left) won the elections against businessman [[Sebastián Piñera]] (center-right) and she took office on March 11, 2006, becoming the first woman to become President of Chile.
In 2009 Sebastián Piñera Echenique won the presidency, beign the first center-right candidate to do so after the Pinochet regime. In 2013 Bachelet won the office again and Piñera in 2017. Presidents in Chile can't have consecutive two terms, they need to wait another election.

Chile's congressional elections were governed by a unique binomial system made by [[Jaime Guzmán]] until 2018 that rewarded coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for the two Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district. Historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) splat most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 did the winning coalition gain both seats.

Chile was leaded by President [[Sebastián Piñera]] between 2018 and 2022 with the coalition of parties called [[Chile Vamos]]. The coalition was center-right and took [[progressive]] stands on some moral issues like legalizing [[same sex "marriage"]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2018/11/29/chile-enacts-landmark-gender-identity-law/|title=Chile enacts landmark gender identity law|date=November 29, 2018|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref>

{{main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
In 2019 Leftist mobs began to burn private and public property (the main public damage were 20 metro stations that were burned and 77 damaged in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metro.cl/noticias/balance-danos-19-de-octubre-2019|title=Balance daños 19 de octubre 2019|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Metro de Santiago}}</ref> starting a political crisis that has on its objectives to make the state bigger, raise taxes, and eliminate the individual capitalization system, as well as a change of the Constitution. This groups have been supported by the international left, the [[Sao Paulo Forum]], the [[Puebla Group]] and [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/10/20/nicolas-maduro-respondio-las-acusaciones-de-alentar-las-protestas-en-ecuador-y-chile-foro-de-sao-paulo-estamos-cumpliendo-el-plan-ustedes-me-entienden/|title=Nicolás Maduro habló sobre las acusaciones de alentar las protestas en Ecuador y Chile: "Foro de San Pablo, estamos cumpliendo el plan, ustedes me entienden..."|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Infobae}}</ref> The period is called ''Estallido social'' by the left. [[Diosdado Cabello]], a government official from Venezuela at that time said "The [[Bolivarian]] breeze sweeping the region will become a hurricane"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-diosdado-cabello-amenaza-brisa-bolivariana-recorre-region-convertira-huracan-201910201834_noticia.html|title=Diosdado Cabello amenaza: "La brisa bolivariana que recorre la región se convertirá en huracán"|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=ABC Internacional}}</ref>

On the 15th of November 2019 the Congress approved to make a referendum on the Constitution, ceding to the radical left.

The referendum was made on October 25, 2020, and the option to change the Constitution won. Several rallies were made for the 'Rejection' (''Rechazo'') option by patriots with a high number of people attending and in which [[Sebastián Izquierdo]] played an important role.

There was a previous proposal of a new Constitution that was a draft from the socialist Michelle Bachelet from the last weeks of her administration and both administrations (Piñera and Bachelet) were committed to follow the globalist [[2030 Agenda]] from the United Nations. The [[Constitutional Convention (Chile)|Constitutional Convention]] which redacted the text made a progressive and globalist proposal, the conservative [[Teresa Marinovic]] was elected to the Convention auditing the far-left institution.

In the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Presidential Election]], the final front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Gabriel Boric]]. Kast won the first round with a 27.91% of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and Boric obtained 25.82% (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13% (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87% (4,620,890 votes) from Boric. Boric got electoed at the age of 35, a former student radical "activist," a self-described [[communist]].<ref name=at22nov21>Monica Showalter, [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/stunning_good_news_from_chile__and_not_just_for_them_but_for_us.html Stunning good news from Chile...], American Thinker, November 22, 2021</ref>

On September 4, 2022, the second referendum took place in which the 'Rejection' option won with 61.86% of the votes against 38.14% of the 'Approve' option. The main difference with the first election was that the vote was mandatory in the second one and not the first one, having bigger participation of older generations which tend to vote conservative. After the triumph of the 'Rechazo', Gabriel Boric changed the cabinet of ministers of his government.

In 2023 the corrupt political system started a new process to change the Constitution, this time with more control of the establishment parties, without asking on a referendum if the citizens of Chile wanted a new process (they "assumed" that the 2020 referendum result is permanent, even that that process ended with the 2022 referendum). On May 7 the [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|election to elect the counselors of the Constitutional Council]] was held and a massive conservative victory was obtained, the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] won the majority as well as a record "Nulo" (Voluntary refusal to choose a candidate by the citizenry in a mandatory election) votes on 3rd place.

On December 17, 2023 a new referendum was held over the new written text, the Republican Party directive supported the change of the Chilean Constitution, many members of the party opposed this stance change of the party. The Globalist "center-right" coalition, [[Chile Vamos]] and centrist parties such as "Democrats" and "Yellows" (which means "being too moderated") supported the "In Favor" option as well. Chilean Patriots supported the "Against" option as well as the most of the left-wing. The "Against" Option obtained 55.76% of the votes while the "In Favor" Option obtained 44.24%. The dissident right was victorious over the establishment "right-wing" parties who supported the new proposed text.

On June 7, 2024 [[Johannes Kaiser]] founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-globalist, paleo-libertarian party.

José Antonio Kast, a Catholic pro-life conservative who promised to protect Chile against illegal immigration won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Sports==
[[Association Football|Football]] is the most popular sport by far. Chile hosted the 1962 [[World Cup]], notable for the "Battle of Santiago" (a group stage match between host Chile and Italy, which due to the on-pitch action - police had to be called no fewer than four times to gain control between squads - is considered among the poorest displays of sportsmanship in sports history, and eventually led to development of yellow and red cards).

However, the national sport is the Rodeo.

Chile won the Copa América 2015 and Copa América Centenario 2016, obtaining its first two Football titles in the national selection.

The Chilean mountains have important ski centers like Valle Nevado.

The [[Arica]] city in the north has the best waves of the country, something ideal for surfing.

The Chilean [[Patagonia]] is a famous place for trekking and out-door sports, The [[Carretera Austral]] (Southern Highway) and many National Parks (including the [[National Park Torres del Paine|Torres del Paine]] one) are visited by people all over the world.

==Culture==
[[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Nicanor Parra]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] are famous Chilean poets. Chillán in the Ñuble Region is a notorious cultural city of Chile.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== See also ==
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]
*[[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
*[[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[La Moneda]]
*[[Easter Island]]
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Colchane]], Chilean most conservative town
*[[Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
*[[War of the Pacific]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm]}}}.
|}

{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Chile

2026-03-23T13:07:31Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Military Government (1973-1990) */

{{Country
|name =''República de Chile''
|map =Tricontinental Chile Map.jpg
|map2 =Chile location map.png
|flag =Flag of Chile.png
|arms =Coat of arms of Chile.png
|capital-raw =[[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]]
|government-raw =[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Unitarian & Presidentialist Republic]]
|language =Spanish
|president =José Antonio Kast
|president-raw=
|conservative-leader=
|conservative-leader-raw=[[José Antonio Kast]]/[[Johannes Kaiser]]
|area =774,657 sq. mi. (Tricontinental Chile) 292,183 sq. mi. (Only Continental and Insular Chile)
|pop =19,100,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$280,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$14,660 (2020)
|currency =Chilean Peso (CLP)
|idd =+56
|tld =.cl
}}
'''Chile''' (official name: '''Republic of Chile''') is a [[nation]] on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of [[South America]], [[Antarctica]] and [[Oceania]] which is organized as a Centralized Unitary Presidential [[Democracy]]. It has a population of 17.5 million and the capital city is [[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]] which is also the biggest city of the country. Chile borders [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Peru]].

Between 1975 and 2014, Chile followed the path of the [[free market]] and [[Capitalism]] been the best place to make business of [[Latin America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iberglobal.com/files/2019-1/economic_freedom_index_2019.pdf|title=Economic Freedom Index 2019}}</ref> This has made the country the most developed of the Region according to the [[Human Development Index]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=505045|title=Chile sigue al tope de A. Latina en Índice de Desarrollo Humano|date=September 15, 2018|publisher=Economía y Negocios|language=es}}</ref> Chile went from a [[Gross domestic product]] of 100 in 1973 to 515 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobierno.udd.cl/files/2016/05/PPT-FPP.pdf|author=Lucas Palacios Covarrubias|title=Pobreza vs Desigualdad|date=April 2016|publisher=[[Universidad del Desarrollo]] - Facultad de Gobierno|language=es}}</ref> However that was put at risk with the leftist insurrection from 2019 and the Boric presidency. Right-wing [[President of Chile|President]] [[José Antonio Kast]] promises to retake the path to develop the country.

In early September 2022, by a resounding 62-38% landslide margin, Chileans rejected a progressive new constitution proposal and thereby decided to retain [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|the one written under]] [[conservative]] leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1980, which was reformed over 70 times in democracy in more than half of its content.<ref>https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1121065756/chile-constitution-referendum</ref><ref>[https://www.uandes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CPR-Edicio%CC%81n-Histo%CC%81rica.pdf]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220929111026/https://plataformacontexto.cl/contexto_factual/cuanto-queda-de-la-constitucion-de-pinochet/ Cuánto queda de “la Constitución de Pinochet”]</ref> A new proposal from the center-right with globalist elements was rejected on December 2023 with a 56-44% landslide margin.

==Geography==
[[File:Volcano Osorno and Petrohué waterfalls.JPG|thumb|left|Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano in the background.]]
The northern Chilean [[Atacama Desert]] contains great mineral wealth, principally [[copper]], and also contains locations where rainfall has never been recorded. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in [[forest]]s and grazing lands and features a string of [[volcano]]es and [[lake]]s. The southern coast located in [[Patagonia]] is a labyrinth of [[fjord]]s, [[inlet]]s, [[canal]]s, twisting [[peninsula]]s, and [[island]]s. The [[Andes]] Mountains are located on the eastern border.
*Area of Tricontinental Chile: 2,006,354 km2 (774,657 sq. mi.) including the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]] which reaches the [[South Pole]].
*Area considering Continental and Insular Chile: 756,945 km2. (302,778 sq. mi.), or nearly twice the size of California.
*Cities: Capital—[[Santiago]] (metropolitan area est. 6.25 million). Other cities: [[Concepción]]-[[Talcahuano]] (840,000), [[Viña del Mar]]-[[Valparaíso]] (800,000), [[Antofagasta]] (245,000), [[Temuco]] (230,000).
*Terrain: Desert in north; fertile central valley; volcanoes and lakes toward the south, giving way to rugged and complex coastline; Andes Mountains on the eastern border.
*Climate: Arid in north, Mediterranean in the central portion, cool and damp in south.

Chile has experienced numerous massive earthquakes, being located within the "Ring of Fire": of the 46 known earthquakes estimated at magnitude >= 8.5, one-third have occurred in Chile, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was measured at magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever recorded. On four occasions, two earthquakes with magnitude >= 8.5 have had the same Chilean epicenter. Furthermore, the strongest estimated earthquake (before seismographs were invented) also took place in Chile around 1800 BC, also estimated in the magnitude 9.5 range.

==People==
[[File:Chilean dance.jpg|left|140px]]
About 85% of Chile's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in greater Santiago. Most have [[Spain|Spanish]] ancestry. A small, yet influential number of [[Irish]] and [[English]] immigrants came to Chile during the Spanish Empire period. [[German]] immigration began in 1848 and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of [[Valdivia]], [[Llanquihue]], and [[Osorno]] show a strong German influence. Other significant historic immigrant groups are [[Italian]], [[Croatian]], [[Basque]], [[Palestinian]] and [[Peruvian]]. About 800,000 Native Americans, mostly of the [[Mapuche]] (Araucan) tribes, reside in the south-central area. The [[Aymara]] and [[Diaguita]] groups can be found mainly in Chile's northern desert valleys.

Since 2014 Chile has been experiencing [[open borders|mass]] [[immigration]] from [[Haiti]], [[Venezuela]], [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]], something that was unusual and has drastically changed the demographics of the country in the recent years (The immigrants went from 1.1% to 6.1% and is still growing)<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> a lot of them are [[Illegal immigration|illegally]] (See ''[[Colchane#Mass_immigration_problem|Colchane's Mass immigration problem]]'').

*Population (2019): 17.5 million.
*Annual population growth rate: 0.881%.
*Ethnic groups: Spanish-Native-American (mestizo), European, Native-American, Blacks (since 2014 with mass Haitian immigration).
*Religions: [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] 70%, [[Evangelical]] 15.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.1%, other Christian 1%, other 4.6%, none 8.3%.
*Language: [[Spanish]].
*Education: Years compulsory—13. Attendance—3 million. Adult literacy rate—96%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate—8.9/1,000. Life expectancy—80 yrs. for men, 85 for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsuss.cl/ipsuss/analisis-y-estudios/esperanza-de-vida-al-nacer-en-chile-llega-a-85-anos-en-mujeres-y-80-anos/2017-09-26/154547.html|title=Esperanza de vida al nacer en Chile llega a 85 años en mujeres y 80 años en hombres|date=September 26, 2017|language=es|publisher=Ipsuss}}</ref>
*Work force (6.94 million); employed 6.45 million: Community, social and individual services—26%; industry—14.4%; commerce—17.6%; agriculture, forestry, and fishing—13.9%; construction—7.1%; financial services—7.5%; transportation and communication—8.0%; electricity, gas and water—0.5%; mining—1.2%.

==Government==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Palacio de La Moneda.jpg|thumbnail|250px|[[La Moneda]] Palace, seat of Executive Branch.]]
[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Chile's Constitution]] was approved in a September 1980 national plebiscite with 67% of the vote. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]], the Constitution was reformed and another referendum was held over the reforms in which 91% voted in favor. In 2005 President Lagos made several reforms to the Constitution, even changing the Pinochet sign with his.
The President term is 4-year long, however is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms. The political system of Chile is an exacerbated [[Presidential system|Presidential]] one.
Chile has a bicameral Congress, which meets in the port city of [[Valparaíso]], about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago (since 1990). Deputies are elected every 4 years, and Senators serve 8-year terms.
There are currently 43 Senators and 155 Deputies.
The Chilean elections are judged free and fair.

Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nationwide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform replaced old proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.

The Central Bank in Chile is autonomous since 1981.

===Principal Government Officials===
{{See also|President of Chile}}
[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio Kast Rist]], a pro-life, anti illegal immigration conservative.]]
*[[President of Chile|President]]—[[José Antonio Kast]] since 11 March 2026.
*Minister of Interior—Claudio Alvarado
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Francisco Pérez Mackenna
*Ambassador to the United States—Andrés Ergas
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)—José Miguel Castro
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Roberto Ampuero
*Ambassador to the OECD—Sebastián Schneinder
*Mayor of Santiago—[[Mario Desbordes]]

===Foreign Relations===
Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. [[Jose Miguel Insulza]], a Chilean national, was Secretary General of the Organization of American States from May 2005 to 2015. Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002 and the [[APEC]] summit and related meetings in 2004. Chile hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial in April 2005. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade. The APEC 2019 was planed to be hosted on Chile and the COP25 but was cancelled due to the [[2019 Chilean State of Emergency|State of Emergency]]. President [[Donald Trump]] planed to sign an agreement with [[Xi Jinping]] to end the 'Trade War' in the APEC hosted in Chile, however it was canceled.

Chile was one of the four countries (along with [[Singapore]], [[Brunei]] and [[New Zealand]]) that started the [[TPP (treaty)|TPP-11]].

Chile signed many Free Trade Agreements since the 90s.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. It settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s except for a part in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and the Antarctic claims overlap between both countries, however the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow modification to the claims and they are ineffective.

In 2007 Peru demanded Chile in the International Court of Justice due to a maritime dispute. The case was closed in 2013 in which half of the disputed sea was ceded to Peru and half to Chile. In Chile it was seen as a lost case.

Chile and Bolivia have bad diplomatic relations since [[Evo Morales]], Bolivia's president, reintegrated the desire to reacquire territory Bolivia lost to Chile in 1879-83 [[War of the Pacific]] in his Foreign Affairs Policy and he demanded Chile in the Internation Couth of Justice, a case which Chile won. There is currently a case to determine if Silala is a river (Chile's position) or is a spring artificially modificated by Chile (Bolivia's position). The two countries maintain consular relations and are represented at the Consul General level but doesn't have embassies in each other.

===Political parties and coalitions===
Important parties without coalition:
*[[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (right-wing) ([[José Antonio Kast]]'s party).
*[[National Libertarian Party]] ([[Paleolibertarian]] party) ([[Johannes Kaiser]]'s party).
*[[Broad Front (Chile)|Broad Front]] (far-left) ([[Gabriel Boric]]'s party).
*[[Communist Party]] (far-left) ([[Daniel Jadue|Jadue]]'s party).
*[[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]] (from center to center-right) ([[Franco Parisi]]'s party).
*''[[Communist Party]] of Chile - Proletarian Action/Patriotic Union'' (dissolved) (far-left) (Eduardo Artes' party).
*''[[Social Christian Party (Chile)|Social Christian Party]]'' (dissolved) ([[Evangelical]] party) (Evangelical party).

The main coalitions are:
*[[Chile Vamos]] (Globalist center-right) ([[Sebastián Piñera|Piñera]] and [[Evelyn Matthei|Matthei]]'s coalition) composed by the [[Independent Democrat Union]], [[National Renewal]] and ''[[Evópoli]]'' (dissolved party).
*Democratic Socialism (left) composed by old leftist parties such as: the [[Socialist]] Party, Party for Democracy, and the Liberal Party.

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Chile (+Antarctica & Islands), administrative divisions - en - colored.png|230px|thumbnail|Map of the Chilean Regions.]]
{{Main article|Regions of Chile}}
Chile is divided in 16 Regions, 56 provinces and 346 communes. Chile is a Unitary Centralized State in which the law is the same in every place of the country.

'''List of the Regions and their Capital''':
*[[Arica & Parinacota Region|Arica & Parinacota]] - Capital: [[Arica]]
*[[Tarapacá Region|Tarapacá]] - Capital: [[Iquique]]
*[[Antofagasta Region|Antofagasta]] - Capital: [[Antofagasta]]
*[[Atacama Region|Atacama]] - Capital: [[Copiapó]]
*[[Coquimbo Region|Coquimbo]] - Capital: [[La Serena]]
*[[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]] - Capital: [[Valparaíso]]
*[[Metropolitan Region|Metropolitan]] - Capital: [[Santiago]]
*[[O'Higgins Region|O'Higgins]] - Capital: [[Rancagua]]
*[[Maule Region|Maule]] - Capital: [[Talca]]
*[[Ñuble Region|Ñuble]] - Capital: [[Chillán]]
*[[Biobío Region|Biobío]] - Capital: [[Concepción (Chile)|Concepción]]
*[[Araucanía Region|Araucanía]] - Capital: [[Temuco]]
*[[Los Ríos Region|Los Ríos]] - Capital: [[Valdivia]]
*[[Los Lagos Region|Los Lagos]] - Capital: [[Puerto Montt]]
*[[Aysén Region|Aysén]] - Capital: [[Coyhaique]]
*[[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica]] - Capital: [[Punta Arenas]]

The most conservative commune of Chile is [[Colchane]] as well with Antártica, Lo Barnechea, Vitacura & Las Condes.

==Defense==
Chile's Armed Forces are subject to civilian control exercised by the President through the Minister of Defense. The President has the authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.

===Army===
The Chilean Army is 45,000 strong and is organized with an Army headquarters in Santiago, seven divisions throughout its territory, an Air Brigade in Rancagua, and a Special Forces Command in Colina. The Chilean Army is one of the most professional and technologically advanced armies in Latin America habing inherited the [[Prussian]] military doctrine.

===Navy===
The Navy has 23,000-person, including 2,500 Marines. Of the fleet of 29 surface vessels, only eight are operational major combatants (frigates). Those ships are based in [[Valparaíso]]. The Navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no Navy fighter or bomber aircraft. The Navy also operates four submarines based in [[Talcahuano]].

===Air Force (FACH)===
The FACH is a force of 12,500. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on [[Villa Las Estrellas]], [[King George Island]], [[Antarctica]]. The FACH was created in 1930 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]].

===Carabineros===
[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|250px|thumbnail]]
[[Carabineros de Chile]] is the national police force of 30,000 men and women who are responsible for law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control, and counter-terrorism throughout Chile. The Carabineros were created in 1927 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]]. Carabineros is the best police in Latin America and least corrupt.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/best-worst-latam-police|title=From Chile to Mexico: Best and Worst of LatAm Police|publisher=InSight Crime|date=March 20, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

Carabineros enjoys significant international prestige due to its professionalism and efficiency. Through the Chilean government's Cooperation Programme for Uniformed Foreign Police Forces (CECIPU), it has trained and specialized over thousands of officers from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. As a founding member of AMERIPOL (Community of American Police Forces) since 2007 and an associated member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (FIEP) since 2005, Carabineros has even chaired AMERIPOL, highlighting its regional leadership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cecipu.interior.gob.cl/|title=CECIPU: Programa de cooperación internacional del Gobierno de Chile para policías uniformadas|publisher=Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gob.mx/epn%7Cpoliciafederal/articulos/cuerpo-de-carabineros-de-chile-condecora-al-comisionado-general-de-la-policia-federal-de-mexico|title=Cuerpo de Carabineros de Chile condecora al Comisionado General de la Policía Federal de México|publisher=Gobierno de México|date=April 27, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
[[File:Gran Torre Santiago (39693576311).jpg|thumbnail|300px|Gran Torre Santiago, in the financial district of the city.]]
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 3.3% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.1%. Real GDP growth reached 6.3% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile signed the OECD Convention, becoming the first South American country to join the OECD.

*GDP (official exchange rate): $150.4 billion. (GDP (purchasing power parity):$335.4 billion (2013 est.))
*Annual real growth rate: -1.5%.
*Per capita GDP (purchasing power parity): $27,058 (GDP - per capita (PPP) 2019 est.)
*Forestry, agriculture, and fisheries (6% of GDP): Products—fruits, wheat, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions, beans, livestock, fish.
*Commerce (8% of GDP): Sales, restaurants, hotels.
*Manufacturing (17% of GDP): Types—mineral refining, metal manufacturing, food processing, fish processing, paper and wood products, finished textiles.
*Electricity, gas, and water: 3% of GDP.
*Transportation and communication: 7% of GDP.
*Construction: 8% of GDP.
*Financial services (12% of GDP): Insurance, leasing, consulting.
*Mining (13% of GDP): Copper, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, and molybdenum.
*Trade: Exports--$57.61 billion: copper, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and wood products. Major markets—U.S., Japan, China, Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Mexico. Imports--$40.91 billion: fuels, heavy industrial machinery, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, plastic. Major suppliers—U.S., China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. (GDP (official exchange rate):$281.7 billion (2013 est.))

Chile has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by [[negotiating]] in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[José Piñera]] creator of the Individual capitalization pension system.]]
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], economist during the Military Government that re-implemented liberal economic policies.]]
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.

Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile's consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a family of four's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 18% by 2004.

Chile's independent Central Bank pursues an inflation target of between 2% and 4%. Inflation has not exceeded 5% since 1998. Chile registered an inflation rate of 3.2% in 2006. The Chilean peso's rapid appreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent years has helped dampen inflation. Most wage settlements and loans are indexed, reducing inflation's volatility. Under the compulsory private pension system, most formal sector employees pay 10% of their salaries into privately managed funds.

[[File:Countries with a private pension system.jpg|thumbnail|Countries that applied Chile's private pension system.]]
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) was only $3.4 billion in 2006, up 52% from a poor performance in 2005. However, 80% of FDI continues to go to only four sectors: electricity, gas, water and mining. Much of the jump in FDI in 2006 was also the result of acquisitions and mergers and has done little to create new employment in Chile. The Chilean Government has formed a Council on Innovation and Competition, which is tasked with identifying new sectors and industries to promote. It is hoped that this, combined with some tax reforms to encourage domestic and foreign investment in research and development, will bring in additional FDI and to new parts of the economy. As of 2006, Chile invested only 0.6% of its annual GDP in research and development (R&D). Even then, two-thirds of that was government spending. The fact that domestic and foreign companies spend almost nothing on R&D does not bode well for the Government of Chile's efforts to develop innovative, knowledge-based sectors. Additionally, on January 8, 2007, Chile was placed on the U.S. Trade Representative's Priority Watch List due to its poor record on protecting intellectual property rights. Chile is only the second U.S. FTA partner ever to be placed on the Priority Watch List. Chile has a poor and deteriorating record of protecting copyrighted music, films, and software. Combined with this is its institutional structure allowing local companies to produce and market pharmaceutical generics that violate existing patents. Beyond its general economic and political stability, the government also has encouraged the use of Chile as an "investment platform" for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region, but this will have limited value given the developing business climate in Chile itself. Chile's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Chileans. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital. While Chile and the EU have signed a double taxation treaty, no such agreement exists between the U.S. and Chile.

Mining was temporarily curtailed following an accident in which 33 miners were trapped after a cave-in at the San Jose mine<ref>http://www.minandes.com/s/RoadtoProduction.asp</ref> near Copiapo on August 5, 2010. A rescue attempt - bolstered by national pride at getting the men out alive - ended 67 days later on October 13 as the last of the men were pulled out to safety.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/12/rescued-chilean-miner-returns-surface/</ref><ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7961923/Chilean-miners-trapped-in-San-Jose-mine.html</ref>

===Foreign Trade===
[[File:Commercial Treaties Chile 2012.jpg|thumb|295px|Commercial Treaties, 2012.]]
2006 was a record year for Chilean trade. Total trade registered a 31% increase over 2005. During 2006, exports of goods and services totaled U.S. $58 billion, an increase of 41%. This figure was somewhat distorted by the skyrocketing price of copper. In 2006, copper exports reached a historical high of U.S. $33.3 billion. Imports totaled U.S. $35 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. Chile thus recorded a positive trade balance of U.S. $23 billion in 2006.

The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion). Seen as shares of Chile's export markets, 42% of exports went to the Americas, 30% to Asia and 24% to Europe. Within Chile's diversified network of trade relationships, its most important partner remained the United States. Total trade with the U.S. was U.S. $14.8 billion in 2006. Since the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004, U.S.-Chilean trade has increased by 154%. Internal Government of Chile figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has grown over 60% since then.

Total trade with Europe also grew in 2006, expanding by 42%. The Netherlands and Italy were Chile's main European trading partners. Total trade with Asia also grew significantly at nearly 31%. Trade with Korea and Japan grew significantly, but China remained Chile's most important trading partner in Asia. Chile's total trade with China reached U.S. $8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66% of the value of its trade relationship with Asia.

The growth of exports in 2006 was due mainly to a strong increase in sales to the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. These three markets alone accounted for an additional U.S. $5.5 billion worth of Chilean exports. Chilean exports to the United States totaled U.S. $9.3 billion, representing a 37.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $6.7 billion). Exports to the European Union were U.S. $15.4 billion, a 63.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $9.4 billion). Exports to Asia increased from U.S. $15.2 billion in 2005 to U.S. $19.7 billion in 2006, a 29.9% increase.

During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).

Chile's overall trade profile has traditionally been dependent upon copper exports. The state-owned firm CODELCO is the world's largest copper-producing company, with recorded copper reserves of 200 years. Chile has made an effort to expand nontraditional exports. The most important non-mineral exports are forestry and wood products, fresh fruit and processed food, fishmeal and seafood, and wine.

Successive Chilean governments have actively pursued trade-liberalizing agreements. During the 1990s, Chile signed FTAs with Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Chile also concluded preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. An association agreement with Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—went into effect in October 1996. Continuing its export-oriented development strategy, Chile completed landmark free trade agreements in 2002 with the European Union and South Korea. Chile, as a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, is seeking to boost commercial ties to Asian markets. To that end, it has signed trade agreements in recent years with New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, and most recently Japan. In 2007, Chile plans to begin negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

After two years of negotiations, the United States and Chile signed an agreement in June 2003 that will lead to completely duty-free bilateral trade within 12 years. The U.S.-Chile FTA entered into force January 1, 2004 following approval by the U.S. and Chilean congresses. The bilateral FTA has inaugurated greatly expanded U.S.-Chilean trade ties, with total bilateral trade jumping by 154% during the FTA's first three years.

Chile unilaterally lowered its across-the-board import tariff for all countries with which it does not have a trade agreement to 6% in 2003. Higher effective tariffs are charged only on imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar as a result of a system of import price bands. The price bands were ruled inconsistent with Chile's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in 2002, and the government has introduced legislation to modify them. Under the terms of the U.S.-Chile FTA, the price bands will be completely phased out for U.S. imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar within 12 years.

Chile is a strong proponent of pressing ahead on negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is active in the WTO's Doha round of negotiations, principally through its membership in the G-20 and Cairns Group.

===Finance===
Chile's financial sector has grown quickly in recent years, with a banking reform law approved in 1997 that broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001, and there is further pending legislation proposing further liberalization. Over the last ten years, Chileans have enjoyed the introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has also been accompanied by an increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $70 billion at the end of 2006, has been an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S&P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways for Chilean firms to raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stocks on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Nearly all of the funds raised through these means go to finance domestic Chilean investment. The government is required by law to run a fiscal surplus of at least 1% of GDP. In 2006, the Government of Chile ran a surplus of $11.3 billion, equal to almost 8% of GDP. The Government of Chile continues to pay down its foreign debt, with public debt only 3.9% of GDP at the end of 2006.

==History==
===Discovery and Hispanic period===
[[File:Pedro de Valdivia.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Pedro de Valdivia]], founder of several cities and conqueror of Chile.]]
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]], one of the founding fathers of Chile.]]
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first European to see Chilean land was [[Ferdinand Magellan]] when he discovered the [[Strait of Magellan]] in 1520, however the first one to arrive in Chile were [[Diego de Almagro]] and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in 1535. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of [[Santiago]] on February 12, 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

===19th Century, Independence, State Consolidation and Wars with neightbours===
[[File:Pedro Subercaseaux Jura de la Independencia Chile.jpg|thumb|300px|Fray Pedro Subercaseaux, Jura de la Independencia de Chile.]]
[[File:Diego Portales-2.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Diego Portales]] author of the 1833 Constitution which prioritized order over democracy.]]
[[File:Arturo Prat Chacón.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Arturo Prat|Arturo Prat Chacón]], the maximum naval hero of the Chilean Nation.]]
[[File:Sinking of the Esmeralda during the battle of Iquique.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Sinking of the Esmeralda during the [[battle of Iquique|naval battle of Iquique]].]]
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national [[junta]] in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence which [[José Miguel Carrera]] started soon won a wide following. After the [[Battle of Rancagua]], a Spanish attempt to reimpose arbitrary rule started, during what was called the "Reconquista" led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army led by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], Chile's most renowned patriot, and [[José de San Martín]], hero of Argentine independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership.

During the Ramón Freire Presidency in 1826 the last royalist bastion was defeated, the [[Chiloé]] archipelago and the Tantauco Treaty was signed between Chile and Spain.

Between 1823 and 1829 there was a period of Constitutional Attempts, and there were four of them.

The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the 1833 Constitution made by [[Diego Portales]]. After the [[Civil War]] of 1829–30, a strong presidency emerged, but wealthy landowners remained extremely powerful.

Between 1836 and 1839, Chile fought a [[War against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] which Chile won and separated Peru and Bolivia again.

In 1865 and 1866 Chile, Peru and Ecuador fought against Spain in the [[Chincha Islands War]], Chile and it's allies won.

[[Image:Easter_island_statues.jpg|thumb|right|On September 9, 1888 the Council of Rapanui Chiefs asked the Chilean Navy Captain, Policarpo Toro, to accept the sovereignty of [[Easter Island]] without giving up their chieftaincy titles, the ownership of their lands, the validity of their culture and traditions and on equal terms. This known as the "Agreement of Wills".]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by founding the [[Fort Bulnes]] in 1843 (near the current city of [[Punta Arenas]] in the [[Strait of Magellan]]) and incorporating the zone of the south of the [[Biobío river]] in a process called the [[Pacification of the Araucanía]], the government plan was to building roads, schools, and public infrastructure where the [[Mapuche]] Indians live, they were incorporated as citizens, however the rebel Mapuches were crushed.

There was also a process of Colonization in which the Government gave [[German]] [[settlers]] lands in [[Valdivia]] and the [[Llanquihue Lake]] where they founded several towns and cities. To this day the German influence can be noted in cities like Valdivia, [[Puerto Varas]], [[Frutillar]], [[Puerto Octay]], [[Nueva Braunau]], Ensenada, [[Puerto Montt]] and [[Osorno]].

In 1881, Chile signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan but also loosing its colonial rights over Eastern Patagonia. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. After a [[Civil war]] in 1891 in which President [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] committed suicide, a parliamentary democracy was established, but degenerated into a system protecting the interests of the ruling oligarchy.
In 1888 Chile incorporated [[Easter Island]] to the national territory.

===20th Century===
[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|175px|thumbnail|The [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.
Continuing political and economic instability resulted with the rule of the quasidictatorial Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] (1924–32).
In June there was a Coup and between that month and September 1932 there was an attempt to establish a [[Socialist]] Republic that failed.
When constitutional rule was restored later that year, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy.
In 1940 Chile started to claim officially the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].

In 1962 the "right-wing" President [[Jorge Alessandri]] started the agrarian reform in a small portion, that expropriated part of big land properties. This reform was deepened by the next two governments.

The 1964 presidential election of [[Christian Democrat]] [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

He also made the "Chileanization of the copper" which introduced the State into the copper industry.
====Unidad Popular Marxist Regime (1970-1973)====
{{Main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
In 1970, Senator [[Salvador Allende]], a [[Marxist]] and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the "Popular Unity" (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats (the lasts ones supported him with the condition of respecting the laws and private property), won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest and was named president by the Chilean Congress. His program included the nationalization of private industries and banks, massive land expropriation, and collectivization, implementation of a Marxist education system, repartition of food collectively (with a limit of one stock per family). Allende's program also included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major copper mines.

[[Fidel Castro]] visited Chile in 1971 where he stayed for months.
Allende said in the same year "The major role of a journalist is not to server the truth, but to server the revolution" and in 1972 "I'm the President of the Unidad Popular, but I'm not the president of all Chileans".

Elected with only 36% of the vote and by a plurality of only 36,000 votes, Allende never enjoyed majority support in the Chilean Congress or broad popular support. Domestic production declined; severe shortages of consumer goods, food, and manufactured products were widespread; and inflation reached 1,000% per annum. Mass demonstrations, recurring strikes, violence by both government supporters and opponents, and widespread rural unrest ensued in response to the general deterioration of the economy.

The 22th of August 1973 the Chamber of Deputies called for a military intervention since the Allende's Government was Unconstitutional for not respecting basic laws like [[private property]].<ref>[https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2013/08/23/40-anos-del-acuerdo-de-la-camara-que-declaro-la-ilegitimidad-del-gobierno-de-allende/ 40 años del acuerdo de la Cámara que declaró la ilegitimidad del Gobierno de Allende]</ref> By the time the Christian Democrats stopped supporting Allende and started to support an intervention.

[[Carlos Altamirano]], General Secretary of the Socialist Party in July 1973 called to "crush the opposition" and to "not negotiate with the enemies of Chile"<ref>https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304093123/rev91_documento.pdf</ref> he also called for a violent Marxist revolution in 1968.

====Military Government (1973-1990)====
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990).jpg|300px|thumbnail|President and General [[Augusto Pinochet|Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], President of Chile (1973-1990), fighter against [[Marxism]], father of Chile's development, and restorer of the order and the institutions.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|1980 Constitution]] and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
A military pronouncement overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace, Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime in particular were marked by an irregular war against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|leftist terrorists]] who wanted a violent Marxist revolution. A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] was approved by a plebiscite on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. The Constitution writing had an important participation of [[Jaime Guzmán]] who also founded the [[Independent Democrat Union]].

The Armed Forces had to assume the leadership of the country, aware that this task did not mean a mere restoration of the broken institutionality, since the systematic destruction to which the Homeland had been subjected had deeply undermined coexistence and national development; therefore, it was imperative to go further and create a modern, profound system of the country, with a clear social content and democratic character. From the structuring of the stages and objectives of the Government and the determination of the principles that would govern the project, the Armed Forces marked with height, coherence and consequence the national reality and the itinerary designed.

This great work was not exempt from interferences, demands and sacrifices, since at the beginning it was necessary to overcome the disastrous consequences of the previous administrations and the prevailing polarization. Subsequently, it was necessary to face defamation, the economic crises in the neighborhood, and the wily terrorist and subversive actions. These, together or in isolation, ([[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] made the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]" that blocked any selling of weapons to Chile, and also the U.S. imposed a blockade on fruit exports) in could have led any government to political, economic and social collapse. However, the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, based on efficiency, patriotism and joint effort, with a more than important part of society, managed to overcome the obstacles and deliver a better future for all Chileans.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Military men victims of [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]].]]

There is an evident reality that shows that important sectors of the political spectrum not only tried gradually and systematically to delegitimize the Military Government, but even, once they determined the impossibility of achieving their goals, they used means and tools contrary to peaceful coexistence, even seeking its destabilization, accepting, encouraging or participating in Chilean and foreign extremist organizations contrary to the idiosyncrasy and national identity.
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
The successful model and the change of life generated in Chileans by the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, in general, has not been accepted or recognized at the national and international level. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it would be pernicious for national coexistence that a government defined as authoritarian has been so successful and profound. Undoubtedly, this is a biased point of view, since this line of argument tends to homologate our reality with caudillisms or military irruptions that lacked ethical imperatives and national needs and that did occur systematically or cyclically in other nations.

The deed of September 11, 1973 and the foundational work of the Military Government, apart from signifying for the Armed Forces and the Carabineros and, particularly, for the Army, a feeling of honor and pride that must be preserved, is an event that must necessarily be included in national and universal history in all its truth and dimension.
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|250|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile in 1985.]]
[[File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Pinochet]] inaugurating [[Villa Las Estrellas]] in [[Chilean Antarctic Territory|Chilean Antarctica]] in 1984.]]

In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. In contrast to its authoritarian political rule, the military government pursued decidedly [[laissez-faire]] economic policies.

[[Milton Friedman]] said,
* "... the really extraordinary thing about the Chilean case was that a military government followed the opposite of military policies. The military is distinguished from the ordinary economy by the fact that it's a top-down organization. The general tells the colonel, the colonel tells the captain, and so on down, whereas a market is a bottom-up organization. The customer goes into the store and tells the retailer what he wants; the retailer sends it back up the line to the manufacturer and so on. So the basic organizational principles in the military are almost the opposite of the basic organizational principles of a free market and a free society. And the really remarkable thing about Chile is that the military adopted the free-market arrangements instead of the military arrangements."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10 Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman on PBS]</ref>

During its 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that fostered an increase in domestic and foreign private investment. The complete political liberalization of the country came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite, which finally took place on October 5. On that day, the triumph of the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans voted for elections to choose a new president in 1989 and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress. The Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution on the same year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>[https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html Soros helped the "No" campaign]</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

===Democratic governments===
[[File:Izamiento de la Gran Bandera Nacional - Presidentes de Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|The five [[President of Chile|Chilean Presidents]] between the years 1990 and 2022 (two of them were elected twice in non-consecutive terms).]]
On December 14, 1989, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the Concertación, was elected president. In a ceremony held in the Congress building in Valparaíso, Pinochet handed over the presidency to the new constitutional President.

Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994 and was succeeded by another Christian Democrat, [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (son of the previous President), leading the same coalition, for a 6-year term. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy led the Concertación to a narrower victory in 2000 presidential elections.

During the ''Concertación'' Governments, Military personnel who fought terrorism were jailed unfairly using an old judicial system and without proof, these can be called the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisioners]] that were destined to the [[Punta Peuco Jail]]. Also during these Governments the private pension system was reformed to benefit the companies that manage pension funds by making the users assume the economic losses and increased the retirement age by approximately 20 years, which directly lowered pensions. This changes are the main factor of the problems in the system that can be reversed.

In September 2005, President [[Ricardo Lagos]] signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.

On January 15, 2006 [[Michelle Bachelet|Michelle Bachelet Jeria]] (center-left) won the elections against businessman [[Sebastián Piñera]] (center-right) and she took office on March 11, 2006, becoming the first woman to become President of Chile.
In 2009 Sebastián Piñera Echenique won the presidency, beign the first center-right candidate to do so after the Pinochet regime. In 2013 Bachelet won the office again and Piñera in 2017. Presidents in Chile can't have consecutive two terms, they need to wait another election.

Chile's congressional elections were governed by a unique binomial system made by [[Jaime Guzmán]] until 2018 that rewarded coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for the two Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district. Historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) splat most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 did the winning coalition gain both seats.

Chile was leaded by President [[Sebastián Piñera]] between 2018 and 2022 with the coalition of parties called [[Chile Vamos]]. The coalition was center-right and took [[progressive]] stands on some moral issues like legalizing [[same sex "marriage"]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2018/11/29/chile-enacts-landmark-gender-identity-law/|title=Chile enacts landmark gender identity law|date=November 29, 2018|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref>

{{main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
In 2019 Leftist mobs began to burn private and public property (the main public damage were 20 metro stations that were burned and 77 damaged in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metro.cl/noticias/balance-danos-19-de-octubre-2019|title=Balance daños 19 de octubre 2019|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Metro de Santiago}}</ref> starting a political crisis that has on its objectives to make the state bigger, raise taxes, and eliminate the individual capitalization system, as well as a change of the Constitution. This groups have been supported by the international left, the [[Sao Paulo Forum]], the [[Puebla Group]] and [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/10/20/nicolas-maduro-respondio-las-acusaciones-de-alentar-las-protestas-en-ecuador-y-chile-foro-de-sao-paulo-estamos-cumpliendo-el-plan-ustedes-me-entienden/|title=Nicolás Maduro habló sobre las acusaciones de alentar las protestas en Ecuador y Chile: "Foro de San Pablo, estamos cumpliendo el plan, ustedes me entienden..."|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Infobae}}</ref> The period is called ''Estallido social'' by the left. [[Diosdado Cabello]], a government official from Venezuela at that time said "The [[Bolivarian]] breeze sweeping the region will become a hurricane"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-diosdado-cabello-amenaza-brisa-bolivariana-recorre-region-convertira-huracan-201910201834_noticia.html|title=Diosdado Cabello amenaza: "La brisa bolivariana que recorre la región se convertirá en huracán"|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=ABC Internacional}}</ref>

On the 15th of November 2019 the Congress approved to make a referendum on the Constitution, ceding to the radical left.

The referendum was made on October 25, 2020, and the option to change the Constitution won. Several rallies were made for the 'Rejection' (''Rechazo'') option by patriots with a high number of people attending and in which [[Sebastián Izquierdo]] played an important role.

There was a previous proposal of a new Constitution that was a draft from the socialist Michelle Bachelet from the last weeks of her administration and both administrations (Piñera and Bachelet) were committed to follow the globalist [[2030 Agenda]] from the United Nations. The [[Constitutional Convention (Chile)|Constitutional Convention]] which redacted the text made a progressive and globalist proposal, the conservative [[Teresa Marinovic]] was elected to the Convention auditing the far-left institution.

In the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Presidential Election]], the final front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Gabriel Boric]]. Kast won the first round with a 27.91% of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and Boric obtained 25.82% (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13% (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87% (4,620,890 votes) from Boric. Boric got electoed at the age of 35, a former student radical "activist," a self-described [[communist]].<ref name=at22nov21>Monica Showalter, [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/stunning_good_news_from_chile__and_not_just_for_them_but_for_us.html Stunning good news from Chile...], American Thinker, November 22, 2021</ref>

On September 4, 2022, the second referendum took place in which the 'Rejection' option won with 61.86% of the votes against 38.14% of the 'Approve' option. The main difference with the first election was that the vote was mandatory in the second one and not the first one, having bigger participation of older generations which tend to vote conservative. After the triumph of the 'Rechazo', Gabriel Boric changed the cabinet of ministers of his government.

In 2023 the corrupt political system started a new process to change the Constitution, this time with more control of the establishment parties, without asking on a referendum if the citizens of Chile wanted a new process (they "assumed" that the 2020 referendum result is permanent, even that that process ended with the 2022 referendum). On May 7 the [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|election to elect the counselors of the Constitutional Council]] was held and a massive conservative victory was obtained, the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] won the majority as well as a record "Nulo" (Voluntary refusal to choose a candidate by the citizenry in a mandatory election) votes on 3rd place.

On December 17, 2023 a new referendum was held over the new written text, the Republican Party directive supported the change of the Chilean Constitution, many members of the party opposed this stance change of the party. The Globalist "center-right" coalition, [[Chile Vamos]] and centrist parties such as "Democrats" and "Yellows" (which means "being too moderated") supported the "In Favor" option as well. Chilean Patriots supported the "Against" option as well as the most of the left-wing. The "Against" Option obtained 55.76% of the votes while the "In Favor" Option obtained 44.24%. The dissident right was victorious over the establishment "right-wing" parties who supported the new proposed text.

On June 7, 2024 [[Johannes Kaiser]] founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-globalist, paleo-libertarian party.

José Antonio Kast, a Catholic pro-life conservative who promised to protect Chile against illegal immigration won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Sports==
[[Association Football|Football]] is the most popular sport by far. Chile hosted the 1962 [[World Cup]], notable for the "Battle of Santiago" (a group stage match between host Chile and Italy, which due to the on-pitch action - police had to be called no fewer than four times to gain control between squads - is considered among the poorest displays of sportsmanship in sports history, and eventually led to development of yellow and red cards).

However, the national sport is the Rodeo.

Chile won the Copa América 2015 and Copa América Centenario 2016, obtaining its first two Football titles in the national selection.

The Chilean mountains have important ski centers like Valle Nevado.

The [[Arica]] city in the north has the best waves of the country, something ideal for surfing.

The Chilean [[Patagonia]] is a famous place for trekking and out-door sports, The Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) and many National Parks (including the [[National Park Torres del Paine|Torres del Paine]] one) are visited by people all over the world.

==Culture==
[[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Nicanor Parra]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] are famous Chilean poets. Chillán in the Ñuble Region is a notorious cultural city of Chile.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== See also ==
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]
*[[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
*[[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[La Moneda]]
*[[Easter Island]]
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Colchane]], Chilean most conservative town
*[[Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
*[[War of the Pacific]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
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!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm]}}}.
|}

{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Villa Las Estrellas

2026-03-23T13:07:08Z

CatolicoAustral:

[[File:Villa Las Estrellas.jpg|thumbnail|Villa Las Estrellas, the Chilean town in the South Shetland Islands at night. ]]
[[File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Pinochet]] inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in Chilean Antarctica.]]
'''Villa Las Estrellas''' is a town with civilian and military personel in King George Island, South Shetlands, Antarctica. It was inaugurated by [[President of Chile|President]] [[Augusto Pinochet]] on April 9, 1984. It is located next to the President Frei Meteorological Center and three kilometers from the Lieutenant Marsh Base. Pinochet visited the continent more than once, the first time in 1977. Today there is the Lucía Mountain named after his wife Lucía Hiriart, the Augusto Pinochet Massif (also known as Dufek) and the Admiral Merino Channel (also known as Plata).

== Population and births ==
Initially with only six families, in a few months it had already doubled to 12 families and was already the first and only population of civilian settlers established in Antarctica, with no other similar experience in history. The success of this project allowed the registration of some of the first human births in Antarctic territory, which up to 1985 totaled three:

*Juan Pablo Camacho Martinez (November 21, 1984)
*Gisella Ester Cortés Rojas (2 December 1984)
*Ignacio Alfonso Miranda Lagunas (January 23, 1985).
In practice, this means that Chile has allowed the birth of another of the first men with Antarctic gentilage, among the first authentic "Antarctics" in the world, after a registry apparently initiated at the Argentinean base "Esperanza" on January 7, 1978 (Emilio Marcos Palma), but which has been put in doubt by some technical and historical criteria, such as the much earlier birth of a girl in South Georgia Island, United Kingdom: Solveig Gunbjörg Jacobsen, born on October 8, 1913. The case is recorded by Robert K. Headland in his work "The Island of South Georgia" (Cambridge University Press, 1984). Moreover, in the Argentine case, the parents were not resident civilians, but rather officials of a temporary base, although they had been living in specially arranged cabins since that same year. It should be noted that in the case of the Chilean births, they were also residents, since they belonged to families who were members of the settler community. The confusion of the Argentine case and its registration as the "first" in the world, which has even been accepted by the Guinness Book of Records, seems to derive from the campaign carried out during the last Argentine military governments as propaganda in favor of their aspirations over the southern territory.

== Buildings ==
At present, villa "Las Estrellas" has a large population of its own, including an inn, a nursery, a school, a mini hospital, a small supermarket, a post office and a bank, which make it a real human colony, and not an imitation or a set-up of one, to the point that it has become an important enclave of logistic support for the other eight nations that have installations on King George Island and its surroundings.

Supplies are periodically flown in by air, a task carried out by the Chilean Air Force. The colony's houses are built with great comfort, in a hundred square meters and with lenga wood on a solid steel chassis, with special adaptations in roofs and windows to insulate the cold environment.

== Legacy ==
The success of villa "Las Estrellas" has not been unique for Chile. In July 2000, another good scientific news took place, after a Chilean research group discovered a natural sanctuary for Antarctic Minke whales, which developed their own habitat on the frozen continent, adapting to its extreme climatic conditions. The whales' refuge was defined by the scientists as "a new population and species of Minke whales for the southern hemisphere". Apparently, the cetaceans developed an extraordinary adaptation that allowed them to permanently inhabit Antarctic waters without having to migrate in the austral winter.

This type of progress is also fundamental for the defense of Chile's Antarctic rights, protected by the Antarctic Treaty, since the country has achieved remarkable advances and discoveries on the white continent, knowledge and foundations that will later be vital for the validation of its rights, since discoveries such as these demonstrate that Chile is one of the few countries with a constant Antarctic relationship. Numerous scientific and geographical studies thus support Chilean sovereignty over the area.

In April 2001, a project to transfer Chilean jurisdiction over Antarctica and the village of "Las Estrellas" from Punta Arenas to the Municipality of Navarino, on the island of the same name, which would be renamed the Municipality of Cape Horn, was approved in April 2001. This measure, although it has some critical remarks, makes a great administrative approximation of the Chilean Antarctic alien to any inductive projection as is the case in other countries, demonstrating another instance of the true close relationship that exists between continental Chile and its polar territory.

In this sense, it may constitute a great advance, but it will be of no use if the serious problem derived from the reduction of the number of people who live in Chile's Antarctic territory persists.<ref>[http://www.soberaniachile.cl/derechos_soberanos_antarticos_de_chile.html]</ref>

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Chilean Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:Chilean History]]
[[Category:Antarctica]]

Chilean Antarctic Territory

2026-03-23T13:06:19Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Importance of Villa Las Estrellas, Antarctic present and future */

[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|thumbnail|The Chilean Antarctic Territory.]]
The '''Chilean Antarctic Territory''' or '''Chilean Antarctica''' (in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''Territorio Antártico Chileno'' or ''Antártica Chilena'') is the [[Chile]]an territory which is located on the [[Antarctica|Antarctic Continent]] between the meridians 53° W and 90° W and to the south of parallel 60° S. Chilean sovereignty over Antarctica is the only one backed by legal titles among all the countries interested in it. The territory belongs to the commune of ''Antártica'' in the ''Antártica Chilena'' Province of the [[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region]]. The territory reaches the [[South Pole]].

Chile has the advantage, moreover, of a privileged and extended location towards its Antarctic possessions, which all other countries lack. While this would suggest that the Chilean situation is highly favorable to its position with respect to Antarctic territory, there are several claims to the same territory and the surrender policies of recent years have jeopardized years of efforts to consolidate Chilean territorial rights over the white continent. Even so, there is no other country in the world with legal titles and historical or geographical arguments as solid as those of the Chilean Antarctic Territory.<ref name="Oscar">{{cite book |author=Pinochet de la Barra, Óscar |title=La Antártica Chilena |date=November 1944 |publisher=Editorial Andrés Bello}}</ref><ref name="Desarrollo">{{cite book |author=Francisco Orrego Vicuña; Augusto Salinas Araya |title=Desarrollo de la Antártica |date=1977 |publisher=Instituto de Estudios Internacionales, Universidad de Chile; Editorial Universitaria. |location=[[Santiago de Chile]] |url=https://libros.uchile.cl/files/presses/1/monographs/328/submission/proof/38/ |language=es }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Pablo
Mancilla González |title=Antecedentes históricos sobre el Territorio Antártico Chileno conocidos hacia la década de 1950 |url=http://repositorioantartica.umag.cl/handle/20.500.11894/209 |publisher=Repositorio Antártica, Universidad de Magallanes |access-date=25 August 2022 |location=[[Punta Arenas]] |language=es |date=July 1, 2011 |archive-date=19 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220819194935/http://repositorioantartica.umag.cl/handle/20.500.11894/209 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Andrea Calamari|title=El conjurado que gobernó la Antártida |url=https://www.jotdown.es/2022/06/el-conjurado-que-goberno-la-antartida/ |publisher=Jot Down |language=es |date=June 2022}}</ref><ref name=HistoryOfTheFrontiers>{{cite book|author=Guillermo Lagos Carmona|title=Los Títulos Históricos – Historia de las Fronteras de Chile|date=1985|publisher=Andrés Bello|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dlY7Lg5p9A4C|language=es}}</ref>

==Chile's geographical relationship with the Antarctic continent==
[[File:Shackleton Fracture Zone dividing the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.png|thumbnail|Shackleton Fracture Zone dividing the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.]]
In their eagerness to expose Chilean rights on the basis of the incontestable hispanic legal titles extended in 1555 and 1558 (see below), thus seeking to establish an advantageous distance with the less categorical arguments of the other nations claiming Antarctic sovereignty, many Chilean authors forget that nature had already predisposed -from millions of years before- a geographical relationship over the white continent, for whoever came to possess the Magellanic region.

Although some Chilean writers have ignored the geographical and oceanographic arguments, it is certain that they reaffirm the Chilean condition as a country where the possession of Antarctic lands is of greater legitimacy, given the natural geographical link that exists between Antarctica and the Southern zone of Chile, since everything indicates that the American and Antarctic continents were still united long after the separation of the primordial mega-continent of Gondwana.

Obvious similarities have been found between plant fossils from the Antarctic territory and South America, and Antarctic charcoal would come from fossil forests with a rather equatorial climate. Towards the beginning of the Cenozoic, the union of both continents subsisted only in the [[Antarctic Peninsula]] and [[Cape Horn]], two territories that correspond to Chile both by titles and historical relations.

The detachment of both land masses left a trail of islands, rocks and islets that mark the outline of the Southern or Southern Antilles Arc, so named by Suess in 1883, whose line connects the islands south of Tierra del Fuego with the Peninsula, constituting the true border between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which walks joining the next island bridge. Its trajectory is as follows:

It departs at the Chilean island system Wollaston, Cape Horn and Beagle in a southeasterly direction.
It jumps to the area of Cape San Diego and Isla de los Estados (some consider this to be the true beginning).
Continue on Buhwood Bank, south of Falkland Islands.
Continue on Cormorant Rocks and Black Rocks.
Proceed to South Georgia Island.
Make a U-turn to the southwest, following the outline of the South Sandwich Islands archipelago.
Jump from there to the South Orkney Islands.
It culminates, finally, in the system of the Pilot Pardo Islands, South Shetland and the Antarctic Peninsula of O'Higgins Land, which in turn maintains the southwest direction in its geographic shape.
The arc forms a horseshoe that, in turn, is connected to the discontinuous prolongation of the Andes Mountain Range towards O'Higgins Land, a system of which the islands we have pointed out as landmarks of the oceanic bridge are part of. This is the reason why the characteristic volcanic system of the Chilean Cordillera is prolonged with great activity in the Antarctic territory, even causing some disasters. All the sea within this austral arc, east of the Drake Passage and called Scotia Sea, is Pacific, although it has the appearance of entering the Atlantic and the division of this sea with the Pacific is considered at cartographic level at the height of Cape Horn, although without political implications, according to international agreements.

Throughout the history of the Earth there have been several similar intercontinental bridges, such as the Alaska-Chukotka projection in the Bering Strait ("Beringia"), the Aleutian Islands a little further south, or the island systems east of the Bay of Bengal and in the Philippines. Thus, even accepting that the sea surrounding the frozen continent was an Antarctic Ocean differentiated from the others, the Pacific surrounds the whole of the Chilean legal area by the described situation of the Southern Antilles Arc and the Scotia Sea, so that any foreign claim on the Chilean Antarctic Territory necessarily goes through adjustment or quarrel with legal rights over the Pacific Sea that precedes it.

The relationship of Magallanes with Antarctica, which Cañas Montalva would call "the austral-Antarctic spur" (see below) is, as we can see, unique in the projection of any country in the world towards the white continent.

Let us remember that these geographical rights that nature has generously granted to Chile, are used by their authors only to complement their titles and support their jurisdiction, while other countries, such as Argentina, rely essentially on geographical relations and projections to present grounds for possession or Antarctic correspondence. This is due to the fact that the bulk of Chile's argumentation concentrates on the titles of dominion and historical relations with the Antarctic territory, which we will now see.

==Importance of Villa Las Estrellas, Antarctic present and future==
{{Main article|Villa Las Estrellas}}
[[File:Villa Las Estrellas.jpg|thumbnail|Villa Las Estrellas, the Chilean town in the South Shetland Islands at night. ]]
[[File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Pinochet]] inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.]]
The most significant act for Chile, however, perhaps corresponds to the inauguration of Villa Las Estrellas, by [[President of Chile|President]] [[Augusto Pinochet]] on April 9, 1984, on King George Island, in the South Shetlands. It is located next to the President Frei Meteorological Center and three kilometers from the Lieutenant Marsh Base. Pinochet visited the continent more than once, the first time in 1977. Today there is the Lucía Mountain named after his wife Lucía Hiriart, the Augusto Pinochet Massif (also known as Dufek) and the Admiral Merino Channel (also known as Plata).

Initially with only six families, in a few months it had already doubled to 12 families and was already the first and only population of civilian settlers established in Antarctica, with no other similar experience in history. The success of this project allowed the registration of some of the first human births in Antarctic territory, which up to 1985 totaled three:

*Juan Pablo Camacho Martinez (November 21, 1984)
*Gisella Ester Cortés Rojas (2 December 1984)
*Ignacio Alfonso Miranda Lagunas (January 23, 1985).
In practice, this means that Chile has allowed the birth of another of the first men with Antarctic gentilage, among the first authentic "Antarctics" in the world, after a registry apparently initiated at the Argentinean base "Esperanza" on January 7, 1978 (Emilio Marcos Palma), but which has been put in doubt by some technical and historical criteria, such as the much earlier birth of a girl in South Georgia Island, United Kingdom: Solveig Gunbjörg Jacobsen, born on October 8, 1913. The case is recorded by Robert K. Headland in his work "The Island of South Georgia" (Cambridge University Press, 1984). Moreover, in the Argentine case, the parents were not resident civilians, but rather officials of a temporary base, although they had been living in specially arranged cabins since that same year. It should be noted that in the case of the Chilean births, they were also residents, since they belonged to families who were members of the settler community. The confusion of the Argentine case and its registration as the "first" in the world, which has even been accepted by the Guinness Book of Records, seems to derive from the campaign carried out during the last Argentine military governments as propaganda in favor of their aspirations over the southern territory.

At present, villa "Las Estrellas" has a large population of its own, including an inn, a nursery, a school, a mini hospital, a small supermarket, a post office and a bank, which make it a real human colony, and not an imitation or a set-up of one, to the point that it has become an important enclave of logistic support for the other eight nations that have installations on King George Island and its surroundings.

Supplies are periodically flown in by air, a task carried out by the Chilean Air Force. The colony's houses are built with great comfort, in a hundred square meters and with lenga wood on a solid steel chassis, with special adaptations in roofs and windows to insulate the cold environment.

The success of villa "Las Estrellas" has not been unique for Chile. In July 2000, another good scientific news took place, after a Chilean research group discovered a natural sanctuary for Antarctic Minke whales, which developed their own habitat on the frozen continent, adapting to its extreme climatic conditions. The whales' refuge was defined by the scientists as "a new population and species of Minke whales for the southern hemisphere". Apparently, the cetaceans developed an extraordinary adaptation that allowed them to permanently inhabit Antarctic waters without having to migrate in the austral winter.

This type of progress is also fundamental for the defense of Chile's Antarctic rights, protected by the Antarctic Treaty, since the country has achieved remarkable advances and discoveries on the white continent, knowledge and foundations that will later be vital for the validation of its rights, since discoveries such as these demonstrate that Chile is one of the few countries with a constant Antarctic relationship. Numerous scientific and geographical studies thus support Chilean sovereignty over the area.

In April 2001, a project to transfer Chilean jurisdiction over Antarctica and the village of "Las Estrellas" from Punta Arenas to the Municipality of Navarino, on the island of the same name, which would be renamed the Municipality of Cape Horn, was approved in April 2001. This measure, although it has some critical remarks, makes a great administrative approximation of the Chilean Antarctic alien to any inductive projection as is the case in other countries, demonstrating another instance of the true close relationship that exists between continental Chile and its polar territory.

In this sense, it may constitute a great advance, but it will be of no use if the serious problem derived from the reduction of the number of people who live in Chile's Antarctic territory persists.<ref>[http://www.soberaniachile.cl/derechos_soberanos_antarticos_de_chile.html]</ref>

==The Laws of the Indies and the Chilean Antarctic Territory==
[[File:OrteliusWorldMap1570.jpg|thumbnail|1570 World Map]]
Chile is the first and only country to receive legal title to the Antarctic territory, in early hispanic times, and this occurred when there was still no certainty about the physical and geographical aspect of that enormous frozen continent, whose existence was barely known from stories with more characteristics of fantasy than authenticity. It was the "Terra Incognita", "Terra Australis" or "Terra Australia Nondum Cognita" of the old maps of cartographers such as Abraham Ortelius and Gerard Mercator. The area corresponding to the Spanish dominion and placed in Chilean jurisdiction included the territories of the Antarctic cap between the meridian of Tordesillas at 37º 7' and 90º West of Greenwich, which was in absolute abandonment at the beginning of the conquest.

We will see that the southern end up to the Pole was included in the Spanish domain since the creation of the Gobernación del Estrecho, by Pero Sancho de la Hoz, who received it from concessions extended in 1539 over the so-called "Terra Australis". The direct titles of Chile on the territory are merit of the [[Conquistador]] Don [[Pedro de Valdivia]], who insisted to the Crown until achieving the extension of the domain of Chile until the [[Strait of Magellan]], assigning the administration of the southern zone to Jerónimo de Alderete and seeing Pero Sancho de la Hoz in obligation to cede them in 1554.

Alderete was in charge of the conquistador's administration of these lands. Paradoxically, Valdivia had died by the time he succeeded in extending his dominions in 1555, so Alderete became directly Governor of Chile, including the Strait, in another proof that his administration was within the limits of the Chilean Governorate.

Here are some of the main arguments derived from the laws of the Indies that demonstrate the early incorporation of the Antarctic territory into the hispanic government of Chile:

'''Bull Inter Caetera of 1493''': On May 4, 1493, Pope Alexander VI granted by this bull to the Catholic Monarchs "exclusive rights over all islands and continents not possessed by other princes". It will be recalled that, only a year earlier, Christopher Columbus had arrived in America announcing his discovery in Spain, the sponsor of his voyage to the New World, so that the "unowned" territories necessarily corresponded to the American continent and the Antarctic continent. We will see that the exercise of these rights in Antarctica was entrusted to the hispanic administration of Chile by the Hispanic sovereigns, due to the geographical proximity and its Magellanic connection. It should be remembered that the Treaty of Tordesillas did not alter the exercise of Spain's sovereign rights over Antarctica, nor those inherited by Chile after 1810.

'''Royal Capitulations of Toledo of 1534''': After the conquest of [[Peru]] by [[Francisco Pizarro]] and [[Diego de Almagro]], the Crown began to distinguish the coasts of the Pacific or South Sea and the Magellanic coasts, at the southern end, where there was an enormous unexplored territory. For this reason, Charles V celebrated, on May 21, 1534, three capitulations or contracts in Toledo, to undertake the conquest towards the South, creating with them three governorships to the South of Pizarro's New Castile: Nueva Toledo, for Diego de Almagro (from 14º to 25º 31' 26'', near Taltal); Nueva Andalucía or Río de la Plata, for Pedro de Mendoza (from 25º 31' 26'' to 36º 57' 09'') and Nueva León or Tierra Magallánica, for Simón de Alcazaba (from 36º 57' 09'' to 48º 22' 52'', more or less at the height of Isla la Campana). Shortly after it was created, the latter was ceded to Francisco de Camargo, extending it to the Strait of Magellan.

'''Royal Capitulation of Toledo of 1539''': From 1539, the future Captaincy of Chile began to receive insistent instructions from the Crown to exercise dominion over the Magellanic Lands. For this reason, on January 24 of that same year, a fourth Governorate had been created, to the south of the Strait, the "Terra Australis", for Pero Sancho de la Hoz, which would also be within the limits of hispanic Chile. It was then believed that there was a large undiscovered territory south of the Strait. It was for this reason that Sancho de la Hoz attempted a partnership with Pedro de Valdivia when he arrived in Cuzco from Spain and found the latter ready to leave for the conquest of Chile, in the service of Pizarro. However, he got into excessive debt, did not fulfill his part of the contract and had to reluctantly cede his governorship to Valdivia. He would end up betraying the conquistador and dying executed by Villagra in the middle of his conspiracy plot.

'''Royal Decree of Arrás of 1554''': Fearing that the Council of the Indies would not agree to the idea of extending Pedro de Valdivia's governorship to the Strait by transferring territories that had been given to Camargo, as requested by the conqueror of Chile and his envoy to the Court, Don Jerónimo de Alderete, the latter managed to meet with the sovereign Charles V in Arrás and explained the reasons for the interest and the convenience of Valdivia's request. As soon as the meeting concluded, the Emperor notified the members of the Council of the Indies by two Royal Letters, dated September 29, 1554, telling them: "Captain Jeronimo de Alderete came to this our Court, to give us reason of the state in which the things of the Province of Chile called the New Extremadura remained and he has begged us some things on behalf of the said Province, of Don Pedro de Valdivia, our Governor of it and his own...". "We have also been informed by the said Captain Jeronimo de Alderete, of what touches the Strait of Magellan and how much it would matter to our service to finish discovering and populating the other part of the said Strait and to make some forces in certain places that are very convenient for it... having consulted us particularly it has seemed to us to grant as the present we will grant the said Captain Jeronimo de Alderete the Governorate of the land that, as it is said, is on the other part of the said Strait of Magellan...". It was then believed that it was easy to jump to the other side of the Strait to find the "Terra Incognita", since in a curious error of the time (which lasted for a long time) it was taken for granted that the South of Tierra del Fuego was directly connected to Antarctica, as shown in practically all the maps of those years. Thus, a new governorate was created south of the Strait of Gibraltar and given to Alderete.

'''Royal Decree of Valladolid of 1555''': The main concessions for Chile on the Antarctic territory come from two other important decrees, simultaneously issued on May 29, 1555 and relating to the extension of the Governorate that belonged to Pedro de Valdivia (Chile) up to the Strait of Magellan, for Alderete on the death of the conqueror, including the Governorate of the Strait that he had just received the previous year. In the second of them he expressly said: "Adelantado don Jerónimo de Alderete, our governor of the province of Chile, you know how you have provided us with the said government as far as the Strait of Magellan; and because we wish to know the lands and towns on the other side of the said strait, and understand the secrets that are in that land, I command you to send some ships from the said provinces of Chile to take news and a report on the quality of that land and the usefulness of it. ... and you will provide that possession be taken in our name of the lands and provinces that fall in the demarcation of the Crown of Castile..." The same royal decree was addressed as follows: "To the Governor of Chile so that, once he arrives, he will send to take reason of the land on the other side of the Strait". With this, not only was the existence of a jurisdiction of all the territory south of the Strait confirmed, but it was also incorporated to the Chilean territory that now, replacing Valdivia, Alderete would govern in its entirety.

'''Royal Decree of Brussels of 1558''': It was not enough for the Crown to grant jurisdiction over the unknown southern lands. Interested in knowing what was in them, and in another indesmentible and unquestionable act of the rights of Chile in the Pole, on December 20, 1558, Charles V granted a new concession to the Governor Francisco de Villagra by two royal decrees. The first one of them says textually: "As you will see by this our Letter, which with this one is given to you, you are ordered and commanded that when you arrive to that land you send some ships to take news and relation of the land that is on the other side of the Strait; you have care to understand of it and to warn us of the news that the people that you send to it will bring...". The second letter alluded to in the previous paragraph has the following heading: "To the said Francisco de Villagra so that he sends a list of the lands on the other side of the Strait and takes possession of them". The aforementioned letter goes on to request the exploration and adjudication of all the territory further south than the Strait, and to take "possession in our name of the lands and provinces that fall within the demarcation of the Crown of Castile". The cedula alluded to the territory located up to the geographic pole, where the Spanish monarchic jurisdiction culminated. The delimitation of the Crown of Castile then considered an imaginary line drawn from pole to pole 370 leagues to the west of the Cape Verde Islands, by virtue of the bulls of Alexander VI, rectified in the Treaty of Tordesillas signed later between Spain and Portugal.

'''Royal Commission of Governor García Hurtado de Mendoza of 1560''': Finding by then the province of Cuyo within the territory of the Kingdom of Chile, the young Governor García Hurtado de Mendoza decided to extend orders to pacify and populate the region, dictating for this purpose a Royal Commission in favor of Don Pedro del Castillo to appoint him Lieutenant Governor of the province, dated November 20, 1560, in which he writes a very particular heading, only two years after the sailor Juan Ladrillero took possession of the Strait of Magellan, sent by him: "Don García Hurtado de Mendoza, Governor and Captain General in these Provinces of Chile and its comarcas by his Majesty. Inasmuch as his Majesty by his royal Provisions entrusted me with the Governorship of these said Provinces of Chile from North to South from the Valley of Copiapó to the other side of the Strait of Magellan, and from east-west one hundred and fifty leagues, as he gave it and pointed it out by Governorship to the Adelantado Don Jerónimo de Alderete...".

'''Law 12 of the Compilation of the Laws of the Indies of 1680''': In the year 1680, the sovereign Charles II decided to promulgate the "Compilation of the Laws of the Kingdoms of the Indies", gathering most of the laws accumulated with respect to the Indian colonies, merging them into an organic and orderly structure. Law 12, of Title XV (Book II) of this Compilation, establishes a general demarcation guideline of the limits of the "Audiencia y Cancillería Real de Santiago de Chile", where it indicates as internal territory everything that "reduces, populates and pacifies within and outside the Strait of Magellan and the interior land up to and including the province of Cuyo". This reference is very clear in pointing out territories "inside and outside" the Strait of Magellan, referring by those that are outside to those that project southward from the oceanic passage and Tierra del Fuego, precisely in the idea of a geographical relationship between the American continent and the Antarctic Terra Australis, even though there was no longer any continuity with the Fuegian territories, as demonstrated by the voyage of the English corsair Sir Francis Drake when he discovered, in 1578, the feared maritime passage that today bears his name between the southern tip of the Southern Cone and the Antarctic Peninsula. Only in 1616 other navigators dared to pass through this rough passage, when the Dutchmen Le Maire and Schouten discovered Cape Horn. Incidentally, it should be noted that the law indicates the whole of Patagonia, "inland" from the Strait to Cuyo, also in Chilean territory, which invalidates the thesis of the later Argentine claims that Eastern Patagonia belonged then to the Audiencia of Buenos Aires.
For all the above reasons, legally, geographically and even oceanographically (relation of the Pacific with Antarctica), Chile has unrenounceable and unquestionable rights over the South Pole continent. Any questioning of these rights is an affront to the historical basis of these rights.

==Hispanic chronicles and texts on Chilean Antarctic rights==
[[File:Flag of Cross of Burgundy.svg|thumbnail|Flag of Cross of Burgundy, the Spanish Empire flag.]]
A no less generous amount of references from chroniclers of the Indies and documents related to the jurisdiction of the Governorate of Chile, also demonstrate the Antarctic extension that the territory of the Kingdom of Chile had in the times of the Hispanic dominion:

'''"La Araucana" by Alonso de Ercilla, in 1569''': In "La Araucana", published in 1569, don Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga writes in Canto I: "It is Chile north south of great length, / coast of the new sea, of the South called; / it will have from east to west of narrowness / one hundred miles, for the widest taken; / under the Antarctic pole in height / of twenty-seven degrees, prolonged / until where the ocean and Chilean sea / mix their waters by narrow bosom.".<ref name=araucana>{{cite web |author1=Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga |title=The Araucana |date=16 September 2017 |translator=David Russell |url=https://archive.org/stream/Araucana/Araucana_djvu.txt |access-date=28 January 2024}}</ref> Remember that in those years the adjective "Antarctic" was used as a counterpart of "arctic", that is to say, in allusion to the extreme south of the world, in the polar direction, rather than to the then still legendary white continent that was believed to be connected to the Strait and this, in turn, very close to the archipelago of Chiloé (the author's last destination) given the imprecise cartography of the time. Ercilla insists on this "Antarctic" condition of the Chilean territory in his Canto III: "It was she who found the remote Indians of the Antarctic regions". These lines take the author's memories from between 1557 and 1558, the years of Ercilla's adventure in Chile. They refer to the territory of the original cedulas of Pedro de Valdivia's jurisdiction over the Kingdom of Chile, which were expanded and modified several times after his death in 1554. As will be remembered, it was not until 1558 that Spanish strongholds could be founded in the south of Chile, particularly in Cañete and Osorno, since the discovery and conquest were in full process. That same year, also, Ladrillero's expedition managed to reach Magallanes.

'''"Description of the West Indies" by Antonio de Herrera, 1601''': In 1601 this work, by the first chronicler of the Indies, also known as the "Decades", was published in Madrid. The work is, at times, contradictory and has even been used by historians from Argentina and Bolivia to try to argue that Chile never had an inherited possession of Patagonia or the Atacama Desert, even though it also undermines their respective arguments in several other paragraphs. However, when referring in one part to the Kingdom of Chile, the author writes: "...the whole kingdom is within the area that the ancients called desert, which has been found populated by white Indians and is located on the shores of the South Sea, which is included between its coast and that of the Kingdom of China... and which ends in the coast of Chile and Peru, which is all one, up to the coast of the Kingdom of China. All the said sea, its shores and lands fall within the demarcation of the Crown of Castile and Leon, and everything else that is to be discovered in this sea, from the equinoctial line to the Antarctic Pole, which is the South Pole, also belongs to the Crown of Castile". Herrera includes in his works a sketch of South America where Tierra del Fuego, south of Magellan, appears perfectly linked to the unknown Antarctic land.

'''"Tabula Geographica" by Alonso de Ovalle, 1646''': The map entitled "Tabula Geographica Regni Chile" was included in the "Edición Histórica Relación del Reino de Chile y de las Misiones y Ministerios que Ejercita en él la Compañía de Jesús", by the Chilean Jesuit Alonso de Ovalle, printed in Rome by Francesco Caualli, in 1646. Ovalle had discovered in the Iberian Peninsula a great ignorance on the part of the authorities with respect to the history and the royal concessions that Spain had been granting to Chile for a century, so he took on the task of summarizing the chronicles and characteristics of the territory, capturing them in the "Historical Edition". By the end of 1644 his work was practically finished, but due to curious postponements and delays (among others, the death of the Father General of Spain with whom Ovalle had an understanding) this very important work only saw the light in 1646 and not in Spain, but in Rome, reason why many authors deprive it of official character in spite of having the approval of the Council of the Indies, constituting itself as the first printed chronicle written by an official of the Spanish Crown in the Indies about the territory, the history and the population of the Kingdom of Chile. In spite of the inaccuracies of the map, given that it was conceived with more illustrative characteristics than cartographic rigors, the "Tabula Geographica" shows the Tierra del Fuego connected to the tip of a mysterious southern land then only known by stories and rumors, which would correspond to the Antarctic Peninsula or "Terra Incognita", which already appeared in the cartographies of the time. As we have said, it was a very common criterion at the time to show a supposed connection between Magellan and the mysterious Antarctica, so it seems that Ovalle could have confused the relationship of the Magellanic territory with the position of the Isla de los Estados (discovered thirty years earlier), where he placed his "Terra Incognita". Another interesting detail of the map is that it shows all of Patagonia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in possession of the Kingdom of Chile.

'''"Política Indiana" by Juan de Solórzano, from 1647''': This work, written by the Spanish jurist Juan de Solórzano Pereira, contributes one of the most explicit hispanic paragraphs to Chilean Antarctic rights: "By the Antarctic or South Pole, it is not known how far the land they call Patagones, and Strait of Magellan runs; but it is certain that, as cold as these regions are, they must be found populated and continued as those that fall in the other below the frigid zone. And Henrico Martinez, Ortelio and others say that this is where it joins New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, bordering Peru and the kingdom of Chile". Solórzano's error in believing Antarctica to be connected with the lands around the world persisted as a popular belief for many years among some intellectuals: in 1838, Edgar Allan Poe describes in his enigmatic book "The Adventures of Gordon Pym" a cold Antarctic territory full of icebergs, but inhabited by black tribes of Melanesian appearance and a fauna of African or Australian type, closing his story with the appearance of a mysterious giant that seems to evoke those that Europeans claimed to see in Patagonia.

'''"Historia General del Reino de Chile" by Diego de Rosales, circa 1660''': An hispanic work that would only be published in 1877, was that of the Jesuit Diego de Rosales, entitled "Historia General del Reino de Chile, Flandes Indiano". In it, the influential missionary and politician of the 17th century writes about Chile: "The Kingdom of Chile is the southern end of the vast Empire of Peru on the coast of the South Sea. Extending, past the Tropic of Capricorn, in latitude of six hundred and eighty-two and a half leagues, because its polar graduation is measured from north to south, from 26º to 55º towards the Antarctic pole, widening from east to west...". It is worth remembering that the 55º parallel is halfway between Magellan and the Antarctic Peninsula, so Rosales is actually pointing to Tierra del Fuego south of the Strait as the extreme territory of the kingdom, precisely the area that was supposed to be joined to the Antarctic continent in spite of Drake's discoveries. An amazing detail of this work is that Rosales notices the bifurcation and continuity of the Andes towards the southern end, precisely in the area of the South Antilles that we have described above, when he says: "This Cordillera and this heap of mountains piled one on top of the other, at its widest forty leagues, and as it gains the height of the Antarctic Pole, it narrows until it ends and hides in the sea by the new Strait of Le Maire". These observations are a scientific success for the time.
"Relación Histórica" by Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, official chroniclers of the Crown, 1748: The "Relación Histórica del viaje a la América Meridional hecho de orden de Su Mag. The "Relación Histórica del viaje a la América Meridional hecho de orden de Su Mag.", by the famous captains Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, published by royal order in Madrid, in 1748, in Part II, Book 2, page 335, says the following: "The extensive Kingdom of Chile occupies that part of southern America that from the ends of Peru runs towards the southern pole until the Strait of Magellan... making division between both kingdoms, as it is said in another part, the uninhabited area of Atacama...". It should be remembered that the conviction of the time makes us understand these references to the Strait of Magellan as a territory effectively incorporated or at least geographically very close to the Terra Non Cognita of the Austro.

'''"Historia Militar, Civil y Sagrada" by Miguel de Olivares, circa 1758''': Also written by a Jesuit priest, this document contains an interesting reference in its Chapter I, when saying about the geography of Chile: "Its long extension begins from the San Benito hill at the height of 22 degrees of southern latitude to Cape Horn, which is at the height of 56 degrees". Moving on in the reading, he then adds that the southern end is: "...Cape Horn, looking towards the Antarctic pole".
The lack of support for the Argentine position based on these titles and recognitions from the times of the Spanish Colony, has led practically all the Buenos Aires authors defending the Argentine Antarctic claim to concentrate exclusively on theories of geographical projections (which avoid confronting the issue with that of Chile's Indian rights in the Antarctic continent), despite being quite questionable as well, given the difficulty encountered by Argentina's desire to project itself territorially over Antarctica, notwithstanding the fact that the Chilean jurisdiction of Magallanes would hinder such a projection over the Antarctic Peninsula.

There is, however, a good amount of Chilean historical antecedents that also allow to sustain an impeccable argumentation of Antarctic rights from the years after the American Emancipation, as we shall see.

==Chilean expedition makes the first Antarctic landing in 1820==

At the time of Independence, the Republics inherited as their own territory the same territory they possessed when they were hispanic governorships of Spain and in 1810. It is what has been called uti possidetis. In this sense, in relation to the Antarctic issue, it can be assumed that the territory of the white continent that corresponded to Chile at that time, together with Patagonia, Magallanes and probably even the Falkland Islands (Oscar Espinosa Moraga and Manuel Hormazábal argue so), extended some 10 degrees further east than that currently considered, for reasons that will be discussed below and that were conceived with the sole purpose of recognizing Antarctic rights for Argentina. Chile could claim Antarctic territory from the meridian of Tordesillas, where the Spanish domain began, at 37º 7'.

Coincidentally to the years preceding and following the Emancipation process, there was a series of investigations and discoveries in which British and North Americans had great participation. James Cook circumnavigated the Antarctic coasts in 1772, producing a very precise and useful chart for that time; for his part, Williams Smith, in 1819, discovered the Southern Sethlands and landed on King George Island. Other explorers would make similar progress. Officially, the American sailor and hunter Nathaniel Palmer is considered to have sighted the Antarctic Peninsula for the first time in 1819. A few years later, James Wedell penetrated the ice barrier that bears his name. Another American seal hunter, John Davis, would be the protagonist of the first recorded landing in Antarctica, on February 7, 1821 according to official historiography. However, some of these versions are close to having to be revised in the light of the historical data available today.

Wanting to join this official list of pioneers, Argentine authors who publicize the Antarctic rights of their country have brought up that, on August 25, 1818, the Consulate of Buenos Aires issued to the merchant Juan Pedro Aguirre a patent to hunt wolves and settle in what he indicated as "some of the islands that in the height of the South Pole of this continent are uninhabited". In pretending to demonstrate with this weak argument that even then the entire southern Antarctic territory belonged to the Platense country, they overlook the fact that this event took place eight years after 1810 and, therefore, was outside the principle of uti possidetis. In addition, Aguirre represented a North American-Argentine wolf-breeding company incorporated in Argentina for the fur trade, so it is difficult for the Consulate not to have extended a patent to such a profitable business.

Discoveries and historical research have allowed us to form a very different picture of the Antarctic territories from what was previously thought, since it seems that bold sealers, whalers and fishermen have been operating there since ancient times, even before part of this geography was officially declared discovered. The South Shetlands Islands, for example, were already frequented by sea lion hunters before their announced discovery by the English in 1819, according to the accounts of Armando Braun Menéndez. Commercial zeal and disputes between companies supplying seal and whale blubber in the early years of the Industrial Revolution led to the secrecy of the details of these territories and the operations carried out there.

Although Aguirre's ships may have operated near Deception Island, as the Argentine authors point out, there is nothing to suggest that they ever set up a base or camp there or in any other Antarctic area, or that they ever landed on land. Chile, on the other hand, can offer history an extraordinary event that took place only two years after the trader received his authorization from Buenos Aires, and which places Chilean rights at the forefront of the arguments put forward before the community of countries claiming Antarctic titles.

In 1820, the news about the abundance of sea lions in this Antarctic territory sighted by Palmer, motivated the formation in Valparaíso of a series of expeditionary projects nicknamed "first Antarctic sea lion cycle". One of these voyages was made on the brigantine "Dragon of Valparaiso", a former English ship "Dragon of Liverpool" now incorporated to the Chilean merchant navy and captained by the Scotsman Andrew MacFarlane, who had served in the Chilean Navy and had settled in this country. The voyage was financed with English capital, but the crew was Chilean. The case has been rescued from oblivion by scholars such as the historical researcher Jorge Guzmán Gutiérrez.

The MacFarlane expedition sailed with Chilean personnel on September 12 and arrived two months later in Shetland, to hunt wolves in the area where this activity already existed, as we have said. None of the details of this part of the Chilean expedition had been known except that Captain Robert Fildes, of the English "Cora of Liverpool", met them on Deception Island, meeting the crew for a few hours and leaving a written record of this episode. The description made by Fildes allows us to establish, as Guzmán Gutiérrez indicates, that this is the true first landing historically recorded on the Antarctic continent, towards the end of November or beginning of December 1820, specifically in the western sector of the Antarctic Peninsula, and carried out by a Chilean expedition (newspaper "La Estrella" of Valparaíso, Saturday, April 10, 2004):

"...a whaling chalupa belonging to the brig Liverpool Dragon, lately of Valparaiso, docked next to us; it had been seven weeks on the coast and had obtained 5 thousand seal skins..."

"Half a mile from the entrance on a clear day will afford a good view of the land (Deception Island) to the South, which appears covered with snow, here and there black spots on which rocks appear. Captain MacFarlane of the brig Dragon, a very intelligent man, told me that he had landed there and had found leopards and elephant seals, but no seals..."

It is worth remembering that this contrasts with the official version that we have already seen, that the North American Captain John Davis was the first to touch Antarctic continental territory, in February 1821, when MacFarlane was already on his way back to Valparaíso, so that the event places Chile among the pioneer nations in the conquest of Antarctica.

==Antarctica in the Chilean republican conscience of the 19th century==
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]] knew about the Antarctic rights of Chile.]]
The most conclusive proof that any leader of the young independent republics of America would have been interested in the Antarctic territory is provided by a surprisingly premature reference by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], on August 20, 1831, when informing by correspondence accompanied by a "comparative sketch" between the geographical advantages of the United States of America and Chile, to the member of the British Royal Navy, Captain Coghlan. There, he suggests the convenience of a Chilean colonization with Irish elements and points out that the southern border of continental Chile was on the Atlantic coast from the San Jose Peninsula to New Shetland, in the Antarctic Peninsula that today bears the name of the hero in the official cartography of Chile:

"Chile old and new extends in the Pacific from Mejillones Bay to New South Shetland, in latitude 65º South and in the Atlantic from San José Peninsula in latitude 42º to New South Shetland, that is, 23º with a superabundance of excellent ports in both oceans, and all of them salubrious in all seasons. A mere glance at the map of South America suffices to prove that Chile, as described, holds the keys to that vast portion of the South Atlantic..."
Captain Coghlan considered this report so interesting that he sent it personally to the Foreign Office in London, so that it could be studied. The diplomat and writer Carlos Silva Vildósola rediscovered it in the general archive of this English department, translating it into Spanish and publishing it in Santiago in Volume XVII of the "Revista Chilena" of 1923.

In 1843, Chile founded the famous Fort Bulnes in the Brusnwick peninsula, with the expedition of the English officer Juan Williams on board the "Ancud". This act of sovereignty and republican takeover of the Strait of Magellan would be the mother of the Argentine claims on the rights alleged by Buenos Aires over eastern Patagonia. It is worth noting, however, that in the protests sent at the time by the Casa Rosada to La Moneda, the Argentine authorities left a written record that "the Brunswick Peninsula... occupies a central part of Patagonia". The colony would later move a few kilometers further north, giving birth to the city of Punta Arenas.

In 1855, Chile and Argentina signed an agreement in which they mutually recognized each other's territories on the basis of the principle of uti possidetis juris of 1810, which we have described above, although without specifying them. Because it was approved the following year, it is known as the Treaty of 1856. Although the debate over the Patagonian rights that both Republics claimed to have was already launched, the previously studied Indian laws confirm that, by this instrument, Antarctica belonged to Chile in all the portion of it considered by Spain in its territories.

In 1872, there was a fundamental change in the Argentine attitude, particularly when cornered by the shrewdness of the Chilean Chancellor Adolfo Ibáñez Gutiérrez to defend Chilean rights in eastern Patagonia. In order to better orient his position, Argentine Minister Félix Frías altered Buenos Aires' original statement that Magallanes (the Brunswick Peninsula) was "central part" of Patagonia and maintained that "Patagonia, the Strait of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego, although contiguous, were distinct territories", unrelated to each other. With this, Argentina intended to diminish the scope of the Chilean occupation of the Strait in 1843 with the foundation of Fort Bulnes. And, although there was no awareness of this in those years, the cut to the historical and geographical continuity of Magallanes and Tierra del Fuego also reached the Chilean rights over the Antarctic territory, born from the concept of continuity, in turn, between the Fuegian and Antarctic territories.

In spite of the unknown nature of the Antarctic territory even in those years, the debate for the possession of Patagonia and Magallanes held between the republics of Chile and Argentina was not exempt from some clear references by Chilean authors to the rights not only over the territories of the Southern Cone border, but also up to the geographical pole, allusions that were conspicuous by their absence in the Argentine defense presented by authors such as De Angelis, Vélez Sarsfield, Quesada or Trelles. Thus, we find an interesting paragraph in the work of Miguel Luis Amunátegui, "La Cuestión de Límites entre Chile y la República Argentina" (The Boundary Question between Chile and the Argentine Republic), published in 1879 in Santiago. There, the outstanding historical researcher and defender of Chilean Patagonian rights, alluding to the 1555 Royal Decrees, says:

"It is patently evident that the superannuation made the government of Chile reach at least as far as the Strait of Magellan, as Pedro de Valdivia had requested on so many occasions".

"And I say deliberately at least, because the second of the second of the writs of May 29, 1555, implies the addition of the land on the southern side of the strait to the government of Chile".

On the other hand, as the colony of Punta Arenas grew, maritime commercial activities increased towards the south of Cape Horn. Thus, in 1885, a society was created for the hunting and exploitation of whales, cetaceans which, at that time, were abundant in the waters of the Southern Hemisphere and which the candor of the time believed to be an inexhaustible resource. This company was formed by the Chileans Gabriel Toro and Juan Martinez. They had four operating vessels, one of which was wrecked in Antarctic waters visited by the fleet. All their authorizations and patents to work in those seas had been granted by Chile.

In 1894, the Governor's Office of Punta Arenas obtained a license for the exploitation by private industrialists of the marine resources south of the 54th parallel and up to Antarctica. An official letter dated June 20 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed the Governor of Magallanes that "in the next auction of leases of fiscal lands of that territory, the islands of Picton, Lennox and Nueva should be included". A year later, by Decree 1,121, Wollaston Island was leased to private individuals, requiring them to install "stores of provisions and naval articles for the service of ships that cross Cape Horn".

==Beginning of the 20th century: Chile consecrates its Antarctic rights==

The 20th century began with the scientific and adventurous euphoria left by the legendary feats of Antarctic exploration of the Germans and English. This interest had also manifested itself in two International Congresses of Geography, held in London in 1895 and Berlin in 1901. In those days, when Chilean rights were not yet openly questioned, the Swedish professor of the University of Upsala, Dr. Otto Nordenskjöld, requested authorization from Chile and some facilities to carry out exploratory work, just as the Englishmen Scott had done in 1899 and the Germans with Deygalski, also in 1901.

Following a process initiated in 1902 and concluded on New Year's Eve 1903, the Chilean Ministry of Industry granted the merchant Pedro Pablo Benavides a concession to lease the islands of Diego Ramírez and San Ildefonso, by Supreme Decree N° 3,310, for fishing and hunting sea lions from that place to the geographic pole, or "to the south indefinitely" according to the textual quotation of the document, a measure aimed at safeguarding Chile's territorial and maritime rights over that vast area. The conditions were, among others, to found a naval station, install a lighthouse, create a fishing school exclusively for Chileans and register the fishing boats arriving in the area, requiring them to work under the Chilean flag, thus delegating sovereign control in the region to Benavides. It seems that the facilities of the fishing company of the person in charge would be the first advance of bases in the Antarctic area that would have been requested in history.

It is worth noting that Argentina would later claim Antarctic rights for having founded the "first base" in the area: a meteorological observatory in the South Orkneys, in 1904. This is true; however, it is only the first Antarctic installation with the characteristics of a scientific base and not inhabited since, at that time and as we have seen, Chile already had installations for temporary administrative use in the Antarctic environment and belonging to the assets of the lobera company, which were populated during the annual capture periods.

Before the end of 1903, Benavides transferred his rights to Horacio Zañartu and Daniel Palacio. Both administered the company briefly, ceding it to the Punta Arenas merchant, Mr. José Pasonovic and his French partner Jules Königswerther, a transfer approved by ministerial decree on October 5, 1904. Meanwhile, in August 1904 and January 1905, the industrialists Eugenio Bois de Chesne, Santiago Edwards and Gonzalo González were authorized by decree to fish for whales south of Tierra del Fuego, giving rise to the Sociedad Austral de Pesquería, legally established the following year and which operated with two vessels until 1908.

In 1905 the Sociedad Ballenera de Magallanes was also legally constituted, with a capital of one hundred thousand pesos, formed by the Magellanic merchant Pedro A. de Bruyne and the Norwegian captain Adolfo Andersen, with headquarters in Bahía Águila, south of the Brunswick Peninsula. This company had been the first to attempt to hunt marine mammals in external waters south of Tierra del Fuego, for which it had carried out two expeditions, one between September and October 1903 and the other between December of that year and January 1904.

Meanwhile, the Chilean Chancellor Federico Puga Borne was preparing a remarkable Antarctic expeditionary project and the creation of a special Commission. Just in those days, the Magellan Whaling Society, which operated in Deception Island, would request permission to install a base in Shetland Island, raising the Chilean flag throughout the region in a pioneering activity. The company used to establish camps on Deception Island for whaling and ship repair work. The permit was extended through the Governor's Office of Magallanes, by Decree 29.095 of July 1906.

On the other hand, private individuals such as Enrique Fabry and Domingo de Toro Herrera had obtained from Chile, on February 27, 1906, twenty-year concessions for industrial, agricultural and fishing exploitation in the Diego Ramirez, Shetland and Georgia Islands and Graham's Land in the upper fraction of the Antarctic Peninsula, with the condition of maintaining safeguard and custody of the sovereign interests in the territory. They are the most extensive patents extended over the Antarctic territory and the most distant from the continent, and they were not exempt from controversy since, as Chancellor Puga would later point out, they were authorized by the Government without being completely processed by law due to the existence of pro-surrender politicians who considered the extension granted too wide for private individuals and were on the lookout to destroy it.

Chancellor Puga's successor, Mr. Antonio Huneeus Gana, received a report from the Navy that allowed him to submit to Congress, on July 5, a bill reserved for investing 150,000 pesos in southern expeditions and the establishment of scientific bases. He also appointed an advisory commission composed of the director of the Office of Limits, Luis Riso Patrón, the Director of the Astronomical Observatory, Alberto Obrecht, General Jorde Boonen Rivera, Admiral Arturo Wilson and the advisor to the Foreign Ministry, Alejandro Álvares. The task of the commission was to study "the best means to explore and occupy the islands and lands located in the South American Antarctic region". Unfortunately, they only managed to hold one working session, on August 6, because twelve days later, the violent earthquake of August 12 forced the State to urgently redistribute its resources, sacrificing, among many other things, the Antarctic Commission.

That same year, 1906, Argentina's Antarctic claims made their debut, superimposed on the territory that the Pacific country considered its own. Chile and Argentina began negotiations to recognize each other's Antarctic rights. The result of these agreements was the draft Complementary Boundary Demarcation Treaty, proposing an imaginary line passing between the Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands towards the Pole as the dividing border of the respective territories. Chile's territory was to the west and Argentina's to the east of that boundary. Unfortunately, this agreement was never consolidated into a definitive treaty due to Argentina's refusal to define the Antarctic border.

The Magallanes Whaling Society gradually incorporated captains such as Mauricio Braun and José Menéndez, as well as the Braun & Blanchard trading company, whose fleet of whalers operated under the command of Andersen until 1912. For many years they were the only whaling companies that operated directly in Antarctic waters, together with the Sociedad Ballenera de Corral, formed by Chilean and Norwegian capitals with headquarters in San Carlos cove, port of Corral, and which lost in 1913 one of its factory ships, the "Fiaga", in the waters of Orkney Islands. The Sociedad Ballenera de Magallanes operated until 1915, always preferring the outer waters of Tierra del Fuego, the vicinity of Graham's Land and the Antarctic Sea. In the "British Atlantic Derrotero Atlántico Británico" of 1916, the English noted:

"The Whaling Society has a coal deposit on Deception Island. Dr. Charcot received help there on two occasions, in 1908 and 1909".
Chilean rights, then, were being consecrated at the same time as the interest in the area, in the midst of adventure stories and true epics about the conquest of those territories at the end of the world.

==Acts of heroism: the feat of the Pilot Pardo in 1916==
[[File:Luis Pardo Villalón.jpg|thumbnail|Pilot [[Luis Pardo Villalón]].]]
In August 1914, when the First World War had just broken out, the English explorer [[Ernest Shackleton|Sir Ernest Shackleton]] set sail on his third expedition to Antarctica, not knowing that fate awaited him there with a terrible surprise. His purpose was to cross the South Pole from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea, for which he had the sailing ship "Endurance" and the steamship "Aurora". The latter, after setting sail from Australia, was to intercept the British travelers in the Mac Murdo Strait, next to the Ross Sea. This never happened, however.

As the year 1915 began, the Antarctic weather did not improve with the summer season and, on the contrary, was extremely cruel. Shackleton relied too much on nature and the Endurance was hopelessly trapped in the ice. Several tiring months remained in this situation, until an ice floe of several tons ferociously destroyed the ship on October 25. Finding it impossible to keep her afloat any longer, on November 21 she finally disappeared under the icy waters.

With no other choice, the 22 castaways began to wander around the area floating on pack ice and some boats near Pailet Island, until they reached Elephant or Elephant Island, an extraordinary 640 kilometers away from the place of the shipwreck. Desperate, Shackleton and five other men left in one of the rescued boats on April 25, 1916, finding it impossible to get help to rescue the rest of his men who were subjected to extreme conditions and without provisions. After sailing 1,300 kilometers to South Georgia, they tried to get help from the Norwegian whaler "Southern Sky", which unsuccessfully elaborated a rescue plan. No less badly did they fare in the Falkland Islands. From there, he managed to be transported to Montevideo where he was promised help, but the rescue ship sent there failed to reach the destination. Neither could the attempts of American and British ships penetrate the floating sea ice. The ice floes had completely cut off nautical communication to Elephant Island, where the men lay abandoned to their fate.

Returning to the Falkland Islands, Shackleton somehow knew that only in Chile could they give him the help he needed and he left for Punta Arenas, since the Chilean Navy's scampvessels "Yelcho" and "Yáñez" were hovering in the area. He then met with the Director General of the Navy, Admiral Joaquín Muñoz Hurtado, who advised the Chief of the Magallanes Naval Station, Admiral Luis V. López, to provide the explorer with a ship to rescue the men. Thus, the scampavía "Yelcho" left under the command of the experienced Pilot Luis Pardo Villalón, seconded by the 2nd Pilot León Aguirre Romero.

The rescue mission was a daring almost bordering on madness. The international nautical charts of this area, at the time, were incredibly imprecise and almost dangerous in their ambiguities. The "Yelcho", moreover, looked like a miniature compared to other foreign ships that had already failed in similar attempts. With 72 coal bunkers and 480 tons of displacement, the overload of coal to cover the distances increased the risks, in addition to the fact that the ship's feed pipes were in very bad condition and the condenser discharge was under water. To make matters worse, the weather reports predicted abundant low pressure centers, with freezing winds and some 24º below zero. It was quite a challenge for a crew that did not even carry ground communication equipment or weather-appropriate clothing.

They set sail on August 25, 1916, from Punta Arenas, skirting the channels to the Beagle, from where they crossed the dreaded Drake Passage with their bow towards the Antarctic continent. On the 28th, anguish began to grow when a suffocating fog obstructed their path. However, the daring Pilot Pardo did not give way and sailed on at full speed, arriving at the rocks of Seal, on Elephant Island, on August 30 at eleven o'clock in the morning. They began to round the island until they located the men at about 13:30 hours. It took another hour to get them all aboard the "Yelcho". "They really did not look like human beings", engineer Froilán Cabañas would say later, remembering the pitiful situation and the mortuary aspect of the castaways.

On the way back to Magallanes, weather problems continued, being caught by a strong storm in the Drake Sea, managing to reach Dungeness Point on September 2. Unable to disembark there, they continued to Río Seco, where she dropped anchor. They were all received as heroes in Punta Arenas, on September 4, amidst a great popular celebration and even foreign reporters who documented the scenes in the press and on film. Meanwhile, Admiral Lopez presented a request for the promotion of Pilot Pardo for such a titanic mission accomplished.

On board the same "Yelcho", the British were taken to Valparaíso, being greeted by the Squadron in a ceremonious reception and a high turnout of the inhabitants of the port. President Juan Luis Sanfuentes received Shackleton and Pardo as true celebrities. The intrepid pilot was awarded a merit note on his resume and was promoted to 1st Pilot on September 7. In a sign of his modesty and his vocation of service, he refused to accept from the British Government a financial recognition of 25,000 pounds sterling in gratitude for his feat, a succulent figure for which many other men, without fortune like him, would be willing to sell their souls. Pardo excused himself, declaring that he had only acted in the line of duty.

By law, ten years were credited by grace for the effects of retirement and it was established that he would enjoy a retirement pension equivalent to the full salary of his grade. Pardo retired in May 1919 and, in gratitude for his service, the Government appointed him Chilean Consul in Liverpool. The hero died on February 21, 1935, at the premature age of 53.

The rescue in Antarctica carried out by Pilot Pardo constitutes one of the most heroic acts that have taken place in that continent, blending, in addition with another of its most important and epic milestones, as was the Shackleton expedition, in a further proof of the solid relationship that the Republic of Chile already enjoyed in those years with its extracontinental extension in the Antarctic Territory.

==Chile declares by law its Antarctic territory in 1940==
[[File:Gentoo penguin 1.jpg|thumbnail|[[Penguin|Gentoo Penguin]].]]
In spite of Shackleton's adventure, the First World War turned out to be more of a generalized distraction with respect to the attention that Antarctica had, up to that moment. Virtually all scientific expeditions were halted and for periods nothing was said about it. But, after the end of the conflagration, the vertiginous development of aerial navigation was incorporated to the possibilities of research in little known territories such as Antarctica, so it was not strange that a series of new English, German and American explorers reappeared making surprising discoveries. Of these expeditions, it is worth mentioning those of the American Admiral Richard Eveleyn Byrd, which began in November 1929, trying to reach the South Pole in a Ford tri-engine plane "Floyd Bennet". He would make four other polar explorations, by air, land or sea, before his death. In 1934 he managed to survive from March to August in a small camp during the Antarctic winter, some 200 km from the nearest base. His adventures were recorded in the extraordinary work of his authorship "Alone".

Inspired by Admiral Byrd's exploit in 1929, the young Chilean Captain Ramón Cañas Montalva decided to start preparing his own expedition to highlight the geopolitical importance of Magallanes, which he called "the austral-Antarctic spur" because of its unequalled projection over the Antarctic Peninsula. He began to publish articles on the subject in "El Magallanes" in September 1931. It is worth noting that Cañas Montalva was familiar with the then immature concept of geopolitics, having personally met its creators during his stay in Europe in the early 1920s: the Uppsala University Professor Rudolf Kjellen and the German General Karl Haushofer. In addition, in 1916 he had met Shackleton upon his arrival in Punta Arenas, meeting him again in 1920 in Europe, where a great friendship was forged between them.

Meanwhile, Norway declared urbi et orbi its Antarctic pretensions between meridians 0º and 20º, on January 14, 1939. The news again alerted La Moneda to the danger that a resurgence of claims would begin to fall closer and closer to Chilean Antarctic territory, and President Pedro Aguirre Cerda and his Foreign Minister Abraham Ortega began the drafting of a report presented on January 17 with the purpose of safeguarding Chilean rights from any other claim. Shortly afterwards, the Germans took the Palmer Peninsula islands, claimed by England, partly confirming these fears.

In those days, Mr. Julio Escudero Guzmán was preparing a study entitled "The Present State of Antarctic Problems and their Eventual Link to the Chilean Interest". Escudero had been a student of J. Guillermo Guerra, and had succeeded him in the Chair of International Law. His work was published by decree number 1,574 of September 7, 1939, establishing the limits of the Chilean Antarctic Territory based on the legal, historical and geographical background studied by the author.

Perhaps the insistence of Cañas Montalva, President Pedro Aguirre Cerda and the then Chancellor Marcial Mora, who decided to establish by Decree 1,747 of November 6, 1940, based on the work of Professor Escudero, the Chilean Antarctic limits between meridians 53º and 90º, affirming sovereignty over about 1,250,000 square kilometers, had influenced his motivation:

"They form the Chilean Antarctic or Chilean Antarctic Territory, all the lands, islands, islets, islets, reefs, glaciers and others known and to be known, and the respective territorial sea, existing within the limits of the cap constituted by the meridians 53º, west longitude Greenwich, and 90º, west longitude Greenwich".
Although Chile could claim Antarctic territory from the meridian of Tordesillas, where the Spanish dominion began, at 37º 7', this law fixed it at 53º only to respect the Argentine presence in Laurie Island, through an observatory, a generous attitude that the Platense nation would not take with Chile when declaring its pretensions on Antarctic territory superimposing them to those of its neighbor, six years later. Chile had given up for nothing more than a third of what it was really entitled to, as Major Pablo Ihl would later point out.

In spite of these titles and studies that led to the 1940 Antarctic Declaration, some authors of open anti-Chilean tendency, such as the Bolivian General Humberto Cayoja Riart (militarily trained and also decorated in Argentina), writes with careless spelling and all the brashness the following in a book entitled "Chile's Expansion in the Southern Cone" (La Paz, 1998):

"By the year 1975, Chile with its traditional geopolitics of deception and subterfuge, officially included in its maps as CHILEAN ANTARCTIC TERRITORY the entire area previously delimited, superimposing this sector to Argentina's claim, constituting a new germ of disputes". (p. 137)

"According to this theory the Spanish Crown already in the 15th century considered the Antarctic Polar regions as its own and that therefore by virtue of Uti Posidetis Juris, the Chilean and Argentine claim (sic) includes its territorial aspirations up to those polar regions. Chile, currently illegally from the International Legal point of view, has incorporated in its maps under the denomination of CHILEAN ANTARCTICA" (page 140).

==A Chilean saves the Antarctic rights. Antarctic Treaty of 1959==

By a happy chance, President Ibañez appointed Miguel Serrano as his Chargé d'Affaires in India, around 1953, later promoted to Ambassador. As we shall see below, the writer had been one of the participants in the Chilean Antarctic expedition of 1947-1948.

In the 1950s, the Indian representative to the United Nations, Krishna Menon, presented an official proposal for the internationalization of the Antarctic Continent. As the idea seemed to have the sympathy of a large number of representatives of countries that did not have recognizable Antarctic rights or did not recognize those of others, those who did claim them quickly became alert. Argentine Ambassador Vicente Fatone sought talks with the New Delhi authorities without success. He was followed by the American representative John Sherman Cooper, who also failed. Faced with the need to stop the project, Washington sent an extraordinary delegate to India, Ambassador Cabbot Lodge, with no less happy results.

Serrano decided to act, although at first he did not succeed in reversing the Indian government's decision. Using his friendship with the remembered leader Indira Gandhi, he managed to arrange an interview with her father, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who received him a few days later. During the meeting, the man with the rose understood perfectly well that Menon's proposal was going to throw on the floor years of efforts by countries like Chile to consolidate their territorial rights over the white continent. In an extraordinary act of generosity, Nehru withdrew the proposal.

The Indian Ambassador to the UN tried to present it on at least one more occasion, but the firm relationship that was born between Nehru and Serrano was stronger, achieving the definitive withdrawal. Representatives Cabbot Lodge and Fatone formally thanked the Chilean management, which saved Antarctica from internationalization.

Unfortunately, Miguel Serrano's political affiliations have been harshly punished by some historians and academics who, in addition to the national literature prize, have denied him any form of recognition for his successful management. Even the name he had given to one of the Antarctic hills, in recognition of his participation in the Chilean expeditions of 1947-1948, has been inexcusably modified at a later date.

The interest in depriving Serrano of recognition has crushed, in passing, the relevance that Chile had in this process, since it was his notable actions in India (which, among other things, included giving him the support of the then young and exiled Dalai Lama of Tibet), when no other nation would open its doors to him, when no other nation would open its doors to him for fear of having an impasse with communist China) and the postponements he achieved on the Antarctic internationalization project, which allowed President Eisenhower, of the United States, to formulate an invitation to the 12 countries participating in the International Geophysical Year to hold a conference regarding the future of Antarctica.

The Chilean Foreign Ministry responded to this invitation on May 14, 1958, warning that it was not opposed to scientific collaboration but that the mere invitation to a country to participate in this meeting could not be invoked:

"...as a basis for aspirations or desires to occupy Antarctic territories, since, according to the principles of International Law, scientific research cannot be made a source of law".
It also warned that Chile's rights in the territory were not colonialist in nature and were the only ones arising from legal and historical titles, and therefore it would not accept "any form, whether direct or indirect, of internationalization of its national Antarctic territory" or the subjection of the same to another administration.

Thus, on December 1, 1959, Chile, Argentina, Australia, Australia, Belgium, United States, France, Great Britain, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, South Africa and Russia signed the Antarctic Treaty, which establishes that all seas and territories located south of parallel 60° can only be used for peaceful purposes that do not involve mining exploitation or alteration of the ecosystem, allowing the scientific exchange of knowledge. The Antarctic rights of each country are protected if they are legitimate. Summarizing, the commitments of this agreement were:

To give the Antarctic territory peaceful purposes, preventing military or armed installations.
To allow extensive international scientific research in Antarctica.
To leave claims frozen, assuring each signatory nation a status quo for the duration of the treaty.
Chile ratified these commitments on July 14, 1961. In 1991 and 1998, environmental protocols were added that reaffirmed the validity and validity of the Treaty.

==Chilean Antarctic bases: an advantageous presence==
[[File:Penguins.jpeg|thumbnail|[[Penguins]] in the Gabriel González Videla Base under the [[Chile]]an flag in 1957.]]
In 1947, the Soberanía Base, renamed "Capitán Arturo Prat", was installed on Greenwich Island. The following year, the "O'Higgins Base" was inaugurated. In 1951, the "Gabriel González Videla" Base was inaugurated. In 1955, the "Pedro Aguirre Cerda" Base, already destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Between 1956 and 1957, the "Risopatrón" Base was installed, later destroyed in a fire. In 1969, the "Presidente Frei" Meteorological Center. In 1980, the "Teniente Marsh" Air Base and the "Presidente Frei" Base, equipped with an airstrip. Along with these important facilities, there is the Base "Teniente Carvajal" (the southernmost of all, south of Adelaide Island), of the FACh, the Scientific Base "Professor Julio Escudero" on King George Island, and sub-bases such as "Comodoro Guesalaga", in addition to the "Spring" Refuge, under the Chilean Antarctic Institute, located in the middle of the Antarctic Peninsula of O'Higgins. There are also the shelters "Yankee Bay" on Greenwich Island, and "Cooper Mine" on Robert Island. There are even bases in ruins, such as "Cabo Gutiérrez Vargas" and "Pedro Aguirre Cerda", both on Deception Island.

The following is the list of bases and shelters published by the Chilean Antarctic Institute, which we think it is interesting to bring to your attention:

Permanent Bases (Source information: INACH):

'''BASE CAPTAIN ARTURO PRAT: Institution''': Chilean Navy - Annual staff: 12 people; in summer it reaches 17 or more, depending on the work to be done. - Location: Guesalaga Peninsula, Chile Bay, Greenwich Island, South Shetland Archipelago. - Coordinates: Latitude 62º 30' South - Longitude: 59º 41' West of Greenwich. History: The construction of this, the first base built by Chile in the Antarctic territory, began on January 27, 1947, after the disembarkation of the elements sent on the frigate Iquique, to which were added, later, those delivered by the transport Angamos on February 12. First, a pier was built to allow the disembarkation of the rest of the elements. A prefabricated, semi-cylindrical building was then erected, which had been brought from Iquique. Its steel and aluminum structure has an interior lining of plywood, which contains various insulating materials. This building, intended for the habitability of the personnel and the controls of the radio station, was tied to the ground by ten steel winds, in anticipation of the intense storms. Inside, three oil stoves and two ventilators kept the temperature at 18º C. A wooden building of 100 square meters was also erected, attached to the previous one, to be used as a warehouse, kitchen, workshops, generators and other ancillary services. The design of the latter building was the work of architect Julio Ripamonti Barros. Another hard work was undertaken when erecting the antennas of the radio station, which consisted of two strong 16-meter long Magellanic oak trunks. The Chilean crew that would be wintering there for the first time would depend entirely on radio communications for their liaison with their families and their institution for the rest of a long annual period. The weather station sheds were also erected. After arduous and long days - taking advantage of the long hours of natural light of the austral summer - in which civilians and uniformed personnel collaborated with enthusiasm, the Commodore of the Antarctic Flotilla, Federico Guesalaga Toro, proceeded to inaugurate the base on February 6, 1947. On that occasion, according to the founding act, it was called "Soberanía Meteorological and Radiotelegraphic Station", a name that was changed to the present one the following year.

'''BASE GENERAL BERNARDO O'HIGGINS''': Institution: Chilean Army - Annual manning: 23 men; in summer this amount can be tripled. - Location: Rada Covadonga, Tierra de O'Higgins, Antarctic Peninsula. - Coordinates: Latitude 63º 19' South - Longitude: 56º 54' West of Greenwich. History: In December 1947 it was decided that a flotilla commanded by Frigate Captain Ernesto González Navarrete would go to Antarctica to -among other tasks- relieve the crew of Puerto Soberanía and locate a suitable place to establish a new base that would be in charge of the Army. The flagship was the frigate Covadonga and the tanker Rancagua completed the flotilla. After the relief of the Prat base personnel, a long, difficult and dangerous exploration began in sectors that did not even appear on the navigation charts of the time. Even when the place where the base was to be built was finally determined, it was found that there was an error in the charts used of 18 miles towards the true 64º. The site chosen by Commodore Gonzalez, which he called Covadonga roadstead -in honor of the flagship- had several favorable characteristics, such as: flat terrain with an elevation of 10 meters above sea level, to build the main house; a natural landing place nearby and allows such operations from six other points; it offers a sheltered harbor and easy access through the Bransfield Strait; and, among other favorable aspects, it can be easily provisioned. Construction of the new Chilean base began on January 9, 1948 and was completed 47 days later. The rough work and cladding of the metal house was completed on January 20, for which reason Lieutenant Arturo Bahamonde, in charge of the 20 men working there, and the architect Julio Ripamonti, moved to live there to dedicate more time to the work. On February 9, it was learned that the President of the Republic, Mr. Gabriel González Videla, would visit the Chilean Antarctic Territory aboard the attack transport Presidente Pinto, and his arrival was estimated for the 17th of that same month. On February 18, 1948, coming from Port Soberanía, the frigate Covadonga, with President González Videla and his retinue on board, anchored in the harbor that bears his name. After the greetings and honors, and with the presence of high-ranking military and civilian authorities, the President proceeded to inaugurate the "General Bernardo O'Higgins" base.
PRESIDENT EDUARDO FREI MONTALVA AIR BASE: Institution: Chilean Air Force - Annual manning: 80 people, approximately; in summer it can reach 150. - Location: Fildes Bay, King George Island, South Shetland Archipelago. - Coordinates: Latitude 62º 12' South - Longitude: 58º 53' West of Greenwich. History: In order to continue the meteorological work carried out at the Pedro Aguirre Cerda base -destroyed by volcanic eruptions on Deception Island in 1967- the President Eduardo Frei Montalva Antarctic Meteorological Center was inaugurated on March 7, 1969, on King George Island. Subsequently, on March 31, 1980, Decree Law No. 3263 named the base that had been built around the Meteorological Center "Lieutenant Rodolfo Marsh Martin". Later, when the airstrip was already operational and Villa Las Estrellas was already inhabited, it was decided, in mid 1993, to restore the original name of Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva for the entire air complex, reserving the name of Lt. Marsh only for the airfield and its dependencies. (This explains why in some publications one or the other name is still used for the same base).

'''BASE PROFESOR JULIO ESCUDERO''': Institution: Instituto Antártico Chileno. - Staffing: One scientist during winter; preferential use in summer with a capacity of 22 people. - Location: Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, South Shetland. - Coordinates: Latitude 62° 12' 57'' South - Longitude: 58° 57' 35'' West. History: In 1975 the first metal containers were installed to support certain scientific studies being carried out in the area. Known as Refugio or Fildes Station, these facilities were expanded in 1990 with new modules. In 1994, architectural work began - according to the design of Architect Guillermo Muñoz Morales - to build the first housing module, which today stands out as the main structure of the complex. Although it was officially inaugurated on February 5, 1995 with the name of "Professor Julio Escudero", it has continued with works of expansion, refurbishment, installation of laboratories and new modules to allow in the shortest time possible the development of scientific projects that require the stay of scientists throughout the year. By means of Law Nº 19.462 of July 5, 1996, the denomination of this base was determined in memory of this outstanding jurist, drafter of the decree that fixed the limits of the Chilean Antarctic Territory and who had relevant participation in the drafting of the Antarctic Treaty.
Main summer bases (Source: INACH):

'''BASE PRESIDENTE GABRIEL GONZÁLEZ VIDELA''': Institution: Chilean Air Force - Staffing: sporadic use - Location: Gerlache Strait, Paraíso Bay, Antarctic Peninsula - Coordinates: 64º 49' south latitude; - 62º 51' west longitude Greenwich. History: It was built by the FACh and inaugurated on March 12, 1951. It bears the name of the first head of state in the world to set foot in Antarctica (February 1948). In 1964 it was deactivated until 1968-69. When the President Eduardo Frei Montalva Meteorological Center was built on King George Island, later followed by the current President Frei M. base, the institution concentrated all its efforts there and definitively vacated the GGV base. It currently serves as a refuge for explorers or scientists.

'''YELCHO BASE''': Institution: Instituto Antártico Chileno - Staff: 8 people, summer use. - Location: South Bay, Doumer Island, Palmer Archipelago - Coordinates: Latitude 64º 52' South - Longitude 63º 35' West. History: Its construction was initiated by the Chilean Navy in the summer of 1960-61, being completed in the following season. On February 28, 1963 it was commissioned especially for summer meteorological studies. Subsequently, as a result of a management of INACH, the Navy agreed to transfer it to this agency, which was materialized in the exempt decree No. 61 of May 27, 1986, of the Ministry of National Assets. According to this decree, "the fiscal property called Doumer Island and the constructions of the Yelcho naval sub-base, all of which make up an area of 1,200 hectares" is destined to the new owner.

'''BASE TENIENTE LUIS CARVAJAL''': Institution: Chilean Air Force - Crew: used only in summer - Location: at the southern end of Adelaide Island - Coordinates: latitude 67º 45' south - longitude 68º 55' west of Greenwich. History: The name of this base - determined by law Nº 18.411 of May 1985 - remembers Lieutenant Luis Tomás Carvajal Villarroel, born in 1956, who, as part of the first group of pilots of the former Marsh base - today President Frei Montalva - died as a result of an air accident; he was the first martyr of the FACh fallen in flight activities in Antarctica. This facility had been built by the British in 1961 under the name of Base T and finally vacated in 1977. In 1983 it was ceded to the Government of Chile.

'''LUIS RISOPATRÓN BASE''': Institution: Chilean Antarctic Institute - Staffing: summer use only - Location: Coppermine Peninsula, Robert Island, South Shetland - Coordinates: latitude 62º 23' South - longitude: 59º 38' West. History: The first building in the area where this base is located today was a shelter called "Coppermine", installed by the Chilean Navy in the summer of 1956-57. It is a wooden construction of 7 by 3 m. lined on the outside with waterproof canvas, and an annexed warehouse of 2.5 by 1.5 m. for food storage. Depending on Base Prat, this shelter served as support for the explorations that started from there, especially in winter when the English Strait was frozen, allowing it to be crossed on foot. It had, among its equipment, a charcoal stove and 6 bunks equipped with mattresses and their respective blankets. Law Nº 19.087 of September 24, 1991 determined its present name in homage to the outstanding Chilean geographer, Mr. Luis Risopatrón Sánchez, (1869-1930) author -among other important works- of the 1907 American Antarctic chart, considered Chile's first contribution to world cartography referring to Antarctica.

'''JULIO RIPAMONTI BASE''': Institution: Chilean Antarctic Institute - Staff: 4 people in summer - Location: Ardley Peninsula, King George Island - Coordinates: Latitude 62° 12.4 ' South -Longitude 58° 53.8' West. History: It was built in 1982, as a shelter, by the Chilean Air Force. It was used in numerous seasons to house researchers from the University of Chile and INACH. It was transferred to INACH in 1986 and expanded with three metal container-type modules. In 1997 the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) of Germany, gave INACH a shelter near this base, which was administratively associated with it. By means of exempt Resolution Nº 58 of February 17, 2000, published in the official gazette of February 24 of the same month, the base was named "Julio Ripamonti" in memory of the architect who not only directed the construction of the first Chilean Antarctic base, "Soberanía", but also executed the plans for it and for the bases "Bernardo O'Higgins" and "Gabriel González Videla".

'''SHIRREFF BASE''': Institution: Chilean Antarctic Institute - Staff: 4 people - Location: Cape Shirreff, north coast of Livingston Island, South Shetland - Coordinates: latitude 62º 28.2' South - longitude: 60º 46.3' West. History: In 1966, after Chilean researchers confirmed that the Antarctic fur seal was recovering its population - decimated by hunters a century ago - the IV Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) designated Cape Shirreff "Specially Protected Area No. 11". Subsequently, in 1990, the XV ATTC nominated this sector, including the neighboring San Telmo Islets, as "Site of Special Scientific Interest No. 32". The following year, the XVI RCTA included in the list of Identified Historic Monuments the monolith installed by Chile on February 1, 1993 in memory of the shipwrecked San Telmo, a Spanish ship that is believed to have been shipwrecked on these coasts in 1819. Also in 1993 the Working Group of the Antarctic Environment Monitoring Program (GT-CEMP) agreed to grant the sector the category of CEMP Site for being the most important breeding locality of fur seals in the South Shetland Islands.

'''ANTONIO HUNEEUS GANA BASE''': Institution: Chilean Antarctic Institute - Staff: 4 people, in summer - Location: Patriot Hills, Heritage chain, Ellsworth Mountains, 3,400 km from Punta Arenas and 1,084 km from the South Pole. - Approximately 6 hours 15 minutes flight from Punta Arenas by C-130 aircraft - Coordinates: latitude 80º 18' 7'' South - longitude: 81º 20' 39'' West. History: On January 11, 1995, a first group of researchers, sent by INACH, traveled to study the possibility of carrying out scientific work in the sector and, incidentally, to outline a probable installation of a summer station. Later, in November 1997, the first scientific research support facilities were installed in special tents. By Exempt Resolution No. 303 of October 11, 1999, it was named "Antonio Huneeus Gana Summer Base" in memory of the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the beginning of the twentieth century, who had an outstanding performance in the defense and strengthening of our Antarctic sovereignty.

'''TENIENTE ARTURO PARODI ALISTER POLAR STATION/UNION GLACIER STATION''': Institution: Chilean Air Force - Staffing: 5 and up to 40 people - Location: Patriot Hills Sector, Heritage Range, Ellsworth Mountains - Altitude: 885 meters above sea level - Coordinates: latitude 80º 18' South - longitude 81º 22' West - Distances: To the South Pole, 1. 080 Km; to Punta Arenas 3,400 Km; to Santiago 5,490 Km - Runway: enabled on "blue ice" (corrugated) of 2,500 meters long. History: The name assigned to this station remembers who was a pioneer in the aeronautical history of Chile.

'''COMODORO GUESALAGA REFUGE''': Institution: Chilean Navy - Staffing: sporadic use - Location: Avian Island, south of Adelaide Island - Coordinates: latitude 67º 46' South; longitude 68º 54' West of Greenwich. History: This shelter was inaugurated in February 1963 by the Navy and later ceased to function due to the proximity of the Teniente Carvajal base. It is currently closed.
DR. GUILLERMO MANN SHELTER: Institution: Chilean Antarctic Institute - Staff: 4 people; sporadic use - Location: Spring Point, Hughes Bay, Antarctic Peninsula - Coordinates: latitude 64º 17.8' South; longitude 61º 04' West Greenwich. History: It was built in the 1972-73 season by INACH and was given the name "Punta Spring". It is currently closed.
REFUGIO COMANDANTE RAMÓN CAÑAS MONTALVA: Institution: Chilean Army - Location: Duse Bay - Coordinates: latitude 60° 32' 15'' South; longitude 57° 24' 11'' West Greenwich.

==The white continent incorporated to the national life==
[[File:Flag of Magallanes, Chile.svg|250px|thumbnail|Flag of the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region.]]
Chile is the only country that is in immediate proximity to Antarctica, without covering enormous distances, and with only one maritime route, so its rights are not colonialist unlike those of all the other nations that claim territory there.

In 1947, the controversial Chilean National Socialist writer and poet Miguel Serrano Fernandez would travel to Antarctica as the journalistic agent of an expedition destined to install the first military base there (the "Arturo Prat"). As we have seen, it was up to him to achieve the withdrawal of India's proposal to the UN for the internationalization of the white continent. Great figures were also part of this extraordinary team sent in 1947: the future Director of the Chilean Antarctic Institute Mr. Oscar Pinochet de la Barra, the distinguished Ambassador José Miguel Barros and the architect Julio Ripamonti. The experience struck such a deep chord in Serrano's inspiration that he immortalized it ten years later in his eloquent work "Quién Llama en los Hielos", one of the most internationally acclaimed Chilean literary works. Another notable book on these events had also seen the light of day in 1947: "Chilenos en la Antártica" (Chileans in Antarctica), by journalist Oscar Vila Labra.

In 1948, the United States -which did not recognize any jurisdiction on the continent- proposed an international government for Antarctica, which was immediately rejected by Chile. Upon insisting on the subject, the Foreign Ministry in Santiago declared, on February 18, that it did not accept any attempt of this kind, although it was willing to reach agreements for scientific collaboration among several countries. Interestingly, U.S. policy changed significantly in the years that followed. The fear of internationalization projects led Chile and Argentina to sign on March 14, 1948 a mutual agreement on the protection and legal defense of their territorial rights jointly defined between the 25th and 90th meridians of West longitude, in whose territories both recognized sovereign rights without going into the conflictive issue of the respective delimitations.

With such a close relationship, it is not surprising the number of Chilean pioneers and heroes in Antarctic territory, after the adventure of Pilot Pardo that we have seen above. A particularly heroic feat among the Antarctic ice was the action of the then Chilean Lieutenant, Roberto Araos Tapia, recognized as an outstanding patriot, who in 1951 set out dangerously with a small group of brave men, rowing and by boat, from the González Videla Base to the Argentine station Bahía Melchior, after six hours of exhausting travel, to assist the Argentine officers who had been affected by an unfortunate fire at that base.

Another heroic page was written on April 9, 1961, when the outstanding Commander of the Arturo Prat Base, Lieutenant Commander Pedro González Pacheco, died in an accident while climbing the Cornisa snowdrift, on the López peak, to make meteorological observations, at the precise moment that the Argentine Republic was carrying out a series of media events to reinforce internationally the knowledge of its Antarctic aspirations.

Between October 10 and 14, 1984, Chile also carried out the first complete tourist voyage through Antarctica, since up to that moment most of the projects in this sense had only considered trips through the coastal area. On this occasion, travelers of different nationalities had the opportunity to get to know and set foot on the territory at the Chilean base Teniente Marsh, under the flag of Chile and the Air Force. The participants were Chilean, Argentinean and Brazilian tourists, totaling some forty in all, and the idea for this adventure came from the Public Relations Manager of the Ladeco airline, Sergio Pizarro, who proposed it to the FACh and the National Tourism Service.

As can be seen, Chile's presence in Antarctica is predominant, given its proximity to its continental territory. For Chile, the Antarctic territory is a comfortable and unforced extension of the continental territory. The bases are not only hastily marked points of presence, but have their own history, a past and a present integrated with the rest of the nation. A history that even has its own martyrs, the last of them after the accidental death of the prestigious Chilean geologist Eduardo García Soto, in the southern summer of 1999, while doing scientific research in the vicinity of the Teniente Carvajal Base.

History repeats itself with triple drama on September 28, 2005, when several Chilean officers fall into a 40-meter crevasse in their snowmobile, 17 kilometers from the "O'Higgins" base, where Captain Enrique Encina, 34 years old, and NCOs Fernando Burboa and Jorge Basualto Bravo, both 49 years old, perish. It is worth noting that shortly before, on Saturday, September 17, two Argentine explorers (biologist Augusto Thibaud and Navy NCO Teofilo Gonzalez) had had the same type of fatal accident, falling into a crevasse of more than 80 meters in the Collins Glacier.

A series of intrigues and controversies surrounded this accident of Chilean personnel after the investigations generated by the case, even complicating high-ranking military officials in a complex and dark plot that reflected the sad state and irresponsible management of the policy of Chilean presence in Antarctica. It will also be recalled that, since the previous year, both Chile and Argentina were cutting funding from their respective Antarctic plans in order to redirect them towards illusory and supine projects of "binational integration" in Antarctica, which included the closure of the "Prat" base and the creation of the "Abrazo de Maipú" refuge, where ironically the bodies of the three deceased Chileans ended up. As it is known, the melting of Antarctica and the repeated fracture of the ice crust demanded, on the contrary, to allocate more resources to preventive research instead of wasting them in anodyne sensitivities.

Chile, thus, has lived facing Antarctica, a luxury that no other nation has given itself. The fact that Chilean sovereignty in the region is not colonialist, has allowed the relationship between the country and its Antarctic part not to place these lands in the vulgar status of a vacation home. In liaison is constant: just look at the daily weather report, which includes the forecast for the Antarctic area, something that has generated Argentine protests on several occasions. The Chilean presence has marked important milestones, such as scientific discoveries and geological findings, in addition to a notable predominance of Chile in aspects of meteorological control, communication and air transport from Punta Arenas to the area, which has placed the Pacific country as the main contact for large scientific or adventurous expeditions in the last century.

It is also worth adding that Chile is the only country with a historical and even folkloric tradition so directly related to the extreme austral zones south of Tierra del Fuego, as can be seen in works by national authors such as "Cabo de Hornos", by Francisco Coloane, or "Quién Llama en los Hielos", by Miguel Serrano. Oreste Plath even identified legends related to the white continent and linked in one way or another to Chilean culture. The works of "adopted Chileans", such as those of the German Martin Gusinde and the Englishman Thomas Bridges, also suggest a curious and intriguing folkloric relationship between the native Fuegian-Magellanic culture and the mention of the "White Island", in possible archaic allusions to Antarctica.

== Geographic location of Chilean Antarctica ==
All this enormous extension is enclosed within the cap limited by the parallel 66 degrees south, with the sole exception of the Antarctic Peninsula (O'Higgins Land), whose extreme reaches up to latitude 61 degrees, incorporating the South Shetland Archipelago.
The Ross and Weddell Seas penetrate deeply into the Antarctic continent. The former reaches beyond 85 degrees south latitude and the latter to 83 degrees south latitude.
Antarctica is covered by an ice sheet, which in certain sectors reaches a thickness of more than three thousand meters.
This layer dominates practically between 98% and 99% of the surface terrain, leaving only about 260,000 square kilometers uncovered, which can be seen in large sectors of the Peninsula and adjacent islands and along the continental coast itself.
Geographically, this continent is divided by the so-called Transantarctic Mountains, with an extension of three thousand kilometers, and one of the longest chains in the world, which divides it into two parts:
East Antarctica, which geologically has an age of about 3 billion years, and West Antarctica, of more recent formation. There are also some interior mountain ranges and a number of peaks that emerge above the ice to expose its rocky nature.<ref>[https://www.icarito.cl/2009/12/3-7663-9-las-flores.shtml/]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==See also==
*[[Antarctica#Territorial Claims]]

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Geography of Chile]]
[[Category:Chilean History]]
[[Category:Antarctica]]

Villa Las Estrellas

2026-03-23T13:05:55Z

CatolicoAustral: Created page with "Villa Las Estrellas, the Chilean town in the South Shetland Islands at night. File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estr..."

[[File:Villa Las Estrellas.jpg|thumbnail|Villa Las Estrellas, the Chilean town in the South Shetland Islands at night. ]]
[[File:President Pinochet inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.jpg|thumbnail|[[President of Chile|President]] [[Pinochet]] inaugurating Villa Las Estrellas in the Chilean Antarctica.]]
'''Villa Las Estrellas''' is a town with civilian and military personel in King George Island, South Shetlands, Antarctica. It was inaugurated by [[President of Chile|President]] [[Augusto Pinochet]] on April 9, 1984. It is located next to the President Frei Meteorological Center and three kilometers from the Lieutenant Marsh Base. Pinochet visited the continent more than once, the first time in 1977. Today there is the Lucía Mountain named after his wife Lucía Hiriart, the Augusto Pinochet Massif (also known as Dufek) and the Admiral Merino Channel (also known as Plata).

== Population and births ==
Initially with only six families, in a few months it had already doubled to 12 families and was already the first and only population of civilian settlers established in Antarctica, with no other similar experience in history. The success of this project allowed the registration of some of the first human births in Antarctic territory, which up to 1985 totaled three:

*Juan Pablo Camacho Martinez (November 21, 1984)
*Gisella Ester Cortés Rojas (2 December 1984)
*Ignacio Alfonso Miranda Lagunas (January 23, 1985).
In practice, this means that Chile has allowed the birth of another of the first men with Antarctic gentilage, among the first authentic "Antarctics" in the world, after a registry apparently initiated at the Argentinean base "Esperanza" on January 7, 1978 (Emilio Marcos Palma), but which has been put in doubt by some technical and historical criteria, such as the much earlier birth of a girl in South Georgia Island, United Kingdom: Solveig Gunbjörg Jacobsen, born on October 8, 1913. The case is recorded by Robert K. Headland in his work "The Island of South Georgia" (Cambridge University Press, 1984). Moreover, in the Argentine case, the parents were not resident civilians, but rather officials of a temporary base, although they had been living in specially arranged cabins since that same year. It should be noted that in the case of the Chilean births, they were also residents, since they belonged to families who were members of the settler community. The confusion of the Argentine case and its registration as the "first" in the world, which has even been accepted by the Guinness Book of Records, seems to derive from the campaign carried out during the last Argentine military governments as propaganda in favor of their aspirations over the southern territory.

== Buildings ==
At present, villa "Las Estrellas" has a large population of its own, including an inn, a nursery, a school, a mini hospital, a small supermarket, a post office and a bank, which make it a real human colony, and not an imitation or a set-up of one, to the point that it has become an important enclave of logistic support for the other eight nations that have installations on King George Island and its surroundings.

Supplies are periodically flown in by air, a task carried out by the Chilean Air Force. The colony's houses are built with great comfort, in a hundred square meters and with lenga wood on a solid steel chassis, with special adaptations in roofs and windows to insulate the cold environment.

== Legacy ==
The success of villa "Las Estrellas" has not been unique for Chile. In July 2000, another good scientific news took place, after a Chilean research group discovered a natural sanctuary for Antarctic Minke whales, which developed their own habitat on the frozen continent, adapting to its extreme climatic conditions. The whales' refuge was defined by the scientists as "a new population and species of Minke whales for the southern hemisphere". Apparently, the cetaceans developed an extraordinary adaptation that allowed them to permanently inhabit Antarctic waters without having to migrate in the austral winter.

This type of progress is also fundamental for the defense of Chile's Antarctic rights, protected by the Antarctic Treaty, since the country has achieved remarkable advances and discoveries on the white continent, knowledge and foundations that will later be vital for the validation of its rights, since discoveries such as these demonstrate that Chile is one of the few countries with a constant Antarctic relationship. Numerous scientific and geographical studies thus support Chilean sovereignty over the area.

In April 2001, a project to transfer Chilean jurisdiction over Antarctica and the village of "Las Estrellas" from Punta Arenas to the Municipality of Navarino, on the island of the same name, which would be renamed the Municipality of Cape Horn, was approved in April 2001. This measure, although it has some critical remarks, makes a great administrative approximation of the Chilean Antarctic alien to any inductive projection as is the case in other countries, demonstrating another instance of the true close relationship that exists between continental Chile and its polar territory.

In this sense, it may constitute a great advance, but it will be of no use if the serious problem derived from the reduction of the number of people who live in Chile's Antarctic territory persists.<ref>[http://www.soberaniachile.cl/derechos_soberanos_antarticos_de_chile.html]</ref>

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Chilean Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:Chilean History]]
[[Category:Antarctica]]

Social Christian Party (Chile)

2026-03-23T12:57:48Z

CatolicoAustral:

The '''Social Christian Party''' of [[Chile]] is a conservative [[Evangelical]] political party which groups dissident right militants (which are not only Evangelical). The party has a [[Christian Zionism|Christian Zionist]] stance in full support of the [[Israel|state of Israel]]. The party is also [[Pro-Life]] and against the [[Homosexual agenda]]. Currently it is dissolved legally.

==Principles==
'''A.''' Respect and protection of the life of every human being. We believe in the concept
concept of the human being, whose definition contains a rational, biological, and spiritual component.
spiritual component, from which emanate fundamental bases:
a) Each human being is unique and unrepeatable from conception.
b) The defense and protection of human life from conception to natural death.

'''B.''' The development of the spirituality of each person. We consider the safeguard, promotion and development of spirituality, as well as its free expression, both public and private; this principle must be present in every area of society, where the life of each person develops, according to their freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and belief, having material space to develop it, freedom to nurture and express their faith, and the right to the use of conscientious objection. All this without any limit other than that imposed by morality, good customs and public order. The State must protect and watch over the safeguarding of these natural freedoms, superior and inherent to every human being and existing even before the laws and the State itself.

'''C.''' The human being conceived as a free individual, in a family, social and democratic environment. In this point we emphasize freedom of belief, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, as well as the special protection of freedom of education, respecting their parents as the first educators of children and adolescents. As well as the duty for the special concern and effort to support and care for the underprivileged, as well as the special
care for the underprivileged, the elderly, children, mothers, people with disabilities, orphans and those in the womb.

'''D.''' The Family as the fundamental nucleus of society. It will always be the family, defined from the Christian worldview, which has the fundamental role in the formation, protection, maintenance and care of each of its members and should be protected by the State, in its needs, always respecting the autonomy of this nucleus. The family is strengthened through marriage and through the preferential right of parents to educate their children in all areas of life.
life.

'''E.''' We are committed to safeguarding equal opportunities for men and women, as well as to the opportunities between men and women, as well as the recognition, respect and value of the inherent the value of the inherent natural differences between them, from the time they are conceived until the end of their lives.

'''F.''' The conception of Chile as a country with a western Jewish-Christian legal and cultural base and the promotion of the values that this entails, which we refer to as "Christian worldview".

'''G.''' A strong commitment to the strengthening of democracy and the respect, guarantee and promotion of the
promotion of the human rights guaranteed in the Constitution, in the international treaties ratified and in force.
international treaties ratified and in force in Chile and in the laws, all within the sovereignty of democracy.
within the sovereignty of the democracy exercised in the country. The recognition
of our nation as unique and sovereign and in full rule of law. With the recognition and protection of the autonomy of the development of intermediate bodies as a democratic and social.

'''H.''' Probity, transparency, honesty and respect for the democratic and social processes, as the basis of a democratic society.

'''I.''' The administration of the country through the three independent branches of government working for the good of each of the members of the society.

'''J.''' The security and recognition of the armed forces and public order as hierarchical structures, at the service of peace and the benefit of the country, being these armed forces obedient and non-deliberative.

'''K.''' Social rights must be guaranteed in an equitable manner by the State, prioritizing according to the vulnerability of the according to the vulnerability of the people.

'''L.''' The recognition of the right access to a quality education, free of any promotion of political ideologies, violence and and violent ideologies and taking care of the sexual indemnity of the students, protecting them sexuality that does not correspond to their development and age.

'''M.''' The establishment of the right to free access to health and its promotion N. Access to decent work, understood as work that is

'''N.''' Access to decent work, understood as formalized work and with the formalized and with the respect and promotion of workers' rights, and the duty of the and the duty of the State to promote the general conditions to facilitate formal enterprises
enterprises to generate jobs in quantity and quality, including salaries that exceed
quality, including salaries that exceed the minimum conditions.<ref>[https://socialcristiano.cl/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/DECLARACION-DE-PRINCIPIOS-DEL-PARTIDO.pdf]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Zionists]]
[[Category:Chilean Political Parties]]
[[Category:Evangelicals]]
[[Category:Pro-Life]]
[[Category:Pro Israel]]

Chile

2026-03-23T12:57:28Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Political parties and coalitions */

{{Country
|name =''República de Chile''
|map =Tricontinental Chile Map.jpg
|map2 =Chile location map.png
|flag =Flag of Chile.png
|arms =Coat of arms of Chile.png
|capital-raw =[[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]]
|government-raw =[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Unitarian & Presidentialist Republic]]
|language =Spanish
|president =José Antonio Kast
|president-raw=
|conservative-leader=
|conservative-leader-raw=[[José Antonio Kast]]/[[Johannes Kaiser]]
|area =774,657 sq. mi. (Tricontinental Chile) 292,183 sq. mi. (Only Continental and Insular Chile)
|pop =19,100,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$280,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$14,660 (2020)
|currency =Chilean Peso (CLP)
|idd =+56
|tld =.cl
}}
'''Chile''' (official name: '''Republic of Chile''') is a [[nation]] on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of [[South America]], [[Antarctica]] and [[Oceania]] which is organized as a Centralized Unitary Presidential [[Democracy]]. It has a population of 17.5 million and the capital city is [[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]] which is also the biggest city of the country. Chile borders [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Peru]].

Between 1975 and 2014, Chile followed the path of the [[free market]] and [[Capitalism]] been the best place to make business of [[Latin America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iberglobal.com/files/2019-1/economic_freedom_index_2019.pdf|title=Economic Freedom Index 2019}}</ref> This has made the country the most developed of the Region according to the [[Human Development Index]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=505045|title=Chile sigue al tope de A. Latina en Índice de Desarrollo Humano|date=September 15, 2018|publisher=Economía y Negocios|language=es}}</ref> Chile went from a [[Gross domestic product]] of 100 in 1973 to 515 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobierno.udd.cl/files/2016/05/PPT-FPP.pdf|author=Lucas Palacios Covarrubias|title=Pobreza vs Desigualdad|date=April 2016|publisher=[[Universidad del Desarrollo]] - Facultad de Gobierno|language=es}}</ref> However that was put at risk with the leftist insurrection from 2019 and the Boric presidency. Right-wing [[President of Chile|President]] [[José Antonio Kast]] promises to retake the path to develop the country.

In early September 2022, by a resounding 62-38% landslide margin, Chileans rejected a progressive new constitution proposal and thereby decided to retain [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|the one written under]] [[conservative]] leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1980, which was reformed over 70 times in democracy in more than half of its content.<ref>https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1121065756/chile-constitution-referendum</ref><ref>[https://www.uandes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CPR-Edicio%CC%81n-Histo%CC%81rica.pdf]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220929111026/https://plataformacontexto.cl/contexto_factual/cuanto-queda-de-la-constitucion-de-pinochet/ Cuánto queda de “la Constitución de Pinochet”]</ref> A new proposal from the center-right with globalist elements was rejected on December 2023 with a 56-44% landslide margin.

==Geography==
[[File:Volcano Osorno and Petrohué waterfalls.JPG|thumb|left|Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano in the background.]]
The northern Chilean [[Atacama Desert]] contains great mineral wealth, principally [[copper]], and also contains locations where rainfall has never been recorded. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in [[forest]]s and grazing lands and features a string of [[volcano]]es and [[lake]]s. The southern coast located in [[Patagonia]] is a labyrinth of [[fjord]]s, [[inlet]]s, [[canal]]s, twisting [[peninsula]]s, and [[island]]s. The [[Andes]] Mountains are located on the eastern border.
*Area of Tricontinental Chile: 2,006,354 km2 (774,657 sq. mi.) including the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]] which reaches the [[South Pole]].
*Area considering Continental and Insular Chile: 756,945 km2. (302,778 sq. mi.), or nearly twice the size of California.
*Cities: Capital—[[Santiago]] (metropolitan area est. 6.25 million). Other cities: [[Concepción]]-[[Talcahuano]] (840,000), [[Viña del Mar]]-[[Valparaíso]] (800,000), [[Antofagasta]] (245,000), [[Temuco]] (230,000).
*Terrain: Desert in north; fertile central valley; volcanoes and lakes toward the south, giving way to rugged and complex coastline; Andes Mountains on the eastern border.
*Climate: Arid in north, Mediterranean in the central portion, cool and damp in south.

Chile has experienced numerous massive earthquakes, being located within the "Ring of Fire": of the 46 known earthquakes estimated at magnitude >= 8.5, one-third have occurred in Chile, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was measured at magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever recorded. On four occasions, two earthquakes with magnitude >= 8.5 have had the same Chilean epicenter. Furthermore, the strongest estimated earthquake (before seismographs were invented) also took place in Chile around 1800 BC, also estimated in the magnitude 9.5 range.

==People==
[[File:Chilean dance.jpg|left|140px]]
About 85% of Chile's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in greater Santiago. Most have [[Spain|Spanish]] ancestry. A small, yet influential number of [[Irish]] and [[English]] immigrants came to Chile during the Spanish Empire period. [[German]] immigration began in 1848 and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of [[Valdivia]], [[Llanquihue]], and [[Osorno]] show a strong German influence. Other significant historic immigrant groups are [[Italian]], [[Croatian]], [[Basque]], [[Palestinian]] and [[Peruvian]]. About 800,000 Native Americans, mostly of the [[Mapuche]] (Araucan) tribes, reside in the south-central area. The [[Aymara]] and [[Diaguita]] groups can be found mainly in Chile's northern desert valleys.

Since 2014 Chile has been experiencing [[open borders|mass]] [[immigration]] from [[Haiti]], [[Venezuela]], [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]], something that was unusual and has drastically changed the demographics of the country in the recent years (The immigrants went from 1.1% to 6.1% and is still growing)<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> a lot of them are [[Illegal immigration|illegally]] (See ''[[Colchane#Mass_immigration_problem|Colchane's Mass immigration problem]]'').

*Population (2019): 17.5 million.
*Annual population growth rate: 0.881%.
*Ethnic groups: Spanish-Native-American (mestizo), European, Native-American, Blacks (since 2014 with mass Haitian immigration).
*Religions: [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] 70%, [[Evangelical]] 15.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.1%, other Christian 1%, other 4.6%, none 8.3%.
*Language: [[Spanish]].
*Education: Years compulsory—13. Attendance—3 million. Adult literacy rate—96%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate—8.9/1,000. Life expectancy—80 yrs. for men, 85 for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsuss.cl/ipsuss/analisis-y-estudios/esperanza-de-vida-al-nacer-en-chile-llega-a-85-anos-en-mujeres-y-80-anos/2017-09-26/154547.html|title=Esperanza de vida al nacer en Chile llega a 85 años en mujeres y 80 años en hombres|date=September 26, 2017|language=es|publisher=Ipsuss}}</ref>
*Work force (6.94 million); employed 6.45 million: Community, social and individual services—26%; industry—14.4%; commerce—17.6%; agriculture, forestry, and fishing—13.9%; construction—7.1%; financial services—7.5%; transportation and communication—8.0%; electricity, gas and water—0.5%; mining—1.2%.

==Government==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Palacio de La Moneda.jpg|thumbnail|250px|[[La Moneda]] Palace, seat of Executive Branch.]]
[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Chile's Constitution]] was approved in a September 1980 national plebiscite with 67% of the vote. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]], the Constitution was reformed and another referendum was held over the reforms in which 91% voted in favor. In 2005 President Lagos made several reforms to the Constitution, even changing the Pinochet sign with his.
The President term is 4-year long, however is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms. The political system of Chile is an exacerbated [[Presidential system|Presidential]] one.
Chile has a bicameral Congress, which meets in the port city of [[Valparaíso]], about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago (since 1990). Deputies are elected every 4 years, and Senators serve 8-year terms.
There are currently 43 Senators and 155 Deputies.
The Chilean elections are judged free and fair.

Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nationwide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform replaced old proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.

The Central Bank in Chile is autonomous since 1981.

===Principal Government Officials===
{{See also|President of Chile}}
[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio Kast Rist]], a pro-life, anti illegal immigration conservative.]]
*[[President of Chile|President]]—[[José Antonio Kast]] since 11 March 2026.
*Minister of Interior—Claudio Alvarado
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Francisco Pérez Mackenna
*Ambassador to the United States—Andrés Ergas
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)—José Miguel Castro
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Roberto Ampuero
*Ambassador to the OECD—Sebastián Schneinder
*Mayor of Santiago—[[Mario Desbordes]]

===Foreign Relations===
Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. [[Jose Miguel Insulza]], a Chilean national, was Secretary General of the Organization of American States from May 2005 to 2015. Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002 and the [[APEC]] summit and related meetings in 2004. Chile hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial in April 2005. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade. The APEC 2019 was planed to be hosted on Chile and the COP25 but was cancelled due to the [[2019 Chilean State of Emergency|State of Emergency]]. President [[Donald Trump]] planed to sign an agreement with [[Xi Jinping]] to end the 'Trade War' in the APEC hosted in Chile, however it was canceled.

Chile was one of the four countries (along with [[Singapore]], [[Brunei]] and [[New Zealand]]) that started the [[TPP (treaty)|TPP-11]].

Chile signed many Free Trade Agreements since the 90s.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. It settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s except for a part in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and the Antarctic claims overlap between both countries, however the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow modification to the claims and they are ineffective.

In 2007 Peru demanded Chile in the International Court of Justice due to a maritime dispute. The case was closed in 2013 in which half of the disputed sea was ceded to Peru and half to Chile. In Chile it was seen as a lost case.

Chile and Bolivia have bad diplomatic relations since [[Evo Morales]], Bolivia's president, reintegrated the desire to reacquire territory Bolivia lost to Chile in 1879-83 [[War of the Pacific]] in his Foreign Affairs Policy and he demanded Chile in the Internation Couth of Justice, a case which Chile won. There is currently a case to determine if Silala is a river (Chile's position) or is a spring artificially modificated by Chile (Bolivia's position). The two countries maintain consular relations and are represented at the Consul General level but doesn't have embassies in each other.

===Political parties and coalitions===
Important parties without coalition:
*[[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (right-wing) ([[José Antonio Kast]]'s party).
*[[National Libertarian Party]] ([[Paleolibertarian]] party) ([[Johannes Kaiser]]'s party).
*[[Broad Front (Chile)|Broad Front]] (far-left) ([[Gabriel Boric]]'s party).
*[[Communist Party]] (far-left) ([[Daniel Jadue|Jadue]]'s party).
*[[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]] (from center to center-right) ([[Franco Parisi]]'s party).
*''[[Communist Party]] of Chile - Proletarian Action/Patriotic Union'' (dissolved) (far-left) (Eduardo Artes' party).
*''[[Social Christian Party (Chile)|Social Christian Party]]'' (dissolved) ([[Evangelical]] party) (Evangelical party).

The main coalitions are:
*[[Chile Vamos]] (Globalist center-right) ([[Sebastián Piñera|Piñera]] and [[Evelyn Matthei|Matthei]]'s coalition) composed by the [[Independent Democrat Union]], [[National Renewal]] and ''[[Evópoli]]'' (dissolved party).
*Democratic Socialism (left) composed by old leftist parties such as: the [[Socialist]] Party, Party for Democracy, and the Liberal Party.

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Chile (+Antarctica & Islands), administrative divisions - en - colored.png|230px|thumbnail|Map of the Chilean Regions.]]
{{Main article|Regions of Chile}}
Chile is divided in 16 Regions, 56 provinces and 346 communes. Chile is a Unitary Centralized State in which the law is the same in every place of the country.

'''List of the Regions and their Capital''':
*[[Arica & Parinacota Region|Arica & Parinacota]] - Capital: [[Arica]]
*[[Tarapacá Region|Tarapacá]] - Capital: [[Iquique]]
*[[Antofagasta Region|Antofagasta]] - Capital: [[Antofagasta]]
*[[Atacama Region|Atacama]] - Capital: [[Copiapó]]
*[[Coquimbo Region|Coquimbo]] - Capital: [[La Serena]]
*[[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]] - Capital: [[Valparaíso]]
*[[Metropolitan Region|Metropolitan]] - Capital: [[Santiago]]
*[[O'Higgins Region|O'Higgins]] - Capital: [[Rancagua]]
*[[Maule Region|Maule]] - Capital: [[Talca]]
*[[Ñuble Region|Ñuble]] - Capital: [[Chillán]]
*[[Biobío Region|Biobío]] - Capital: [[Concepción (Chile)|Concepción]]
*[[Araucanía Region|Araucanía]] - Capital: [[Temuco]]
*[[Los Ríos Region|Los Ríos]] - Capital: [[Valdivia]]
*[[Los Lagos Region|Los Lagos]] - Capital: [[Puerto Montt]]
*[[Aysén Region|Aysén]] - Capital: [[Coyhaique]]
*[[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica]] - Capital: [[Punta Arenas]]

The most conservative commune of Chile is [[Colchane]] as well with Antártica, Lo Barnechea, Vitacura & Las Condes.

==Defense==
Chile's Armed Forces are subject to civilian control exercised by the President through the Minister of Defense. The President has the authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.

===Army===
The Chilean Army is 45,000 strong and is organized with an Army headquarters in Santiago, seven divisions throughout its territory, an Air Brigade in Rancagua, and a Special Forces Command in Colina. The Chilean Army is one of the most professional and technologically advanced armies in Latin America habing inherited the [[Prussian]] military doctrine.

===Navy===
The Navy has 23,000-person, including 2,500 Marines. Of the fleet of 29 surface vessels, only eight are operational major combatants (frigates). Those ships are based in [[Valparaíso]]. The Navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no Navy fighter or bomber aircraft. The Navy also operates four submarines based in [[Talcahuano]].

===Air Force (FACH)===
The FACH is a force of 12,500. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on [[Villa Las Estrellas]], [[King George Island]], [[Antarctica]]. The FACH was created in 1930 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]].

===Carabineros===
[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|250px|thumbnail]]
[[Carabineros de Chile]] is the national police force of 30,000 men and women who are responsible for law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control, and counter-terrorism throughout Chile. The Carabineros were created in 1927 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]]. Carabineros is the best police in Latin America and least corrupt.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/best-worst-latam-police|title=From Chile to Mexico: Best and Worst of LatAm Police|publisher=InSight Crime|date=March 20, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

Carabineros enjoys significant international prestige due to its professionalism and efficiency. Through the Chilean government's Cooperation Programme for Uniformed Foreign Police Forces (CECIPU), it has trained and specialized over thousands of officers from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. As a founding member of AMERIPOL (Community of American Police Forces) since 2007 and an associated member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (FIEP) since 2005, Carabineros has even chaired AMERIPOL, highlighting its regional leadership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cecipu.interior.gob.cl/|title=CECIPU: Programa de cooperación internacional del Gobierno de Chile para policías uniformadas|publisher=Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gob.mx/epn%7Cpoliciafederal/articulos/cuerpo-de-carabineros-de-chile-condecora-al-comisionado-general-de-la-policia-federal-de-mexico|title=Cuerpo de Carabineros de Chile condecora al Comisionado General de la Policía Federal de México|publisher=Gobierno de México|date=April 27, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
[[File:Gran Torre Santiago (39693576311).jpg|thumbnail|300px|Gran Torre Santiago, in the financial district of the city.]]
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 3.3% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.1%. Real GDP growth reached 6.3% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile signed the OECD Convention, becoming the first South American country to join the OECD.

*GDP (official exchange rate): $150.4 billion. (GDP (purchasing power parity):$335.4 billion (2013 est.))
*Annual real growth rate: -1.5%.
*Per capita GDP (purchasing power parity): $27,058 (GDP - per capita (PPP) 2019 est.)
*Forestry, agriculture, and fisheries (6% of GDP): Products—fruits, wheat, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions, beans, livestock, fish.
*Commerce (8% of GDP): Sales, restaurants, hotels.
*Manufacturing (17% of GDP): Types—mineral refining, metal manufacturing, food processing, fish processing, paper and wood products, finished textiles.
*Electricity, gas, and water: 3% of GDP.
*Transportation and communication: 7% of GDP.
*Construction: 8% of GDP.
*Financial services (12% of GDP): Insurance, leasing, consulting.
*Mining (13% of GDP): Copper, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, and molybdenum.
*Trade: Exports--$57.61 billion: copper, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and wood products. Major markets—U.S., Japan, China, Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Mexico. Imports--$40.91 billion: fuels, heavy industrial machinery, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, plastic. Major suppliers—U.S., China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. (GDP (official exchange rate):$281.7 billion (2013 est.))

Chile has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by [[negotiating]] in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[José Piñera]] creator of the Individual capitalization pension system.]]
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], economist during the Military Government that re-implemented liberal economic policies.]]
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.

Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile's consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a family of four's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 18% by 2004.

Chile's independent Central Bank pursues an inflation target of between 2% and 4%. Inflation has not exceeded 5% since 1998. Chile registered an inflation rate of 3.2% in 2006. The Chilean peso's rapid appreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent years has helped dampen inflation. Most wage settlements and loans are indexed, reducing inflation's volatility. Under the compulsory private pension system, most formal sector employees pay 10% of their salaries into privately managed funds.

[[File:Countries with a private pension system.jpg|thumbnail|Countries that applied Chile's private pension system.]]
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) was only $3.4 billion in 2006, up 52% from a poor performance in 2005. However, 80% of FDI continues to go to only four sectors: electricity, gas, water and mining. Much of the jump in FDI in 2006 was also the result of acquisitions and mergers and has done little to create new employment in Chile. The Chilean Government has formed a Council on Innovation and Competition, which is tasked with identifying new sectors and industries to promote. It is hoped that this, combined with some tax reforms to encourage domestic and foreign investment in research and development, will bring in additional FDI and to new parts of the economy. As of 2006, Chile invested only 0.6% of its annual GDP in research and development (R&D). Even then, two-thirds of that was government spending. The fact that domestic and foreign companies spend almost nothing on R&D does not bode well for the Government of Chile's efforts to develop innovative, knowledge-based sectors. Additionally, on January 8, 2007, Chile was placed on the U.S. Trade Representative's Priority Watch List due to its poor record on protecting intellectual property rights. Chile is only the second U.S. FTA partner ever to be placed on the Priority Watch List. Chile has a poor and deteriorating record of protecting copyrighted music, films, and software. Combined with this is its institutional structure allowing local companies to produce and market pharmaceutical generics that violate existing patents. Beyond its general economic and political stability, the government also has encouraged the use of Chile as an "investment platform" for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region, but this will have limited value given the developing business climate in Chile itself. Chile's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Chileans. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital. While Chile and the EU have signed a double taxation treaty, no such agreement exists between the U.S. and Chile.

Mining was temporarily curtailed following an accident in which 33 miners were trapped after a cave-in at the San Jose mine<ref>http://www.minandes.com/s/RoadtoProduction.asp</ref> near Copiapo on August 5, 2010. A rescue attempt - bolstered by national pride at getting the men out alive - ended 67 days later on October 13 as the last of the men were pulled out to safety.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/12/rescued-chilean-miner-returns-surface/</ref><ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7961923/Chilean-miners-trapped-in-San-Jose-mine.html</ref>

===Foreign Trade===
[[File:Commercial Treaties Chile 2012.jpg|thumb|295px|Commercial Treaties, 2012.]]
2006 was a record year for Chilean trade. Total trade registered a 31% increase over 2005. During 2006, exports of goods and services totaled U.S. $58 billion, an increase of 41%. This figure was somewhat distorted by the skyrocketing price of copper. In 2006, copper exports reached a historical high of U.S. $33.3 billion. Imports totaled U.S. $35 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. Chile thus recorded a positive trade balance of U.S. $23 billion in 2006.

The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion). Seen as shares of Chile's export markets, 42% of exports went to the Americas, 30% to Asia and 24% to Europe. Within Chile's diversified network of trade relationships, its most important partner remained the United States. Total trade with the U.S. was U.S. $14.8 billion in 2006. Since the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004, U.S.-Chilean trade has increased by 154%. Internal Government of Chile figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has grown over 60% since then.

Total trade with Europe also grew in 2006, expanding by 42%. The Netherlands and Italy were Chile's main European trading partners. Total trade with Asia also grew significantly at nearly 31%. Trade with Korea and Japan grew significantly, but China remained Chile's most important trading partner in Asia. Chile's total trade with China reached U.S. $8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66% of the value of its trade relationship with Asia.

The growth of exports in 2006 was due mainly to a strong increase in sales to the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. These three markets alone accounted for an additional U.S. $5.5 billion worth of Chilean exports. Chilean exports to the United States totaled U.S. $9.3 billion, representing a 37.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $6.7 billion). Exports to the European Union were U.S. $15.4 billion, a 63.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $9.4 billion). Exports to Asia increased from U.S. $15.2 billion in 2005 to U.S. $19.7 billion in 2006, a 29.9% increase.

During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).

Chile's overall trade profile has traditionally been dependent upon copper exports. The state-owned firm CODELCO is the world's largest copper-producing company, with recorded copper reserves of 200 years. Chile has made an effort to expand nontraditional exports. The most important non-mineral exports are forestry and wood products, fresh fruit and processed food, fishmeal and seafood, and wine.

Successive Chilean governments have actively pursued trade-liberalizing agreements. During the 1990s, Chile signed FTAs with Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Chile also concluded preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. An association agreement with Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—went into effect in October 1996. Continuing its export-oriented development strategy, Chile completed landmark free trade agreements in 2002 with the European Union and South Korea. Chile, as a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, is seeking to boost commercial ties to Asian markets. To that end, it has signed trade agreements in recent years with New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, and most recently Japan. In 2007, Chile plans to begin negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

After two years of negotiations, the United States and Chile signed an agreement in June 2003 that will lead to completely duty-free bilateral trade within 12 years. The U.S.-Chile FTA entered into force January 1, 2004 following approval by the U.S. and Chilean congresses. The bilateral FTA has inaugurated greatly expanded U.S.-Chilean trade ties, with total bilateral trade jumping by 154% during the FTA's first three years.

Chile unilaterally lowered its across-the-board import tariff for all countries with which it does not have a trade agreement to 6% in 2003. Higher effective tariffs are charged only on imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar as a result of a system of import price bands. The price bands were ruled inconsistent with Chile's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in 2002, and the government has introduced legislation to modify them. Under the terms of the U.S.-Chile FTA, the price bands will be completely phased out for U.S. imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar within 12 years.

Chile is a strong proponent of pressing ahead on negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is active in the WTO's Doha round of negotiations, principally through its membership in the G-20 and Cairns Group.

===Finance===
Chile's financial sector has grown quickly in recent years, with a banking reform law approved in 1997 that broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001, and there is further pending legislation proposing further liberalization. Over the last ten years, Chileans have enjoyed the introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has also been accompanied by an increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $70 billion at the end of 2006, has been an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S&P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways for Chilean firms to raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stocks on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Nearly all of the funds raised through these means go to finance domestic Chilean investment. The government is required by law to run a fiscal surplus of at least 1% of GDP. In 2006, the Government of Chile ran a surplus of $11.3 billion, equal to almost 8% of GDP. The Government of Chile continues to pay down its foreign debt, with public debt only 3.9% of GDP at the end of 2006.

==History==
===Discovery and Hispanic period===
[[File:Pedro de Valdivia.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Pedro de Valdivia]], founder of several cities and conqueror of Chile.]]
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]], one of the founding fathers of Chile.]]
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first European to see Chilean land was [[Ferdinand Magellan]] when he discovered the [[Strait of Magellan]] in 1520, however the first one to arrive in Chile were [[Diego de Almagro]] and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in 1535. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of [[Santiago]] on February 12, 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

===19th Century, Independence, State Consolidation and Wars with neightbours===
[[File:Pedro Subercaseaux Jura de la Independencia Chile.jpg|thumb|300px|Fray Pedro Subercaseaux, Jura de la Independencia de Chile.]]
[[File:Diego Portales-2.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Diego Portales]] author of the 1833 Constitution which prioritized order over democracy.]]
[[File:Arturo Prat Chacón.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Arturo Prat|Arturo Prat Chacón]], the maximum naval hero of the Chilean Nation.]]
[[File:Sinking of the Esmeralda during the battle of Iquique.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Sinking of the Esmeralda during the [[battle of Iquique|naval battle of Iquique]].]]
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national [[junta]] in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence which [[José Miguel Carrera]] started soon won a wide following. After the [[Battle of Rancagua]], a Spanish attempt to reimpose arbitrary rule started, during what was called the "Reconquista" led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army led by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], Chile's most renowned patriot, and [[José de San Martín]], hero of Argentine independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership.

During the Ramón Freire Presidency in 1826 the last royalist bastion was defeated, the [[Chiloé]] archipelago and the Tantauco Treaty was signed between Chile and Spain.

Between 1823 and 1829 there was a period of Constitutional Attempts, and there were four of them.

The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the 1833 Constitution made by [[Diego Portales]]. After the [[Civil War]] of 1829–30, a strong presidency emerged, but wealthy landowners remained extremely powerful.

Between 1836 and 1839, Chile fought a [[War against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] which Chile won and separated Peru and Bolivia again.

In 1865 and 1866 Chile, Peru and Ecuador fought against Spain in the [[Chincha Islands War]], Chile and it's allies won.

[[Image:Easter_island_statues.jpg|thumb|right|On September 9, 1888 the Council of Rapanui Chiefs asked the Chilean Navy Captain, Policarpo Toro, to accept the sovereignty of [[Easter Island]] without giving up their chieftaincy titles, the ownership of their lands, the validity of their culture and traditions and on equal terms. This known as the "Agreement of Wills".]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by founding the [[Fort Bulnes]] in 1843 (near the current city of [[Punta Arenas]] in the [[Strait of Magellan]]) and incorporating the zone of the south of the [[Biobío river]] in a process called the [[Pacification of the Araucanía]], the government plan was to building roads, schools, and public infrastructure where the [[Mapuche]] Indians live, they were incorporated as citizens, however the rebel Mapuches were crushed.

There was also a process of Colonization in which the Government gave [[German]] [[settlers]] lands in [[Valdivia]] and the [[Llanquihue Lake]] where they founded several towns and cities. To this day the German influence can be noted in cities like Valdivia, [[Puerto Varas]], [[Frutillar]], [[Puerto Octay]], [[Nueva Braunau]], Ensenada, [[Puerto Montt]] and [[Osorno]].

In 1881, Chile signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan but also loosing its colonial rights over Eastern Patagonia. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. After a [[Civil war]] in 1891 in which President [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] committed suicide, a parliamentary democracy was established, but degenerated into a system protecting the interests of the ruling oligarchy.
In 1888 Chile incorporated [[Easter Island]] to the national territory.

===20th Century===
[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|175px|thumbnail|The [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.
Continuing political and economic instability resulted with the rule of the quasidictatorial Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] (1924–32).
In June there was a Coup and between that month and September 1932 there was an attempt to establish a [[Socialist]] Republic that failed.
When constitutional rule was restored later that year, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy.
In 1940 Chile started to claim officially the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].

In 1962 the "right-wing" President [[Jorge Alessandri]] started the agrarian reform in a small portion, that expropriated part of big land properties. This reform was deepened by the next two governments.

The 1964 presidential election of [[Christian Democrat]] [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

He also made the "Chileanization of the copper" which introduced the State into the copper industry.
====Unidad Popular Marxist Regime (1970-1973)====
{{Main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
In 1970, Senator [[Salvador Allende]], a [[Marxist]] and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the "Popular Unity" (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats (the lasts ones supported him with the condition of respecting the laws and private property), won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest and was named president by the Chilean Congress. His program included the nationalization of private industries and banks, massive land expropriation, and collectivization, implementation of a Marxist education system, repartition of food collectively (with a limit of one stock per family). Allende's program also included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major copper mines.

[[Fidel Castro]] visited Chile in 1971 where he stayed for months.
Allende said in the same year "The major role of a journalist is not to server the truth, but to server the revolution" and in 1972 "I'm the President of the Unidad Popular, but I'm not the president of all Chileans".

Elected with only 36% of the vote and by a plurality of only 36,000 votes, Allende never enjoyed majority support in the Chilean Congress or broad popular support. Domestic production declined; severe shortages of consumer goods, food, and manufactured products were widespread; and inflation reached 1,000% per annum. Mass demonstrations, recurring strikes, violence by both government supporters and opponents, and widespread rural unrest ensued in response to the general deterioration of the economy.

The 22th of August 1973 the Chamber of Deputies called for a military intervention since the Allende's Government was Unconstitutional for not respecting basic laws like [[private property]].<ref>[https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2013/08/23/40-anos-del-acuerdo-de-la-camara-que-declaro-la-ilegitimidad-del-gobierno-de-allende/ 40 años del acuerdo de la Cámara que declaró la ilegitimidad del Gobierno de Allende]</ref> By the time the Christian Democrats stopped supporting Allende and started to support an intervention.

[[Carlos Altamirano]], General Secretary of the Socialist Party in July 1973 called to "crush the opposition" and to "not negotiate with the enemies of Chile"<ref>https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304093123/rev91_documento.pdf</ref> he also called for a violent Marxist revolution in 1968.

====Military Government (1973-1990)====
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990).jpg|300px|thumbnail|President and General [[Augusto Pinochet|Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], President of Chile (1973-1990), fighter against [[Marxism]], father of Chile's development, and restorer of the order and the institutions.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|1980 Constitution]] and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
A military pronouncement overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace, Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime in particular were marked by an irregular war against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|leftist terrorists]] who wanted a violent Marxist revolution. A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] was approved by a plebiscite on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. The Constitution writing had an important participation of [[Jaime Guzmán]] who also founded the [[Independent Democrat Union]].

The Armed Forces had to assume the leadership of the country, aware that this task did not mean a mere restoration of the broken institutionality, since the systematic destruction to which the Homeland had been subjected had deeply undermined coexistence and national development; therefore, it was imperative to go further and create a modern, profound system of the country, with a clear social content and democratic character. From the structuring of the stages and objectives of the Government and the determination of the principles that would govern the project, the Armed Forces marked with height, coherence and consequence the national reality and the itinerary designed.

This great work was not exempt from interferences, demands and sacrifices, since at the beginning it was necessary to overcome the disastrous consequences of the previous administrations and the prevailing polarization. Subsequently, it was necessary to face defamation, the economic crises in the neighborhood, and the wily terrorist and subversive actions. These, together or in isolation, ([[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] made the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]" that blocked any selling of weapons to Chile, and also the U.S. imposed a blockade on fruit exports) in could have led any government to political, economic and social collapse. However, the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, based on efficiency, patriotism and joint effort, with a more than important part of society, managed to overcome the obstacles and deliver a better future for all Chileans.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Military men victims of [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]].]]

There is an evident reality that shows that important sectors of the political spectrum not only tried gradually and systematically to delegitimize the Military Government, but even, once they determined the impossibility of achieving their goals, they used means and tools contrary to peaceful coexistence, even seeking its destabilization, accepting, encouraging or participating in Chilean and foreign extremist organizations contrary to the idiosyncrasy and national identity.
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
The successful model and the change of life generated in Chileans by the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, in general, has not been accepted or recognized at the national and international level. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it would be pernicious for national coexistence that a government defined as authoritarian has been so successful and profound. Undoubtedly, this is a biased point of view, since this line of argument tends to homologate our reality with caudillisms or military irruptions that lacked ethical imperatives and national needs and that did occur systematically or cyclically in other nations.

The deed of September 11, 1973 and the foundational work of the Military Government, apart from signifying for the Armed Forces and the Carabineros and, particularly, for the Army, a feeling of honor and pride that must be preserved, is an event that must necessarily be included in national and universal history in all its truth and dimension.
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|250|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile in 1985.]]
In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. In contrast to its authoritarian political rule, the military government pursued decidedly [[laissez-faire]] economic policies.

[[Milton Friedman]] said,
* "... the really extraordinary thing about the Chilean case was that a military government followed the opposite of military policies. The military is distinguished from the ordinary economy by the fact that it's a top-down organization. The general tells the colonel, the colonel tells the captain, and so on down, whereas a market is a bottom-up organization. The customer goes into the store and tells the retailer what he wants; the retailer sends it back up the line to the manufacturer and so on. So the basic organizational principles in the military are almost the opposite of the basic organizational principles of a free market and a free society. And the really remarkable thing about Chile is that the military adopted the free-market arrangements instead of the military arrangements."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10 Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman on PBS]</ref>

During its 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that fostered an increase in domestic and foreign private investment. The complete political liberalization of the country came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite, which finally took place on October 5. On that day, the triumph of the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans voted for elections to choose a new president in 1989 and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress. The Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution on the same year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>[https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html Soros helped the "No" campaign]</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

===Democratic governments===
[[File:Izamiento de la Gran Bandera Nacional - Presidentes de Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|The five [[President of Chile|Chilean Presidents]] between the years 1990 and 2022 (two of them were elected twice in non-consecutive terms).]]
On December 14, 1989, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the Concertación, was elected president. In a ceremony held in the Congress building in Valparaíso, Pinochet handed over the presidency to the new constitutional President.

Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994 and was succeeded by another Christian Democrat, [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (son of the previous President), leading the same coalition, for a 6-year term. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy led the Concertación to a narrower victory in 2000 presidential elections.

During the ''Concertación'' Governments, Military personnel who fought terrorism were jailed unfairly using an old judicial system and without proof, these can be called the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisioners]] that were destined to the [[Punta Peuco Jail]]. Also during these Governments the private pension system was reformed to benefit the companies that manage pension funds by making the users assume the economic losses and increased the retirement age by approximately 20 years, which directly lowered pensions. This changes are the main factor of the problems in the system that can be reversed.

In September 2005, President [[Ricardo Lagos]] signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.

On January 15, 2006 [[Michelle Bachelet|Michelle Bachelet Jeria]] (center-left) won the elections against businessman [[Sebastián Piñera]] (center-right) and she took office on March 11, 2006, becoming the first woman to become President of Chile.
In 2009 Sebastián Piñera Echenique won the presidency, beign the first center-right candidate to do so after the Pinochet regime. In 2013 Bachelet won the office again and Piñera in 2017. Presidents in Chile can't have consecutive two terms, they need to wait another election.

Chile's congressional elections were governed by a unique binomial system made by [[Jaime Guzmán]] until 2018 that rewarded coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for the two Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district. Historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) splat most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 did the winning coalition gain both seats.

Chile was leaded by President [[Sebastián Piñera]] between 2018 and 2022 with the coalition of parties called [[Chile Vamos]]. The coalition was center-right and took [[progressive]] stands on some moral issues like legalizing [[same sex "marriage"]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2018/11/29/chile-enacts-landmark-gender-identity-law/|title=Chile enacts landmark gender identity law|date=November 29, 2018|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref>

{{main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
In 2019 Leftist mobs began to burn private and public property (the main public damage were 20 metro stations that were burned and 77 damaged in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metro.cl/noticias/balance-danos-19-de-octubre-2019|title=Balance daños 19 de octubre 2019|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Metro de Santiago}}</ref> starting a political crisis that has on its objectives to make the state bigger, raise taxes, and eliminate the individual capitalization system, as well as a change of the Constitution. This groups have been supported by the international left, the [[Sao Paulo Forum]], the [[Puebla Group]] and [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/10/20/nicolas-maduro-respondio-las-acusaciones-de-alentar-las-protestas-en-ecuador-y-chile-foro-de-sao-paulo-estamos-cumpliendo-el-plan-ustedes-me-entienden/|title=Nicolás Maduro habló sobre las acusaciones de alentar las protestas en Ecuador y Chile: "Foro de San Pablo, estamos cumpliendo el plan, ustedes me entienden..."|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Infobae}}</ref> The period is called ''Estallido social'' by the left. [[Diosdado Cabello]], a government official from Venezuela at that time said "The [[Bolivarian]] breeze sweeping the region will become a hurricane"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-diosdado-cabello-amenaza-brisa-bolivariana-recorre-region-convertira-huracan-201910201834_noticia.html|title=Diosdado Cabello amenaza: "La brisa bolivariana que recorre la región se convertirá en huracán"|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=ABC Internacional}}</ref>

On the 15th of November 2019 the Congress approved to make a referendum on the Constitution, ceding to the radical left.

The referendum was made on October 25, 2020, and the option to change the Constitution won. Several rallies were made for the 'Rejection' (''Rechazo'') option by patriots with a high number of people attending and in which [[Sebastián Izquierdo]] played an important role.

There was a previous proposal of a new Constitution that was a draft from the socialist Michelle Bachelet from the last weeks of her administration and both administrations (Piñera and Bachelet) were committed to follow the globalist [[2030 Agenda]] from the United Nations. The [[Constitutional Convention (Chile)|Constitutional Convention]] which redacted the text made a progressive and globalist proposal, the conservative [[Teresa Marinovic]] was elected to the Convention auditing the far-left institution.

In the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Presidential Election]], the final front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Gabriel Boric]]. Kast won the first round with a 27.91% of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and Boric obtained 25.82% (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13% (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87% (4,620,890 votes) from Boric. Boric got electoed at the age of 35, a former student radical "activist," a self-described [[communist]].<ref name=at22nov21>Monica Showalter, [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/stunning_good_news_from_chile__and_not_just_for_them_but_for_us.html Stunning good news from Chile...], American Thinker, November 22, 2021</ref>

On September 4, 2022, the second referendum took place in which the 'Rejection' option won with 61.86% of the votes against 38.14% of the 'Approve' option. The main difference with the first election was that the vote was mandatory in the second one and not the first one, having bigger participation of older generations which tend to vote conservative. After the triumph of the 'Rechazo', Gabriel Boric changed the cabinet of ministers of his government.

In 2023 the corrupt political system started a new process to change the Constitution, this time with more control of the establishment parties, without asking on a referendum if the citizens of Chile wanted a new process (they "assumed" that the 2020 referendum result is permanent, even that that process ended with the 2022 referendum). On May 7 the [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|election to elect the counselors of the Constitutional Council]] was held and a massive conservative victory was obtained, the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] won the majority as well as a record "Nulo" (Voluntary refusal to choose a candidate by the citizenry in a mandatory election) votes on 3rd place.

On December 17, 2023 a new referendum was held over the new written text, the Republican Party directive supported the change of the Chilean Constitution, many members of the party opposed this stance change of the party. The Globalist "center-right" coalition, [[Chile Vamos]] and centrist parties such as "Democrats" and "Yellows" (which means "being too moderated") supported the "In Favor" option as well. Chilean Patriots supported the "Against" option as well as the most of the left-wing. The "Against" Option obtained 55.76% of the votes while the "In Favor" Option obtained 44.24%. The dissident right was victorious over the establishment "right-wing" parties who supported the new proposed text.

On June 7, 2024 [[Johannes Kaiser]] founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-globalist, paleo-libertarian party.

José Antonio Kast, a Catholic pro-life conservative who promised to protect Chile against illegal immigration won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Sports==
[[Association Football|Football]] is the most popular sport by far. Chile hosted the 1962 [[World Cup]], notable for the "Battle of Santiago" (a group stage match between host Chile and Italy, which due to the on-pitch action - police had to be called no fewer than four times to gain control between squads - is considered among the poorest displays of sportsmanship in sports history, and eventually led to development of yellow and red cards).

However, the national sport is the Rodeo.

Chile won the Copa América 2015 and Copa América Centenario 2016, obtaining its first two Football titles in the national selection.

The Chilean mountains have important ski centers like Valle Nevado.

The [[Arica]] city in the north has the best waves of the country, something ideal for surfing.

The Chilean [[Patagonia]] is a famous place for trekking and out-door sports, The Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) and many National Parks (including the [[National Park Torres del Paine|Torres del Paine]] one) are visited by people all over the world.

==Culture==
[[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Nicanor Parra]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] are famous Chilean poets. Chillán in the Ñuble Region is a notorious cultural city of Chile.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== See also ==
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]
*[[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
*[[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[La Moneda]]
*[[Easter Island]]
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Colchane]], Chilean most conservative town
*[[Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
*[[War of the Pacific]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm]}}}.
|}

{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Chile

2026-03-23T12:50:46Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Army */

{{Country
|name =''República de Chile''
|map =Tricontinental Chile Map.jpg
|map2 =Chile location map.png
|flag =Flag of Chile.png
|arms =Coat of arms of Chile.png
|capital-raw =[[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]]
|government-raw =[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Unitarian & Presidentialist Republic]]
|language =Spanish
|president =José Antonio Kast
|president-raw=
|conservative-leader=
|conservative-leader-raw=[[José Antonio Kast]]/[[Johannes Kaiser]]
|area =774,657 sq. mi. (Tricontinental Chile) 292,183 sq. mi. (Only Continental and Insular Chile)
|pop =19,100,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$280,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$14,660 (2020)
|currency =Chilean Peso (CLP)
|idd =+56
|tld =.cl
}}
'''Chile''' (official name: '''Republic of Chile''') is a [[nation]] on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of [[South America]], [[Antarctica]] and [[Oceania]] which is organized as a Centralized Unitary Presidential [[Democracy]]. It has a population of 17.5 million and the capital city is [[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]] which is also the biggest city of the country. Chile borders [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Peru]].

Between 1975 and 2014, Chile followed the path of the [[free market]] and [[Capitalism]] been the best place to make business of [[Latin America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iberglobal.com/files/2019-1/economic_freedom_index_2019.pdf|title=Economic Freedom Index 2019}}</ref> This has made the country the most developed of the Region according to the [[Human Development Index]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=505045|title=Chile sigue al tope de A. Latina en Índice de Desarrollo Humano|date=September 15, 2018|publisher=Economía y Negocios|language=es}}</ref> Chile went from a [[Gross domestic product]] of 100 in 1973 to 515 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobierno.udd.cl/files/2016/05/PPT-FPP.pdf|author=Lucas Palacios Covarrubias|title=Pobreza vs Desigualdad|date=April 2016|publisher=[[Universidad del Desarrollo]] - Facultad de Gobierno|language=es}}</ref> However that was put at risk with the leftist insurrection from 2019 and the Boric presidency. Right-wing [[President of Chile|President]] [[José Antonio Kast]] promises to retake the path to develop the country.

In early September 2022, by a resounding 62-38% landslide margin, Chileans rejected a progressive new constitution proposal and thereby decided to retain [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|the one written under]] [[conservative]] leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1980, which was reformed over 70 times in democracy in more than half of its content.<ref>https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1121065756/chile-constitution-referendum</ref><ref>[https://www.uandes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CPR-Edicio%CC%81n-Histo%CC%81rica.pdf]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220929111026/https://plataformacontexto.cl/contexto_factual/cuanto-queda-de-la-constitucion-de-pinochet/ Cuánto queda de “la Constitución de Pinochet”]</ref> A new proposal from the center-right with globalist elements was rejected on December 2023 with a 56-44% landslide margin.

==Geography==
[[File:Volcano Osorno and Petrohué waterfalls.JPG|thumb|left|Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano in the background.]]
The northern Chilean [[Atacama Desert]] contains great mineral wealth, principally [[copper]], and also contains locations where rainfall has never been recorded. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in [[forest]]s and grazing lands and features a string of [[volcano]]es and [[lake]]s. The southern coast located in [[Patagonia]] is a labyrinth of [[fjord]]s, [[inlet]]s, [[canal]]s, twisting [[peninsula]]s, and [[island]]s. The [[Andes]] Mountains are located on the eastern border.
*Area of Tricontinental Chile: 2,006,354 km2 (774,657 sq. mi.) including the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]] which reaches the [[South Pole]].
*Area considering Continental and Insular Chile: 756,945 km2. (302,778 sq. mi.), or nearly twice the size of California.
*Cities: Capital—[[Santiago]] (metropolitan area est. 6.25 million). Other cities: [[Concepción]]-[[Talcahuano]] (840,000), [[Viña del Mar]]-[[Valparaíso]] (800,000), [[Antofagasta]] (245,000), [[Temuco]] (230,000).
*Terrain: Desert in north; fertile central valley; volcanoes and lakes toward the south, giving way to rugged and complex coastline; Andes Mountains on the eastern border.
*Climate: Arid in north, Mediterranean in the central portion, cool and damp in south.

Chile has experienced numerous massive earthquakes, being located within the "Ring of Fire": of the 46 known earthquakes estimated at magnitude >= 8.5, one-third have occurred in Chile, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was measured at magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever recorded. On four occasions, two earthquakes with magnitude >= 8.5 have had the same Chilean epicenter. Furthermore, the strongest estimated earthquake (before seismographs were invented) also took place in Chile around 1800 BC, also estimated in the magnitude 9.5 range.

==People==
[[File:Chilean dance.jpg|left|140px]]
About 85% of Chile's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in greater Santiago. Most have [[Spain|Spanish]] ancestry. A small, yet influential number of [[Irish]] and [[English]] immigrants came to Chile during the Spanish Empire period. [[German]] immigration began in 1848 and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of [[Valdivia]], [[Llanquihue]], and [[Osorno]] show a strong German influence. Other significant historic immigrant groups are [[Italian]], [[Croatian]], [[Basque]], [[Palestinian]] and [[Peruvian]]. About 800,000 Native Americans, mostly of the [[Mapuche]] (Araucan) tribes, reside in the south-central area. The [[Aymara]] and [[Diaguita]] groups can be found mainly in Chile's northern desert valleys.

Since 2014 Chile has been experiencing [[open borders|mass]] [[immigration]] from [[Haiti]], [[Venezuela]], [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]], something that was unusual and has drastically changed the demographics of the country in the recent years (The immigrants went from 1.1% to 6.1% and is still growing)<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> a lot of them are [[Illegal immigration|illegally]] (See ''[[Colchane#Mass_immigration_problem|Colchane's Mass immigration problem]]'').

*Population (2019): 17.5 million.
*Annual population growth rate: 0.881%.
*Ethnic groups: Spanish-Native-American (mestizo), European, Native-American, Blacks (since 2014 with mass Haitian immigration).
*Religions: [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] 70%, [[Evangelical]] 15.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.1%, other Christian 1%, other 4.6%, none 8.3%.
*Language: [[Spanish]].
*Education: Years compulsory—13. Attendance—3 million. Adult literacy rate—96%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate—8.9/1,000. Life expectancy—80 yrs. for men, 85 for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsuss.cl/ipsuss/analisis-y-estudios/esperanza-de-vida-al-nacer-en-chile-llega-a-85-anos-en-mujeres-y-80-anos/2017-09-26/154547.html|title=Esperanza de vida al nacer en Chile llega a 85 años en mujeres y 80 años en hombres|date=September 26, 2017|language=es|publisher=Ipsuss}}</ref>
*Work force (6.94 million); employed 6.45 million: Community, social and individual services—26%; industry—14.4%; commerce—17.6%; agriculture, forestry, and fishing—13.9%; construction—7.1%; financial services—7.5%; transportation and communication—8.0%; electricity, gas and water—0.5%; mining—1.2%.

==Government==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Palacio de La Moneda.jpg|thumbnail|250px|[[La Moneda]] Palace, seat of Executive Branch.]]
[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Chile's Constitution]] was approved in a September 1980 national plebiscite with 67% of the vote. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]], the Constitution was reformed and another referendum was held over the reforms in which 91% voted in favor. In 2005 President Lagos made several reforms to the Constitution, even changing the Pinochet sign with his.
The President term is 4-year long, however is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms. The political system of Chile is an exacerbated [[Presidential system|Presidential]] one.
Chile has a bicameral Congress, which meets in the port city of [[Valparaíso]], about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago (since 1990). Deputies are elected every 4 years, and Senators serve 8-year terms.
There are currently 43 Senators and 155 Deputies.
The Chilean elections are judged free and fair.

Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nationwide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform replaced old proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.

The Central Bank in Chile is autonomous since 1981.

===Principal Government Officials===
{{See also|President of Chile}}
[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio Kast Rist]], a pro-life, anti illegal immigration conservative.]]
*[[President of Chile|President]]—[[José Antonio Kast]] since 11 March 2026.
*Minister of Interior—Claudio Alvarado
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Francisco Pérez Mackenna
*Ambassador to the United States—Andrés Ergas
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)—José Miguel Castro
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Roberto Ampuero
*Ambassador to the OECD—Sebastián Schneinder
*Mayor of Santiago—[[Mario Desbordes]]

===Foreign Relations===
Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. [[Jose Miguel Insulza]], a Chilean national, was Secretary General of the Organization of American States from May 2005 to 2015. Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002 and the [[APEC]] summit and related meetings in 2004. Chile hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial in April 2005. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade. The APEC 2019 was planed to be hosted on Chile and the COP25 but was cancelled due to the [[2019 Chilean State of Emergency|State of Emergency]]. President [[Donald Trump]] planed to sign an agreement with [[Xi Jinping]] to end the 'Trade War' in the APEC hosted in Chile, however it was canceled.

Chile was one of the four countries (along with [[Singapore]], [[Brunei]] and [[New Zealand]]) that started the [[TPP (treaty)|TPP-11]].

Chile signed many Free Trade Agreements since the 90s.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. It settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s except for a part in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and the Antarctic claims overlap between both countries, however the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow modification to the claims and they are ineffective.

In 2007 Peru demanded Chile in the International Court of Justice due to a maritime dispute. The case was closed in 2013 in which half of the disputed sea was ceded to Peru and half to Chile. In Chile it was seen as a lost case.

Chile and Bolivia have bad diplomatic relations since [[Evo Morales]], Bolivia's president, reintegrated the desire to reacquire territory Bolivia lost to Chile in 1879-83 [[War of the Pacific]] in his Foreign Affairs Policy and he demanded Chile in the Internation Couth of Justice, a case which Chile won. There is currently a case to determine if Silala is a river (Chile's position) or is a spring artificially modificated by Chile (Bolivia's position). The two countries maintain consular relations and are represented at the Consul General level but doesn't have embassies in each other.

===Political parties and coalitions===
The main coalitions are:
*[[Chile Vamos]] (Globalist center-right) ([[Sebastián Piñera|Piñera]] and [[Evelyn Matthei|Matthei]]'s coalition) composed by the [[Independent Democrat Union]], [[National Renewal]] and [[Evópoli]].
*Apruebo Dignidad (far-left) ([[Gabriel Boric|Boric]] and [[Daniel Jadue|Jadue]]'s coalition) Social Convergence, [[Democratic Revolution]], Green Ecologist Party, Commune Party, [[Communist]] Party and Social Green Regionalist Federation.
*Constituent Unity (Former "New Majority") (left) (former [[Michelle Bachelet|Bachelet]]'s coalition) composed by old leftist parties such as: the [[Socialist]] Party, Party for Democracy, the Radical Party, [[Christian Democracy]], Citizens Party and the Liberal Party .

Important parties without coalition:
*[[National Libertarian Party]] (Dissident right Party) ([[Johannes Kaiser]]'s party).
*[[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (right-wing) ([[José Antonio Kast]]'s party).
*[[Social Christian Party (Chile)|Social Christian Party]] (Dissident right Party) (Evangelical party).
*[[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]] (from center to center-right) ([[Franco Parisi]]'s party).
*[[Communist Party]] of Chile (Proletarian Action)/Patriotic Union (far-left) (Eduardo Artes' party).
*Progressive Homeland (left) (Marco Enríquez-Ominami's party).

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Chile (+Antarctica & Islands), administrative divisions - en - colored.png|230px|thumbnail|Map of the Chilean Regions.]]
{{Main article|Regions of Chile}}
Chile is divided in 16 Regions, 56 provinces and 346 communes. Chile is a Unitary Centralized State in which the law is the same in every place of the country.

'''List of the Regions and their Capital''':
*[[Arica & Parinacota Region|Arica & Parinacota]] - Capital: [[Arica]]
*[[Tarapacá Region|Tarapacá]] - Capital: [[Iquique]]
*[[Antofagasta Region|Antofagasta]] - Capital: [[Antofagasta]]
*[[Atacama Region|Atacama]] - Capital: [[Copiapó]]
*[[Coquimbo Region|Coquimbo]] - Capital: [[La Serena]]
*[[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]] - Capital: [[Valparaíso]]
*[[Metropolitan Region|Metropolitan]] - Capital: [[Santiago]]
*[[O'Higgins Region|O'Higgins]] - Capital: [[Rancagua]]
*[[Maule Region|Maule]] - Capital: [[Talca]]
*[[Ñuble Region|Ñuble]] - Capital: [[Chillán]]
*[[Biobío Region|Biobío]] - Capital: [[Concepción (Chile)|Concepción]]
*[[Araucanía Region|Araucanía]] - Capital: [[Temuco]]
*[[Los Ríos Region|Los Ríos]] - Capital: [[Valdivia]]
*[[Los Lagos Region|Los Lagos]] - Capital: [[Puerto Montt]]
*[[Aysén Region|Aysén]] - Capital: [[Coyhaique]]
*[[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica]] - Capital: [[Punta Arenas]]

The most conservative commune of Chile is [[Colchane]] as well with Antártica, Lo Barnechea, Vitacura & Las Condes.

==Defense==
Chile's Armed Forces are subject to civilian control exercised by the President through the Minister of Defense. The President has the authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.

===Army===
The Chilean Army is 45,000 strong and is organized with an Army headquarters in Santiago, seven divisions throughout its territory, an Air Brigade in Rancagua, and a Special Forces Command in Colina. The Chilean Army is one of the most professional and technologically advanced armies in Latin America habing inherited the [[Prussian]] military doctrine.

===Navy===
The Navy has 23,000-person, including 2,500 Marines. Of the fleet of 29 surface vessels, only eight are operational major combatants (frigates). Those ships are based in [[Valparaíso]]. The Navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no Navy fighter or bomber aircraft. The Navy also operates four submarines based in [[Talcahuano]].

===Air Force (FACH)===
The FACH is a force of 12,500. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on [[Villa Las Estrellas]], [[King George Island]], [[Antarctica]]. The FACH was created in 1930 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]].

===Carabineros===
[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|250px|thumbnail]]
[[Carabineros de Chile]] is the national police force of 30,000 men and women who are responsible for law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control, and counter-terrorism throughout Chile. The Carabineros were created in 1927 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]]. Carabineros is the best police in Latin America and least corrupt.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/best-worst-latam-police|title=From Chile to Mexico: Best and Worst of LatAm Police|publisher=InSight Crime|date=March 20, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

Carabineros enjoys significant international prestige due to its professionalism and efficiency. Through the Chilean government's Cooperation Programme for Uniformed Foreign Police Forces (CECIPU), it has trained and specialized over thousands of officers from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. As a founding member of AMERIPOL (Community of American Police Forces) since 2007 and an associated member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (FIEP) since 2005, Carabineros has even chaired AMERIPOL, highlighting its regional leadership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cecipu.interior.gob.cl/|title=CECIPU: Programa de cooperación internacional del Gobierno de Chile para policías uniformadas|publisher=Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gob.mx/epn%7Cpoliciafederal/articulos/cuerpo-de-carabineros-de-chile-condecora-al-comisionado-general-de-la-policia-federal-de-mexico|title=Cuerpo de Carabineros de Chile condecora al Comisionado General de la Policía Federal de México|publisher=Gobierno de México|date=April 27, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
[[File:Gran Torre Santiago (39693576311).jpg|thumbnail|300px|Gran Torre Santiago, in the financial district of the city.]]
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 3.3% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.1%. Real GDP growth reached 6.3% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile signed the OECD Convention, becoming the first South American country to join the OECD.

*GDP (official exchange rate): $150.4 billion. (GDP (purchasing power parity):$335.4 billion (2013 est.))
*Annual real growth rate: -1.5%.
*Per capita GDP (purchasing power parity): $27,058 (GDP - per capita (PPP) 2019 est.)
*Forestry, agriculture, and fisheries (6% of GDP): Products—fruits, wheat, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions, beans, livestock, fish.
*Commerce (8% of GDP): Sales, restaurants, hotels.
*Manufacturing (17% of GDP): Types—mineral refining, metal manufacturing, food processing, fish processing, paper and wood products, finished textiles.
*Electricity, gas, and water: 3% of GDP.
*Transportation and communication: 7% of GDP.
*Construction: 8% of GDP.
*Financial services (12% of GDP): Insurance, leasing, consulting.
*Mining (13% of GDP): Copper, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, and molybdenum.
*Trade: Exports--$57.61 billion: copper, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and wood products. Major markets—U.S., Japan, China, Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Mexico. Imports--$40.91 billion: fuels, heavy industrial machinery, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, plastic. Major suppliers—U.S., China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. (GDP (official exchange rate):$281.7 billion (2013 est.))

Chile has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by [[negotiating]] in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[José Piñera]] creator of the Individual capitalization pension system.]]
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], economist during the Military Government that re-implemented liberal economic policies.]]
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.

Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile's consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a family of four's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 18% by 2004.

Chile's independent Central Bank pursues an inflation target of between 2% and 4%. Inflation has not exceeded 5% since 1998. Chile registered an inflation rate of 3.2% in 2006. The Chilean peso's rapid appreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent years has helped dampen inflation. Most wage settlements and loans are indexed, reducing inflation's volatility. Under the compulsory private pension system, most formal sector employees pay 10% of their salaries into privately managed funds.

[[File:Countries with a private pension system.jpg|thumbnail|Countries that applied Chile's private pension system.]]
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) was only $3.4 billion in 2006, up 52% from a poor performance in 2005. However, 80% of FDI continues to go to only four sectors: electricity, gas, water and mining. Much of the jump in FDI in 2006 was also the result of acquisitions and mergers and has done little to create new employment in Chile. The Chilean Government has formed a Council on Innovation and Competition, which is tasked with identifying new sectors and industries to promote. It is hoped that this, combined with some tax reforms to encourage domestic and foreign investment in research and development, will bring in additional FDI and to new parts of the economy. As of 2006, Chile invested only 0.6% of its annual GDP in research and development (R&D). Even then, two-thirds of that was government spending. The fact that domestic and foreign companies spend almost nothing on R&D does not bode well for the Government of Chile's efforts to develop innovative, knowledge-based sectors. Additionally, on January 8, 2007, Chile was placed on the U.S. Trade Representative's Priority Watch List due to its poor record on protecting intellectual property rights. Chile is only the second U.S. FTA partner ever to be placed on the Priority Watch List. Chile has a poor and deteriorating record of protecting copyrighted music, films, and software. Combined with this is its institutional structure allowing local companies to produce and market pharmaceutical generics that violate existing patents. Beyond its general economic and political stability, the government also has encouraged the use of Chile as an "investment platform" for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region, but this will have limited value given the developing business climate in Chile itself. Chile's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Chileans. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital. While Chile and the EU have signed a double taxation treaty, no such agreement exists between the U.S. and Chile.

Mining was temporarily curtailed following an accident in which 33 miners were trapped after a cave-in at the San Jose mine<ref>http://www.minandes.com/s/RoadtoProduction.asp</ref> near Copiapo on August 5, 2010. A rescue attempt - bolstered by national pride at getting the men out alive - ended 67 days later on October 13 as the last of the men were pulled out to safety.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/12/rescued-chilean-miner-returns-surface/</ref><ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7961923/Chilean-miners-trapped-in-San-Jose-mine.html</ref>

===Foreign Trade===
[[File:Commercial Treaties Chile 2012.jpg|thumb|295px|Commercial Treaties, 2012.]]
2006 was a record year for Chilean trade. Total trade registered a 31% increase over 2005. During 2006, exports of goods and services totaled U.S. $58 billion, an increase of 41%. This figure was somewhat distorted by the skyrocketing price of copper. In 2006, copper exports reached a historical high of U.S. $33.3 billion. Imports totaled U.S. $35 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. Chile thus recorded a positive trade balance of U.S. $23 billion in 2006.

The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion). Seen as shares of Chile's export markets, 42% of exports went to the Americas, 30% to Asia and 24% to Europe. Within Chile's diversified network of trade relationships, its most important partner remained the United States. Total trade with the U.S. was U.S. $14.8 billion in 2006. Since the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004, U.S.-Chilean trade has increased by 154%. Internal Government of Chile figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has grown over 60% since then.

Total trade with Europe also grew in 2006, expanding by 42%. The Netherlands and Italy were Chile's main European trading partners. Total trade with Asia also grew significantly at nearly 31%. Trade with Korea and Japan grew significantly, but China remained Chile's most important trading partner in Asia. Chile's total trade with China reached U.S. $8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66% of the value of its trade relationship with Asia.

The growth of exports in 2006 was due mainly to a strong increase in sales to the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. These three markets alone accounted for an additional U.S. $5.5 billion worth of Chilean exports. Chilean exports to the United States totaled U.S. $9.3 billion, representing a 37.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $6.7 billion). Exports to the European Union were U.S. $15.4 billion, a 63.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $9.4 billion). Exports to Asia increased from U.S. $15.2 billion in 2005 to U.S. $19.7 billion in 2006, a 29.9% increase.

During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).

Chile's overall trade profile has traditionally been dependent upon copper exports. The state-owned firm CODELCO is the world's largest copper-producing company, with recorded copper reserves of 200 years. Chile has made an effort to expand nontraditional exports. The most important non-mineral exports are forestry and wood products, fresh fruit and processed food, fishmeal and seafood, and wine.

Successive Chilean governments have actively pursued trade-liberalizing agreements. During the 1990s, Chile signed FTAs with Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Chile also concluded preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. An association agreement with Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—went into effect in October 1996. Continuing its export-oriented development strategy, Chile completed landmark free trade agreements in 2002 with the European Union and South Korea. Chile, as a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, is seeking to boost commercial ties to Asian markets. To that end, it has signed trade agreements in recent years with New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, and most recently Japan. In 2007, Chile plans to begin negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

After two years of negotiations, the United States and Chile signed an agreement in June 2003 that will lead to completely duty-free bilateral trade within 12 years. The U.S.-Chile FTA entered into force January 1, 2004 following approval by the U.S. and Chilean congresses. The bilateral FTA has inaugurated greatly expanded U.S.-Chilean trade ties, with total bilateral trade jumping by 154% during the FTA's first three years.

Chile unilaterally lowered its across-the-board import tariff for all countries with which it does not have a trade agreement to 6% in 2003. Higher effective tariffs are charged only on imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar as a result of a system of import price bands. The price bands were ruled inconsistent with Chile's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in 2002, and the government has introduced legislation to modify them. Under the terms of the U.S.-Chile FTA, the price bands will be completely phased out for U.S. imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar within 12 years.

Chile is a strong proponent of pressing ahead on negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is active in the WTO's Doha round of negotiations, principally through its membership in the G-20 and Cairns Group.

===Finance===
Chile's financial sector has grown quickly in recent years, with a banking reform law approved in 1997 that broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001, and there is further pending legislation proposing further liberalization. Over the last ten years, Chileans have enjoyed the introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has also been accompanied by an increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $70 billion at the end of 2006, has been an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S&P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways for Chilean firms to raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stocks on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Nearly all of the funds raised through these means go to finance domestic Chilean investment. The government is required by law to run a fiscal surplus of at least 1% of GDP. In 2006, the Government of Chile ran a surplus of $11.3 billion, equal to almost 8% of GDP. The Government of Chile continues to pay down its foreign debt, with public debt only 3.9% of GDP at the end of 2006.

==History==
===Discovery and Hispanic period===
[[File:Pedro de Valdivia.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Pedro de Valdivia]], founder of several cities and conqueror of Chile.]]
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]], one of the founding fathers of Chile.]]
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first European to see Chilean land was [[Ferdinand Magellan]] when he discovered the [[Strait of Magellan]] in 1520, however the first one to arrive in Chile were [[Diego de Almagro]] and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in 1535. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of [[Santiago]] on February 12, 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

===19th Century, Independence, State Consolidation and Wars with neightbours===
[[File:Pedro Subercaseaux Jura de la Independencia Chile.jpg|thumb|300px|Fray Pedro Subercaseaux, Jura de la Independencia de Chile.]]
[[File:Diego Portales-2.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Diego Portales]] author of the 1833 Constitution which prioritized order over democracy.]]
[[File:Arturo Prat Chacón.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Arturo Prat|Arturo Prat Chacón]], the maximum naval hero of the Chilean Nation.]]
[[File:Sinking of the Esmeralda during the battle of Iquique.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Sinking of the Esmeralda during the [[battle of Iquique|naval battle of Iquique]].]]
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national [[junta]] in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence which [[José Miguel Carrera]] started soon won a wide following. After the [[Battle of Rancagua]], a Spanish attempt to reimpose arbitrary rule started, during what was called the "Reconquista" led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army led by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], Chile's most renowned patriot, and [[José de San Martín]], hero of Argentine independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership.

During the Ramón Freire Presidency in 1826 the last royalist bastion was defeated, the [[Chiloé]] archipelago and the Tantauco Treaty was signed between Chile and Spain.

Between 1823 and 1829 there was a period of Constitutional Attempts, and there were four of them.

The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the 1833 Constitution made by [[Diego Portales]]. After the [[Civil War]] of 1829–30, a strong presidency emerged, but wealthy landowners remained extremely powerful.

Between 1836 and 1839, Chile fought a [[War against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] which Chile won and separated Peru and Bolivia again.

In 1865 and 1866 Chile, Peru and Ecuador fought against Spain in the [[Chincha Islands War]], Chile and it's allies won.

[[Image:Easter_island_statues.jpg|thumb|right|On September 9, 1888 the Council of Rapanui Chiefs asked the Chilean Navy Captain, Policarpo Toro, to accept the sovereignty of [[Easter Island]] without giving up their chieftaincy titles, the ownership of their lands, the validity of their culture and traditions and on equal terms. This known as the "Agreement of Wills".]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by founding the [[Fort Bulnes]] in 1843 (near the current city of [[Punta Arenas]] in the [[Strait of Magellan]]) and incorporating the zone of the south of the [[Biobío river]] in a process called the [[Pacification of the Araucanía]], the government plan was to building roads, schools, and public infrastructure where the [[Mapuche]] Indians live, they were incorporated as citizens, however the rebel Mapuches were crushed.

There was also a process of Colonization in which the Government gave [[German]] [[settlers]] lands in [[Valdivia]] and the [[Llanquihue Lake]] where they founded several towns and cities. To this day the German influence can be noted in cities like Valdivia, [[Puerto Varas]], [[Frutillar]], [[Puerto Octay]], [[Nueva Braunau]], Ensenada, [[Puerto Montt]] and [[Osorno]].

In 1881, Chile signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan but also loosing its colonial rights over Eastern Patagonia. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. After a [[Civil war]] in 1891 in which President [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] committed suicide, a parliamentary democracy was established, but degenerated into a system protecting the interests of the ruling oligarchy.
In 1888 Chile incorporated [[Easter Island]] to the national territory.

===20th Century===
[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|175px|thumbnail|The [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.
Continuing political and economic instability resulted with the rule of the quasidictatorial Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] (1924–32).
In June there was a Coup and between that month and September 1932 there was an attempt to establish a [[Socialist]] Republic that failed.
When constitutional rule was restored later that year, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy.
In 1940 Chile started to claim officially the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].

In 1962 the "right-wing" President [[Jorge Alessandri]] started the agrarian reform in a small portion, that expropriated part of big land properties. This reform was deepened by the next two governments.

The 1964 presidential election of [[Christian Democrat]] [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

He also made the "Chileanization of the copper" which introduced the State into the copper industry.
====Unidad Popular Marxist Regime (1970-1973)====
{{Main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
In 1970, Senator [[Salvador Allende]], a [[Marxist]] and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the "Popular Unity" (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats (the lasts ones supported him with the condition of respecting the laws and private property), won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest and was named president by the Chilean Congress. His program included the nationalization of private industries and banks, massive land expropriation, and collectivization, implementation of a Marxist education system, repartition of food collectively (with a limit of one stock per family). Allende's program also included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major copper mines.

[[Fidel Castro]] visited Chile in 1971 where he stayed for months.
Allende said in the same year "The major role of a journalist is not to server the truth, but to server the revolution" and in 1972 "I'm the President of the Unidad Popular, but I'm not the president of all Chileans".

Elected with only 36% of the vote and by a plurality of only 36,000 votes, Allende never enjoyed majority support in the Chilean Congress or broad popular support. Domestic production declined; severe shortages of consumer goods, food, and manufactured products were widespread; and inflation reached 1,000% per annum. Mass demonstrations, recurring strikes, violence by both government supporters and opponents, and widespread rural unrest ensued in response to the general deterioration of the economy.

The 22th of August 1973 the Chamber of Deputies called for a military intervention since the Allende's Government was Unconstitutional for not respecting basic laws like [[private property]].<ref>[https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2013/08/23/40-anos-del-acuerdo-de-la-camara-que-declaro-la-ilegitimidad-del-gobierno-de-allende/ 40 años del acuerdo de la Cámara que declaró la ilegitimidad del Gobierno de Allende]</ref> By the time the Christian Democrats stopped supporting Allende and started to support an intervention.

[[Carlos Altamirano]], General Secretary of the Socialist Party in July 1973 called to "crush the opposition" and to "not negotiate with the enemies of Chile"<ref>https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304093123/rev91_documento.pdf</ref> he also called for a violent Marxist revolution in 1968.

====Military Government (1973-1990)====
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990).jpg|300px|thumbnail|President and General [[Augusto Pinochet|Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], President of Chile (1973-1990), fighter against [[Marxism]], father of Chile's development, and restorer of the order and the institutions.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|1980 Constitution]] and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
A military pronouncement overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace, Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime in particular were marked by an irregular war against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|leftist terrorists]] who wanted a violent Marxist revolution. A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] was approved by a plebiscite on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. The Constitution writing had an important participation of [[Jaime Guzmán]] who also founded the [[Independent Democrat Union]].

The Armed Forces had to assume the leadership of the country, aware that this task did not mean a mere restoration of the broken institutionality, since the systematic destruction to which the Homeland had been subjected had deeply undermined coexistence and national development; therefore, it was imperative to go further and create a modern, profound system of the country, with a clear social content and democratic character. From the structuring of the stages and objectives of the Government and the determination of the principles that would govern the project, the Armed Forces marked with height, coherence and consequence the national reality and the itinerary designed.

This great work was not exempt from interferences, demands and sacrifices, since at the beginning it was necessary to overcome the disastrous consequences of the previous administrations and the prevailing polarization. Subsequently, it was necessary to face defamation, the economic crises in the neighborhood, and the wily terrorist and subversive actions. These, together or in isolation, ([[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] made the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]" that blocked any selling of weapons to Chile, and also the U.S. imposed a blockade on fruit exports) in could have led any government to political, economic and social collapse. However, the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, based on efficiency, patriotism and joint effort, with a more than important part of society, managed to overcome the obstacles and deliver a better future for all Chileans.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Military men victims of [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]].]]

There is an evident reality that shows that important sectors of the political spectrum not only tried gradually and systematically to delegitimize the Military Government, but even, once they determined the impossibility of achieving their goals, they used means and tools contrary to peaceful coexistence, even seeking its destabilization, accepting, encouraging or participating in Chilean and foreign extremist organizations contrary to the idiosyncrasy and national identity.
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
The successful model and the change of life generated in Chileans by the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, in general, has not been accepted or recognized at the national and international level. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it would be pernicious for national coexistence that a government defined as authoritarian has been so successful and profound. Undoubtedly, this is a biased point of view, since this line of argument tends to homologate our reality with caudillisms or military irruptions that lacked ethical imperatives and national needs and that did occur systematically or cyclically in other nations.

The deed of September 11, 1973 and the foundational work of the Military Government, apart from signifying for the Armed Forces and the Carabineros and, particularly, for the Army, a feeling of honor and pride that must be preserved, is an event that must necessarily be included in national and universal history in all its truth and dimension.
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|250|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile in 1985.]]
In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. In contrast to its authoritarian political rule, the military government pursued decidedly [[laissez-faire]] economic policies.

[[Milton Friedman]] said,
* "... the really extraordinary thing about the Chilean case was that a military government followed the opposite of military policies. The military is distinguished from the ordinary economy by the fact that it's a top-down organization. The general tells the colonel, the colonel tells the captain, and so on down, whereas a market is a bottom-up organization. The customer goes into the store and tells the retailer what he wants; the retailer sends it back up the line to the manufacturer and so on. So the basic organizational principles in the military are almost the opposite of the basic organizational principles of a free market and a free society. And the really remarkable thing about Chile is that the military adopted the free-market arrangements instead of the military arrangements."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10 Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman on PBS]</ref>

During its 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that fostered an increase in domestic and foreign private investment. The complete political liberalization of the country came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite, which finally took place on October 5. On that day, the triumph of the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans voted for elections to choose a new president in 1989 and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress. The Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution on the same year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>[https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html Soros helped the "No" campaign]</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

===Democratic governments===
[[File:Izamiento de la Gran Bandera Nacional - Presidentes de Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|The five [[President of Chile|Chilean Presidents]] between the years 1990 and 2022 (two of them were elected twice in non-consecutive terms).]]
On December 14, 1989, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the Concertación, was elected president. In a ceremony held in the Congress building in Valparaíso, Pinochet handed over the presidency to the new constitutional President.

Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994 and was succeeded by another Christian Democrat, [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (son of the previous President), leading the same coalition, for a 6-year term. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy led the Concertación to a narrower victory in 2000 presidential elections.

During the ''Concertación'' Governments, Military personnel who fought terrorism were jailed unfairly using an old judicial system and without proof, these can be called the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisioners]] that were destined to the [[Punta Peuco Jail]]. Also during these Governments the private pension system was reformed to benefit the companies that manage pension funds by making the users assume the economic losses and increased the retirement age by approximately 20 years, which directly lowered pensions. This changes are the main factor of the problems in the system that can be reversed.

In September 2005, President [[Ricardo Lagos]] signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.

On January 15, 2006 [[Michelle Bachelet|Michelle Bachelet Jeria]] (center-left) won the elections against businessman [[Sebastián Piñera]] (center-right) and she took office on March 11, 2006, becoming the first woman to become President of Chile.
In 2009 Sebastián Piñera Echenique won the presidency, beign the first center-right candidate to do so after the Pinochet regime. In 2013 Bachelet won the office again and Piñera in 2017. Presidents in Chile can't have consecutive two terms, they need to wait another election.

Chile's congressional elections were governed by a unique binomial system made by [[Jaime Guzmán]] until 2018 that rewarded coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for the two Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district. Historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) splat most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 did the winning coalition gain both seats.

Chile was leaded by President [[Sebastián Piñera]] between 2018 and 2022 with the coalition of parties called [[Chile Vamos]]. The coalition was center-right and took [[progressive]] stands on some moral issues like legalizing [[same sex "marriage"]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2018/11/29/chile-enacts-landmark-gender-identity-law/|title=Chile enacts landmark gender identity law|date=November 29, 2018|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref>

{{main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
In 2019 Leftist mobs began to burn private and public property (the main public damage were 20 metro stations that were burned and 77 damaged in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metro.cl/noticias/balance-danos-19-de-octubre-2019|title=Balance daños 19 de octubre 2019|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Metro de Santiago}}</ref> starting a political crisis that has on its objectives to make the state bigger, raise taxes, and eliminate the individual capitalization system, as well as a change of the Constitution. This groups have been supported by the international left, the [[Sao Paulo Forum]], the [[Puebla Group]] and [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/10/20/nicolas-maduro-respondio-las-acusaciones-de-alentar-las-protestas-en-ecuador-y-chile-foro-de-sao-paulo-estamos-cumpliendo-el-plan-ustedes-me-entienden/|title=Nicolás Maduro habló sobre las acusaciones de alentar las protestas en Ecuador y Chile: "Foro de San Pablo, estamos cumpliendo el plan, ustedes me entienden..."|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Infobae}}</ref> The period is called ''Estallido social'' by the left. [[Diosdado Cabello]], a government official from Venezuela at that time said "The [[Bolivarian]] breeze sweeping the region will become a hurricane"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-diosdado-cabello-amenaza-brisa-bolivariana-recorre-region-convertira-huracan-201910201834_noticia.html|title=Diosdado Cabello amenaza: "La brisa bolivariana que recorre la región se convertirá en huracán"|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=ABC Internacional}}</ref>

On the 15th of November 2019 the Congress approved to make a referendum on the Constitution, ceding to the radical left.

The referendum was made on October 25, 2020, and the option to change the Constitution won. Several rallies were made for the 'Rejection' (''Rechazo'') option by patriots with a high number of people attending and in which [[Sebastián Izquierdo]] played an important role.

There was a previous proposal of a new Constitution that was a draft from the socialist Michelle Bachelet from the last weeks of her administration and both administrations (Piñera and Bachelet) were committed to follow the globalist [[2030 Agenda]] from the United Nations. The [[Constitutional Convention (Chile)|Constitutional Convention]] which redacted the text made a progressive and globalist proposal, the conservative [[Teresa Marinovic]] was elected to the Convention auditing the far-left institution.

In the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Presidential Election]], the final front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Gabriel Boric]]. Kast won the first round with a 27.91% of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and Boric obtained 25.82% (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13% (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87% (4,620,890 votes) from Boric. Boric got electoed at the age of 35, a former student radical "activist," a self-described [[communist]].<ref name=at22nov21>Monica Showalter, [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/stunning_good_news_from_chile__and_not_just_for_them_but_for_us.html Stunning good news from Chile...], American Thinker, November 22, 2021</ref>

On September 4, 2022, the second referendum took place in which the 'Rejection' option won with 61.86% of the votes against 38.14% of the 'Approve' option. The main difference with the first election was that the vote was mandatory in the second one and not the first one, having bigger participation of older generations which tend to vote conservative. After the triumph of the 'Rechazo', Gabriel Boric changed the cabinet of ministers of his government.

In 2023 the corrupt political system started a new process to change the Constitution, this time with more control of the establishment parties, without asking on a referendum if the citizens of Chile wanted a new process (they "assumed" that the 2020 referendum result is permanent, even that that process ended with the 2022 referendum). On May 7 the [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|election to elect the counselors of the Constitutional Council]] was held and a massive conservative victory was obtained, the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] won the majority as well as a record "Nulo" (Voluntary refusal to choose a candidate by the citizenry in a mandatory election) votes on 3rd place.

On December 17, 2023 a new referendum was held over the new written text, the Republican Party directive supported the change of the Chilean Constitution, many members of the party opposed this stance change of the party. The Globalist "center-right" coalition, [[Chile Vamos]] and centrist parties such as "Democrats" and "Yellows" (which means "being too moderated") supported the "In Favor" option as well. Chilean Patriots supported the "Against" option as well as the most of the left-wing. The "Against" Option obtained 55.76% of the votes while the "In Favor" Option obtained 44.24%. The dissident right was victorious over the establishment "right-wing" parties who supported the new proposed text.

On June 7, 2024 [[Johannes Kaiser]] founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-globalist, paleo-libertarian party.

José Antonio Kast, a Catholic pro-life conservative who promised to protect Chile against illegal immigration won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Sports==
[[Association Football|Football]] is the most popular sport by far. Chile hosted the 1962 [[World Cup]], notable for the "Battle of Santiago" (a group stage match between host Chile and Italy, which due to the on-pitch action - police had to be called no fewer than four times to gain control between squads - is considered among the poorest displays of sportsmanship in sports history, and eventually led to development of yellow and red cards).

However, the national sport is the Rodeo.

Chile won the Copa América 2015 and Copa América Centenario 2016, obtaining its first two Football titles in the national selection.

The Chilean mountains have important ski centers like Valle Nevado.

The [[Arica]] city in the north has the best waves of the country, something ideal for surfing.

The Chilean [[Patagonia]] is a famous place for trekking and out-door sports, The Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) and many National Parks (including the [[National Park Torres del Paine|Torres del Paine]] one) are visited by people all over the world.

==Culture==
[[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Nicanor Parra]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] are famous Chilean poets. Chillán in the Ñuble Region is a notorious cultural city of Chile.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== See also ==
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]
*[[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
*[[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[La Moneda]]
*[[Easter Island]]
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Colchane]], Chilean most conservative town
*[[Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
*[[War of the Pacific]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm]}}}.
|}

{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Carabineros de Chile

2026-03-23T12:50:04Z

CatolicoAustral:

[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|thumbnail]]
'''Carabineros de Chile''' is the national uniformed police force of the Republic of Chile. Established in 1927, it is the primary law enforcement agency responsible for public order, traffic control, border security, and civic duties nationwide. With the motto ''Orden y Patria'' ("Order and Fatherland"), Carabineros are widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and least corrupt police forces in Latin America, consistently earning international recognition and serving as a profound source of national pride for [[Chile]]ans.<ref name=Integrity>{{cite web|url=https://www.ganintegrity.com/country-profiles/chile|title=Chile country risk report|publisher=GAN Integrity|date=November 5, 2020|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref>

The institution integrates police and gendarmerie functions, operating under the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security with paramilitary capabilities for emergencies. Its members receive rigorous training focused on discipline, professionalism, and national service.

== History ==
Carabineros de Chile was officially founded on April 27, 1927, by [[President of Chile|President]] [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] through the unification of existing fiscal, rural, and carabinero corps into a single national force. This created a centralized, professional institution that has maintained high standards of efficiency and integrity relative to many regional counterparts.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/best-worst-latam-police|title=From Chile to Mexico: Best and Worst of LatAm Police|publisher=InSight Crime|date=March 20, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

== International Prestige and Cooperation ==
Carabineros enjoys significant international prestige due to its professionalism and efficiency. Through the Chilean government's Cooperation Programme for Uniformed Foreign Police Forces (CECIPU), it has trained and specialized over thousands of officers from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. As a founding member of AMERIPOL (Community of American Police Forces) since 2007 and an associated member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (FIEP) since 2005, Carabineros has even chaired AMERIPOL, highlighting its regional leadership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cecipu.interior.gob.cl/|title=CECIPU: Programa de cooperación internacional del Gobierno de Chile para policías uniformadas|publisher=Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gob.mx/epn%7Cpoliciafederal/articulos/cuerpo-de-carabineros-de-chile-condecora-al-comisionado-general-de-la-policia-federal-de-mexico|title=Cuerpo de Carabineros de Chile condecora al Comisionado General de la Policía Federal de México|publisher=Gobierno de México|date=April 27, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

== Reputation as One of Latin America's Least Corrupt Police Forces ==
Chile ranks as the least corrupt country in Latin America according to multiple assessments, and its police force reflects this standard. Risk reports describe a very low risk of corruption encounters with Carabineros, supported by effective investigation and punishment mechanisms. Businesses view the Chilean police as among the most reliable worldwide.<ref name=Integrity/>

This integrity, combined with strong institutional performance, makes Carabineros a symbol of national pride, frequently celebrated in public events, parades, and as guardians of Chilean order and values.

== Defense of Institutional Order During the 2019 Protests ==
{{Main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
During the widespread protests of October 2019 (known by the left as the ''Estallido Social''), which involved violence, arson, and looting, Carabineros served as the primary defenders of public institutions and constitutional order.

A pivotal moment occurred on the night of October 24, 2019, when protesters surrounded the Palacio de La Moneda. According to investigative journalist Víctor Herrero, co-author of the book ''La Revuelta'', demonstrators were approximately 30 minutes from taking the palace. Carabineros reported having only 30 minutes of ammunition remaining while holding the line. Herrero noted that if the force had withdrawn, protesters would have seized La Moneda, an outcome that "as a symbol would have been the end" for institutional stability. The police's resolute defense—until the crowd dispersed—prevented this scenario and upheld Chile's democratic framework.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://resumen.cl/articulos/victor-herrero-coautor-de-libro-la-revuelta-la-noche-del-24-de-octubre-los-manifestantes-estuvieron-a-30-minutos-de-tomarse-la-moneda|title=Víctor Herrero, coautor de libro La Revuelta: "La noche del 24 de octubre los manifestantes estuvieron a 30 minutos de tomarse La Moneda"|publisher=Resumen.cl|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

Their actions during the crisis reinforced their role as protectors of the republic among many Chileans who prioritize law, order, and institutional continuity.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Police]]

Chile

2026-03-23T12:49:43Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Carabineros */

{{Country
|name =''República de Chile''
|map =Tricontinental Chile Map.jpg
|map2 =Chile location map.png
|flag =Flag of Chile.png
|arms =Coat of arms of Chile.png
|capital-raw =[[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]]
|government-raw =[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Unitarian & Presidentialist Republic]]
|language =Spanish
|president =José Antonio Kast
|president-raw=
|conservative-leader=
|conservative-leader-raw=[[José Antonio Kast]]/[[Johannes Kaiser]]
|area =774,657 sq. mi. (Tricontinental Chile) 292,183 sq. mi. (Only Continental and Insular Chile)
|pop =19,100,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$280,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$14,660 (2020)
|currency =Chilean Peso (CLP)
|idd =+56
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}}
'''Chile''' (official name: '''Republic of Chile''') is a [[nation]] on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of [[South America]], [[Antarctica]] and [[Oceania]] which is organized as a Centralized Unitary Presidential [[Democracy]]. It has a population of 17.5 million and the capital city is [[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]] which is also the biggest city of the country. Chile borders [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Peru]].

Between 1975 and 2014, Chile followed the path of the [[free market]] and [[Capitalism]] been the best place to make business of [[Latin America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iberglobal.com/files/2019-1/economic_freedom_index_2019.pdf|title=Economic Freedom Index 2019}}</ref> This has made the country the most developed of the Region according to the [[Human Development Index]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=505045|title=Chile sigue al tope de A. Latina en Índice de Desarrollo Humano|date=September 15, 2018|publisher=Economía y Negocios|language=es}}</ref> Chile went from a [[Gross domestic product]] of 100 in 1973 to 515 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobierno.udd.cl/files/2016/05/PPT-FPP.pdf|author=Lucas Palacios Covarrubias|title=Pobreza vs Desigualdad|date=April 2016|publisher=[[Universidad del Desarrollo]] - Facultad de Gobierno|language=es}}</ref> However that was put at risk with the leftist insurrection from 2019 and the Boric presidency. Right-wing [[President of Chile|President]] [[José Antonio Kast]] promises to retake the path to develop the country.

In early September 2022, by a resounding 62-38% landslide margin, Chileans rejected a progressive new constitution proposal and thereby decided to retain [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|the one written under]] [[conservative]] leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1980, which was reformed over 70 times in democracy in more than half of its content.<ref>https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1121065756/chile-constitution-referendum</ref><ref>[https://www.uandes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CPR-Edicio%CC%81n-Histo%CC%81rica.pdf]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220929111026/https://plataformacontexto.cl/contexto_factual/cuanto-queda-de-la-constitucion-de-pinochet/ Cuánto queda de “la Constitución de Pinochet”]</ref> A new proposal from the center-right with globalist elements was rejected on December 2023 with a 56-44% landslide margin.

==Geography==
[[File:Volcano Osorno and Petrohué waterfalls.JPG|thumb|left|Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano in the background.]]
The northern Chilean [[Atacama Desert]] contains great mineral wealth, principally [[copper]], and also contains locations where rainfall has never been recorded. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in [[forest]]s and grazing lands and features a string of [[volcano]]es and [[lake]]s. The southern coast located in [[Patagonia]] is a labyrinth of [[fjord]]s, [[inlet]]s, [[canal]]s, twisting [[peninsula]]s, and [[island]]s. The [[Andes]] Mountains are located on the eastern border.
*Area of Tricontinental Chile: 2,006,354 km2 (774,657 sq. mi.) including the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]] which reaches the [[South Pole]].
*Area considering Continental and Insular Chile: 756,945 km2. (302,778 sq. mi.), or nearly twice the size of California.
*Cities: Capital—[[Santiago]] (metropolitan area est. 6.25 million). Other cities: [[Concepción]]-[[Talcahuano]] (840,000), [[Viña del Mar]]-[[Valparaíso]] (800,000), [[Antofagasta]] (245,000), [[Temuco]] (230,000).
*Terrain: Desert in north; fertile central valley; volcanoes and lakes toward the south, giving way to rugged and complex coastline; Andes Mountains on the eastern border.
*Climate: Arid in north, Mediterranean in the central portion, cool and damp in south.

Chile has experienced numerous massive earthquakes, being located within the "Ring of Fire": of the 46 known earthquakes estimated at magnitude >= 8.5, one-third have occurred in Chile, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was measured at magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever recorded. On four occasions, two earthquakes with magnitude >= 8.5 have had the same Chilean epicenter. Furthermore, the strongest estimated earthquake (before seismographs were invented) also took place in Chile around 1800 BC, also estimated in the magnitude 9.5 range.

==People==
[[File:Chilean dance.jpg|left|140px]]
About 85% of Chile's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in greater Santiago. Most have [[Spain|Spanish]] ancestry. A small, yet influential number of [[Irish]] and [[English]] immigrants came to Chile during the Spanish Empire period. [[German]] immigration began in 1848 and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of [[Valdivia]], [[Llanquihue]], and [[Osorno]] show a strong German influence. Other significant historic immigrant groups are [[Italian]], [[Croatian]], [[Basque]], [[Palestinian]] and [[Peruvian]]. About 800,000 Native Americans, mostly of the [[Mapuche]] (Araucan) tribes, reside in the south-central area. The [[Aymara]] and [[Diaguita]] groups can be found mainly in Chile's northern desert valleys.

Since 2014 Chile has been experiencing [[open borders|mass]] [[immigration]] from [[Haiti]], [[Venezuela]], [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]], something that was unusual and has drastically changed the demographics of the country in the recent years (The immigrants went from 1.1% to 6.1% and is still growing)<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> a lot of them are [[Illegal immigration|illegally]] (See ''[[Colchane#Mass_immigration_problem|Colchane's Mass immigration problem]]'').

*Population (2019): 17.5 million.
*Annual population growth rate: 0.881%.
*Ethnic groups: Spanish-Native-American (mestizo), European, Native-American, Blacks (since 2014 with mass Haitian immigration).
*Religions: [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] 70%, [[Evangelical]] 15.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.1%, other Christian 1%, other 4.6%, none 8.3%.
*Language: [[Spanish]].
*Education: Years compulsory—13. Attendance—3 million. Adult literacy rate—96%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate—8.9/1,000. Life expectancy—80 yrs. for men, 85 for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsuss.cl/ipsuss/analisis-y-estudios/esperanza-de-vida-al-nacer-en-chile-llega-a-85-anos-en-mujeres-y-80-anos/2017-09-26/154547.html|title=Esperanza de vida al nacer en Chile llega a 85 años en mujeres y 80 años en hombres|date=September 26, 2017|language=es|publisher=Ipsuss}}</ref>
*Work force (6.94 million); employed 6.45 million: Community, social and individual services—26%; industry—14.4%; commerce—17.6%; agriculture, forestry, and fishing—13.9%; construction—7.1%; financial services—7.5%; transportation and communication—8.0%; electricity, gas and water—0.5%; mining—1.2%.

==Government==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Palacio de La Moneda.jpg|thumbnail|250px|[[La Moneda]] Palace, seat of Executive Branch.]]
[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Chile's Constitution]] was approved in a September 1980 national plebiscite with 67% of the vote. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]], the Constitution was reformed and another referendum was held over the reforms in which 91% voted in favor. In 2005 President Lagos made several reforms to the Constitution, even changing the Pinochet sign with his.
The President term is 4-year long, however is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms. The political system of Chile is an exacerbated [[Presidential system|Presidential]] one.
Chile has a bicameral Congress, which meets in the port city of [[Valparaíso]], about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago (since 1990). Deputies are elected every 4 years, and Senators serve 8-year terms.
There are currently 43 Senators and 155 Deputies.
The Chilean elections are judged free and fair.

Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nationwide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform replaced old proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.

The Central Bank in Chile is autonomous since 1981.

===Principal Government Officials===
{{See also|President of Chile}}
[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio Kast Rist]], a pro-life, anti illegal immigration conservative.]]
*[[President of Chile|President]]—[[José Antonio Kast]] since 11 March 2026.
*Minister of Interior—Claudio Alvarado
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Francisco Pérez Mackenna
*Ambassador to the United States—Andrés Ergas
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)—José Miguel Castro
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Roberto Ampuero
*Ambassador to the OECD—Sebastián Schneinder
*Mayor of Santiago—[[Mario Desbordes]]

===Foreign Relations===
Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. [[Jose Miguel Insulza]], a Chilean national, was Secretary General of the Organization of American States from May 2005 to 2015. Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002 and the [[APEC]] summit and related meetings in 2004. Chile hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial in April 2005. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade. The APEC 2019 was planed to be hosted on Chile and the COP25 but was cancelled due to the [[2019 Chilean State of Emergency|State of Emergency]]. President [[Donald Trump]] planed to sign an agreement with [[Xi Jinping]] to end the 'Trade War' in the APEC hosted in Chile, however it was canceled.

Chile was one of the four countries (along with [[Singapore]], [[Brunei]] and [[New Zealand]]) that started the [[TPP (treaty)|TPP-11]].

Chile signed many Free Trade Agreements since the 90s.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. It settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s except for a part in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and the Antarctic claims overlap between both countries, however the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow modification to the claims and they are ineffective.

In 2007 Peru demanded Chile in the International Court of Justice due to a maritime dispute. The case was closed in 2013 in which half of the disputed sea was ceded to Peru and half to Chile. In Chile it was seen as a lost case.

Chile and Bolivia have bad diplomatic relations since [[Evo Morales]], Bolivia's president, reintegrated the desire to reacquire territory Bolivia lost to Chile in 1879-83 [[War of the Pacific]] in his Foreign Affairs Policy and he demanded Chile in the Internation Couth of Justice, a case which Chile won. There is currently a case to determine if Silala is a river (Chile's position) or is a spring artificially modificated by Chile (Bolivia's position). The two countries maintain consular relations and are represented at the Consul General level but doesn't have embassies in each other.

===Political parties and coalitions===
The main coalitions are:
*[[Chile Vamos]] (Globalist center-right) ([[Sebastián Piñera|Piñera]] and [[Evelyn Matthei|Matthei]]'s coalition) composed by the [[Independent Democrat Union]], [[National Renewal]] and [[Evópoli]].
*Apruebo Dignidad (far-left) ([[Gabriel Boric|Boric]] and [[Daniel Jadue|Jadue]]'s coalition) Social Convergence, [[Democratic Revolution]], Green Ecologist Party, Commune Party, [[Communist]] Party and Social Green Regionalist Federation.
*Constituent Unity (Former "New Majority") (left) (former [[Michelle Bachelet|Bachelet]]'s coalition) composed by old leftist parties such as: the [[Socialist]] Party, Party for Democracy, the Radical Party, [[Christian Democracy]], Citizens Party and the Liberal Party .

Important parties without coalition:
*[[National Libertarian Party]] (Dissident right Party) ([[Johannes Kaiser]]'s party).
*[[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (right-wing) ([[José Antonio Kast]]'s party).
*[[Social Christian Party (Chile)|Social Christian Party]] (Dissident right Party) (Evangelical party).
*[[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]] (from center to center-right) ([[Franco Parisi]]'s party).
*[[Communist Party]] of Chile (Proletarian Action)/Patriotic Union (far-left) (Eduardo Artes' party).
*Progressive Homeland (left) (Marco Enríquez-Ominami's party).

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Chile (+Antarctica & Islands), administrative divisions - en - colored.png|230px|thumbnail|Map of the Chilean Regions.]]
{{Main article|Regions of Chile}}
Chile is divided in 16 Regions, 56 provinces and 346 communes. Chile is a Unitary Centralized State in which the law is the same in every place of the country.

'''List of the Regions and their Capital''':
*[[Arica & Parinacota Region|Arica & Parinacota]] - Capital: [[Arica]]
*[[Tarapacá Region|Tarapacá]] - Capital: [[Iquique]]
*[[Antofagasta Region|Antofagasta]] - Capital: [[Antofagasta]]
*[[Atacama Region|Atacama]] - Capital: [[Copiapó]]
*[[Coquimbo Region|Coquimbo]] - Capital: [[La Serena]]
*[[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]] - Capital: [[Valparaíso]]
*[[Metropolitan Region|Metropolitan]] - Capital: [[Santiago]]
*[[O'Higgins Region|O'Higgins]] - Capital: [[Rancagua]]
*[[Maule Region|Maule]] - Capital: [[Talca]]
*[[Ñuble Region|Ñuble]] - Capital: [[Chillán]]
*[[Biobío Region|Biobío]] - Capital: [[Concepción (Chile)|Concepción]]
*[[Araucanía Region|Araucanía]] - Capital: [[Temuco]]
*[[Los Ríos Region|Los Ríos]] - Capital: [[Valdivia]]
*[[Los Lagos Region|Los Lagos]] - Capital: [[Puerto Montt]]
*[[Aysén Region|Aysén]] - Capital: [[Coyhaique]]
*[[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica]] - Capital: [[Punta Arenas]]

The most conservative commune of Chile is [[Colchane]] as well with Antártica, Lo Barnechea, Vitacura & Las Condes.

==Defense==
Chile's Armed Forces are subject to civilian control exercised by the President through the Minister of Defense. The President has the authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.

===Army===
The Chilean Army is 45,000 strong and is organized with an Army headquarters in Santiago, seven divisions throughout its territory, an Air Brigade in Rancagua, and a Special Forces Command in Colina. The Chilean Army is one of the most professional and technologically advanced armies in Latin America.

===Navy===
The Navy has 23,000-person, including 2,500 Marines. Of the fleet of 29 surface vessels, only eight are operational major combatants (frigates). Those ships are based in [[Valparaíso]]. The Navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no Navy fighter or bomber aircraft. The Navy also operates four submarines based in [[Talcahuano]].

===Air Force (FACH)===
The FACH is a force of 12,500. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on [[Villa Las Estrellas]], [[King George Island]], [[Antarctica]]. The FACH was created in 1930 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]].

===Carabineros===
[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|250px|thumbnail]]
[[Carabineros de Chile]] is the national police force of 30,000 men and women who are responsible for law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control, and counter-terrorism throughout Chile. The Carabineros were created in 1927 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]]. Carabineros is the best police in Latin America and least corrupt.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/best-worst-latam-police|title=From Chile to Mexico: Best and Worst of LatAm Police|publisher=InSight Crime|date=March 20, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

Carabineros enjoys significant international prestige due to its professionalism and efficiency. Through the Chilean government's Cooperation Programme for Uniformed Foreign Police Forces (CECIPU), it has trained and specialized over thousands of officers from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. As a founding member of AMERIPOL (Community of American Police Forces) since 2007 and an associated member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (FIEP) since 2005, Carabineros has even chaired AMERIPOL, highlighting its regional leadership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cecipu.interior.gob.cl/|title=CECIPU: Programa de cooperación internacional del Gobierno de Chile para policías uniformadas|publisher=Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gob.mx/epn%7Cpoliciafederal/articulos/cuerpo-de-carabineros-de-chile-condecora-al-comisionado-general-de-la-policia-federal-de-mexico|title=Cuerpo de Carabineros de Chile condecora al Comisionado General de la Policía Federal de México|publisher=Gobierno de México|date=April 27, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
[[File:Gran Torre Santiago (39693576311).jpg|thumbnail|300px|Gran Torre Santiago, in the financial district of the city.]]
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 3.3% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.1%. Real GDP growth reached 6.3% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile signed the OECD Convention, becoming the first South American country to join the OECD.

*GDP (official exchange rate): $150.4 billion. (GDP (purchasing power parity):$335.4 billion (2013 est.))
*Annual real growth rate: -1.5%.
*Per capita GDP (purchasing power parity): $27,058 (GDP - per capita (PPP) 2019 est.)
*Forestry, agriculture, and fisheries (6% of GDP): Products—fruits, wheat, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions, beans, livestock, fish.
*Commerce (8% of GDP): Sales, restaurants, hotels.
*Manufacturing (17% of GDP): Types—mineral refining, metal manufacturing, food processing, fish processing, paper and wood products, finished textiles.
*Electricity, gas, and water: 3% of GDP.
*Transportation and communication: 7% of GDP.
*Construction: 8% of GDP.
*Financial services (12% of GDP): Insurance, leasing, consulting.
*Mining (13% of GDP): Copper, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, and molybdenum.
*Trade: Exports--$57.61 billion: copper, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and wood products. Major markets—U.S., Japan, China, Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Mexico. Imports--$40.91 billion: fuels, heavy industrial machinery, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, plastic. Major suppliers—U.S., China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. (GDP (official exchange rate):$281.7 billion (2013 est.))

Chile has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by [[negotiating]] in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[José Piñera]] creator of the Individual capitalization pension system.]]
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], economist during the Military Government that re-implemented liberal economic policies.]]
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.

Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile's consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a family of four's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 18% by 2004.

Chile's independent Central Bank pursues an inflation target of between 2% and 4%. Inflation has not exceeded 5% since 1998. Chile registered an inflation rate of 3.2% in 2006. The Chilean peso's rapid appreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent years has helped dampen inflation. Most wage settlements and loans are indexed, reducing inflation's volatility. Under the compulsory private pension system, most formal sector employees pay 10% of their salaries into privately managed funds.

[[File:Countries with a private pension system.jpg|thumbnail|Countries that applied Chile's private pension system.]]
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) was only $3.4 billion in 2006, up 52% from a poor performance in 2005. However, 80% of FDI continues to go to only four sectors: electricity, gas, water and mining. Much of the jump in FDI in 2006 was also the result of acquisitions and mergers and has done little to create new employment in Chile. The Chilean Government has formed a Council on Innovation and Competition, which is tasked with identifying new sectors and industries to promote. It is hoped that this, combined with some tax reforms to encourage domestic and foreign investment in research and development, will bring in additional FDI and to new parts of the economy. As of 2006, Chile invested only 0.6% of its annual GDP in research and development (R&D). Even then, two-thirds of that was government spending. The fact that domestic and foreign companies spend almost nothing on R&D does not bode well for the Government of Chile's efforts to develop innovative, knowledge-based sectors. Additionally, on January 8, 2007, Chile was placed on the U.S. Trade Representative's Priority Watch List due to its poor record on protecting intellectual property rights. Chile is only the second U.S. FTA partner ever to be placed on the Priority Watch List. Chile has a poor and deteriorating record of protecting copyrighted music, films, and software. Combined with this is its institutional structure allowing local companies to produce and market pharmaceutical generics that violate existing patents. Beyond its general economic and political stability, the government also has encouraged the use of Chile as an "investment platform" for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region, but this will have limited value given the developing business climate in Chile itself. Chile's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Chileans. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital. While Chile and the EU have signed a double taxation treaty, no such agreement exists between the U.S. and Chile.

Mining was temporarily curtailed following an accident in which 33 miners were trapped after a cave-in at the San Jose mine<ref>http://www.minandes.com/s/RoadtoProduction.asp</ref> near Copiapo on August 5, 2010. A rescue attempt - bolstered by national pride at getting the men out alive - ended 67 days later on October 13 as the last of the men were pulled out to safety.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/12/rescued-chilean-miner-returns-surface/</ref><ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7961923/Chilean-miners-trapped-in-San-Jose-mine.html</ref>

===Foreign Trade===
[[File:Commercial Treaties Chile 2012.jpg|thumb|295px|Commercial Treaties, 2012.]]
2006 was a record year for Chilean trade. Total trade registered a 31% increase over 2005. During 2006, exports of goods and services totaled U.S. $58 billion, an increase of 41%. This figure was somewhat distorted by the skyrocketing price of copper. In 2006, copper exports reached a historical high of U.S. $33.3 billion. Imports totaled U.S. $35 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. Chile thus recorded a positive trade balance of U.S. $23 billion in 2006.

The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion). Seen as shares of Chile's export markets, 42% of exports went to the Americas, 30% to Asia and 24% to Europe. Within Chile's diversified network of trade relationships, its most important partner remained the United States. Total trade with the U.S. was U.S. $14.8 billion in 2006. Since the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004, U.S.-Chilean trade has increased by 154%. Internal Government of Chile figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has grown over 60% since then.

Total trade with Europe also grew in 2006, expanding by 42%. The Netherlands and Italy were Chile's main European trading partners. Total trade with Asia also grew significantly at nearly 31%. Trade with Korea and Japan grew significantly, but China remained Chile's most important trading partner in Asia. Chile's total trade with China reached U.S. $8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66% of the value of its trade relationship with Asia.

The growth of exports in 2006 was due mainly to a strong increase in sales to the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. These three markets alone accounted for an additional U.S. $5.5 billion worth of Chilean exports. Chilean exports to the United States totaled U.S. $9.3 billion, representing a 37.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $6.7 billion). Exports to the European Union were U.S. $15.4 billion, a 63.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $9.4 billion). Exports to Asia increased from U.S. $15.2 billion in 2005 to U.S. $19.7 billion in 2006, a 29.9% increase.

During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).

Chile's overall trade profile has traditionally been dependent upon copper exports. The state-owned firm CODELCO is the world's largest copper-producing company, with recorded copper reserves of 200 years. Chile has made an effort to expand nontraditional exports. The most important non-mineral exports are forestry and wood products, fresh fruit and processed food, fishmeal and seafood, and wine.

Successive Chilean governments have actively pursued trade-liberalizing agreements. During the 1990s, Chile signed FTAs with Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Chile also concluded preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. An association agreement with Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—went into effect in October 1996. Continuing its export-oriented development strategy, Chile completed landmark free trade agreements in 2002 with the European Union and South Korea. Chile, as a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, is seeking to boost commercial ties to Asian markets. To that end, it has signed trade agreements in recent years with New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, and most recently Japan. In 2007, Chile plans to begin negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

After two years of negotiations, the United States and Chile signed an agreement in June 2003 that will lead to completely duty-free bilateral trade within 12 years. The U.S.-Chile FTA entered into force January 1, 2004 following approval by the U.S. and Chilean congresses. The bilateral FTA has inaugurated greatly expanded U.S.-Chilean trade ties, with total bilateral trade jumping by 154% during the FTA's first three years.

Chile unilaterally lowered its across-the-board import tariff for all countries with which it does not have a trade agreement to 6% in 2003. Higher effective tariffs are charged only on imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar as a result of a system of import price bands. The price bands were ruled inconsistent with Chile's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in 2002, and the government has introduced legislation to modify them. Under the terms of the U.S.-Chile FTA, the price bands will be completely phased out for U.S. imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar within 12 years.

Chile is a strong proponent of pressing ahead on negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is active in the WTO's Doha round of negotiations, principally through its membership in the G-20 and Cairns Group.

===Finance===
Chile's financial sector has grown quickly in recent years, with a banking reform law approved in 1997 that broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001, and there is further pending legislation proposing further liberalization. Over the last ten years, Chileans have enjoyed the introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has also been accompanied by an increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $70 billion at the end of 2006, has been an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S&P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways for Chilean firms to raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stocks on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Nearly all of the funds raised through these means go to finance domestic Chilean investment. The government is required by law to run a fiscal surplus of at least 1% of GDP. In 2006, the Government of Chile ran a surplus of $11.3 billion, equal to almost 8% of GDP. The Government of Chile continues to pay down its foreign debt, with public debt only 3.9% of GDP at the end of 2006.

==History==
===Discovery and Hispanic period===
[[File:Pedro de Valdivia.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Pedro de Valdivia]], founder of several cities and conqueror of Chile.]]
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]], one of the founding fathers of Chile.]]
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first European to see Chilean land was [[Ferdinand Magellan]] when he discovered the [[Strait of Magellan]] in 1520, however the first one to arrive in Chile were [[Diego de Almagro]] and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in 1535. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of [[Santiago]] on February 12, 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

===19th Century, Independence, State Consolidation and Wars with neightbours===
[[File:Pedro Subercaseaux Jura de la Independencia Chile.jpg|thumb|300px|Fray Pedro Subercaseaux, Jura de la Independencia de Chile.]]
[[File:Diego Portales-2.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Diego Portales]] author of the 1833 Constitution which prioritized order over democracy.]]
[[File:Arturo Prat Chacón.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Arturo Prat|Arturo Prat Chacón]], the maximum naval hero of the Chilean Nation.]]
[[File:Sinking of the Esmeralda during the battle of Iquique.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Sinking of the Esmeralda during the [[battle of Iquique|naval battle of Iquique]].]]
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national [[junta]] in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence which [[José Miguel Carrera]] started soon won a wide following. After the [[Battle of Rancagua]], a Spanish attempt to reimpose arbitrary rule started, during what was called the "Reconquista" led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army led by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], Chile's most renowned patriot, and [[José de San Martín]], hero of Argentine independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership.

During the Ramón Freire Presidency in 1826 the last royalist bastion was defeated, the [[Chiloé]] archipelago and the Tantauco Treaty was signed between Chile and Spain.

Between 1823 and 1829 there was a period of Constitutional Attempts, and there were four of them.

The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the 1833 Constitution made by [[Diego Portales]]. After the [[Civil War]] of 1829–30, a strong presidency emerged, but wealthy landowners remained extremely powerful.

Between 1836 and 1839, Chile fought a [[War against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] which Chile won and separated Peru and Bolivia again.

In 1865 and 1866 Chile, Peru and Ecuador fought against Spain in the [[Chincha Islands War]], Chile and it's allies won.

[[Image:Easter_island_statues.jpg|thumb|right|On September 9, 1888 the Council of Rapanui Chiefs asked the Chilean Navy Captain, Policarpo Toro, to accept the sovereignty of [[Easter Island]] without giving up their chieftaincy titles, the ownership of their lands, the validity of their culture and traditions and on equal terms. This known as the "Agreement of Wills".]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by founding the [[Fort Bulnes]] in 1843 (near the current city of [[Punta Arenas]] in the [[Strait of Magellan]]) and incorporating the zone of the south of the [[Biobío river]] in a process called the [[Pacification of the Araucanía]], the government plan was to building roads, schools, and public infrastructure where the [[Mapuche]] Indians live, they were incorporated as citizens, however the rebel Mapuches were crushed.

There was also a process of Colonization in which the Government gave [[German]] [[settlers]] lands in [[Valdivia]] and the [[Llanquihue Lake]] where they founded several towns and cities. To this day the German influence can be noted in cities like Valdivia, [[Puerto Varas]], [[Frutillar]], [[Puerto Octay]], [[Nueva Braunau]], Ensenada, [[Puerto Montt]] and [[Osorno]].

In 1881, Chile signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan but also loosing its colonial rights over Eastern Patagonia. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. After a [[Civil war]] in 1891 in which President [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] committed suicide, a parliamentary democracy was established, but degenerated into a system protecting the interests of the ruling oligarchy.
In 1888 Chile incorporated [[Easter Island]] to the national territory.

===20th Century===
[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|175px|thumbnail|The [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.
Continuing political and economic instability resulted with the rule of the quasidictatorial Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] (1924–32).
In June there was a Coup and between that month and September 1932 there was an attempt to establish a [[Socialist]] Republic that failed.
When constitutional rule was restored later that year, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy.
In 1940 Chile started to claim officially the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].

In 1962 the "right-wing" President [[Jorge Alessandri]] started the agrarian reform in a small portion, that expropriated part of big land properties. This reform was deepened by the next two governments.

The 1964 presidential election of [[Christian Democrat]] [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

He also made the "Chileanization of the copper" which introduced the State into the copper industry.
====Unidad Popular Marxist Regime (1970-1973)====
{{Main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
In 1970, Senator [[Salvador Allende]], a [[Marxist]] and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the "Popular Unity" (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats (the lasts ones supported him with the condition of respecting the laws and private property), won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest and was named president by the Chilean Congress. His program included the nationalization of private industries and banks, massive land expropriation, and collectivization, implementation of a Marxist education system, repartition of food collectively (with a limit of one stock per family). Allende's program also included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major copper mines.

[[Fidel Castro]] visited Chile in 1971 where he stayed for months.
Allende said in the same year "The major role of a journalist is not to server the truth, but to server the revolution" and in 1972 "I'm the President of the Unidad Popular, but I'm not the president of all Chileans".

Elected with only 36% of the vote and by a plurality of only 36,000 votes, Allende never enjoyed majority support in the Chilean Congress or broad popular support. Domestic production declined; severe shortages of consumer goods, food, and manufactured products were widespread; and inflation reached 1,000% per annum. Mass demonstrations, recurring strikes, violence by both government supporters and opponents, and widespread rural unrest ensued in response to the general deterioration of the economy.

The 22th of August 1973 the Chamber of Deputies called for a military intervention since the Allende's Government was Unconstitutional for not respecting basic laws like [[private property]].<ref>[https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2013/08/23/40-anos-del-acuerdo-de-la-camara-que-declaro-la-ilegitimidad-del-gobierno-de-allende/ 40 años del acuerdo de la Cámara que declaró la ilegitimidad del Gobierno de Allende]</ref> By the time the Christian Democrats stopped supporting Allende and started to support an intervention.

[[Carlos Altamirano]], General Secretary of the Socialist Party in July 1973 called to "crush the opposition" and to "not negotiate with the enemies of Chile"<ref>https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304093123/rev91_documento.pdf</ref> he also called for a violent Marxist revolution in 1968.

====Military Government (1973-1990)====
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990).jpg|300px|thumbnail|President and General [[Augusto Pinochet|Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], President of Chile (1973-1990), fighter against [[Marxism]], father of Chile's development, and restorer of the order and the institutions.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|1980 Constitution]] and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
A military pronouncement overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace, Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime in particular were marked by an irregular war against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|leftist terrorists]] who wanted a violent Marxist revolution. A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] was approved by a plebiscite on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. The Constitution writing had an important participation of [[Jaime Guzmán]] who also founded the [[Independent Democrat Union]].

The Armed Forces had to assume the leadership of the country, aware that this task did not mean a mere restoration of the broken institutionality, since the systematic destruction to which the Homeland had been subjected had deeply undermined coexistence and national development; therefore, it was imperative to go further and create a modern, profound system of the country, with a clear social content and democratic character. From the structuring of the stages and objectives of the Government and the determination of the principles that would govern the project, the Armed Forces marked with height, coherence and consequence the national reality and the itinerary designed.

This great work was not exempt from interferences, demands and sacrifices, since at the beginning it was necessary to overcome the disastrous consequences of the previous administrations and the prevailing polarization. Subsequently, it was necessary to face defamation, the economic crises in the neighborhood, and the wily terrorist and subversive actions. These, together or in isolation, ([[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] made the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]" that blocked any selling of weapons to Chile, and also the U.S. imposed a blockade on fruit exports) in could have led any government to political, economic and social collapse. However, the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, based on efficiency, patriotism and joint effort, with a more than important part of society, managed to overcome the obstacles and deliver a better future for all Chileans.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Military men victims of [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]].]]

There is an evident reality that shows that important sectors of the political spectrum not only tried gradually and systematically to delegitimize the Military Government, but even, once they determined the impossibility of achieving their goals, they used means and tools contrary to peaceful coexistence, even seeking its destabilization, accepting, encouraging or participating in Chilean and foreign extremist organizations contrary to the idiosyncrasy and national identity.
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
The successful model and the change of life generated in Chileans by the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, in general, has not been accepted or recognized at the national and international level. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it would be pernicious for national coexistence that a government defined as authoritarian has been so successful and profound. Undoubtedly, this is a biased point of view, since this line of argument tends to homologate our reality with caudillisms or military irruptions that lacked ethical imperatives and national needs and that did occur systematically or cyclically in other nations.

The deed of September 11, 1973 and the foundational work of the Military Government, apart from signifying for the Armed Forces and the Carabineros and, particularly, for the Army, a feeling of honor and pride that must be preserved, is an event that must necessarily be included in national and universal history in all its truth and dimension.
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|250|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile in 1985.]]
In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. In contrast to its authoritarian political rule, the military government pursued decidedly [[laissez-faire]] economic policies.

[[Milton Friedman]] said,
* "... the really extraordinary thing about the Chilean case was that a military government followed the opposite of military policies. The military is distinguished from the ordinary economy by the fact that it's a top-down organization. The general tells the colonel, the colonel tells the captain, and so on down, whereas a market is a bottom-up organization. The customer goes into the store and tells the retailer what he wants; the retailer sends it back up the line to the manufacturer and so on. So the basic organizational principles in the military are almost the opposite of the basic organizational principles of a free market and a free society. And the really remarkable thing about Chile is that the military adopted the free-market arrangements instead of the military arrangements."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10 Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman on PBS]</ref>

During its 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that fostered an increase in domestic and foreign private investment. The complete political liberalization of the country came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite, which finally took place on October 5. On that day, the triumph of the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans voted for elections to choose a new president in 1989 and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress. The Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution on the same year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>[https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html Soros helped the "No" campaign]</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

===Democratic governments===
[[File:Izamiento de la Gran Bandera Nacional - Presidentes de Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|The five [[President of Chile|Chilean Presidents]] between the years 1990 and 2022 (two of them were elected twice in non-consecutive terms).]]
On December 14, 1989, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the Concertación, was elected president. In a ceremony held in the Congress building in Valparaíso, Pinochet handed over the presidency to the new constitutional President.

Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994 and was succeeded by another Christian Democrat, [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (son of the previous President), leading the same coalition, for a 6-year term. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy led the Concertación to a narrower victory in 2000 presidential elections.

During the ''Concertación'' Governments, Military personnel who fought terrorism were jailed unfairly using an old judicial system and without proof, these can be called the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisioners]] that were destined to the [[Punta Peuco Jail]]. Also during these Governments the private pension system was reformed to benefit the companies that manage pension funds by making the users assume the economic losses and increased the retirement age by approximately 20 years, which directly lowered pensions. This changes are the main factor of the problems in the system that can be reversed.

In September 2005, President [[Ricardo Lagos]] signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.

On January 15, 2006 [[Michelle Bachelet|Michelle Bachelet Jeria]] (center-left) won the elections against businessman [[Sebastián Piñera]] (center-right) and she took office on March 11, 2006, becoming the first woman to become President of Chile.
In 2009 Sebastián Piñera Echenique won the presidency, beign the first center-right candidate to do so after the Pinochet regime. In 2013 Bachelet won the office again and Piñera in 2017. Presidents in Chile can't have consecutive two terms, they need to wait another election.

Chile's congressional elections were governed by a unique binomial system made by [[Jaime Guzmán]] until 2018 that rewarded coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for the two Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district. Historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) splat most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 did the winning coalition gain both seats.

Chile was leaded by President [[Sebastián Piñera]] between 2018 and 2022 with the coalition of parties called [[Chile Vamos]]. The coalition was center-right and took [[progressive]] stands on some moral issues like legalizing [[same sex "marriage"]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2018/11/29/chile-enacts-landmark-gender-identity-law/|title=Chile enacts landmark gender identity law|date=November 29, 2018|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref>

{{main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
In 2019 Leftist mobs began to burn private and public property (the main public damage were 20 metro stations that were burned and 77 damaged in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metro.cl/noticias/balance-danos-19-de-octubre-2019|title=Balance daños 19 de octubre 2019|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Metro de Santiago}}</ref> starting a political crisis that has on its objectives to make the state bigger, raise taxes, and eliminate the individual capitalization system, as well as a change of the Constitution. This groups have been supported by the international left, the [[Sao Paulo Forum]], the [[Puebla Group]] and [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/10/20/nicolas-maduro-respondio-las-acusaciones-de-alentar-las-protestas-en-ecuador-y-chile-foro-de-sao-paulo-estamos-cumpliendo-el-plan-ustedes-me-entienden/|title=Nicolás Maduro habló sobre las acusaciones de alentar las protestas en Ecuador y Chile: "Foro de San Pablo, estamos cumpliendo el plan, ustedes me entienden..."|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Infobae}}</ref> The period is called ''Estallido social'' by the left. [[Diosdado Cabello]], a government official from Venezuela at that time said "The [[Bolivarian]] breeze sweeping the region will become a hurricane"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-diosdado-cabello-amenaza-brisa-bolivariana-recorre-region-convertira-huracan-201910201834_noticia.html|title=Diosdado Cabello amenaza: "La brisa bolivariana que recorre la región se convertirá en huracán"|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=ABC Internacional}}</ref>

On the 15th of November 2019 the Congress approved to make a referendum on the Constitution, ceding to the radical left.

The referendum was made on October 25, 2020, and the option to change the Constitution won. Several rallies were made for the 'Rejection' (''Rechazo'') option by patriots with a high number of people attending and in which [[Sebastián Izquierdo]] played an important role.

There was a previous proposal of a new Constitution that was a draft from the socialist Michelle Bachelet from the last weeks of her administration and both administrations (Piñera and Bachelet) were committed to follow the globalist [[2030 Agenda]] from the United Nations. The [[Constitutional Convention (Chile)|Constitutional Convention]] which redacted the text made a progressive and globalist proposal, the conservative [[Teresa Marinovic]] was elected to the Convention auditing the far-left institution.

In the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Presidential Election]], the final front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Gabriel Boric]]. Kast won the first round with a 27.91% of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and Boric obtained 25.82% (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13% (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87% (4,620,890 votes) from Boric. Boric got electoed at the age of 35, a former student radical "activist," a self-described [[communist]].<ref name=at22nov21>Monica Showalter, [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/stunning_good_news_from_chile__and_not_just_for_them_but_for_us.html Stunning good news from Chile...], American Thinker, November 22, 2021</ref>

On September 4, 2022, the second referendum took place in which the 'Rejection' option won with 61.86% of the votes against 38.14% of the 'Approve' option. The main difference with the first election was that the vote was mandatory in the second one and not the first one, having bigger participation of older generations which tend to vote conservative. After the triumph of the 'Rechazo', Gabriel Boric changed the cabinet of ministers of his government.

In 2023 the corrupt political system started a new process to change the Constitution, this time with more control of the establishment parties, without asking on a referendum if the citizens of Chile wanted a new process (they "assumed" that the 2020 referendum result is permanent, even that that process ended with the 2022 referendum). On May 7 the [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|election to elect the counselors of the Constitutional Council]] was held and a massive conservative victory was obtained, the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] won the majority as well as a record "Nulo" (Voluntary refusal to choose a candidate by the citizenry in a mandatory election) votes on 3rd place.

On December 17, 2023 a new referendum was held over the new written text, the Republican Party directive supported the change of the Chilean Constitution, many members of the party opposed this stance change of the party. The Globalist "center-right" coalition, [[Chile Vamos]] and centrist parties such as "Democrats" and "Yellows" (which means "being too moderated") supported the "In Favor" option as well. Chilean Patriots supported the "Against" option as well as the most of the left-wing. The "Against" Option obtained 55.76% of the votes while the "In Favor" Option obtained 44.24%. The dissident right was victorious over the establishment "right-wing" parties who supported the new proposed text.

On June 7, 2024 [[Johannes Kaiser]] founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-globalist, paleo-libertarian party.

José Antonio Kast, a Catholic pro-life conservative who promised to protect Chile against illegal immigration won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Sports==
[[Association Football|Football]] is the most popular sport by far. Chile hosted the 1962 [[World Cup]], notable for the "Battle of Santiago" (a group stage match between host Chile and Italy, which due to the on-pitch action - police had to be called no fewer than four times to gain control between squads - is considered among the poorest displays of sportsmanship in sports history, and eventually led to development of yellow and red cards).

However, the national sport is the Rodeo.

Chile won the Copa América 2015 and Copa América Centenario 2016, obtaining its first two Football titles in the national selection.

The Chilean mountains have important ski centers like Valle Nevado.

The [[Arica]] city in the north has the best waves of the country, something ideal for surfing.

The Chilean [[Patagonia]] is a famous place for trekking and out-door sports, The Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) and many National Parks (including the [[National Park Torres del Paine|Torres del Paine]] one) are visited by people all over the world.

==Culture==
[[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Nicanor Parra]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] are famous Chilean poets. Chillán in the Ñuble Region is a notorious cultural city of Chile.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== See also ==
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]
*[[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
*[[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[La Moneda]]
*[[Easter Island]]
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Colchane]], Chilean most conservative town
*[[Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
*[[War of the Pacific]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm]}}}.
|}

{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Chile

2026-03-23T12:47:27Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Economy */

{{Country
|name =''República de Chile''
|map =Tricontinental Chile Map.jpg
|map2 =Chile location map.png
|flag =Flag of Chile.png
|arms =Coat of arms of Chile.png
|capital-raw =[[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]]
|government-raw =[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Unitarian & Presidentialist Republic]]
|language =Spanish
|president =José Antonio Kast
|president-raw=
|conservative-leader=
|conservative-leader-raw=[[José Antonio Kast]]/[[Johannes Kaiser]]
|area =774,657 sq. mi. (Tricontinental Chile) 292,183 sq. mi. (Only Continental and Insular Chile)
|pop =19,100,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$280,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$14,660 (2020)
|currency =Chilean Peso (CLP)
|idd =+56
|tld =.cl
}}
'''Chile''' (official name: '''Republic of Chile''') is a [[nation]] on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of [[South America]], [[Antarctica]] and [[Oceania]] which is organized as a Centralized Unitary Presidential [[Democracy]]. It has a population of 17.5 million and the capital city is [[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]] which is also the biggest city of the country. Chile borders [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Peru]].

Between 1975 and 2014, Chile followed the path of the [[free market]] and [[Capitalism]] been the best place to make business of [[Latin America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iberglobal.com/files/2019-1/economic_freedom_index_2019.pdf|title=Economic Freedom Index 2019}}</ref> This has made the country the most developed of the Region according to the [[Human Development Index]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=505045|title=Chile sigue al tope de A. Latina en Índice de Desarrollo Humano|date=September 15, 2018|publisher=Economía y Negocios|language=es}}</ref> Chile went from a [[Gross domestic product]] of 100 in 1973 to 515 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobierno.udd.cl/files/2016/05/PPT-FPP.pdf|author=Lucas Palacios Covarrubias|title=Pobreza vs Desigualdad|date=April 2016|publisher=[[Universidad del Desarrollo]] - Facultad de Gobierno|language=es}}</ref> However that was put at risk with the leftist insurrection from 2019 and the Boric presidency. Right-wing [[President of Chile|President]] [[José Antonio Kast]] promises to retake the path to develop the country.

In early September 2022, by a resounding 62-38% landslide margin, Chileans rejected a progressive new constitution proposal and thereby decided to retain [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|the one written under]] [[conservative]] leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1980, which was reformed over 70 times in democracy in more than half of its content.<ref>https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1121065756/chile-constitution-referendum</ref><ref>[https://www.uandes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CPR-Edicio%CC%81n-Histo%CC%81rica.pdf]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220929111026/https://plataformacontexto.cl/contexto_factual/cuanto-queda-de-la-constitucion-de-pinochet/ Cuánto queda de “la Constitución de Pinochet”]</ref> A new proposal from the center-right with globalist elements was rejected on December 2023 with a 56-44% landslide margin.

==Geography==
[[File:Volcano Osorno and Petrohué waterfalls.JPG|thumb|left|Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano in the background.]]
The northern Chilean [[Atacama Desert]] contains great mineral wealth, principally [[copper]], and also contains locations where rainfall has never been recorded. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in [[forest]]s and grazing lands and features a string of [[volcano]]es and [[lake]]s. The southern coast located in [[Patagonia]] is a labyrinth of [[fjord]]s, [[inlet]]s, [[canal]]s, twisting [[peninsula]]s, and [[island]]s. The [[Andes]] Mountains are located on the eastern border.
*Area of Tricontinental Chile: 2,006,354 km2 (774,657 sq. mi.) including the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]] which reaches the [[South Pole]].
*Area considering Continental and Insular Chile: 756,945 km2. (302,778 sq. mi.), or nearly twice the size of California.
*Cities: Capital—[[Santiago]] (metropolitan area est. 6.25 million). Other cities: [[Concepción]]-[[Talcahuano]] (840,000), [[Viña del Mar]]-[[Valparaíso]] (800,000), [[Antofagasta]] (245,000), [[Temuco]] (230,000).
*Terrain: Desert in north; fertile central valley; volcanoes and lakes toward the south, giving way to rugged and complex coastline; Andes Mountains on the eastern border.
*Climate: Arid in north, Mediterranean in the central portion, cool and damp in south.

Chile has experienced numerous massive earthquakes, being located within the "Ring of Fire": of the 46 known earthquakes estimated at magnitude >= 8.5, one-third have occurred in Chile, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was measured at magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever recorded. On four occasions, two earthquakes with magnitude >= 8.5 have had the same Chilean epicenter. Furthermore, the strongest estimated earthquake (before seismographs were invented) also took place in Chile around 1800 BC, also estimated in the magnitude 9.5 range.

==People==
[[File:Chilean dance.jpg|left|140px]]
About 85% of Chile's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in greater Santiago. Most have [[Spain|Spanish]] ancestry. A small, yet influential number of [[Irish]] and [[English]] immigrants came to Chile during the Spanish Empire period. [[German]] immigration began in 1848 and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of [[Valdivia]], [[Llanquihue]], and [[Osorno]] show a strong German influence. Other significant historic immigrant groups are [[Italian]], [[Croatian]], [[Basque]], [[Palestinian]] and [[Peruvian]]. About 800,000 Native Americans, mostly of the [[Mapuche]] (Araucan) tribes, reside in the south-central area. The [[Aymara]] and [[Diaguita]] groups can be found mainly in Chile's northern desert valleys.

Since 2014 Chile has been experiencing [[open borders|mass]] [[immigration]] from [[Haiti]], [[Venezuela]], [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]], something that was unusual and has drastically changed the demographics of the country in the recent years (The immigrants went from 1.1% to 6.1% and is still growing)<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> a lot of them are [[Illegal immigration|illegally]] (See ''[[Colchane#Mass_immigration_problem|Colchane's Mass immigration problem]]'').

*Population (2019): 17.5 million.
*Annual population growth rate: 0.881%.
*Ethnic groups: Spanish-Native-American (mestizo), European, Native-American, Blacks (since 2014 with mass Haitian immigration).
*Religions: [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] 70%, [[Evangelical]] 15.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.1%, other Christian 1%, other 4.6%, none 8.3%.
*Language: [[Spanish]].
*Education: Years compulsory—13. Attendance—3 million. Adult literacy rate—96%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate—8.9/1,000. Life expectancy—80 yrs. for men, 85 for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsuss.cl/ipsuss/analisis-y-estudios/esperanza-de-vida-al-nacer-en-chile-llega-a-85-anos-en-mujeres-y-80-anos/2017-09-26/154547.html|title=Esperanza de vida al nacer en Chile llega a 85 años en mujeres y 80 años en hombres|date=September 26, 2017|language=es|publisher=Ipsuss}}</ref>
*Work force (6.94 million); employed 6.45 million: Community, social and individual services—26%; industry—14.4%; commerce—17.6%; agriculture, forestry, and fishing—13.9%; construction—7.1%; financial services—7.5%; transportation and communication—8.0%; electricity, gas and water—0.5%; mining—1.2%.

==Government==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Palacio de La Moneda.jpg|thumbnail|250px|[[La Moneda]] Palace, seat of Executive Branch.]]
[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Chile's Constitution]] was approved in a September 1980 national plebiscite with 67% of the vote. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]], the Constitution was reformed and another referendum was held over the reforms in which 91% voted in favor. In 2005 President Lagos made several reforms to the Constitution, even changing the Pinochet sign with his.
The President term is 4-year long, however is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms. The political system of Chile is an exacerbated [[Presidential system|Presidential]] one.
Chile has a bicameral Congress, which meets in the port city of [[Valparaíso]], about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago (since 1990). Deputies are elected every 4 years, and Senators serve 8-year terms.
There are currently 43 Senators and 155 Deputies.
The Chilean elections are judged free and fair.

Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nationwide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform replaced old proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.

The Central Bank in Chile is autonomous since 1981.

===Principal Government Officials===
{{See also|President of Chile}}
[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio Kast Rist]], a pro-life, anti illegal immigration conservative.]]
*[[President of Chile|President]]—[[José Antonio Kast]] since 11 March 2026.
*Minister of Interior—Claudio Alvarado
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Francisco Pérez Mackenna
*Ambassador to the United States—Andrés Ergas
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)—José Miguel Castro
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Roberto Ampuero
*Ambassador to the OECD—Sebastián Schneinder
*Mayor of Santiago—[[Mario Desbordes]]

===Foreign Relations===
Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. [[Jose Miguel Insulza]], a Chilean national, was Secretary General of the Organization of American States from May 2005 to 2015. Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002 and the [[APEC]] summit and related meetings in 2004. Chile hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial in April 2005. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade. The APEC 2019 was planed to be hosted on Chile and the COP25 but was cancelled due to the [[2019 Chilean State of Emergency|State of Emergency]]. President [[Donald Trump]] planed to sign an agreement with [[Xi Jinping]] to end the 'Trade War' in the APEC hosted in Chile, however it was canceled.

Chile was one of the four countries (along with [[Singapore]], [[Brunei]] and [[New Zealand]]) that started the [[TPP (treaty)|TPP-11]].

Chile signed many Free Trade Agreements since the 90s.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. It settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s except for a part in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and the Antarctic claims overlap between both countries, however the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow modification to the claims and they are ineffective.

In 2007 Peru demanded Chile in the International Court of Justice due to a maritime dispute. The case was closed in 2013 in which half of the disputed sea was ceded to Peru and half to Chile. In Chile it was seen as a lost case.

Chile and Bolivia have bad diplomatic relations since [[Evo Morales]], Bolivia's president, reintegrated the desire to reacquire territory Bolivia lost to Chile in 1879-83 [[War of the Pacific]] in his Foreign Affairs Policy and he demanded Chile in the Internation Couth of Justice, a case which Chile won. There is currently a case to determine if Silala is a river (Chile's position) or is a spring artificially modificated by Chile (Bolivia's position). The two countries maintain consular relations and are represented at the Consul General level but doesn't have embassies in each other.

===Political parties and coalitions===
The main coalitions are:
*[[Chile Vamos]] (Globalist center-right) ([[Sebastián Piñera|Piñera]] and [[Evelyn Matthei|Matthei]]'s coalition) composed by the [[Independent Democrat Union]], [[National Renewal]] and [[Evópoli]].
*Apruebo Dignidad (far-left) ([[Gabriel Boric|Boric]] and [[Daniel Jadue|Jadue]]'s coalition) Social Convergence, [[Democratic Revolution]], Green Ecologist Party, Commune Party, [[Communist]] Party and Social Green Regionalist Federation.
*Constituent Unity (Former "New Majority") (left) (former [[Michelle Bachelet|Bachelet]]'s coalition) composed by old leftist parties such as: the [[Socialist]] Party, Party for Democracy, the Radical Party, [[Christian Democracy]], Citizens Party and the Liberal Party .

Important parties without coalition:
*[[National Libertarian Party]] (Dissident right Party) ([[Johannes Kaiser]]'s party).
*[[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (right-wing) ([[José Antonio Kast]]'s party).
*[[Social Christian Party (Chile)|Social Christian Party]] (Dissident right Party) (Evangelical party).
*[[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]] (from center to center-right) ([[Franco Parisi]]'s party).
*[[Communist Party]] of Chile (Proletarian Action)/Patriotic Union (far-left) (Eduardo Artes' party).
*Progressive Homeland (left) (Marco Enríquez-Ominami's party).

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Chile (+Antarctica & Islands), administrative divisions - en - colored.png|230px|thumbnail|Map of the Chilean Regions.]]
{{Main article|Regions of Chile}}
Chile is divided in 16 Regions, 56 provinces and 346 communes. Chile is a Unitary Centralized State in which the law is the same in every place of the country.

'''List of the Regions and their Capital''':
*[[Arica & Parinacota Region|Arica & Parinacota]] - Capital: [[Arica]]
*[[Tarapacá Region|Tarapacá]] - Capital: [[Iquique]]
*[[Antofagasta Region|Antofagasta]] - Capital: [[Antofagasta]]
*[[Atacama Region|Atacama]] - Capital: [[Copiapó]]
*[[Coquimbo Region|Coquimbo]] - Capital: [[La Serena]]
*[[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]] - Capital: [[Valparaíso]]
*[[Metropolitan Region|Metropolitan]] - Capital: [[Santiago]]
*[[O'Higgins Region|O'Higgins]] - Capital: [[Rancagua]]
*[[Maule Region|Maule]] - Capital: [[Talca]]
*[[Ñuble Region|Ñuble]] - Capital: [[Chillán]]
*[[Biobío Region|Biobío]] - Capital: [[Concepción (Chile)|Concepción]]
*[[Araucanía Region|Araucanía]] - Capital: [[Temuco]]
*[[Los Ríos Region|Los Ríos]] - Capital: [[Valdivia]]
*[[Los Lagos Region|Los Lagos]] - Capital: [[Puerto Montt]]
*[[Aysén Region|Aysén]] - Capital: [[Coyhaique]]
*[[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica]] - Capital: [[Punta Arenas]]

The most conservative commune of Chile is [[Colchane]] as well with Antártica, Lo Barnechea, Vitacura & Las Condes.

==Defense==
Chile's Armed Forces are subject to civilian control exercised by the President through the Minister of Defense. The President has the authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.

===Army===
The Chilean Army is 45,000 strong and is organized with an Army headquarters in Santiago, seven divisions throughout its territory, an Air Brigade in Rancagua, and a Special Forces Command in Colina. The Chilean Army is one of the most professional and technologically advanced armies in Latin America.

===Navy===
The Navy has 23,000-person, including 2,500 Marines. Of the fleet of 29 surface vessels, only eight are operational major combatants (frigates). Those ships are based in [[Valparaíso]]. The Navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no Navy fighter or bomber aircraft. The Navy also operates four submarines based in [[Talcahuano]].

===Air Force (FACH)===
The FACH is a force of 12,500. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on [[Villa Las Estrellas]], [[King George Island]], [[Antarctica]]. The FACH was created in 1930 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]].

===Carabineros===
[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|250px|thumbnail]]
[[Carabineros de Chile]] is the national police force of 30,000 men and women who are responsible for law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control, and counter-terrorism throughout Chile. The Carabineros were created in 1927 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]]. Carabineros is the best police in Latin America.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
[[File:Gran Torre Santiago (39693576311).jpg|thumbnail|300px|Gran Torre Santiago, in the financial district of the city.]]
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 3.3% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.1%. Real GDP growth reached 6.3% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile signed the OECD Convention, becoming the first South American country to join the OECD.

*GDP (official exchange rate): $150.4 billion. (GDP (purchasing power parity):$335.4 billion (2013 est.))
*Annual real growth rate: -1.5%.
*Per capita GDP (purchasing power parity): $27,058 (GDP - per capita (PPP) 2019 est.)
*Forestry, agriculture, and fisheries (6% of GDP): Products—fruits, wheat, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions, beans, livestock, fish.
*Commerce (8% of GDP): Sales, restaurants, hotels.
*Manufacturing (17% of GDP): Types—mineral refining, metal manufacturing, food processing, fish processing, paper and wood products, finished textiles.
*Electricity, gas, and water: 3% of GDP.
*Transportation and communication: 7% of GDP.
*Construction: 8% of GDP.
*Financial services (12% of GDP): Insurance, leasing, consulting.
*Mining (13% of GDP): Copper, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, and molybdenum.
*Trade: Exports--$57.61 billion: copper, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and wood products. Major markets—U.S., Japan, China, Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Mexico. Imports--$40.91 billion: fuels, heavy industrial machinery, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, plastic. Major suppliers—U.S., China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. (GDP (official exchange rate):$281.7 billion (2013 est.))

Chile has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by [[negotiating]] in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[José Piñera]] creator of the Individual capitalization pension system.]]
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], economist during the Military Government that re-implemented liberal economic policies.]]
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.

Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile's consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a family of four's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 18% by 2004.

Chile's independent Central Bank pursues an inflation target of between 2% and 4%. Inflation has not exceeded 5% since 1998. Chile registered an inflation rate of 3.2% in 2006. The Chilean peso's rapid appreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent years has helped dampen inflation. Most wage settlements and loans are indexed, reducing inflation's volatility. Under the compulsory private pension system, most formal sector employees pay 10% of their salaries into privately managed funds.

[[File:Countries with a private pension system.jpg|thumbnail|Countries that applied Chile's private pension system.]]
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) was only $3.4 billion in 2006, up 52% from a poor performance in 2005. However, 80% of FDI continues to go to only four sectors: electricity, gas, water and mining. Much of the jump in FDI in 2006 was also the result of acquisitions and mergers and has done little to create new employment in Chile. The Chilean Government has formed a Council on Innovation and Competition, which is tasked with identifying new sectors and industries to promote. It is hoped that this, combined with some tax reforms to encourage domestic and foreign investment in research and development, will bring in additional FDI and to new parts of the economy. As of 2006, Chile invested only 0.6% of its annual GDP in research and development (R&D). Even then, two-thirds of that was government spending. The fact that domestic and foreign companies spend almost nothing on R&D does not bode well for the Government of Chile's efforts to develop innovative, knowledge-based sectors. Additionally, on January 8, 2007, Chile was placed on the U.S. Trade Representative's Priority Watch List due to its poor record on protecting intellectual property rights. Chile is only the second U.S. FTA partner ever to be placed on the Priority Watch List. Chile has a poor and deteriorating record of protecting copyrighted music, films, and software. Combined with this is its institutional structure allowing local companies to produce and market pharmaceutical generics that violate existing patents. Beyond its general economic and political stability, the government also has encouraged the use of Chile as an "investment platform" for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region, but this will have limited value given the developing business climate in Chile itself. Chile's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Chileans. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital. While Chile and the EU have signed a double taxation treaty, no such agreement exists between the U.S. and Chile.

Mining was temporarily curtailed following an accident in which 33 miners were trapped after a cave-in at the San Jose mine<ref>http://www.minandes.com/s/RoadtoProduction.asp</ref> near Copiapo on August 5, 2010. A rescue attempt - bolstered by national pride at getting the men out alive - ended 67 days later on October 13 as the last of the men were pulled out to safety.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/12/rescued-chilean-miner-returns-surface/</ref><ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7961923/Chilean-miners-trapped-in-San-Jose-mine.html</ref>

===Foreign Trade===
[[File:Commercial Treaties Chile 2012.jpg|thumb|295px|Commercial Treaties, 2012.]]
2006 was a record year for Chilean trade. Total trade registered a 31% increase over 2005. During 2006, exports of goods and services totaled U.S. $58 billion, an increase of 41%. This figure was somewhat distorted by the skyrocketing price of copper. In 2006, copper exports reached a historical high of U.S. $33.3 billion. Imports totaled U.S. $35 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. Chile thus recorded a positive trade balance of U.S. $23 billion in 2006.

The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion). Seen as shares of Chile's export markets, 42% of exports went to the Americas, 30% to Asia and 24% to Europe. Within Chile's diversified network of trade relationships, its most important partner remained the United States. Total trade with the U.S. was U.S. $14.8 billion in 2006. Since the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004, U.S.-Chilean trade has increased by 154%. Internal Government of Chile figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has grown over 60% since then.

Total trade with Europe also grew in 2006, expanding by 42%. The Netherlands and Italy were Chile's main European trading partners. Total trade with Asia also grew significantly at nearly 31%. Trade with Korea and Japan grew significantly, but China remained Chile's most important trading partner in Asia. Chile's total trade with China reached U.S. $8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66% of the value of its trade relationship with Asia.

The growth of exports in 2006 was due mainly to a strong increase in sales to the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. These three markets alone accounted for an additional U.S. $5.5 billion worth of Chilean exports. Chilean exports to the United States totaled U.S. $9.3 billion, representing a 37.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $6.7 billion). Exports to the European Union were U.S. $15.4 billion, a 63.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $9.4 billion). Exports to Asia increased from U.S. $15.2 billion in 2005 to U.S. $19.7 billion in 2006, a 29.9% increase.

During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).

Chile's overall trade profile has traditionally been dependent upon copper exports. The state-owned firm CODELCO is the world's largest copper-producing company, with recorded copper reserves of 200 years. Chile has made an effort to expand nontraditional exports. The most important non-mineral exports are forestry and wood products, fresh fruit and processed food, fishmeal and seafood, and wine.

Successive Chilean governments have actively pursued trade-liberalizing agreements. During the 1990s, Chile signed FTAs with Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Chile also concluded preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. An association agreement with Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—went into effect in October 1996. Continuing its export-oriented development strategy, Chile completed landmark free trade agreements in 2002 with the European Union and South Korea. Chile, as a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, is seeking to boost commercial ties to Asian markets. To that end, it has signed trade agreements in recent years with New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, and most recently Japan. In 2007, Chile plans to begin negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

After two years of negotiations, the United States and Chile signed an agreement in June 2003 that will lead to completely duty-free bilateral trade within 12 years. The U.S.-Chile FTA entered into force January 1, 2004 following approval by the U.S. and Chilean congresses. The bilateral FTA has inaugurated greatly expanded U.S.-Chilean trade ties, with total bilateral trade jumping by 154% during the FTA's first three years.

Chile unilaterally lowered its across-the-board import tariff for all countries with which it does not have a trade agreement to 6% in 2003. Higher effective tariffs are charged only on imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar as a result of a system of import price bands. The price bands were ruled inconsistent with Chile's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in 2002, and the government has introduced legislation to modify them. Under the terms of the U.S.-Chile FTA, the price bands will be completely phased out for U.S. imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar within 12 years.

Chile is a strong proponent of pressing ahead on negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is active in the WTO's Doha round of negotiations, principally through its membership in the G-20 and Cairns Group.

===Finance===
Chile's financial sector has grown quickly in recent years, with a banking reform law approved in 1997 that broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001, and there is further pending legislation proposing further liberalization. Over the last ten years, Chileans have enjoyed the introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has also been accompanied by an increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $70 billion at the end of 2006, has been an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S&P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways for Chilean firms to raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stocks on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Nearly all of the funds raised through these means go to finance domestic Chilean investment. The government is required by law to run a fiscal surplus of at least 1% of GDP. In 2006, the Government of Chile ran a surplus of $11.3 billion, equal to almost 8% of GDP. The Government of Chile continues to pay down its foreign debt, with public debt only 3.9% of GDP at the end of 2006.

==History==
===Discovery and Hispanic period===
[[File:Pedro de Valdivia.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Pedro de Valdivia]], founder of several cities and conqueror of Chile.]]
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]], one of the founding fathers of Chile.]]
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first European to see Chilean land was [[Ferdinand Magellan]] when he discovered the [[Strait of Magellan]] in 1520, however the first one to arrive in Chile were [[Diego de Almagro]] and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in 1535. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of [[Santiago]] on February 12, 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

===19th Century, Independence, State Consolidation and Wars with neightbours===
[[File:Pedro Subercaseaux Jura de la Independencia Chile.jpg|thumb|300px|Fray Pedro Subercaseaux, Jura de la Independencia de Chile.]]
[[File:Diego Portales-2.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Diego Portales]] author of the 1833 Constitution which prioritized order over democracy.]]
[[File:Arturo Prat Chacón.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Arturo Prat|Arturo Prat Chacón]], the maximum naval hero of the Chilean Nation.]]
[[File:Sinking of the Esmeralda during the battle of Iquique.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Sinking of the Esmeralda during the [[battle of Iquique|naval battle of Iquique]].]]
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national [[junta]] in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence which [[José Miguel Carrera]] started soon won a wide following. After the [[Battle of Rancagua]], a Spanish attempt to reimpose arbitrary rule started, during what was called the "Reconquista" led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army led by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], Chile's most renowned patriot, and [[José de San Martín]], hero of Argentine independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership.

During the Ramón Freire Presidency in 1826 the last royalist bastion was defeated, the [[Chiloé]] archipelago and the Tantauco Treaty was signed between Chile and Spain.

Between 1823 and 1829 there was a period of Constitutional Attempts, and there were four of them.

The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the 1833 Constitution made by [[Diego Portales]]. After the [[Civil War]] of 1829–30, a strong presidency emerged, but wealthy landowners remained extremely powerful.

Between 1836 and 1839, Chile fought a [[War against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] which Chile won and separated Peru and Bolivia again.

In 1865 and 1866 Chile, Peru and Ecuador fought against Spain in the [[Chincha Islands War]], Chile and it's allies won.

[[Image:Easter_island_statues.jpg|thumb|right|On September 9, 1888 the Council of Rapanui Chiefs asked the Chilean Navy Captain, Policarpo Toro, to accept the sovereignty of [[Easter Island]] without giving up their chieftaincy titles, the ownership of their lands, the validity of their culture and traditions and on equal terms. This known as the "Agreement of Wills".]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by founding the [[Fort Bulnes]] in 1843 (near the current city of [[Punta Arenas]] in the [[Strait of Magellan]]) and incorporating the zone of the south of the [[Biobío river]] in a process called the [[Pacification of the Araucanía]], the government plan was to building roads, schools, and public infrastructure where the [[Mapuche]] Indians live, they were incorporated as citizens, however the rebel Mapuches were crushed.

There was also a process of Colonization in which the Government gave [[German]] [[settlers]] lands in [[Valdivia]] and the [[Llanquihue Lake]] where they founded several towns and cities. To this day the German influence can be noted in cities like Valdivia, [[Puerto Varas]], [[Frutillar]], [[Puerto Octay]], [[Nueva Braunau]], Ensenada, [[Puerto Montt]] and [[Osorno]].

In 1881, Chile signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan but also loosing its colonial rights over Eastern Patagonia. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. After a [[Civil war]] in 1891 in which President [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] committed suicide, a parliamentary democracy was established, but degenerated into a system protecting the interests of the ruling oligarchy.
In 1888 Chile incorporated [[Easter Island]] to the national territory.

===20th Century===
[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|175px|thumbnail|The [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.
Continuing political and economic instability resulted with the rule of the quasidictatorial Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] (1924–32).
In June there was a Coup and between that month and September 1932 there was an attempt to establish a [[Socialist]] Republic that failed.
When constitutional rule was restored later that year, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy.
In 1940 Chile started to claim officially the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].

In 1962 the "right-wing" President [[Jorge Alessandri]] started the agrarian reform in a small portion, that expropriated part of big land properties. This reform was deepened by the next two governments.

The 1964 presidential election of [[Christian Democrat]] [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

He also made the "Chileanization of the copper" which introduced the State into the copper industry.
====Unidad Popular Marxist Regime (1970-1973)====
{{Main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
In 1970, Senator [[Salvador Allende]], a [[Marxist]] and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the "Popular Unity" (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats (the lasts ones supported him with the condition of respecting the laws and private property), won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest and was named president by the Chilean Congress. His program included the nationalization of private industries and banks, massive land expropriation, and collectivization, implementation of a Marxist education system, repartition of food collectively (with a limit of one stock per family). Allende's program also included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major copper mines.

[[Fidel Castro]] visited Chile in 1971 where he stayed for months.
Allende said in the same year "The major role of a journalist is not to server the truth, but to server the revolution" and in 1972 "I'm the President of the Unidad Popular, but I'm not the president of all Chileans".

Elected with only 36% of the vote and by a plurality of only 36,000 votes, Allende never enjoyed majority support in the Chilean Congress or broad popular support. Domestic production declined; severe shortages of consumer goods, food, and manufactured products were widespread; and inflation reached 1,000% per annum. Mass demonstrations, recurring strikes, violence by both government supporters and opponents, and widespread rural unrest ensued in response to the general deterioration of the economy.

The 22th of August 1973 the Chamber of Deputies called for a military intervention since the Allende's Government was Unconstitutional for not respecting basic laws like [[private property]].<ref>[https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2013/08/23/40-anos-del-acuerdo-de-la-camara-que-declaro-la-ilegitimidad-del-gobierno-de-allende/ 40 años del acuerdo de la Cámara que declaró la ilegitimidad del Gobierno de Allende]</ref> By the time the Christian Democrats stopped supporting Allende and started to support an intervention.

[[Carlos Altamirano]], General Secretary of the Socialist Party in July 1973 called to "crush the opposition" and to "not negotiate with the enemies of Chile"<ref>https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304093123/rev91_documento.pdf</ref> he also called for a violent Marxist revolution in 1968.

====Military Government (1973-1990)====
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990).jpg|300px|thumbnail|President and General [[Augusto Pinochet|Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], President of Chile (1973-1990), fighter against [[Marxism]], father of Chile's development, and restorer of the order and the institutions.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|1980 Constitution]] and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
A military pronouncement overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace, Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime in particular were marked by an irregular war against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|leftist terrorists]] who wanted a violent Marxist revolution. A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] was approved by a plebiscite on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. The Constitution writing had an important participation of [[Jaime Guzmán]] who also founded the [[Independent Democrat Union]].

The Armed Forces had to assume the leadership of the country, aware that this task did not mean a mere restoration of the broken institutionality, since the systematic destruction to which the Homeland had been subjected had deeply undermined coexistence and national development; therefore, it was imperative to go further and create a modern, profound system of the country, with a clear social content and democratic character. From the structuring of the stages and objectives of the Government and the determination of the principles that would govern the project, the Armed Forces marked with height, coherence and consequence the national reality and the itinerary designed.

This great work was not exempt from interferences, demands and sacrifices, since at the beginning it was necessary to overcome the disastrous consequences of the previous administrations and the prevailing polarization. Subsequently, it was necessary to face defamation, the economic crises in the neighborhood, and the wily terrorist and subversive actions. These, together or in isolation, ([[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] made the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]" that blocked any selling of weapons to Chile, and also the U.S. imposed a blockade on fruit exports) in could have led any government to political, economic and social collapse. However, the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, based on efficiency, patriotism and joint effort, with a more than important part of society, managed to overcome the obstacles and deliver a better future for all Chileans.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Military men victims of [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]].]]

There is an evident reality that shows that important sectors of the political spectrum not only tried gradually and systematically to delegitimize the Military Government, but even, once they determined the impossibility of achieving their goals, they used means and tools contrary to peaceful coexistence, even seeking its destabilization, accepting, encouraging or participating in Chilean and foreign extremist organizations contrary to the idiosyncrasy and national identity.
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
The successful model and the change of life generated in Chileans by the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, in general, has not been accepted or recognized at the national and international level. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it would be pernicious for national coexistence that a government defined as authoritarian has been so successful and profound. Undoubtedly, this is a biased point of view, since this line of argument tends to homologate our reality with caudillisms or military irruptions that lacked ethical imperatives and national needs and that did occur systematically or cyclically in other nations.

The deed of September 11, 1973 and the foundational work of the Military Government, apart from signifying for the Armed Forces and the Carabineros and, particularly, for the Army, a feeling of honor and pride that must be preserved, is an event that must necessarily be included in national and universal history in all its truth and dimension.
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|250|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile in 1985.]]
In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. In contrast to its authoritarian political rule, the military government pursued decidedly [[laissez-faire]] economic policies.

[[Milton Friedman]] said,
* "... the really extraordinary thing about the Chilean case was that a military government followed the opposite of military policies. The military is distinguished from the ordinary economy by the fact that it's a top-down organization. The general tells the colonel, the colonel tells the captain, and so on down, whereas a market is a bottom-up organization. The customer goes into the store and tells the retailer what he wants; the retailer sends it back up the line to the manufacturer and so on. So the basic organizational principles in the military are almost the opposite of the basic organizational principles of a free market and a free society. And the really remarkable thing about Chile is that the military adopted the free-market arrangements instead of the military arrangements."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10 Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman on PBS]</ref>

During its 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that fostered an increase in domestic and foreign private investment. The complete political liberalization of the country came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite, which finally took place on October 5. On that day, the triumph of the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans voted for elections to choose a new president in 1989 and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress. The Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution on the same year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>[https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html Soros helped the "No" campaign]</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

===Democratic governments===
[[File:Izamiento de la Gran Bandera Nacional - Presidentes de Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|The five [[President of Chile|Chilean Presidents]] between the years 1990 and 2022 (two of them were elected twice in non-consecutive terms).]]
On December 14, 1989, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the Concertación, was elected president. In a ceremony held in the Congress building in Valparaíso, Pinochet handed over the presidency to the new constitutional President.

Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994 and was succeeded by another Christian Democrat, [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (son of the previous President), leading the same coalition, for a 6-year term. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy led the Concertación to a narrower victory in 2000 presidential elections.

During the ''Concertación'' Governments, Military personnel who fought terrorism were jailed unfairly using an old judicial system and without proof, these can be called the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisioners]] that were destined to the [[Punta Peuco Jail]]. Also during these Governments the private pension system was reformed to benefit the companies that manage pension funds by making the users assume the economic losses and increased the retirement age by approximately 20 years, which directly lowered pensions. This changes are the main factor of the problems in the system that can be reversed.

In September 2005, President [[Ricardo Lagos]] signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.

On January 15, 2006 [[Michelle Bachelet|Michelle Bachelet Jeria]] (center-left) won the elections against businessman [[Sebastián Piñera]] (center-right) and she took office on March 11, 2006, becoming the first woman to become President of Chile.
In 2009 Sebastián Piñera Echenique won the presidency, beign the first center-right candidate to do so after the Pinochet regime. In 2013 Bachelet won the office again and Piñera in 2017. Presidents in Chile can't have consecutive two terms, they need to wait another election.

Chile's congressional elections were governed by a unique binomial system made by [[Jaime Guzmán]] until 2018 that rewarded coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for the two Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district. Historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) splat most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 did the winning coalition gain both seats.

Chile was leaded by President [[Sebastián Piñera]] between 2018 and 2022 with the coalition of parties called [[Chile Vamos]]. The coalition was center-right and took [[progressive]] stands on some moral issues like legalizing [[same sex "marriage"]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2018/11/29/chile-enacts-landmark-gender-identity-law/|title=Chile enacts landmark gender identity law|date=November 29, 2018|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref>

{{main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
In 2019 Leftist mobs began to burn private and public property (the main public damage were 20 metro stations that were burned and 77 damaged in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metro.cl/noticias/balance-danos-19-de-octubre-2019|title=Balance daños 19 de octubre 2019|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Metro de Santiago}}</ref> starting a political crisis that has on its objectives to make the state bigger, raise taxes, and eliminate the individual capitalization system, as well as a change of the Constitution. This groups have been supported by the international left, the [[Sao Paulo Forum]], the [[Puebla Group]] and [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/10/20/nicolas-maduro-respondio-las-acusaciones-de-alentar-las-protestas-en-ecuador-y-chile-foro-de-sao-paulo-estamos-cumpliendo-el-plan-ustedes-me-entienden/|title=Nicolás Maduro habló sobre las acusaciones de alentar las protestas en Ecuador y Chile: "Foro de San Pablo, estamos cumpliendo el plan, ustedes me entienden..."|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Infobae}}</ref> The period is called ''Estallido social'' by the left. [[Diosdado Cabello]], a government official from Venezuela at that time said "The [[Bolivarian]] breeze sweeping the region will become a hurricane"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-diosdado-cabello-amenaza-brisa-bolivariana-recorre-region-convertira-huracan-201910201834_noticia.html|title=Diosdado Cabello amenaza: "La brisa bolivariana que recorre la región se convertirá en huracán"|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=ABC Internacional}}</ref>

On the 15th of November 2019 the Congress approved to make a referendum on the Constitution, ceding to the radical left.

The referendum was made on October 25, 2020, and the option to change the Constitution won. Several rallies were made for the 'Rejection' (''Rechazo'') option by patriots with a high number of people attending and in which [[Sebastián Izquierdo]] played an important role.

There was a previous proposal of a new Constitution that was a draft from the socialist Michelle Bachelet from the last weeks of her administration and both administrations (Piñera and Bachelet) were committed to follow the globalist [[2030 Agenda]] from the United Nations. The [[Constitutional Convention (Chile)|Constitutional Convention]] which redacted the text made a progressive and globalist proposal, the conservative [[Teresa Marinovic]] was elected to the Convention auditing the far-left institution.

In the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Presidential Election]], the final front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Gabriel Boric]]. Kast won the first round with a 27.91% of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and Boric obtained 25.82% (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13% (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87% (4,620,890 votes) from Boric. Boric got electoed at the age of 35, a former student radical "activist," a self-described [[communist]].<ref name=at22nov21>Monica Showalter, [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/stunning_good_news_from_chile__and_not_just_for_them_but_for_us.html Stunning good news from Chile...], American Thinker, November 22, 2021</ref>

On September 4, 2022, the second referendum took place in which the 'Rejection' option won with 61.86% of the votes against 38.14% of the 'Approve' option. The main difference with the first election was that the vote was mandatory in the second one and not the first one, having bigger participation of older generations which tend to vote conservative. After the triumph of the 'Rechazo', Gabriel Boric changed the cabinet of ministers of his government.

In 2023 the corrupt political system started a new process to change the Constitution, this time with more control of the establishment parties, without asking on a referendum if the citizens of Chile wanted a new process (they "assumed" that the 2020 referendum result is permanent, even that that process ended with the 2022 referendum). On May 7 the [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|election to elect the counselors of the Constitutional Council]] was held and a massive conservative victory was obtained, the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] won the majority as well as a record "Nulo" (Voluntary refusal to choose a candidate by the citizenry in a mandatory election) votes on 3rd place.

On December 17, 2023 a new referendum was held over the new written text, the Republican Party directive supported the change of the Chilean Constitution, many members of the party opposed this stance change of the party. The Globalist "center-right" coalition, [[Chile Vamos]] and centrist parties such as "Democrats" and "Yellows" (which means "being too moderated") supported the "In Favor" option as well. Chilean Patriots supported the "Against" option as well as the most of the left-wing. The "Against" Option obtained 55.76% of the votes while the "In Favor" Option obtained 44.24%. The dissident right was victorious over the establishment "right-wing" parties who supported the new proposed text.

On June 7, 2024 [[Johannes Kaiser]] founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-globalist, paleo-libertarian party.

José Antonio Kast, a Catholic pro-life conservative who promised to protect Chile against illegal immigration won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Sports==
[[Association Football|Football]] is the most popular sport by far. Chile hosted the 1962 [[World Cup]], notable for the "Battle of Santiago" (a group stage match between host Chile and Italy, which due to the on-pitch action - police had to be called no fewer than four times to gain control between squads - is considered among the poorest displays of sportsmanship in sports history, and eventually led to development of yellow and red cards).

However, the national sport is the Rodeo.

Chile won the Copa América 2015 and Copa América Centenario 2016, obtaining its first two Football titles in the national selection.

The Chilean mountains have important ski centers like Valle Nevado.

The [[Arica]] city in the north has the best waves of the country, something ideal for surfing.

The Chilean [[Patagonia]] is a famous place for trekking and out-door sports, The Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) and many National Parks (including the [[National Park Torres del Paine|Torres del Paine]] one) are visited by people all over the world.

==Culture==
[[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Nicanor Parra]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] are famous Chilean poets. Chillán in the Ñuble Region is a notorious cultural city of Chile.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== See also ==
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]
*[[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
*[[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[La Moneda]]
*[[Easter Island]]
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Colchane]], Chilean most conservative town
*[[Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
*[[War of the Pacific]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm]}}}.
|}

{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Chile

2026-03-23T12:47:00Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Carabineros */

{{Country
|name =''República de Chile''
|map =Tricontinental Chile Map.jpg
|map2 =Chile location map.png
|flag =Flag of Chile.png
|arms =Coat of arms of Chile.png
|capital-raw =[[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]]
|government-raw =[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Unitarian & Presidentialist Republic]]
|language =Spanish
|president =José Antonio Kast
|president-raw=
|conservative-leader=
|conservative-leader-raw=[[José Antonio Kast]]/[[Johannes Kaiser]]
|area =774,657 sq. mi. (Tricontinental Chile) 292,183 sq. mi. (Only Continental and Insular Chile)
|pop =19,100,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$280,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$14,660 (2020)
|currency =Chilean Peso (CLP)
|idd =+56
|tld =.cl
}}
'''Chile''' (official name: '''Republic of Chile''') is a [[nation]] on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of [[South America]], [[Antarctica]] and [[Oceania]] which is organized as a Centralized Unitary Presidential [[Democracy]]. It has a population of 17.5 million and the capital city is [[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]] which is also the biggest city of the country. Chile borders [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Peru]].

Between 1975 and 2014, Chile followed the path of the [[free market]] and [[Capitalism]] been the best place to make business of [[Latin America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iberglobal.com/files/2019-1/economic_freedom_index_2019.pdf|title=Economic Freedom Index 2019}}</ref> This has made the country the most developed of the Region according to the [[Human Development Index]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=505045|title=Chile sigue al tope de A. Latina en Índice de Desarrollo Humano|date=September 15, 2018|publisher=Economía y Negocios|language=es}}</ref> Chile went from a [[Gross domestic product]] of 100 in 1973 to 515 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobierno.udd.cl/files/2016/05/PPT-FPP.pdf|author=Lucas Palacios Covarrubias|title=Pobreza vs Desigualdad|date=April 2016|publisher=[[Universidad del Desarrollo]] - Facultad de Gobierno|language=es}}</ref> However that was put at risk with the leftist insurrection from 2019 and the Boric presidency. Right-wing [[President of Chile|President]] [[José Antonio Kast]] promises to retake the path to develop the country.

In early September 2022, by a resounding 62-38% landslide margin, Chileans rejected a progressive new constitution proposal and thereby decided to retain [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|the one written under]] [[conservative]] leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1980, which was reformed over 70 times in democracy in more than half of its content.<ref>https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1121065756/chile-constitution-referendum</ref><ref>[https://www.uandes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CPR-Edicio%CC%81n-Histo%CC%81rica.pdf]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220929111026/https://plataformacontexto.cl/contexto_factual/cuanto-queda-de-la-constitucion-de-pinochet/ Cuánto queda de “la Constitución de Pinochet”]</ref> A new proposal from the center-right with globalist elements was rejected on December 2023 with a 56-44% landslide margin.

==Geography==
[[File:Volcano Osorno and Petrohué waterfalls.JPG|thumb|left|Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano in the background.]]
The northern Chilean [[Atacama Desert]] contains great mineral wealth, principally [[copper]], and also contains locations where rainfall has never been recorded. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in [[forest]]s and grazing lands and features a string of [[volcano]]es and [[lake]]s. The southern coast located in [[Patagonia]] is a labyrinth of [[fjord]]s, [[inlet]]s, [[canal]]s, twisting [[peninsula]]s, and [[island]]s. The [[Andes]] Mountains are located on the eastern border.
*Area of Tricontinental Chile: 2,006,354 km2 (774,657 sq. mi.) including the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]] which reaches the [[South Pole]].
*Area considering Continental and Insular Chile: 756,945 km2. (302,778 sq. mi.), or nearly twice the size of California.
*Cities: Capital—[[Santiago]] (metropolitan area est. 6.25 million). Other cities: [[Concepción]]-[[Talcahuano]] (840,000), [[Viña del Mar]]-[[Valparaíso]] (800,000), [[Antofagasta]] (245,000), [[Temuco]] (230,000).
*Terrain: Desert in north; fertile central valley; volcanoes and lakes toward the south, giving way to rugged and complex coastline; Andes Mountains on the eastern border.
*Climate: Arid in north, Mediterranean in the central portion, cool and damp in south.

Chile has experienced numerous massive earthquakes, being located within the "Ring of Fire": of the 46 known earthquakes estimated at magnitude >= 8.5, one-third have occurred in Chile, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was measured at magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever recorded. On four occasions, two earthquakes with magnitude >= 8.5 have had the same Chilean epicenter. Furthermore, the strongest estimated earthquake (before seismographs were invented) also took place in Chile around 1800 BC, also estimated in the magnitude 9.5 range.

==People==
[[File:Chilean dance.jpg|left|140px]]
About 85% of Chile's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in greater Santiago. Most have [[Spain|Spanish]] ancestry. A small, yet influential number of [[Irish]] and [[English]] immigrants came to Chile during the Spanish Empire period. [[German]] immigration began in 1848 and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of [[Valdivia]], [[Llanquihue]], and [[Osorno]] show a strong German influence. Other significant historic immigrant groups are [[Italian]], [[Croatian]], [[Basque]], [[Palestinian]] and [[Peruvian]]. About 800,000 Native Americans, mostly of the [[Mapuche]] (Araucan) tribes, reside in the south-central area. The [[Aymara]] and [[Diaguita]] groups can be found mainly in Chile's northern desert valleys.

Since 2014 Chile has been experiencing [[open borders|mass]] [[immigration]] from [[Haiti]], [[Venezuela]], [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]], something that was unusual and has drastically changed the demographics of the country in the recent years (The immigrants went from 1.1% to 6.1% and is still growing)<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> a lot of them are [[Illegal immigration|illegally]] (See ''[[Colchane#Mass_immigration_problem|Colchane's Mass immigration problem]]'').

*Population (2019): 17.5 million.
*Annual population growth rate: 0.881%.
*Ethnic groups: Spanish-Native-American (mestizo), European, Native-American, Blacks (since 2014 with mass Haitian immigration).
*Religions: [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] 70%, [[Evangelical]] 15.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.1%, other Christian 1%, other 4.6%, none 8.3%.
*Language: [[Spanish]].
*Education: Years compulsory—13. Attendance—3 million. Adult literacy rate—96%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate—8.9/1,000. Life expectancy—80 yrs. for men, 85 for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsuss.cl/ipsuss/analisis-y-estudios/esperanza-de-vida-al-nacer-en-chile-llega-a-85-anos-en-mujeres-y-80-anos/2017-09-26/154547.html|title=Esperanza de vida al nacer en Chile llega a 85 años en mujeres y 80 años en hombres|date=September 26, 2017|language=es|publisher=Ipsuss}}</ref>
*Work force (6.94 million); employed 6.45 million: Community, social and individual services—26%; industry—14.4%; commerce—17.6%; agriculture, forestry, and fishing—13.9%; construction—7.1%; financial services—7.5%; transportation and communication—8.0%; electricity, gas and water—0.5%; mining—1.2%.

==Government==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Palacio de La Moneda.jpg|thumbnail|250px|[[La Moneda]] Palace, seat of Executive Branch.]]
[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Chile's Constitution]] was approved in a September 1980 national plebiscite with 67% of the vote. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]], the Constitution was reformed and another referendum was held over the reforms in which 91% voted in favor. In 2005 President Lagos made several reforms to the Constitution, even changing the Pinochet sign with his.
The President term is 4-year long, however is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms. The political system of Chile is an exacerbated [[Presidential system|Presidential]] one.
Chile has a bicameral Congress, which meets in the port city of [[Valparaíso]], about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago (since 1990). Deputies are elected every 4 years, and Senators serve 8-year terms.
There are currently 43 Senators and 155 Deputies.
The Chilean elections are judged free and fair.

Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nationwide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform replaced old proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.

The Central Bank in Chile is autonomous since 1981.

===Principal Government Officials===
{{See also|President of Chile}}
[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio Kast Rist]], a pro-life, anti illegal immigration conservative.]]
*[[President of Chile|President]]—[[José Antonio Kast]] since 11 March 2026.
*Minister of Interior—Claudio Alvarado
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Francisco Pérez Mackenna
*Ambassador to the United States—Andrés Ergas
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)—José Miguel Castro
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Roberto Ampuero
*Ambassador to the OECD—Sebastián Schneinder
*Mayor of Santiago—[[Mario Desbordes]]

===Foreign Relations===
Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. [[Jose Miguel Insulza]], a Chilean national, was Secretary General of the Organization of American States from May 2005 to 2015. Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002 and the [[APEC]] summit and related meetings in 2004. Chile hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial in April 2005. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade. The APEC 2019 was planed to be hosted on Chile and the COP25 but was cancelled due to the [[2019 Chilean State of Emergency|State of Emergency]]. President [[Donald Trump]] planed to sign an agreement with [[Xi Jinping]] to end the 'Trade War' in the APEC hosted in Chile, however it was canceled.

Chile was one of the four countries (along with [[Singapore]], [[Brunei]] and [[New Zealand]]) that started the [[TPP (treaty)|TPP-11]].

Chile signed many Free Trade Agreements since the 90s.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. It settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s except for a part in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and the Antarctic claims overlap between both countries, however the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow modification to the claims and they are ineffective.

In 2007 Peru demanded Chile in the International Court of Justice due to a maritime dispute. The case was closed in 2013 in which half of the disputed sea was ceded to Peru and half to Chile. In Chile it was seen as a lost case.

Chile and Bolivia have bad diplomatic relations since [[Evo Morales]], Bolivia's president, reintegrated the desire to reacquire territory Bolivia lost to Chile in 1879-83 [[War of the Pacific]] in his Foreign Affairs Policy and he demanded Chile in the Internation Couth of Justice, a case which Chile won. There is currently a case to determine if Silala is a river (Chile's position) or is a spring artificially modificated by Chile (Bolivia's position). The two countries maintain consular relations and are represented at the Consul General level but doesn't have embassies in each other.

===Political parties and coalitions===
The main coalitions are:
*[[Chile Vamos]] (Globalist center-right) ([[Sebastián Piñera|Piñera]] and [[Evelyn Matthei|Matthei]]'s coalition) composed by the [[Independent Democrat Union]], [[National Renewal]] and [[Evópoli]].
*Apruebo Dignidad (far-left) ([[Gabriel Boric|Boric]] and [[Daniel Jadue|Jadue]]'s coalition) Social Convergence, [[Democratic Revolution]], Green Ecologist Party, Commune Party, [[Communist]] Party and Social Green Regionalist Federation.
*Constituent Unity (Former "New Majority") (left) (former [[Michelle Bachelet|Bachelet]]'s coalition) composed by old leftist parties such as: the [[Socialist]] Party, Party for Democracy, the Radical Party, [[Christian Democracy]], Citizens Party and the Liberal Party .

Important parties without coalition:
*[[National Libertarian Party]] (Dissident right Party) ([[Johannes Kaiser]]'s party).
*[[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (right-wing) ([[José Antonio Kast]]'s party).
*[[Social Christian Party (Chile)|Social Christian Party]] (Dissident right Party) (Evangelical party).
*[[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]] (from center to center-right) ([[Franco Parisi]]'s party).
*[[Communist Party]] of Chile (Proletarian Action)/Patriotic Union (far-left) (Eduardo Artes' party).
*Progressive Homeland (left) (Marco Enríquez-Ominami's party).

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Chile (+Antarctica & Islands), administrative divisions - en - colored.png|230px|thumbnail|Map of the Chilean Regions.]]
{{Main article|Regions of Chile}}
Chile is divided in 16 Regions, 56 provinces and 346 communes. Chile is a Unitary Centralized State in which the law is the same in every place of the country.

'''List of the Regions and their Capital''':
*[[Arica & Parinacota Region|Arica & Parinacota]] - Capital: [[Arica]]
*[[Tarapacá Region|Tarapacá]] - Capital: [[Iquique]]
*[[Antofagasta Region|Antofagasta]] - Capital: [[Antofagasta]]
*[[Atacama Region|Atacama]] - Capital: [[Copiapó]]
*[[Coquimbo Region|Coquimbo]] - Capital: [[La Serena]]
*[[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]] - Capital: [[Valparaíso]]
*[[Metropolitan Region|Metropolitan]] - Capital: [[Santiago]]
*[[O'Higgins Region|O'Higgins]] - Capital: [[Rancagua]]
*[[Maule Region|Maule]] - Capital: [[Talca]]
*[[Ñuble Region|Ñuble]] - Capital: [[Chillán]]
*[[Biobío Region|Biobío]] - Capital: [[Concepción (Chile)|Concepción]]
*[[Araucanía Region|Araucanía]] - Capital: [[Temuco]]
*[[Los Ríos Region|Los Ríos]] - Capital: [[Valdivia]]
*[[Los Lagos Region|Los Lagos]] - Capital: [[Puerto Montt]]
*[[Aysén Region|Aysén]] - Capital: [[Coyhaique]]
*[[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica]] - Capital: [[Punta Arenas]]

The most conservative commune of Chile is [[Colchane]] as well with Antártica, Lo Barnechea, Vitacura & Las Condes.

==Defense==
Chile's Armed Forces are subject to civilian control exercised by the President through the Minister of Defense. The President has the authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.

===Army===
The Chilean Army is 45,000 strong and is organized with an Army headquarters in Santiago, seven divisions throughout its territory, an Air Brigade in Rancagua, and a Special Forces Command in Colina. The Chilean Army is one of the most professional and technologically advanced armies in Latin America.

===Navy===
The Navy has 23,000-person, including 2,500 Marines. Of the fleet of 29 surface vessels, only eight are operational major combatants (frigates). Those ships are based in [[Valparaíso]]. The Navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no Navy fighter or bomber aircraft. The Navy also operates four submarines based in [[Talcahuano]].

===Air Force (FACH)===
The FACH is a force of 12,500. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on [[Villa Las Estrellas]], [[King George Island]], [[Antarctica]]. The FACH was created in 1930 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]].

===Carabineros===
[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|250px|thumbnail]]
[[Carabineros de Chile]] is the national police force of 30,000 men and women who are responsible for law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control, and counter-terrorism throughout Chile. The Carabineros were created in 1927 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]]. Carabineros is the best police in Latin America.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
[[File:Gran Torre Santiago (39693576311).jpg|thumbnail|200px|Gran Torre Santiago, in the financial district of the city.]]
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 3.3% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.1%. Real GDP growth reached 6.3% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile signed the OECD Convention, becoming the first South American country to join the OECD.

*GDP (official exchange rate): $150.4 billion. (GDP (purchasing power parity):$335.4 billion (2013 est.))
*Annual real growth rate: -1.5%.
*Per capita GDP (purchasing power parity): $27,058 (GDP - per capita (PPP) 2019 est.)
*Forestry, agriculture, and fisheries (6% of GDP): Products—fruits, wheat, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions, beans, livestock, fish.
*Commerce (8% of GDP): Sales, restaurants, hotels.
*Manufacturing (17% of GDP): Types—mineral refining, metal manufacturing, food processing, fish processing, paper and wood products, finished textiles.
*Electricity, gas, and water: 3% of GDP.
*Transportation and communication: 7% of GDP.
*Construction: 8% of GDP.
*Financial services (12% of GDP): Insurance, leasing, consulting.
*Mining (13% of GDP): Copper, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, and molybdenum.
*Trade: Exports--$57.61 billion: copper, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and wood products. Major markets—U.S., Japan, China, Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Mexico. Imports--$40.91 billion: fuels, heavy industrial machinery, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, plastic. Major suppliers—U.S., China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. (GDP (official exchange rate):$281.7 billion (2013 est.))

Chile has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by [[negotiating]] in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[José Piñera]] creator of the Individual capitalization pension system.]]
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], economist during the Military Government that re-implemented liberal economic policies.]]
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.

Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile's consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a family of four's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 18% by 2004.

Chile's independent Central Bank pursues an inflation target of between 2% and 4%. Inflation has not exceeded 5% since 1998. Chile registered an inflation rate of 3.2% in 2006. The Chilean peso's rapid appreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent years has helped dampen inflation. Most wage settlements and loans are indexed, reducing inflation's volatility. Under the compulsory private pension system, most formal sector employees pay 10% of their salaries into privately managed funds.

[[File:Countries with a private pension system.jpg|thumbnail|Countries that applied Chile's private pension system.]]
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) was only $3.4 billion in 2006, up 52% from a poor performance in 2005. However, 80% of FDI continues to go to only four sectors: electricity, gas, water and mining. Much of the jump in FDI in 2006 was also the result of acquisitions and mergers and has done little to create new employment in Chile. The Chilean Government has formed a Council on Innovation and Competition, which is tasked with identifying new sectors and industries to promote. It is hoped that this, combined with some tax reforms to encourage domestic and foreign investment in research and development, will bring in additional FDI and to new parts of the economy. As of 2006, Chile invested only 0.6% of its annual GDP in research and development (R&D). Even then, two-thirds of that was government spending. The fact that domestic and foreign companies spend almost nothing on R&D does not bode well for the Government of Chile's efforts to develop innovative, knowledge-based sectors. Additionally, on January 8, 2007, Chile was placed on the U.S. Trade Representative's Priority Watch List due to its poor record on protecting intellectual property rights. Chile is only the second U.S. FTA partner ever to be placed on the Priority Watch List. Chile has a poor and deteriorating record of protecting copyrighted music, films, and software. Combined with this is its institutional structure allowing local companies to produce and market pharmaceutical generics that violate existing patents. Beyond its general economic and political stability, the government also has encouraged the use of Chile as an "investment platform" for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region, but this will have limited value given the developing business climate in Chile itself. Chile's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Chileans. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital. While Chile and the EU have signed a double taxation treaty, no such agreement exists between the U.S. and Chile.

Mining was temporarily curtailed following an accident in which 33 miners were trapped after a cave-in at the San Jose mine<ref>http://www.minandes.com/s/RoadtoProduction.asp</ref> near Copiapo on August 5, 2010. A rescue attempt - bolstered by national pride at getting the men out alive - ended 67 days later on October 13 as the last of the men were pulled out to safety.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/12/rescued-chilean-miner-returns-surface/</ref><ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7961923/Chilean-miners-trapped-in-San-Jose-mine.html</ref>

===Foreign Trade===
[[File:Commercial Treaties Chile 2012.jpg|thumb|295px|Commercial Treaties, 2012.]]
2006 was a record year for Chilean trade. Total trade registered a 31% increase over 2005. During 2006, exports of goods and services totaled U.S. $58 billion, an increase of 41%. This figure was somewhat distorted by the skyrocketing price of copper. In 2006, copper exports reached a historical high of U.S. $33.3 billion. Imports totaled U.S. $35 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. Chile thus recorded a positive trade balance of U.S. $23 billion in 2006.

The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion). Seen as shares of Chile's export markets, 42% of exports went to the Americas, 30% to Asia and 24% to Europe. Within Chile's diversified network of trade relationships, its most important partner remained the United States. Total trade with the U.S. was U.S. $14.8 billion in 2006. Since the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004, U.S.-Chilean trade has increased by 154%. Internal Government of Chile figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has grown over 60% since then.

Total trade with Europe also grew in 2006, expanding by 42%. The Netherlands and Italy were Chile's main European trading partners. Total trade with Asia also grew significantly at nearly 31%. Trade with Korea and Japan grew significantly, but China remained Chile's most important trading partner in Asia. Chile's total trade with China reached U.S. $8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66% of the value of its trade relationship with Asia.

The growth of exports in 2006 was due mainly to a strong increase in sales to the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. These three markets alone accounted for an additional U.S. $5.5 billion worth of Chilean exports. Chilean exports to the United States totaled U.S. $9.3 billion, representing a 37.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $6.7 billion). Exports to the European Union were U.S. $15.4 billion, a 63.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $9.4 billion). Exports to Asia increased from U.S. $15.2 billion in 2005 to U.S. $19.7 billion in 2006, a 29.9% increase.

During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).

Chile's overall trade profile has traditionally been dependent upon copper exports. The state-owned firm CODELCO is the world's largest copper-producing company, with recorded copper reserves of 200 years. Chile has made an effort to expand nontraditional exports. The most important non-mineral exports are forestry and wood products, fresh fruit and processed food, fishmeal and seafood, and wine.

Successive Chilean governments have actively pursued trade-liberalizing agreements. During the 1990s, Chile signed FTAs with Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Chile also concluded preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. An association agreement with Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—went into effect in October 1996. Continuing its export-oriented development strategy, Chile completed landmark free trade agreements in 2002 with the European Union and South Korea. Chile, as a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, is seeking to boost commercial ties to Asian markets. To that end, it has signed trade agreements in recent years with New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, and most recently Japan. In 2007, Chile plans to begin negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

After two years of negotiations, the United States and Chile signed an agreement in June 2003 that will lead to completely duty-free bilateral trade within 12 years. The U.S.-Chile FTA entered into force January 1, 2004 following approval by the U.S. and Chilean congresses. The bilateral FTA has inaugurated greatly expanded U.S.-Chilean trade ties, with total bilateral trade jumping by 154% during the FTA's first three years.

Chile unilaterally lowered its across-the-board import tariff for all countries with which it does not have a trade agreement to 6% in 2003. Higher effective tariffs are charged only on imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar as a result of a system of import price bands. The price bands were ruled inconsistent with Chile's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in 2002, and the government has introduced legislation to modify them. Under the terms of the U.S.-Chile FTA, the price bands will be completely phased out for U.S. imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar within 12 years.

Chile is a strong proponent of pressing ahead on negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is active in the WTO's Doha round of negotiations, principally through its membership in the G-20 and Cairns Group.

===Finance===
Chile's financial sector has grown quickly in recent years, with a banking reform law approved in 1997 that broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001, and there is further pending legislation proposing further liberalization. Over the last ten years, Chileans have enjoyed the introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has also been accompanied by an increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $70 billion at the end of 2006, has been an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S&P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways for Chilean firms to raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stocks on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Nearly all of the funds raised through these means go to finance domestic Chilean investment. The government is required by law to run a fiscal surplus of at least 1% of GDP. In 2006, the Government of Chile ran a surplus of $11.3 billion, equal to almost 8% of GDP. The Government of Chile continues to pay down its foreign debt, with public debt only 3.9% of GDP at the end of 2006.

==History==
===Discovery and Hispanic period===
[[File:Pedro de Valdivia.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Pedro de Valdivia]], founder of several cities and conqueror of Chile.]]
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]], one of the founding fathers of Chile.]]
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first European to see Chilean land was [[Ferdinand Magellan]] when he discovered the [[Strait of Magellan]] in 1520, however the first one to arrive in Chile were [[Diego de Almagro]] and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in 1535. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of [[Santiago]] on February 12, 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

===19th Century, Independence, State Consolidation and Wars with neightbours===
[[File:Pedro Subercaseaux Jura de la Independencia Chile.jpg|thumb|300px|Fray Pedro Subercaseaux, Jura de la Independencia de Chile.]]
[[File:Diego Portales-2.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Diego Portales]] author of the 1833 Constitution which prioritized order over democracy.]]
[[File:Arturo Prat Chacón.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Arturo Prat|Arturo Prat Chacón]], the maximum naval hero of the Chilean Nation.]]
[[File:Sinking of the Esmeralda during the battle of Iquique.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Sinking of the Esmeralda during the [[battle of Iquique|naval battle of Iquique]].]]
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national [[junta]] in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence which [[José Miguel Carrera]] started soon won a wide following. After the [[Battle of Rancagua]], a Spanish attempt to reimpose arbitrary rule started, during what was called the "Reconquista" led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army led by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], Chile's most renowned patriot, and [[José de San Martín]], hero of Argentine independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership.

During the Ramón Freire Presidency in 1826 the last royalist bastion was defeated, the [[Chiloé]] archipelago and the Tantauco Treaty was signed between Chile and Spain.

Between 1823 and 1829 there was a period of Constitutional Attempts, and there were four of them.

The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the 1833 Constitution made by [[Diego Portales]]. After the [[Civil War]] of 1829–30, a strong presidency emerged, but wealthy landowners remained extremely powerful.

Between 1836 and 1839, Chile fought a [[War against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] which Chile won and separated Peru and Bolivia again.

In 1865 and 1866 Chile, Peru and Ecuador fought against Spain in the [[Chincha Islands War]], Chile and it's allies won.

[[Image:Easter_island_statues.jpg|thumb|right|On September 9, 1888 the Council of Rapanui Chiefs asked the Chilean Navy Captain, Policarpo Toro, to accept the sovereignty of [[Easter Island]] without giving up their chieftaincy titles, the ownership of their lands, the validity of their culture and traditions and on equal terms. This known as the "Agreement of Wills".]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by founding the [[Fort Bulnes]] in 1843 (near the current city of [[Punta Arenas]] in the [[Strait of Magellan]]) and incorporating the zone of the south of the [[Biobío river]] in a process called the [[Pacification of the Araucanía]], the government plan was to building roads, schools, and public infrastructure where the [[Mapuche]] Indians live, they were incorporated as citizens, however the rebel Mapuches were crushed.

There was also a process of Colonization in which the Government gave [[German]] [[settlers]] lands in [[Valdivia]] and the [[Llanquihue Lake]] where they founded several towns and cities. To this day the German influence can be noted in cities like Valdivia, [[Puerto Varas]], [[Frutillar]], [[Puerto Octay]], [[Nueva Braunau]], Ensenada, [[Puerto Montt]] and [[Osorno]].

In 1881, Chile signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan but also loosing its colonial rights over Eastern Patagonia. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. After a [[Civil war]] in 1891 in which President [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] committed suicide, a parliamentary democracy was established, but degenerated into a system protecting the interests of the ruling oligarchy.
In 1888 Chile incorporated [[Easter Island]] to the national territory.

===20th Century===
[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|175px|thumbnail|The [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.
Continuing political and economic instability resulted with the rule of the quasidictatorial Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] (1924–32).
In June there was a Coup and between that month and September 1932 there was an attempt to establish a [[Socialist]] Republic that failed.
When constitutional rule was restored later that year, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy.
In 1940 Chile started to claim officially the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].

In 1962 the "right-wing" President [[Jorge Alessandri]] started the agrarian reform in a small portion, that expropriated part of big land properties. This reform was deepened by the next two governments.

The 1964 presidential election of [[Christian Democrat]] [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

He also made the "Chileanization of the copper" which introduced the State into the copper industry.
====Unidad Popular Marxist Regime (1970-1973)====
{{Main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
In 1970, Senator [[Salvador Allende]], a [[Marxist]] and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the "Popular Unity" (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats (the lasts ones supported him with the condition of respecting the laws and private property), won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest and was named president by the Chilean Congress. His program included the nationalization of private industries and banks, massive land expropriation, and collectivization, implementation of a Marxist education system, repartition of food collectively (with a limit of one stock per family). Allende's program also included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major copper mines.

[[Fidel Castro]] visited Chile in 1971 where he stayed for months.
Allende said in the same year "The major role of a journalist is not to server the truth, but to server the revolution" and in 1972 "I'm the President of the Unidad Popular, but I'm not the president of all Chileans".

Elected with only 36% of the vote and by a plurality of only 36,000 votes, Allende never enjoyed majority support in the Chilean Congress or broad popular support. Domestic production declined; severe shortages of consumer goods, food, and manufactured products were widespread; and inflation reached 1,000% per annum. Mass demonstrations, recurring strikes, violence by both government supporters and opponents, and widespread rural unrest ensued in response to the general deterioration of the economy.

The 22th of August 1973 the Chamber of Deputies called for a military intervention since the Allende's Government was Unconstitutional for not respecting basic laws like [[private property]].<ref>[https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2013/08/23/40-anos-del-acuerdo-de-la-camara-que-declaro-la-ilegitimidad-del-gobierno-de-allende/ 40 años del acuerdo de la Cámara que declaró la ilegitimidad del Gobierno de Allende]</ref> By the time the Christian Democrats stopped supporting Allende and started to support an intervention.

[[Carlos Altamirano]], General Secretary of the Socialist Party in July 1973 called to "crush the opposition" and to "not negotiate with the enemies of Chile"<ref>https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304093123/rev91_documento.pdf</ref> he also called for a violent Marxist revolution in 1968.

====Military Government (1973-1990)====
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990).jpg|300px|thumbnail|President and General [[Augusto Pinochet|Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], President of Chile (1973-1990), fighter against [[Marxism]], father of Chile's development, and restorer of the order and the institutions.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|1980 Constitution]] and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
A military pronouncement overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace, Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime in particular were marked by an irregular war against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|leftist terrorists]] who wanted a violent Marxist revolution. A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] was approved by a plebiscite on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. The Constitution writing had an important participation of [[Jaime Guzmán]] who also founded the [[Independent Democrat Union]].

The Armed Forces had to assume the leadership of the country, aware that this task did not mean a mere restoration of the broken institutionality, since the systematic destruction to which the Homeland had been subjected had deeply undermined coexistence and national development; therefore, it was imperative to go further and create a modern, profound system of the country, with a clear social content and democratic character. From the structuring of the stages and objectives of the Government and the determination of the principles that would govern the project, the Armed Forces marked with height, coherence and consequence the national reality and the itinerary designed.

This great work was not exempt from interferences, demands and sacrifices, since at the beginning it was necessary to overcome the disastrous consequences of the previous administrations and the prevailing polarization. Subsequently, it was necessary to face defamation, the economic crises in the neighborhood, and the wily terrorist and subversive actions. These, together or in isolation, ([[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] made the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]" that blocked any selling of weapons to Chile, and also the U.S. imposed a blockade on fruit exports) in could have led any government to political, economic and social collapse. However, the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, based on efficiency, patriotism and joint effort, with a more than important part of society, managed to overcome the obstacles and deliver a better future for all Chileans.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Military men victims of [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]].]]

There is an evident reality that shows that important sectors of the political spectrum not only tried gradually and systematically to delegitimize the Military Government, but even, once they determined the impossibility of achieving their goals, they used means and tools contrary to peaceful coexistence, even seeking its destabilization, accepting, encouraging or participating in Chilean and foreign extremist organizations contrary to the idiosyncrasy and national identity.
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
The successful model and the change of life generated in Chileans by the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, in general, has not been accepted or recognized at the national and international level. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it would be pernicious for national coexistence that a government defined as authoritarian has been so successful and profound. Undoubtedly, this is a biased point of view, since this line of argument tends to homologate our reality with caudillisms or military irruptions that lacked ethical imperatives and national needs and that did occur systematically or cyclically in other nations.

The deed of September 11, 1973 and the foundational work of the Military Government, apart from signifying for the Armed Forces and the Carabineros and, particularly, for the Army, a feeling of honor and pride that must be preserved, is an event that must necessarily be included in national and universal history in all its truth and dimension.
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|250|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile in 1985.]]
In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. In contrast to its authoritarian political rule, the military government pursued decidedly [[laissez-faire]] economic policies.

[[Milton Friedman]] said,
* "... the really extraordinary thing about the Chilean case was that a military government followed the opposite of military policies. The military is distinguished from the ordinary economy by the fact that it's a top-down organization. The general tells the colonel, the colonel tells the captain, and so on down, whereas a market is a bottom-up organization. The customer goes into the store and tells the retailer what he wants; the retailer sends it back up the line to the manufacturer and so on. So the basic organizational principles in the military are almost the opposite of the basic organizational principles of a free market and a free society. And the really remarkable thing about Chile is that the military adopted the free-market arrangements instead of the military arrangements."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10 Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman on PBS]</ref>

During its 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that fostered an increase in domestic and foreign private investment. The complete political liberalization of the country came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite, which finally took place on October 5. On that day, the triumph of the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans voted for elections to choose a new president in 1989 and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress. The Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution on the same year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>[https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html Soros helped the "No" campaign]</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

===Democratic governments===
[[File:Izamiento de la Gran Bandera Nacional - Presidentes de Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|The five [[President of Chile|Chilean Presidents]] between the years 1990 and 2022 (two of them were elected twice in non-consecutive terms).]]
On December 14, 1989, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the Concertación, was elected president. In a ceremony held in the Congress building in Valparaíso, Pinochet handed over the presidency to the new constitutional President.

Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994 and was succeeded by another Christian Democrat, [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (son of the previous President), leading the same coalition, for a 6-year term. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy led the Concertación to a narrower victory in 2000 presidential elections.

During the ''Concertación'' Governments, Military personnel who fought terrorism were jailed unfairly using an old judicial system and without proof, these can be called the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisioners]] that were destined to the [[Punta Peuco Jail]]. Also during these Governments the private pension system was reformed to benefit the companies that manage pension funds by making the users assume the economic losses and increased the retirement age by approximately 20 years, which directly lowered pensions. This changes are the main factor of the problems in the system that can be reversed.

In September 2005, President [[Ricardo Lagos]] signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.

On January 15, 2006 [[Michelle Bachelet|Michelle Bachelet Jeria]] (center-left) won the elections against businessman [[Sebastián Piñera]] (center-right) and she took office on March 11, 2006, becoming the first woman to become President of Chile.
In 2009 Sebastián Piñera Echenique won the presidency, beign the first center-right candidate to do so after the Pinochet regime. In 2013 Bachelet won the office again and Piñera in 2017. Presidents in Chile can't have consecutive two terms, they need to wait another election.

Chile's congressional elections were governed by a unique binomial system made by [[Jaime Guzmán]] until 2018 that rewarded coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for the two Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district. Historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) splat most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 did the winning coalition gain both seats.

Chile was leaded by President [[Sebastián Piñera]] between 2018 and 2022 with the coalition of parties called [[Chile Vamos]]. The coalition was center-right and took [[progressive]] stands on some moral issues like legalizing [[same sex "marriage"]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2018/11/29/chile-enacts-landmark-gender-identity-law/|title=Chile enacts landmark gender identity law|date=November 29, 2018|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref>

{{main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
In 2019 Leftist mobs began to burn private and public property (the main public damage were 20 metro stations that were burned and 77 damaged in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metro.cl/noticias/balance-danos-19-de-octubre-2019|title=Balance daños 19 de octubre 2019|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Metro de Santiago}}</ref> starting a political crisis that has on its objectives to make the state bigger, raise taxes, and eliminate the individual capitalization system, as well as a change of the Constitution. This groups have been supported by the international left, the [[Sao Paulo Forum]], the [[Puebla Group]] and [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/10/20/nicolas-maduro-respondio-las-acusaciones-de-alentar-las-protestas-en-ecuador-y-chile-foro-de-sao-paulo-estamos-cumpliendo-el-plan-ustedes-me-entienden/|title=Nicolás Maduro habló sobre las acusaciones de alentar las protestas en Ecuador y Chile: "Foro de San Pablo, estamos cumpliendo el plan, ustedes me entienden..."|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Infobae}}</ref> The period is called ''Estallido social'' by the left. [[Diosdado Cabello]], a government official from Venezuela at that time said "The [[Bolivarian]] breeze sweeping the region will become a hurricane"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-diosdado-cabello-amenaza-brisa-bolivariana-recorre-region-convertira-huracan-201910201834_noticia.html|title=Diosdado Cabello amenaza: "La brisa bolivariana que recorre la región se convertirá en huracán"|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=ABC Internacional}}</ref>

On the 15th of November 2019 the Congress approved to make a referendum on the Constitution, ceding to the radical left.

The referendum was made on October 25, 2020, and the option to change the Constitution won. Several rallies were made for the 'Rejection' (''Rechazo'') option by patriots with a high number of people attending and in which [[Sebastián Izquierdo]] played an important role.

There was a previous proposal of a new Constitution that was a draft from the socialist Michelle Bachelet from the last weeks of her administration and both administrations (Piñera and Bachelet) were committed to follow the globalist [[2030 Agenda]] from the United Nations. The [[Constitutional Convention (Chile)|Constitutional Convention]] which redacted the text made a progressive and globalist proposal, the conservative [[Teresa Marinovic]] was elected to the Convention auditing the far-left institution.

In the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Presidential Election]], the final front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Gabriel Boric]]. Kast won the first round with a 27.91% of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and Boric obtained 25.82% (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13% (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87% (4,620,890 votes) from Boric. Boric got electoed at the age of 35, a former student radical "activist," a self-described [[communist]].<ref name=at22nov21>Monica Showalter, [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/stunning_good_news_from_chile__and_not_just_for_them_but_for_us.html Stunning good news from Chile...], American Thinker, November 22, 2021</ref>

On September 4, 2022, the second referendum took place in which the 'Rejection' option won with 61.86% of the votes against 38.14% of the 'Approve' option. The main difference with the first election was that the vote was mandatory in the second one and not the first one, having bigger participation of older generations which tend to vote conservative. After the triumph of the 'Rechazo', Gabriel Boric changed the cabinet of ministers of his government.

In 2023 the corrupt political system started a new process to change the Constitution, this time with more control of the establishment parties, without asking on a referendum if the citizens of Chile wanted a new process (they "assumed" that the 2020 referendum result is permanent, even that that process ended with the 2022 referendum). On May 7 the [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|election to elect the counselors of the Constitutional Council]] was held and a massive conservative victory was obtained, the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] won the majority as well as a record "Nulo" (Voluntary refusal to choose a candidate by the citizenry in a mandatory election) votes on 3rd place.

On December 17, 2023 a new referendum was held over the new written text, the Republican Party directive supported the change of the Chilean Constitution, many members of the party opposed this stance change of the party. The Globalist "center-right" coalition, [[Chile Vamos]] and centrist parties such as "Democrats" and "Yellows" (which means "being too moderated") supported the "In Favor" option as well. Chilean Patriots supported the "Against" option as well as the most of the left-wing. The "Against" Option obtained 55.76% of the votes while the "In Favor" Option obtained 44.24%. The dissident right was victorious over the establishment "right-wing" parties who supported the new proposed text.

On June 7, 2024 [[Johannes Kaiser]] founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-globalist, paleo-libertarian party.

José Antonio Kast, a Catholic pro-life conservative who promised to protect Chile against illegal immigration won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Sports==
[[Association Football|Football]] is the most popular sport by far. Chile hosted the 1962 [[World Cup]], notable for the "Battle of Santiago" (a group stage match between host Chile and Italy, which due to the on-pitch action - police had to be called no fewer than four times to gain control between squads - is considered among the poorest displays of sportsmanship in sports history, and eventually led to development of yellow and red cards).

However, the national sport is the Rodeo.

Chile won the Copa América 2015 and Copa América Centenario 2016, obtaining its first two Football titles in the national selection.

The Chilean mountains have important ski centers like Valle Nevado.

The [[Arica]] city in the north has the best waves of the country, something ideal for surfing.

The Chilean [[Patagonia]] is a famous place for trekking and out-door sports, The Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) and many National Parks (including the [[National Park Torres del Paine|Torres del Paine]] one) are visited by people all over the world.

==Culture==
[[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Nicanor Parra]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] are famous Chilean poets. Chillán in the Ñuble Region is a notorious cultural city of Chile.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== See also ==
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]
*[[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
*[[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[La Moneda]]
*[[Easter Island]]
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Colchane]], Chilean most conservative town
*[[Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
*[[War of the Pacific]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm]}}}.
|}

{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Carabineros de Chile

2026-03-23T12:46:19Z

CatolicoAustral: Created page with "thumbnail '''Carabineros de Chile''' is the national uniformed police force of the Republic of Chile. Established in 1927, it is the p..."

[[File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg|thumbnail]]
'''Carabineros de Chile''' is the national uniformed police force of the Republic of Chile. Established in 1927, it is the primary law enforcement agency responsible for public order, traffic control, border security, and civic duties nationwide. With the motto ''Orden y Patria'' ("Order and Fatherland"), Carabineros are widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and least corrupt police forces in Latin America, consistently earning international recognition and serving as a profound source of national pride for [[Chile]]ans.<ref name=Integrity>{{cite web|url=https://www.ganintegrity.com/country-profiles/chile|title=Chile country risk report|publisher=GAN Integrity|date=November 5, 2020|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

The institution integrates police and gendarmerie functions, operating under the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security with paramilitary capabilities for emergencies. Its members receive rigorous training focused on discipline, professionalism, and national service.

== History ==
Carabineros de Chile was officially founded on April 27, 1927, by [[President of Chile|President]] [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] through the unification of existing fiscal, rural, and carabinero corps into a single national force. This created a centralized, professional institution that has maintained high standards of efficiency and integrity relative to many regional counterparts.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/best-worst-latam-police|title=From Chile to Mexico: Best and Worst of LatAm Police|publisher=InSight Crime|date=March 20, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

== International Prestige and Cooperation ==
Carabineros enjoys significant international prestige due to its professionalism and efficiency. Through the Chilean government's Cooperation Programme for Uniformed Foreign Police Forces (CECIPU), it has trained and specialized over thousands of officers from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. As a founding member of AMERIPOL (Community of American Police Forces) since 2007 and an associated member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (FIEP) since 2005, Carabineros has even chaired AMERIPOL, highlighting its regional leadership.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cecipu.interior.gob.cl/|title=CECIPU: Programa de cooperación internacional del Gobierno de Chile para policías uniformadas|publisher=Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gob.mx/epn%7Cpoliciafederal/articulos/cuerpo-de-carabineros-de-chile-condecora-al-comisionado-general-de-la-policia-federal-de-mexico|title=Cuerpo de Carabineros de Chile condecora al Comisionado General de la Policía Federal de México|publisher=Gobierno de México|date=April 27, 2017|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

== Reputation as One of Latin America's Least Corrupt Police Forces ==
Chile ranks as the least corrupt country in Latin America according to multiple assessments, and its police force reflects this standard. Risk reports describe a very low risk of corruption encounters with Carabineros, supported by effective investigation and punishment mechanisms. Businesses view the Chilean police as among the most reliable worldwide.<ref name=Integrity/>

This integrity, combined with strong institutional performance, makes Carabineros a symbol of national pride, frequently celebrated in public events, parades, and as guardians of Chilean order and values.

== Defense of Institutional Order During the 2019 Protests ==
{{Main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
During the widespread protests of October 2019 (known by the left as the ''Estallido Social''), which involved violence, arson, and looting, Carabineros served as the primary defenders of public institutions and constitutional order.

A pivotal moment occurred on the night of October 24, 2019, when protesters surrounded the Palacio de La Moneda. According to investigative journalist Víctor Herrero, co-author of the book ''La Revuelta'', demonstrators were approximately 30 minutes from taking the palace. Carabineros reported having only 30 minutes of ammunition remaining while holding the line. Herrero noted that if the force had withdrawn, protesters would have seized La Moneda, an outcome that "as a symbol would have been the end" for institutional stability. The police's resolute defense—until the crowd dispersed—prevented this scenario and upheld Chile's democratic framework.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://resumen.cl/articulos/victor-herrero-coautor-de-libro-la-revuelta-la-noche-del-24-de-octubre-los-manifestantes-estuvieron-a-30-minutos-de-tomarse-la-moneda|title=Víctor Herrero, coautor de libro La Revuelta: "La noche del 24 de octubre los manifestantes estuvieron a 30 minutos de tomarse La Moneda"|publisher=Resumen.cl|accessdate=March 23, 2026}}</ref>

Their actions during the crisis reinforced their role as protectors of the republic among many Chileans who prioritize law, order, and institutional continuity.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Police]]

File:Carabineros de Chile poster.jpg

2026-03-23T12:44:20Z

CatolicoAustral: Source: https://x.com/Carabdechile/status/482175790537510912 Category:ImagesCategory:Chile

Source: https://x.com/Carabdechile/status/482175790537510912
[[Category:Images]][[Category:Chile]]

José Antonio Kast

2026-03-23T12:35:40Z

CatolicoAustral: /* See also */

{{Officeholder
|name=José Antonio Kast
|image=President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg
|offices=
|offices={{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Presidential Standard of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]][[President of Chile]]
|terms=11 March 2026 – present
|preceded=[[Gabriel Boric]]
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:LOGO PAR REPUBLICANO otro.png|35px|frameless|center]]President of the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party of Chile]]
|terms=10 June 2019 – 21 November 2021
|preceded= ''Creation of the Party''
|succeeded= Rojo Edwards
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Coat of arms of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]]Member of the Chamber of Deputies of [[Chile]], District 24 ([[Santiago]])
|terms=11 March 2014 – 11 March 2018
|preceded=María Angélica Cristi Marfil
|succeeded=''Disolution of the District''
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:UDI 2017.svg|35px|frameless|center]]Secretary-General of the [[Independent Democrat Union]]
|terms=30 March 2012 – 10 May 2014
|preceded=Victor Pérez Varela
|succeeded=Javier Macaya Danús
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, District 30 (Santiago)
|terms=11 March 2002 – 11 March 2014
|preceded=Pablo Longueira Montes
|succeeded=Jaime Bellolio Avaria
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=City Councilman of Buin
|terms=1996–2000
|preceded=-
|succeeded=-
}}
|religion=[[Catholic]] (Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement)
|party=Independent (2016-2019, since 2026) [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (2019-2026) [[Independent Democrat Union]] (1996-2016)
|spouse=María Pía Adriasola
|children=9
}}
'''José Antonio Kast Rist''' (b. [[Santiago]], January 18, 1966) is the right-wing [[President of Chile|president]] of [[Chile]], Catholic, father of nine with Pía Adriasola, has a pro-life and conservative stance. He is also against illegal immigration built defenses at the border during his presidency. Founder of the Chilean [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]], he previously served as councilman and deputy.

== Political career ==
In 2017 he ran for president as a right-wing alternative to the [[establishment]] candidate [[Sebastián Piñera]] obtaining 7.93 % of the votes (4th place, 523,375 votes). In the second round, he supported Piñera to avoid another government of the Left. In 2018 he founded the [[Republican Action Movement]], in 2019 the Chilean [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] and the think tank Republican Ideas.

In [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 he ran for president]] again being the right-wing candidate of the election and being the alternative from the center-right's Sebastián Sichel obtaining the first majority in first round with a 27.91 % of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and [[Gabriel Boric]] obtained 25.82 % (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13 % (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87 % (4,620,890 votes) from Boric.

José Antonio Kast has been falsely labeled as "far-right" by the media and the Left.<ref>Multiple references:
*{{cite web |title=Far right gains momentum in Chile's presidential elections |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/gains-momentum-chiles-presidential-elections-171216100010489.html |publisher=Aljazeera |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=16 December 2019}}
*{{cite web |title=Far-Right Party Of José Antonio Kast Frightens Chilean Rightwing |url=https://www.chiletoday.cl/far-right-party-of-jose-antonio-kast-frightens-chilean-rightwing/ |publisher=Chile Today |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=18 June 2019}}
*{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast, el Bolsonaro chileno que lidera las encuestas presidenciales|date=21 January 2019|publisher=Público|language=es|url=https://www.publico.es/internacional/chile-jose-antonio-kast-bolsonaro-chileno-lidera-encuestas-presidenciales.html}}
*{{cite web|url=https://www.telesurtv.net/news/extrema-derecha-presidencia-chile-20190611-0038.html|title=Extrema derecha aspira a presidencia de Chile ante inscripción de nuevo partido|published=TeleSur|date=12 June 2019|language=es}}
*{{cite web|url=https://identidades.com.ar/el-candidato-a-presidente-de-chile-jose-antonio-kast-y-su-relacion-con-los-judios-e-israel/|title=El candidato a presidente de Chile José Antonio Kast y su relación con los judíos e Israel|date=10 December 2021|language=es}}
</ref>

In 2023 he started supporting the change of [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] since [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|his party won a significant minority]] in the institution illegitimatelly created to create a new Constitution back in May 2023.<ref>[https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/leftist-takeover-south-america-chilean-conservative-kast-throws/ Leftist Takeover of South America: Chilean Conservative Kast Throws in with Globalists]</ref> This was the reason why [[Johannes Kaiser]] ended up leaving the party to form his own with other former memebers of the Republican Party.

José Antonio Kast won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Views==
[[File:José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|thumbnail|left|150px|Kast in 2010.]]
He is [[pro-life]] and defends a smaller state with fewer taxes.<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast Proposals |url=https://www.servel.cl/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Programa_Jose_Antonio_Kast_Rist.pdf|language=es}}</ref> He is also against the [[Gender ideology]], he is pro-family, [[Nationalism|pronation]], and he is strongly [[Christian]]. Today he is the most important conservative politician of Chile, mostly because he has been shown as an alternative to the center-right coalition "Chile Vamos", however a lot of the members of his new party come from that coalition, and he has a lot of friends there, also he was member of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] for 20 years, one of the main parties of the coalition. JAK has criticized the immigration policies of the [[Michelle Bachelet]] government (2014-2018) which is considered to be a chaos since,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2017/09/14/presidential-candidate-jose-antonio-kast-wants-to-reconstruct-chile/|title=Presidential candidate José Antonio Kast wants to ‘reconstruct’ Chile|date=September 14, 2017|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=José Antonio Kast |title=Inmigrantes sí, clandestinos no |url=https://www.latercera.com/opinion/noticia/inmigrantes-clandestinos-no/137810/|language=es|publisher=La Tercera |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=19 April 2019}}</ref> not only a lot of them were [[Illegal immigration|illegals]] but also the immigrant population of Chile went from being 1% to 6.1% (1 million new immigrants in 4 years).<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> However, during his 2021 second round campaign he published a poster saying "We are all migrants".

He supports a "responsible possession of weapons", not a the full right to wear arms everywhere (since is not a commons stance outside the United States).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2017/10/09/878437/Kast-defiende-tenencia-de-armas-para-civiles-El-delincuente-lo-va-a-pensar-dos-veces-antes-de-entrar-a-una-casa.html|title=Kast defiende tenencia de armas para civiles: "El delincuente lo va a pensar dos veces antes de entrar a una casa"|publisher=Emol|language=es|date=October 9, 2017}}</ref>

He supports what he considers the "good part" of the [[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)|Augusto Pinochet regime]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adnradio.cl/noticias/politica/kast-yo-no-soy-admirador-del-general-pinochet-soy-una-persona-que-defiende-el-gobierno-militar/20181009/nota/3809493.aspx|title=Kast: "Yo no soy admirador del general Pinochet, soy una persona que defiende el gobierno militar"|language=es|published=ADN|date=9 October 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/2018/09/10/video-el-dia-en-que-jose-antonio-kast-apoyo-a-pinochet-en-la-franja-del-si/|title=El día en que José Antonio Kast apoyó a Pinochet en la franja del SÍ|language=es|date=10 September 2018|published=El Desconcierto}}</ref> And thinks that [[Miguel Krassnoff]] is innocent.

He criticized the Second Piñera Government<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2019/04/29/jose-antonio-kast-no-se-la-deja-pasar-a-pinera-no-hay-manual-que-resista-tanta-torpeza-en-un-solo-viaje/|title=José Antonio Kast no se la deja pasar a Piñera: "No hay manual que resista tanta torpeza en un solo viaje"|language=es|published=El Mostrador|date=29 abril 2019}}</ref> for "not following the program of Government" but he also supported what he considered the "good policies of the government".

Similar to [[Donald Trump]], Kast proposed the construction of a ditch in the border with Bolivia to prevent illegal immigration from happening during the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Chilean Presidential Election]] and again in 2025.

Kast is also a huge supporter of [[Carabineros de Chile]] (Police) and the Armed Forces. In 2019 during the protests far-leftists attacked the police and Kast supported the Carabineros.

In the same election he won a lot of support in the Araucanía region since he strongly opposes [[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina|terrorism attacks there]].

After he criticized COVID restrictions on July 2021, during the second round of the presidential election, he said he supported the infamous [[Vaccine passport|COVID vaccine passport]] (called ''Pase de movilidad'' in Chile) after he met with the former health minister of the Piñera Administration, Paula Daza.

==International alliances==
José Antonio is a supporter of [[Brazil]]'s [[Jair Bolsonaro]], endorsing his successful presidential candidacy in 2018.<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast tras la victoria de Jair Bolsonaro en Brasil: "El sentido común sigue triunfando"|date=October 28, 2018|language=es|publisher=T13|url=https://www.t13.cl/noticia/politica/Jose-Antonio-Kast-tras-la-victoria-de-Jair-Bolsonaro-en-Brasil-El-sentido-comun-sigue-triunfando}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eldinamo.cl/nacional/2018/10/30/jose-antonio-kast-los-triunfos-de-la-derecha-en-latinoamerica-favorecen-la-opcion-que-estoy-planteando/|title=José Antonio Kast: "Los triunfos de la derecha en Latinoamérica favorecen la opción que estoy planteando"|date=October 30, 2018|language=es|publisher=El Dínamo}}</ref>

Kast also met with [[Santiago Abascal]] from the conservative Spanish party [[Vox (Spain)|Vox]]<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast es recibido en España por líderes del partido de extrema derecha Vox |url=https://www.24horas.cl/politica/jose-antonio-kast-es-recibido-en-espana-por-lideres-del-partido-de-extrema-derecha-vox-3407442 |publisher=24 Horas |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=25 June 2019|language=es}}</ref> members of the [[Polish]] Party [[Law and Justice]], [[Viktor Orbán]] from the [[Fidesz]] Party, [[Giorgia Meloni]] from the [[Italian]] Party ''[[Brothers of Italy|Fratelli d'Italia]]'', the [[Dutch]] Party [[Forum for Democracy]], the Pro-[[Brexit]] [[British]] politician [[Daniel Hannan]] and other members of the [[Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe|European Conservatives and Reformists Party]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.radioagricultura.cl/internacional/2019/06/27/kast-se-reune-con-europarlamentarios-en-bruselas.html|title=Kast se reúne con europarlamentarios en Bruselas|date=June 27, 2018|publisher=Radio Agricultura|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latercera.com/politica/noticia/desde-roma-j-kast-balance-gira-europa-la-izquierda-se-ha-visto-sorprendida-despertar-del-sentido-comun/726677/|title=Desde Roma, J.A. Kast hace un balance de su gira por Europa: "La izquierda se ha visto sorprendida por el despertar del sentido común"|language=es|date=July 3, 2019|publisher=La Tercera}}</ref> He is also allied with Law and Justice from [[Poland]].

On December 2021 he met [[Marco Rubio]] at the [[Capitol]].<ref>[https://oicanadian.com/the-right-wing-candidate-jose-antonio-kast-went-on-a-tour-of-the-united-states-in-puebla-jose-luis-rodriguez-zapatero-showed-his-support-for-the-leftist-gabriel-boric/ The right-wing candidate, José Antonio Kast, went on a tour of the United States]</ref>

Kast was the president of the international conservative alliance [[Political Network for Values]] between 2022 and 2024.

==See also==
*[[Republican Party (Chile)]]
*[[Republican Action Movement]]
*[[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)]]
*[[Sebastián Piñera]]
*[[Bárbara Kast]] (sister)

==External links==
*[https://youtu.be/dSNq5P33abA Election Chile 2017: Exclusive Interview Jose Antonio Kast]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kast, José Antonio}}
[[Category:Chilean Politicians]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Pro-Life]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
[[Category:Guildists]]
[[Category:Neoconservatives]]
[[Category:Current Heads of State]]
[[Category:Current Heads of Government]]
[[Category:Presidents of Chile]]
[[Category:Patriots]]

Bárbara Kast

2026-03-23T12:35:19Z

CatolicoAustral:

'''Barbara Kast Rist''' (24 July 1950 – 29 December 1968) was a Chilean young woman of German origin, known for her deep religious devotion and involvement in the [[Schoenstatt Movement]]. She died at the age of 18 in a car accident. Her life is remembered within the movement as an example of spiritual dedication and heroic surrender to God. A high school in [[Paine, Chile|Paine]] bears her name.<ref name=Interferencia>{{cite web |url=https://interferencia.cl/articulos/los-kast-los-otros-hijos-de-michael-y-olga |title=Los Kast: los otros hijos de Michael y Olga |publisher=Interferencia |language=es |access-date=17 December 2025}}</ref>

== Biography ==

=== Childhood and youth ===
Barbara Kast Rist was born on 24 July 1950 in Thalkirchdorf, a small village in southern Germany, the daughter of Michael Martin Kast, a former German soldier in World War II, and Olga Rist. She was the second of ten siblings: Miguel, Barbara, Erika, Mónica and Christian (twins), Verónica and Gaby (twins), Juanito, Rita, and president [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio]].<ref name=Brasil>{{cite web |url=https://schoenstatt.org.br/home/espiritualidade/barbara-kast-rist/ |title=Bárbara Kast Rist |publisher=Schoenstatt Brazil |language=pt |access-date=17 December 2025}}</ref> She was baptized on 6 August 1950. In March 1951, due to the aftermath of the war, her family emigrated to Chile when Barbara was eight months old. Her father arrived first in 1950 and, with the help of German friends, purchased a small plot in Linderos, Buin.<ref name=Interferencia/>

The early years in Chile were marked by economic hardship and intense work. Barbara grew up in an environment of family effort. She completed her initial schooling at home with a private tutor. At age seven, she entered the boarding school of Colegio Santa Úrsula run by the Ursuline Sisters in Maipú, where she stayed for seven years. She stood out for average grades, good friendships, and typical childhood pranks, such as smoking in secret or shortening bedsheets.<ref name=Brasil/> On 8 December 1957, she received her First Communion, a day she described in her diary as the happiest of her life.<ref name=valeria>Summary by Valeria Cox, based on the book by Fr. Esteban Uriburu (1996).</ref>

In 1958, she travelled with her mother to Germany and was fascinated by the snow. That same year, the family suffered the loss of her two-year-old sister Mónica, who drowned in a canal in front of the house, leaving Barbara with a deep fear of death for her loved ones and herself.<ref name=Brasil/> She developed a close relationship with her family, showing unlimited trust in her parents and great love for her siblings, whom she cared for during weeks in Santiago while her parents lived in Linderos.

In 1966, shortly before turning 16, she transferred—against her initial wishes—to Colegio Mariano run by the Sisters of Mary of Schoenstatt to accompany her younger sisters. There, she proved intelligent, diligent, and strong-willed, ranking among the top students and being elected class representative. She helped her classmates as a confidante and advisor, standing out for her sense of responsibility and helpfulness.<ref name=Educativo>{{cite web |url=https://wwwfs.mineduc.cl/Archivos/infoescuelas/documentos/10669/ProyectoEducativo10669.pdf |title=Proyecto Educativo Institucional - Liceo Bárbara Kast Rist |publisher=Ministry of Education of Chile |language=es |access-date=17 December 2025}}</ref><ref name=Brasil/> She practised sports such as horse riding and swimming, grew flowers, and helped her father in summers at the Bavaria sausage factory.

At 16, she fell in love for the first time but rejected a relationship due to her parents' concerns. She was sensitive to others' pain and supported a pregnant widowed neighbour. In 1967, she went on a school trip to Brazil and Uruguay, where she first came into contact with Schoenstatt in São Paulo.<ref name=valeria/>

=== Involvement in the Schoenstatt Movement ===
Barbara joined the [[Schoenstatt Movement]] in September 1967 after much reflection. In January 1968, she attended a camp in La Leonera, a profound experience that led to a spiritual transformation. She was elected group leader and prepared for the Covenant of Love with the Virgin Mary, which she sealed on 8 December 1968 at the Bellavista Shrine.<ref name=Brasil/>

Her personal ideal was: "Tabernacle of God, bearer of Christ and Schoenstatt to mankind."<ref name=Brasil/> In her diary, she wrote deep reflections, such as: "Dear Mater: Before the sacramental Christ in the Tabernacle, I want to lovingly analyse under your light, Mother, what it means to consecrate my eyes to you. They will no longer be my eyes, but yours... Mater, my eyes may no longer look at the world as before. There can be no criticism, hatred, or envy in them."<ref name=valeria/> And: "Mater, today you called me by my true name, tabernacle... Keep me always pure, for you know that I want to be a permanent dwelling for your Son."<ref name=valeria/>

She asked Mater for fidelity, enlightenment for her mission, and strength for heroism. She saw the shrine as "our little piece of heaven" and offered herself as an instrument for Schoenstatt's ideals. Her spiritual director, Father Francisco José, was impressed by her clarity despite her recent entry into the movement.<ref name=Brasil/> She considered studying pedagogy with a focus on history or theology and contemplated a religious vocation.

Her friends admired her for her discretion, good advice, and empathy. She organised activities such as a vocational week and visited the shrine daily during exam periods.<ref name=valeria/>

=== Death ===
On 29 December 1968 at 7:40 a.m., Barbara died at age 18 in a car accident at the corner of Pedro de Valdivia and José Domingo Cañas in Santiago. She was taken to Posta 4 in Ñuñoa, where she died shortly afterwards.<ref name=Interferencia/> Five days earlier, while visiting her sister Mónica's grave in Buin, she told her brother Miguel that it was a gift to have a "connection" in heaven.<ref name=valeria/>

Her body lay in state at the Bellavista Shrine, covered with the flag of the Female Youth. Excerpts from her prayers were read during the Mass, deeply moving those present. The burial took place at the Buin cemetery, following Masses in Linderos and Bellavista, accompanied by a procession and her favourite songs.<ref name=valeria/><ref name=Brasil/>

== Legacy ==
Barbara is remembered for her total surrender to the Covenant of Love, which transformed her heart into a tabernacle. Her life illustrates the educational action of the Virgin Mary in Schoenstatt. The Liceo Bárbara Kast Rist in Paine was named after her in recognition of her responsibility and service.<ref name=Educativo/> Her diary, discovered after her death, revealed the depth of her faith. She invites others to live the Covenant of Love and make their hearts a pure place for Christ to dwell.<ref name=valeria/>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://schoenstatt.org.br/home/espiritualidade/barbara-kast-rist/ Bárbara Kast Rist] at Schoenstatt Brazil
* [https://interferencia.cl/articulos/los-kast-los-otros-hijos-de-michael-y-olga Los Kast: los otros hijos de Michael y Olga] at Interferencia
* [https://wwwfs.mineduc.cl/Archivos/infoescuelas/documentos/10669/ProyectoEducativo10669.pdf Proyecto Educativo Institucional del Liceo Bárbara Kast Rist]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kast, Bárbara}}
[[Category:Chilean People]]

Bárbara Kast

2026-03-23T12:34:05Z

CatolicoAustral: Created page with "'''Barbara Kast Rist''' (24 July 1950 – 29 December 1968) was a Chilean young woman of German origin, known for her deep religious devotion and involvement in the Schoenst..."

'''Barbara Kast Rist''' (24 July 1950 – 29 December 1968) was a Chilean young woman of German origin, known for her deep religious devotion and involvement in the [[Schoenstatt Movement]]. She died at the age of 18 in a car accident. Her life is remembered within the movement as an example of spiritual dedication and heroic surrender to God. A high school in [[Paine, Chile|Paine]] bears her name.<ref name=Interferencia>{{cite web |url=https://interferencia.cl/articulos/los-kast-los-otros-hijos-de-michael-y-olga |title=Los Kast: los otros hijos de Michael y Olga |publisher=Interferencia |language=es |access-date=17 December 2025}}</ref>

== Biography ==

=== Childhood and youth ===
{{See also|Kast family}}
Barbara Kast Rist was born on 24 July 1950 in Thalkirchdorf, a small village in southern Germany, the daughter of Michael Martin Kast, a former German soldier in World War II, and Olga Rist. She was the second of ten siblings: Miguel, Barbara, Erika, Mónica and Christian (twins), Verónica and Gaby (twins), Juanito, Rita, and José Antonio.<ref name=Brasil>{{cite web |url=https://schoenstatt.org.br/home/espiritualidade/barbara-kast-rist/ |title=Bárbara Kast Rist |publisher=Schoenstatt Brazil |language=pt |access-date=17 December 2025}}</ref> She was baptized on 6 August 1950. In March 1951, due to the aftermath of the war, her family emigrated to Chile when Barbara was eight months old. Her father arrived first in 1950 and, with the help of German friends, purchased a small plot in Linderos, Buin.<ref name=Interferencia/>

The early years in Chile were marked by economic hardship and intense work. Barbara grew up in an environment of family effort. She completed her initial schooling at home with a private tutor. At age seven, she entered the boarding school of Colegio Santa Úrsula run by the Ursuline Sisters in Maipú, where she stayed for seven years. She stood out for average grades, good friendships, and typical childhood pranks, such as smoking in secret or shortening bedsheets.<ref name=Brasil/> On 8 December 1957, she received her First Communion, a day she described in her diary as the happiest of her life.<ref name=valeria>Summary by Valeria Cox, based on the book by Fr. Esteban Uriburu (1996).</ref>

In 1958, she travelled with her mother to Germany and was fascinated by the snow. That same year, the family suffered the loss of her two-year-old sister Mónica, who drowned in a canal in front of the house, leaving Barbara with a deep fear of death for her loved ones and herself.<ref name=Brasil/> She developed a close relationship with her family, showing unlimited trust in her parents and great love for her siblings, whom she cared for during weeks in Santiago while her parents lived in Linderos.

In 1966, shortly before turning 16, she transferred—against her initial wishes—to Colegio Mariano run by the Sisters of Mary of Schoenstatt to accompany her younger sisters. There, she proved intelligent, diligent, and strong-willed, ranking among the top students and being elected class representative. She helped her classmates as a confidante and advisor, standing out for her sense of responsibility and helpfulness.<ref name=Educativo>{{cite web |url=https://wwwfs.mineduc.cl/Archivos/infoescuelas/documentos/10669/ProyectoEducativo10669.pdf |title=Proyecto Educativo Institucional - Liceo Bárbara Kast Rist |publisher=Ministry of Education of Chile |language=es |access-date=17 December 2025}}</ref><ref name=Brasil/> She practised sports such as horse riding and swimming, grew flowers, and helped her father in summers at the Bavaria sausage factory.

At 16, she fell in love for the first time but rejected a relationship due to her parents' concerns. She was sensitive to others' pain and supported a pregnant widowed neighbour. In 1967, she went on a school trip to Brazil and Uruguay, where she first came into contact with Schoenstatt in São Paulo.<ref name=valeria/>

=== Involvement in the Schoenstatt Movement ===
Barbara joined the [[Schoenstatt Movement]] in September 1967 after much reflection. In January 1968, she attended a camp in La Leonera, a profound experience that led to a spiritual transformation. She was elected group leader and prepared for the Covenant of Love with the Virgin Mary, which she sealed on 8 December 1968 at the Bellavista Shrine.<ref name=Brasil/>

Her personal ideal was: "Tabernacle of God, bearer of Christ and Schoenstatt to mankind."<ref name=Brasil/> In her diary, she wrote deep reflections, such as: "Dear Mater: Before the sacramental Christ in the Tabernacle, I want to lovingly analyse under your light, Mother, what it means to consecrate my eyes to you. They will no longer be my eyes, but yours... Mater, my eyes may no longer look at the world as before. There can be no criticism, hatred, or envy in them."<ref name=valeria/> And: "Mater, today you called me by my true name, tabernacle... Keep me always pure, for you know that I want to be a permanent dwelling for your Son."<ref name=valeria/>

She asked Mater for fidelity, enlightenment for her mission, and strength for heroism. She saw the shrine as "our little piece of heaven" and offered herself as an instrument for Schoenstatt's ideals. Her spiritual director, Father Francisco José, was impressed by her clarity despite her recent entry into the movement.<ref name=Brasil/> She considered studying pedagogy with a focus on history or theology and contemplated a religious vocation.

Her friends admired her for her discretion, good advice, and empathy. She organised activities such as a vocational week and visited the shrine daily during exam periods.<ref name=valeria/>

=== Death ===
On 29 December 1968 at 7:40 a.m., Barbara died at age 18 in a car accident at the corner of Pedro de Valdivia and José Domingo Cañas in Santiago. She was taken to Posta 4 in Ñuñoa, where she died shortly afterwards.<ref name=Interferencia/> Five days earlier, while visiting her sister Mónica's grave in Buin, she told her brother Miguel that it was a gift to have a "connection" in heaven.<ref name=valeria/>

Her body lay in state at the Bellavista Shrine, covered with the flag of the Female Youth. Excerpts from her prayers were read during the Mass, deeply moving those present. The burial took place at the Buin cemetery, following Masses in Linderos and Bellavista, accompanied by a procession and her favourite songs.<ref name=valeria/><ref name=Brasil/>

== Legacy ==
Barbara is remembered for her total surrender to the Covenant of Love, which transformed her heart into a tabernacle. Her life illustrates the educational action of the Virgin Mary in Schoenstatt. The Liceo Bárbara Kast Rist in Paine was named after her in recognition of her responsibility and service.<ref name=Educativo/> Her diary, discovered after her death, revealed the depth of her faith. She invites others to live the Covenant of Love and make their hearts a pure place for Christ to dwell.<ref name=valeria/>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://schoenstatt.org.br/home/espiritualidade/barbara-kast-rist/ Bárbara Kast Rist] at Schoenstatt Brazil
* [https://interferencia.cl/articulos/los-kast-los-otros-hijos-de-michael-y-olga Los Kast: los otros hijos de Michael y Olga] at Interferencia
* [https://wwwfs.mineduc.cl/Archivos/infoescuelas/documentos/10669/ProyectoEducativo10669.pdf Proyecto Educativo Institucional del Liceo Bárbara Kast Rist]

[[Category:Chilean people]]

Chile presidential election, 2025

2026-03-23T12:32:16Z

CatolicoAustral:

[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|[[José Antonio Kast]] was elected president in 2025 to serve between 2026-2030.]]

The '''2025 Chilean presidential election''' was held on Sunday, 16 November 2025 (first round) and 14 December 2025 (second round). In the second round the front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Jeannette Jara]] of the [[Communist Party of Chile|Communist Party]] / Unidad por Chile coalition. Jara won the first round with 26.85 % of the votes (3,476,615 votes) and Kast obtained 23.92 % (3,097,717 votes). But in the second round, Kast won decisively with 58.16–58.18 % (approximately 7,225,021–7,254,850 votes) against 41.82–41.84 % (approximately 5,192,708–5,218,444 votes) from Jara. With this result, Chile shifted to the right, ending the leftist administration of Gabriel Boric and ushering in a conservative, free-market-oriented government focused on security and order under Kast, who took office on 11 March 2026 as the most voted president in Chilean history.

==Background==
On Sunday, November 16, 2025 Chile held its presidential (first round) and parliamentary elections. What sets this election apart from previous ones is that the first round effectively served as a primary among the three right-wing parties, while on the left, the ruling party’s candidate had already won the official primaries.
That candidate stands out as the first time the entire left is represented by a member of the Communist Party, which in turn poses a real communication challenge, since her campaign has sought to convey that she is not only the party’s candidate but also that of the center-left. It has also been quite a challenge to distance her from the government in which she served as labor minister, as it has low approval ratings, and being seen as a continuation of that government risks losing the election.
As for the right-wing candidates, there is José Antonio Kast, founder of the Republican Party, with a history linked to trade unionism and the UDI until 2016, the year in which he began his own political path, with a total of three presidential candidacies since then. Today, the political climate works in his favor; rising insecurity, irregular immigration, and the country’s lackluster economic figures support the narrative he has maintained since his first campaign. Furthermore, he was the one who lost the runoff election to Gabriel Boric in 2021, which literally makes him the counterfactual to Boric’s government.
As for his campaign message, it is worth noting that he has now left out so-called “values-based” issues such as abortion, although he claims he remains the same person with the same ideas, and has focused on proposing what he calls an “emergency government” to address rising insecurity. In contrast, his first campaign in 2017 revolved around those very issues that he now says are not among the priorities of his platform, even though they were central to his 2021 campaign—right up until the runoff.
The current mayor of Ñuñoa, Sebastián Sichel, who was the presidential candidate for the center-right coalition known as Chile Vamos in 2021, conditioned his support for Kast on points he considered non-negotiable; however, he says that the government program proposed today by Kast is more focused on public policies and that it would not be necessary to ask him for that today for the runoff.

In this year’s election, the Chile Vamos candidate, Evelyn Matthei, former mayor of the municipality of Providencia, failed to advance to the runoff. She led the presidential polls a year ago, and from that position ultimately finished in fifth place in Sunday’s election—a result that, beyond being a bitter personal defeat, also symbolizes the final transfer of leadership on the right to new parties with more hardline views.
In fourth place was Johannes Kaiser, who was previously a member of Kast’s party but, following disagreements over the second constitutional proposal in 2023, resigned from the party and formed the National Libertarian Party in record time, bringing together other former Republican members. Kaiser has been broadcasting live political commentary on YouTube for years, which has helped him establish his name. He is also the brother of libertarian activist Axel Kaiser, who has also spent years engaging in political advocacy with the economically liberal Foundation for Progress.

Kaiser’s political messaging revolved around spectacle; he set out to tour the country in a bus bearing his face, holding rallies with AC/DC music and taking a more explicit stance than Kast on the hard-line issues, especially during the debates. Thus, Kaiser succeeded in making Kast appear more moderate in comparison to him, positioning himself between Kast and Matthei.

This presidential election also saw the novelty of introducing artificial intelligence into campaign ads, notably those of Franco Parisi and Marco Enríquez Ominami.
Parisi came in third, sweeping the entire northern part of the country and securing second place in several municipalities in the south and center. Politically, he defines himself as centrist, though one could still say he is closer to the right than to the left, as his economic proposals align more with the ideas of economic liberalism. He also proposed strengthening the border and doubled down on the idea by advocating for the use of anti-personnel mines. Parisi is highly skilled at managing social media; during the 2021 election, his “Bad Boys” program stood out, particularly because he was a candidate campaigning from Alabama, United States. Among the AI-generated videos shown are those that illustrate his proposals, such as the use of drones at the border and infrastructure construction. His party is a catch-all party, featuring figures like Pamela Jiles, who comes from the Humanist Party, and his voters are those dissatisfied with politics in general; he managed to reach voters in the north by appealing to concerns about security and the mining industry.

For his part, Marco is a filmmaker, and he produced videos in which he launched attacks on the other candidates in order to make an impact. He and the other independent candidates garnered around 1% of the vote, marking his fifth election campaign.

Harold Mayne Nichols, on the other hand, who is connected to the world of soccer administration, used skits in his campaign ads, as well as audio from the former coach of the Chilean national team, Bielsa, who was very popular at the time and lent him his support.

Finally, Eduardo Artés, now running for the third time, conveyed his ideological message directly, appealing to classic, hard-line Marxism.
To wrap up, Chile voted for different parties; political forces have been realigned; and the political cycle that began in 2019 with violent protests is now coming to an end with the consolidation of this new political order. Chileans’ priorities have shifted significantly since that year, and the urban destruction caused by those protests ultimately strengthened the right, while the left sought to distance itself from the most destructive groups.

The runoff election took place on Sunday, December 14, 2025 when the country’s next president was decided until 2030. José Antonio Kast, despite trailing Jeannette Jara by 3 points in second place, had a strong chance of winning with the votes of Matthei, Kaiser, and very likely a large percentage of Parisi’s supporters. Jara, having already gone through her coalition’s primary process, has little room to reach new voters; the independent candidates positioning themselves on the left garnered very few votes, so she is also forced to seek support from Parisi’s voters.

==Resultados de la elección==
===Primera vuelta===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidato
! Partido / Coalición
! Votos
! Porcentaje
|-
| [[Jeannette Jara]]
| Partido Comunista / Unidad por Chile
| 3.476.615
| 26,85 %
|-
| [[José Antonio Kast]]
| Partido Republicano
| 3.097.717
| 23,92 %
|-
| [[Franco Parisi]]
| Partido de la Gente
| 2.552.649
| 19,71 %
|-
| [[Johannes Kaiser]]
| Partido Nacional Libertario
| 1.804.773
| 13,94 %
|-
| [[Evelyn Matthei]]
| UDI / Chile Vamos
| 1.613.797
| 12,46 %
|-
| [[Marco Enríquez-Ominami]]
| Independiente
| 154.850
| 1,20 %
|-
| [[Harold Mayne-Nicholls]]
| Independiente
| 102.504
| 1,27 %
|-
| [[Eduardo Artés]]
| Unión Patriótica
| 86.041
| 0,66 %
|}

===Segunda vuelta===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidato
! Partido / Coalición
! Votos
! Porcentaje
|-
| [[José Antonio Kast]]
| Partido Republicano
| 7.254.850
| 58,16 %
|-
| [[Jeannette Jara]]
| Partido Comunista / Unidad por Chile
| 5.218.444
| 41,84 %
|}

[[Category:Chilean Politics]]
[[Category:2020s]]

Chile

2026-03-23T12:31:26Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Democratic governments */

{{Country
|name =''República de Chile''
|map =Tricontinental Chile Map.jpg
|map2 =Chile location map.png
|flag =Flag of Chile.png
|arms =Coat of arms of Chile.png
|capital-raw =[[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]]
|government-raw =[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Unitarian & Presidentialist Republic]]
|language =Spanish
|president =José Antonio Kast
|president-raw=
|conservative-leader=
|conservative-leader-raw=[[José Antonio Kast]]/[[Johannes Kaiser]]
|area =774,657 sq. mi. (Tricontinental Chile) 292,183 sq. mi. (Only Continental and Insular Chile)
|pop =19,100,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$280,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$14,660 (2020)
|currency =Chilean Peso (CLP)
|idd =+56
|tld =.cl
}}
'''Chile''' (official name: '''Republic of Chile''') is a [[nation]] on the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of [[South America]], [[Antarctica]] and [[Oceania]] which is organized as a Centralized Unitary Presidential [[Democracy]]. It has a population of 17.5 million and the capital city is [[Santiago|Santiago de Chile]] which is also the biggest city of the country. Chile borders [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Peru]].

Between 1975 and 2014, Chile followed the path of the [[free market]] and [[Capitalism]] been the best place to make business of [[Latin America]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iberglobal.com/files/2019-1/economic_freedom_index_2019.pdf|title=Economic Freedom Index 2019}}</ref> This has made the country the most developed of the Region according to the [[Human Development Index]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=505045|title=Chile sigue al tope de A. Latina en Índice de Desarrollo Humano|date=September 15, 2018|publisher=Economía y Negocios|language=es}}</ref> Chile went from a [[Gross domestic product]] of 100 in 1973 to 515 in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobierno.udd.cl/files/2016/05/PPT-FPP.pdf|author=Lucas Palacios Covarrubias|title=Pobreza vs Desigualdad|date=April 2016|publisher=[[Universidad del Desarrollo]] - Facultad de Gobierno|language=es}}</ref> However that was put at risk with the leftist insurrection from 2019 and the Boric presidency. Right-wing [[President of Chile|President]] [[José Antonio Kast]] promises to retake the path to develop the country.

In early September 2022, by a resounding 62-38% landslide margin, Chileans rejected a progressive new constitution proposal and thereby decided to retain [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|the one written under]] [[conservative]] leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] in 1980, which was reformed over 70 times in democracy in more than half of its content.<ref>https://www.npr.org/2022/09/04/1121065756/chile-constitution-referendum</ref><ref>[https://www.uandes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CPR-Edicio%CC%81n-Histo%CC%81rica.pdf]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220929111026/https://plataformacontexto.cl/contexto_factual/cuanto-queda-de-la-constitucion-de-pinochet/ Cuánto queda de “la Constitución de Pinochet”]</ref> A new proposal from the center-right with globalist elements was rejected on December 2023 with a 56-44% landslide margin.

==Geography==
[[File:Volcano Osorno and Petrohué waterfalls.JPG|thumb|left|Petrohué Waterfalls and Osorno Volcano in the background.]]
The northern Chilean [[Atacama Desert]] contains great mineral wealth, principally [[copper]], and also contains locations where rainfall has never been recorded. The relatively small central area dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century, when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in [[forest]]s and grazing lands and features a string of [[volcano]]es and [[lake]]s. The southern coast located in [[Patagonia]] is a labyrinth of [[fjord]]s, [[inlet]]s, [[canal]]s, twisting [[peninsula]]s, and [[island]]s. The [[Andes]] Mountains are located on the eastern border.
*Area of Tricontinental Chile: 2,006,354 km2 (774,657 sq. mi.) including the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]] which reaches the [[South Pole]].
*Area considering Continental and Insular Chile: 756,945 km2. (302,778 sq. mi.), or nearly twice the size of California.
*Cities: Capital—[[Santiago]] (metropolitan area est. 6.25 million). Other cities: [[Concepción]]-[[Talcahuano]] (840,000), [[Viña del Mar]]-[[Valparaíso]] (800,000), [[Antofagasta]] (245,000), [[Temuco]] (230,000).
*Terrain: Desert in north; fertile central valley; volcanoes and lakes toward the south, giving way to rugged and complex coastline; Andes Mountains on the eastern border.
*Climate: Arid in north, Mediterranean in the central portion, cool and damp in south.

Chile has experienced numerous massive earthquakes, being located within the "Ring of Fire": of the 46 known earthquakes estimated at magnitude >= 8.5, one-third have occurred in Chile, including the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which was measured at magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever recorded. On four occasions, two earthquakes with magnitude >= 8.5 have had the same Chilean epicenter. Furthermore, the strongest estimated earthquake (before seismographs were invented) also took place in Chile around 1800 BC, also estimated in the magnitude 9.5 range.

==People==
[[File:Chilean dance.jpg|left|140px]]
About 85% of Chile's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in greater Santiago. Most have [[Spain|Spanish]] ancestry. A small, yet influential number of [[Irish]] and [[English]] immigrants came to Chile during the Spanish Empire period. [[German]] immigration began in 1848 and lasted for 90 years; the southern provinces of [[Valdivia]], [[Llanquihue]], and [[Osorno]] show a strong German influence. Other significant historic immigrant groups are [[Italian]], [[Croatian]], [[Basque]], [[Palestinian]] and [[Peruvian]]. About 800,000 Native Americans, mostly of the [[Mapuche]] (Araucan) tribes, reside in the south-central area. The [[Aymara]] and [[Diaguita]] groups can be found mainly in Chile's northern desert valleys.

Since 2014 Chile has been experiencing [[open borders|mass]] [[immigration]] from [[Haiti]], [[Venezuela]], [[Colombia]] and [[Ecuador]], something that was unusual and has drastically changed the demographics of the country in the recent years (The immigrants went from 1.1% to 6.1% and is still growing)<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> a lot of them are [[Illegal immigration|illegally]] (See ''[[Colchane#Mass_immigration_problem|Colchane's Mass immigration problem]]'').

*Population (2019): 17.5 million.
*Annual population growth rate: 0.881%.
*Ethnic groups: Spanish-Native-American (mestizo), European, Native-American, Blacks (since 2014 with mass Haitian immigration).
*Religions: [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] 70%, [[Evangelical]] 15.1%, Jehovah's Witness 1.1%, other Christian 1%, other 4.6%, none 8.3%.
*Language: [[Spanish]].
*Education: Years compulsory—13. Attendance—3 million. Adult literacy rate—96%.
*Health: Infant mortality rate—8.9/1,000. Life expectancy—80 yrs. for men, 85 for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsuss.cl/ipsuss/analisis-y-estudios/esperanza-de-vida-al-nacer-en-chile-llega-a-85-anos-en-mujeres-y-80-anos/2017-09-26/154547.html|title=Esperanza de vida al nacer en Chile llega a 85 años en mujeres y 80 años en hombres|date=September 26, 2017|language=es|publisher=Ipsuss}}</ref>
*Work force (6.94 million); employed 6.45 million: Community, social and individual services—26%; industry—14.4%; commerce—17.6%; agriculture, forestry, and fishing—13.9%; construction—7.1%; financial services—7.5%; transportation and communication—8.0%; electricity, gas and water—0.5%; mining—1.2%.

==Government==
{{Main article|Chilean Constitution of 1980}}
[[File:Palacio de La Moneda.jpg|thumbnail|250px|[[La Moneda]] Palace, seat of Executive Branch.]]
[[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Chile's Constitution]] was approved in a September 1980 national plebiscite with 67% of the vote. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the [[1988 Chilean national plebiscite|1988 plebiscite]], the Constitution was reformed and another referendum was held over the reforms in which 91% voted in favor. In 2005 President Lagos made several reforms to the Constitution, even changing the Pinochet sign with his.
The President term is 4-year long, however is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms. The political system of Chile is an exacerbated [[Presidential system|Presidential]] one.
Chile has a bicameral Congress, which meets in the port city of [[Valparaíso]], about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago (since 1990). Deputies are elected every 4 years, and Senators serve 8-year terms.
There are currently 43 Senators and 155 Deputies.
The Chilean elections are judged free and fair.

Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nationwide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform replaced old proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.

The Central Bank in Chile is autonomous since 1981.

===Principal Government Officials===
{{See also|President of Chile}}
[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|300px|thumbnail|President [[José Antonio Kast|José Antonio Kast Rist]], a pro-life, anti illegal immigration conservative.]]
*[[President of Chile|President]]—[[José Antonio Kast]] since 11 March 2026.
*Minister of Interior—Claudio Alvarado
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Francisco Pérez Mackenna
*Ambassador to the United States—Andrés Ergas
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS)—José Miguel Castro
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Roberto Ampuero
*Ambassador to the OECD—Sebastián Schneinder
*Mayor of Santiago—[[Mario Desbordes]]

===Foreign Relations===
Since its return to democracy in 1990, Chile has been an active participant in the international political arena. Chile completed a 2-year non-permanent position on the UN Security Council in January 2005. [[Jose Miguel Insulza]], a Chilean national, was Secretary General of the Organization of American States from May 2005 to 2015. Chile is an active member of the UN family of agencies and participates in UN peacekeeping activities. Chile hosted the Defense Ministerial of the Americas in 2002 and the [[APEC]] summit and related meetings in 2004. Chile hosted the Community of Democracies ministerial in April 2005. An associate member of Mercosur and a full member of APEC, Chile has been an important actor on international economic issues and hemispheric free trade. The APEC 2019 was planed to be hosted on Chile and the COP25 but was cancelled due to the [[2019 Chilean State of Emergency|State of Emergency]]. President [[Donald Trump]] planed to sign an agreement with [[Xi Jinping]] to end the 'Trade War' in the APEC hosted in Chile, however it was canceled.

Chile was one of the four countries (along with [[Singapore]], [[Brunei]] and [[New Zealand]]) that started the [[TPP (treaty)|TPP-11]].

Chile signed many Free Trade Agreements since the 90s.

The Chilean Government has diplomatic relations with most countries. It settled its territorial disputes with Argentina during the 1990s except for a part in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and the Antarctic claims overlap between both countries, however the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow modification to the claims and they are ineffective.

In 2007 Peru demanded Chile in the International Court of Justice due to a maritime dispute. The case was closed in 2013 in which half of the disputed sea was ceded to Peru and half to Chile. In Chile it was seen as a lost case.

Chile and Bolivia have bad diplomatic relations since [[Evo Morales]], Bolivia's president, reintegrated the desire to reacquire territory Bolivia lost to Chile in 1879-83 [[War of the Pacific]] in his Foreign Affairs Policy and he demanded Chile in the Internation Couth of Justice, a case which Chile won. There is currently a case to determine if Silala is a river (Chile's position) or is a spring artificially modificated by Chile (Bolivia's position). The two countries maintain consular relations and are represented at the Consul General level but doesn't have embassies in each other.

===Political parties and coalitions===
The main coalitions are:
*[[Chile Vamos]] (Globalist center-right) ([[Sebastián Piñera|Piñera]] and [[Evelyn Matthei|Matthei]]'s coalition) composed by the [[Independent Democrat Union]], [[National Renewal]] and [[Evópoli]].
*Apruebo Dignidad (far-left) ([[Gabriel Boric|Boric]] and [[Daniel Jadue|Jadue]]'s coalition) Social Convergence, [[Democratic Revolution]], Green Ecologist Party, Commune Party, [[Communist]] Party and Social Green Regionalist Federation.
*Constituent Unity (Former "New Majority") (left) (former [[Michelle Bachelet|Bachelet]]'s coalition) composed by old leftist parties such as: the [[Socialist]] Party, Party for Democracy, the Radical Party, [[Christian Democracy]], Citizens Party and the Liberal Party .

Important parties without coalition:
*[[National Libertarian Party]] (Dissident right Party) ([[Johannes Kaiser]]'s party).
*[[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (right-wing) ([[José Antonio Kast]]'s party).
*[[Social Christian Party (Chile)|Social Christian Party]] (Dissident right Party) (Evangelical party).
*[[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]] (from center to center-right) ([[Franco Parisi]]'s party).
*[[Communist Party]] of Chile (Proletarian Action)/Patriotic Union (far-left) (Eduardo Artes' party).
*Progressive Homeland (left) (Marco Enríquez-Ominami's party).

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Chile (+Antarctica & Islands), administrative divisions - en - colored.png|230px|thumbnail|Map of the Chilean Regions.]]
{{Main article|Regions of Chile}}
Chile is divided in 16 Regions, 56 provinces and 346 communes. Chile is a Unitary Centralized State in which the law is the same in every place of the country.

'''List of the Regions and their Capital''':
*[[Arica & Parinacota Region|Arica & Parinacota]] - Capital: [[Arica]]
*[[Tarapacá Region|Tarapacá]] - Capital: [[Iquique]]
*[[Antofagasta Region|Antofagasta]] - Capital: [[Antofagasta]]
*[[Atacama Region|Atacama]] - Capital: [[Copiapó]]
*[[Coquimbo Region|Coquimbo]] - Capital: [[La Serena]]
*[[Valparaíso Region|Valparaíso]] - Capital: [[Valparaíso]]
*[[Metropolitan Region|Metropolitan]] - Capital: [[Santiago]]
*[[O'Higgins Region|O'Higgins]] - Capital: [[Rancagua]]
*[[Maule Region|Maule]] - Capital: [[Talca]]
*[[Ñuble Region|Ñuble]] - Capital: [[Chillán]]
*[[Biobío Region|Biobío]] - Capital: [[Concepción (Chile)|Concepción]]
*[[Araucanía Region|Araucanía]] - Capital: [[Temuco]]
*[[Los Ríos Region|Los Ríos]] - Capital: [[Valdivia]]
*[[Los Lagos Region|Los Lagos]] - Capital: [[Puerto Montt]]
*[[Aysén Region|Aysén]] - Capital: [[Coyhaique]]
*[[Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region|Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica]] - Capital: [[Punta Arenas]]

The most conservative commune of Chile is [[Colchane]] as well with Antártica, Lo Barnechea, Vitacura & Las Condes.

==Defense==
Chile's Armed Forces are subject to civilian control exercised by the President through the Minister of Defense. The President has the authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.

===Army===
The Chilean Army is 45,000 strong and is organized with an Army headquarters in Santiago, seven divisions throughout its territory, an Air Brigade in Rancagua, and a Special Forces Command in Colina. The Chilean Army is one of the most professional and technologically advanced armies in Latin America.

===Navy===
The Navy has 23,000-person, including 2,500 Marines. Of the fleet of 29 surface vessels, only eight are operational major combatants (frigates). Those ships are based in [[Valparaíso]]. The Navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no Navy fighter or bomber aircraft. The Navy also operates four submarines based in [[Talcahuano]].

===Air Force (FACH)===
The FACH is a force of 12,500. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on [[Villa Las Estrellas]], [[King George Island]], [[Antarctica]]. The FACH was created in 1930 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]].

===Carabineros===
Carabineros de Chile is the national police force of 30,000 men and women who are responsible for law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control, and counter-terrorism throughout Chile. The Carabineros were created in 1927 by Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]]. Carabineros is the best police in Latin America.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/2013/09/22/1508838-chile-y-colombia-los-paises-la-policia-mas-confiable/|title=Chile y Colombia, los países con la policía más confiable|date=September 22, 2013|publisher=Infobae|language=es}}</ref>

==Economy==
[[File:GNP-CHILE.jpg|thumbnail|left|Chile's Take off thanks to Pinochet economic reforms.]]
[[File:Gran Torre Santiago (39693576311).jpg|thumbnail|200px|Gran Torre Santiago, in the financial district of the city.]]
[[File:Chuqui001.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Chuquicamata Copper mine, the largest open pit copper mine in the world.]]
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 3.3% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.1%. Real GDP growth reached 6.3% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America. In May 2010 Chile signed the OECD Convention, becoming the first South American country to join the OECD.

*GDP (official exchange rate): $150.4 billion. (GDP (purchasing power parity):$335.4 billion (2013 est.))
*Annual real growth rate: -1.5%.
*Per capita GDP (purchasing power parity): $27,058 (GDP - per capita (PPP) 2019 est.)
*Forestry, agriculture, and fisheries (6% of GDP): Products—fruits, wheat, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions, beans, livestock, fish.
*Commerce (8% of GDP): Sales, restaurants, hotels.
*Manufacturing (17% of GDP): Types—mineral refining, metal manufacturing, food processing, fish processing, paper and wood products, finished textiles.
*Electricity, gas, and water: 3% of GDP.
*Transportation and communication: 7% of GDP.
*Construction: 8% of GDP.
*Financial services (12% of GDP): Insurance, leasing, consulting.
*Mining (13% of GDP): Copper, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, and molybdenum.
*Trade: Exports--$57.61 billion: copper, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and wood products. Major markets—U.S., Japan, China, Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Mexico. Imports--$40.91 billion: fuels, heavy industrial machinery, motor vehicles, electrical machinery, plastic. Major suppliers—U.S., China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea. (GDP (official exchange rate):$281.7 billion (2013 est.))

Chile has pursued generally sound economic policies for nearly three decades. The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by [[negotiating]] in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
[[File:José Piñera Echenique.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[José Piñera]] creator of the Individual capitalization pension system.]]
[[File:Hernan Buchi 2011.jpg|200px|thumbnail|[[Hernán Büchi]], economist during the Military Government that re-implemented liberal economic policies.]]
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.

Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile's consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a family of four's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 18% by 2004.

Chile's independent Central Bank pursues an inflation target of between 2% and 4%. Inflation has not exceeded 5% since 1998. Chile registered an inflation rate of 3.2% in 2006. The Chilean peso's rapid appreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent years has helped dampen inflation. Most wage settlements and loans are indexed, reducing inflation's volatility. Under the compulsory private pension system, most formal sector employees pay 10% of their salaries into privately managed funds.

[[File:Countries with a private pension system.jpg|thumbnail|Countries that applied Chile's private pension system.]]
Total foreign direct investment (FDI) was only $3.4 billion in 2006, up 52% from a poor performance in 2005. However, 80% of FDI continues to go to only four sectors: electricity, gas, water and mining. Much of the jump in FDI in 2006 was also the result of acquisitions and mergers and has done little to create new employment in Chile. The Chilean Government has formed a Council on Innovation and Competition, which is tasked with identifying new sectors and industries to promote. It is hoped that this, combined with some tax reforms to encourage domestic and foreign investment in research and development, will bring in additional FDI and to new parts of the economy. As of 2006, Chile invested only 0.6% of its annual GDP in research and development (R&D). Even then, two-thirds of that was government spending. The fact that domestic and foreign companies spend almost nothing on R&D does not bode well for the Government of Chile's efforts to develop innovative, knowledge-based sectors. Additionally, on January 8, 2007, Chile was placed on the U.S. Trade Representative's Priority Watch List due to its poor record on protecting intellectual property rights. Chile is only the second U.S. FTA partner ever to be placed on the Priority Watch List. Chile has a poor and deteriorating record of protecting copyrighted music, films, and software. Combined with this is its institutional structure allowing local companies to produce and market pharmaceutical generics that violate existing patents. Beyond its general economic and political stability, the government also has encouraged the use of Chile as an "investment platform" for multinational corporations planning to operate in the region, but this will have limited value given the developing business climate in Chile itself. Chile's approach to foreign direct investment is codified in the country's Foreign Investment Law, which gives foreign investors the same treatment as Chileans. Registration is simple and transparent, and foreign investors are guaranteed access to the official foreign exchange market to repatriate their profits and capital. While Chile and the EU have signed a double taxation treaty, no such agreement exists between the U.S. and Chile.

Mining was temporarily curtailed following an accident in which 33 miners were trapped after a cave-in at the San Jose mine<ref>http://www.minandes.com/s/RoadtoProduction.asp</ref> near Copiapo on August 5, 2010. A rescue attempt - bolstered by national pride at getting the men out alive - ended 67 days later on October 13 as the last of the men were pulled out to safety.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/12/rescued-chilean-miner-returns-surface/</ref><ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7961923/Chilean-miners-trapped-in-San-Jose-mine.html</ref>

===Foreign Trade===
[[File:Commercial Treaties Chile 2012.jpg|thumb|295px|Commercial Treaties, 2012.]]
2006 was a record year for Chilean trade. Total trade registered a 31% increase over 2005. During 2006, exports of goods and services totaled U.S. $58 billion, an increase of 41%. This figure was somewhat distorted by the skyrocketing price of copper. In 2006, copper exports reached a historical high of U.S. $33.3 billion. Imports totaled U.S. $35 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. Chile thus recorded a positive trade balance of U.S. $23 billion in 2006.

The main destinations for Chilean exports were the Americas (U.S. $39 billion), Asia (U.S. $27.8 billion) and Europe (U.S. $22.2 billion). Seen as shares of Chile's export markets, 42% of exports went to the Americas, 30% to Asia and 24% to Europe. Within Chile's diversified network of trade relationships, its most important partner remained the United States. Total trade with the U.S. was U.S. $14.8 billion in 2006. Since the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement went into effect on January 1, 2004, U.S.-Chilean trade has increased by 154%. Internal Government of Chile figures show that even when factoring out inflation and the recent high price of copper, bilateral trade between the U.S. and Chile has grown over 60% since then.

Total trade with Europe also grew in 2006, expanding by 42%. The Netherlands and Italy were Chile's main European trading partners. Total trade with Asia also grew significantly at nearly 31%. Trade with Korea and Japan grew significantly, but China remained Chile's most important trading partner in Asia. Chile's total trade with China reached U.S. $8.8 billion in 2006, representing nearly 66% of the value of its trade relationship with Asia.

The growth of exports in 2006 was due mainly to a strong increase in sales to the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan. These three markets alone accounted for an additional U.S. $5.5 billion worth of Chilean exports. Chilean exports to the United States totaled U.S. $9.3 billion, representing a 37.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $6.7 billion). Exports to the European Union were U.S. $15.4 billion, a 63.7% increase compared to 2005 (U.S. $9.4 billion). Exports to Asia increased from U.S. $15.2 billion in 2005 to U.S. $19.7 billion in 2006, a 29.9% increase.

During 2006, Chile imported U.S. $26 billion from the Americas, representing 54% of total imports, followed by Asia at 22%, and Europe at 16%. Mercosur members were the main suppliers of imports to Chile at U.S. $9.1 billion, followed by the United States with U.S. $5.5 billion and the European Union with U.S. $5.2 billion. From Asia, China was the most important exporter to Chile, with goods valued at U.S. $3.6 billion. Year-on-year growth in imports was especially strong from a number of countries—Ecuador (123.9%), Thailand (72.1%), Korea (52.6%), and China (36.9%).

Chile's overall trade profile has traditionally been dependent upon copper exports. The state-owned firm CODELCO is the world's largest copper-producing company, with recorded copper reserves of 200 years. Chile has made an effort to expand nontraditional exports. The most important non-mineral exports are forestry and wood products, fresh fruit and processed food, fishmeal and seafood, and wine.

Successive Chilean governments have actively pursued trade-liberalizing agreements. During the 1990s, Chile signed FTAs with Canada, Mexico, and Central America. Chile also concluded preferential trade agreements with Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. An association agreement with Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—went into effect in October 1996. Continuing its export-oriented development strategy, Chile completed landmark free trade agreements in 2002 with the European Union and South Korea. Chile, as a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, is seeking to boost commercial ties to Asian markets. To that end, it has signed trade agreements in recent years with New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, and most recently Japan. In 2007, Chile plans to begin negotiations with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.

After two years of negotiations, the United States and Chile signed an agreement in June 2003 that will lead to completely duty-free bilateral trade within 12 years. The U.S.-Chile FTA entered into force January 1, 2004 following approval by the U.S. and Chilean congresses. The bilateral FTA has inaugurated greatly expanded U.S.-Chilean trade ties, with total bilateral trade jumping by 154% during the FTA's first three years.

Chile unilaterally lowered its across-the-board import tariff for all countries with which it does not have a trade agreement to 6% in 2003. Higher effective tariffs are charged only on imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar as a result of a system of import price bands. The price bands were ruled inconsistent with Chile's World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations in 2002, and the government has introduced legislation to modify them. Under the terms of the U.S.-Chile FTA, the price bands will be completely phased out for U.S. imports of wheat, wheat flour, and sugar within 12 years.

Chile is a strong proponent of pressing ahead on negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is active in the WTO's Doha round of negotiations, principally through its membership in the G-20 and Cairns Group.

===Finance===
Chile's financial sector has grown quickly in recent years, with a banking reform law approved in 1997 that broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001, and there is further pending legislation proposing further liberalization. Over the last ten years, Chileans have enjoyed the introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has also been accompanied by an increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $70 billion at the end of 2006, has been an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S&P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways for Chilean firms to raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stocks on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Nearly all of the funds raised through these means go to finance domestic Chilean investment. The government is required by law to run a fiscal surplus of at least 1% of GDP. In 2006, the Government of Chile ran a surplus of $11.3 billion, equal to almost 8% of GDP. The Government of Chile continues to pay down its foreign debt, with public debt only 3.9% of GDP at the end of 2006.

==History==
===Discovery and Hispanic period===
[[File:Pedro de Valdivia.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Pedro de Valdivia]], founder of several cities and conqueror of Chile.]]
[[File:Ohiggins.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Bernardo O'Higgins]], one of the founding fathers of Chile.]]
About 10,000 years ago, migrating Indians settled in fertile valleys and along the coast of what is now Chile. The Incas briefly extended their empire into what is now northern Chile, but the area's barrenness prevented extensive settlement. The first European to see Chilean land was [[Ferdinand Magellan]] when he discovered the [[Strait of Magellan]] in 1520, however the first one to arrive in Chile were [[Diego de Almagro]] and his band of Spanish conquistadors, who came from Peru seeking gold in 1535. The Spanish encountered hundreds of thousands of Indians from various cultures in the area that modern Chile now occupies. These cultures supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by [[Pedro de Valdivia]], one of [[Francisco Pizarro]]'s lieutenants, who founded the city of [[Santiago]] on February 12, 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the extensive gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chile's central valley, and Chile became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

===19th Century, Independence, State Consolidation and Wars with neightbours===
[[File:Pedro Subercaseaux Jura de la Independencia Chile.jpg|thumb|300px|Fray Pedro Subercaseaux, Jura de la Independencia de Chile.]]
[[File:Diego Portales-2.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Diego Portales]] author of the 1833 Constitution which prioritized order over democracy.]]
[[File:Arturo Prat Chacón.jpg|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Arturo Prat|Arturo Prat Chacón]], the maximum naval hero of the Chilean Nation.]]
[[File:Sinking of the Esmeralda during the battle of Iquique.jpg|300px|thumbnail|Sinking of the Esmeralda during the [[battle of Iquique|naval battle of Iquique]].]]
The drive for independence from Spain was precipitated by usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's brother Joseph in 1808. A national [[junta]] in the name of Ferdinand—heir to the deposed king—was formed on September 18, 1810. The junta proclaimed Chile an autonomous republic within the Spanish monarchy. A movement for total independence which [[José Miguel Carrera]] started soon won a wide following. After the [[Battle of Rancagua]], a Spanish attempt to reimpose arbitrary rule started, during what was called the "Reconquista" led to a prolonged struggle.

Intermittent warfare continued until 1817, when an army led by [[Bernardo O'Higgins]], Chile's most renowned patriot, and [[José de San Martín]], hero of Argentine independence, crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the royalists. On February 12, 1818, Chile was proclaimed an independent republic under O'Higgins' leadership.

During the Ramón Freire Presidency in 1826 the last royalist bastion was defeated, the [[Chiloé]] archipelago and the Tantauco Treaty was signed between Chile and Spain.

Between 1823 and 1829 there was a period of Constitutional Attempts, and there were four of them.

The political revolt brought little social change, however, and 19th century Chilean society preserved the essence of the stratified colonial social structure, which was greatly influenced by family politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the 1833 Constitution made by [[Diego Portales]]. After the [[Civil War]] of 1829–30, a strong presidency emerged, but wealthy landowners remained extremely powerful.

Between 1836 and 1839, Chile fought a [[War against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation]] which Chile won and separated Peru and Bolivia again.

In 1865 and 1866 Chile, Peru and Ecuador fought against Spain in the [[Chincha Islands War]], Chile and it's allies won.

[[Image:Easter_island_statues.jpg|thumb|right|On September 9, 1888 the Council of Rapanui Chiefs asked the Chilean Navy Captain, Policarpo Toro, to accept the sovereignty of [[Easter Island]] without giving up their chieftaincy titles, the ownership of their lands, the validity of their culture and traditions and on equal terms. This known as the "Agreement of Wills".]]
Toward the end of the 19th century, the government in Santiago consolidated its position in the south by founding the [[Fort Bulnes]] in 1843 (near the current city of [[Punta Arenas]] in the [[Strait of Magellan]]) and incorporating the zone of the south of the [[Biobío river]] in a process called the [[Pacification of the Araucanía]], the government plan was to building roads, schools, and public infrastructure where the [[Mapuche]] Indians live, they were incorporated as citizens, however the rebel Mapuches were crushed.

There was also a process of Colonization in which the Government gave [[German]] [[settlers]] lands in [[Valdivia]] and the [[Llanquihue Lake]] where they founded several towns and cities. To this day the German influence can be noted in cities like Valdivia, [[Puerto Varas]], [[Frutillar]], [[Puerto Octay]], [[Nueva Braunau]], Ensenada, [[Puerto Montt]] and [[Osorno]].

In 1881, Chile signed a treaty with Argentina confirming Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan but also loosing its colonial rights over Eastern Patagonia. As a result of the [[War of the Pacific]] with Peru and Bolivia (1879–83), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence. After a [[Civil war]] in 1891 in which President [[José Manuel Balmaceda]] committed suicide, a parliamentary democracy was established, but degenerated into a system protecting the interests of the ruling oligarchy.
In 1888 Chile incorporated [[Easter Island]] to the national territory.

===20th Century===
[[File:Chilean Antarctic Territory.jpg|175px|thumbnail|The [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].]]
By the 1920s, the emerging middle and working classes were powerful enough to elect a reformist president, whose program was frustrated by a conservative congress. In the 1920s, Marxist groups with strong popular support arose.
Continuing political and economic instability resulted with the rule of the quasidictatorial Gen. [[Carlos Ibáñez del Campo]] (1924–32).
In June there was a Coup and between that month and September 1932 there was an attempt to establish a [[Socialist]] Republic that failed.
When constitutional rule was restored later that year, a strong middle-class party, the Radicals, emerged. It became the key force in coalition governments for the next 20 years. During the period of Radical Party dominance (1932–52), the state increased its role in the economy.
In 1940 Chile started to claim officially the [[Chilean Antarctic Territory]].

In 1962 the "right-wing" President [[Jorge Alessandri]] started the agrarian reform in a small portion, that expropriated part of big land properties. This reform was deepened by the next two governments.

The 1964 presidential election of [[Christian Democrat]] [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]] by an absolute majority initiated a period of major reform. Under the slogan "Revolution in Liberty," the Frei administration embarked on far-reaching social and economic programs, particularly in education, housing, and agrarian reform, including rural unionization of agricultural workers. By 1967, however, Frei encountered increasing opposition from leftists, who charged that his reforms were inadequate, and from conservatives, who found them excessive. At the end of his term, Frei had accomplished many noteworthy objectives, but he had not fully achieved his party's ambitious goals.

He also made the "Chileanization of the copper" which introduced the State into the copper industry.
====Unidad Popular Marxist Regime (1970-1973)====
{{Main article|Salvador Allende}}
[[File:Salvador Allende & Fidel Castro.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Salvador Allende and [[Fidel Castro]] in 1971.]]
In 1970, Senator [[Salvador Allende]], a [[Marxist]] and member of Chile's Socialist Party, who headed the "Popular Unity" (UP) coalition of socialists, communists, radicals, and dissident Christian Democrats (the lasts ones supported him with the condition of respecting the laws and private property), won a plurality of votes in a three-way contest and was named president by the Chilean Congress. His program included the nationalization of private industries and banks, massive land expropriation, and collectivization, implementation of a Marxist education system, repartition of food collectively (with a limit of one stock per family). Allende's program also included the nationalization of U.S. interests in Chile's major copper mines.

[[Fidel Castro]] visited Chile in 1971 where he stayed for months.
Allende said in the same year "The major role of a journalist is not to server the truth, but to server the revolution" and in 1972 "I'm the President of the Unidad Popular, but I'm not the president of all Chileans".

Elected with only 36% of the vote and by a plurality of only 36,000 votes, Allende never enjoyed majority support in the Chilean Congress or broad popular support. Domestic production declined; severe shortages of consumer goods, food, and manufactured products were widespread; and inflation reached 1,000% per annum. Mass demonstrations, recurring strikes, violence by both government supporters and opponents, and widespread rural unrest ensued in response to the general deterioration of the economy.

The 22th of August 1973 the Chamber of Deputies called for a military intervention since the Allende's Government was Unconstitutional for not respecting basic laws like [[private property]].<ref>[https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/2013/08/23/40-anos-del-acuerdo-de-la-camara-que-declaro-la-ilegitimidad-del-gobierno-de-allende/ 40 años del acuerdo de la Cámara que declaró la ilegitimidad del Gobierno de Allende]</ref> By the time the Christian Democrats stopped supporting Allende and started to support an intervention.

[[Carlos Altamirano]], General Secretary of the Socialist Party in July 1973 called to "crush the opposition" and to "not negotiate with the enemies of Chile"<ref>https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304093123/rev91_documento.pdf</ref> he also called for a violent Marxist revolution in 1968.

====Military Government (1973-1990)====
{{Main article|Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)}}
[[File:Presidente Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990).jpg|300px|thumbnail|President and General [[Augusto Pinochet|Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], President of Chile (1973-1990), fighter against [[Marxism]], father of Chile's development, and restorer of the order and the institutions.]]
[[File:Jaime Guzmán2.png|150px|thumbnail|left|[[Jaime Guzmán]] founder of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] party, writer of part of the [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|1980 Constitution]] and its complementary laws, including the binomial system.]]
A military pronouncement overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace, Allende reportedly committed suicide. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime in particular were marked by an irregular war against [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile|leftist terrorists]] who wanted a violent Marxist revolution. A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] was approved by a plebiscite on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term. The Constitution writing had an important participation of [[Jaime Guzmán]] who also founded the [[Independent Democrat Union]].

The Armed Forces had to assume the leadership of the country, aware that this task did not mean a mere restoration of the broken institutionality, since the systematic destruction to which the Homeland had been subjected had deeply undermined coexistence and national development; therefore, it was imperative to go further and create a modern, profound system of the country, with a clear social content and democratic character. From the structuring of the stages and objectives of the Government and the determination of the principles that would govern the project, the Armed Forces marked with height, coherence and consequence the national reality and the itinerary designed.

This great work was not exempt from interferences, demands and sacrifices, since at the beginning it was necessary to overcome the disastrous consequences of the previous administrations and the prevailing polarization. Subsequently, it was necessary to face defamation, the economic crises in the neighborhood, and the wily terrorist and subversive actions. These, together or in isolation, ([[U.S. Senator]] [[Edward Kennedy|Edward "Ted" Kennedy]] made the "[[Kennedy Amendment]]" that blocked any selling of weapons to Chile, and also the U.S. imposed a blockade on fruit exports) in could have led any government to political, economic and social collapse. However, the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, based on efficiency, patriotism and joint effort, with a more than important part of society, managed to overcome the obstacles and deliver a better future for all Chileans.

[[File:Military men victims of Left Wing Terrorism in Chile.jpg|350px|thumbnail|Military men victims of [[Left Wing Terrorism in Chile]].]]

There is an evident reality that shows that important sectors of the political spectrum not only tried gradually and systematically to delegitimize the Military Government, but even, once they determined the impossibility of achieving their goals, they used means and tools contrary to peaceful coexistence, even seeking its destabilization, accepting, encouraging or participating in Chilean and foreign extremist organizations contrary to the idiosyncrasy and national identity.
[[File:President Pinochet 1988 ("Sí" Campaing).jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Pinochet in a photo for the 'Sí' Campaign in 1988.]]
The successful model and the change of life generated in Chileans by the Government of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, in general, has not been accepted or recognized at the national and international level. Apparently, this is due to the fact that it would be pernicious for national coexistence that a government defined as authoritarian has been so successful and profound. Undoubtedly, this is a biased point of view, since this line of argument tends to homologate our reality with caudillisms or military irruptions that lacked ethical imperatives and national needs and that did occur systematically or cyclically in other nations.

The deed of September 11, 1973 and the foundational work of the Military Government, apart from signifying for the Armed Forces and the Carabineros and, particularly, for the Army, a feeling of honor and pride that must be preserved, is an event that must necessarily be included in national and universal history in all its truth and dimension.
[[File:Pinochet y la Junta Militar de Gobierno.jpg|250|thumbnail|The Government Junta of Chile in 1985.]]
In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. In contrast to its authoritarian political rule, the military government pursued decidedly [[laissez-faire]] economic policies.

[[Milton Friedman]] said,
* "... the really extraordinary thing about the Chilean case was that a military government followed the opposite of military policies. The military is distinguished from the ordinary economy by the fact that it's a top-down organization. The general tells the colonel, the colonel tells the captain, and so on down, whereas a market is a bottom-up organization. The customer goes into the store and tells the retailer what he wants; the retailer sends it back up the line to the manufacturer and so on. So the basic organizational principles in the military are almost the opposite of the basic organizational principles of a free market and a free society. And the really remarkable thing about Chile is that the military adopted the free-market arrangements instead of the military arrangements."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10 Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman on PBS]</ref>

During its 17 years in power, Chile moved away from economic statism toward a largely free market economy that fostered an increase in domestic and foreign private investment. The complete political liberalization of the country came in 1988, when the Constitution established that Chilean citizens would ratify or not the continuity of the military government through a plebiscite, which finally took place on October 5. On that day, the triumph of the "No" option, which obtained 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% for the "Yes" option. General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president. Chileans voted for elections to choose a new president in 1989 and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress. The Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution on the same year.

The "No" Campaign and the Concertación were supported by [[George Soros]]<ref>[https://www.emol.com/noticias/Economia/2015/09/27/751793/El-multimillonario-que-apoyo-al-NO.html Soros helped the "No" campaign]</ref> and the organization "[[National Endowment for Democracy]]" originated from the U.S. Congress resolution H.R. 2915, helped the center-left with propaganda on television, newspapers, radio and magazines.

===Democratic governments===
[[File:Izamiento de la Gran Bandera Nacional - Presidentes de Chile.jpg|275px|thumbnail|The five [[President of Chile|Chilean Presidents]] between the years 1990 and 2022 (two of them were elected twice in non-consecutive terms).]]
On December 14, 1989, [[Christian Democrat]] [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the Concertación, was elected president. In a ceremony held in the Congress building in Valparaíso, Pinochet handed over the presidency to the new constitutional President.

Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994 and was succeeded by another Christian Democrat, [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]] (son of the previous President), leading the same coalition, for a 6-year term. Ricardo Lagos Escobar of the Socialist Party and the Party for Democracy led the Concertación to a narrower victory in 2000 presidential elections.

During the ''Concertación'' Governments, Military personnel who fought terrorism were jailed unfairly using an old judicial system and without proof, these can be called the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisioners]] that were destined to the [[Punta Peuco Jail]]. Also during these Governments the private pension system was reformed to benefit the companies that manage pension funds by making the users assume the economic losses and increased the retirement age by approximately 20 years, which directly lowered pensions. This changes are the main factor of the problems in the system that can be reversed.

In September 2005, President [[Ricardo Lagos]] signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.

On January 15, 2006 [[Michelle Bachelet|Michelle Bachelet Jeria]] (center-left) won the elections against businessman [[Sebastián Piñera]] (center-right) and she took office on March 11, 2006, becoming the first woman to become President of Chile.
In 2009 Sebastián Piñera Echenique won the presidency, beign the first center-right candidate to do so after the Pinochet regime. In 2013 Bachelet won the office again and Piñera in 2017. Presidents in Chile can't have consecutive two terms, they need to wait another election.

Chile's congressional elections were governed by a unique binomial system made by [[Jaime Guzmán]] until 2018 that rewarded coalition slates. Each coalition could run two candidates for the two Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district. Historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) splat most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 did the winning coalition gain both seats.

Chile was leaded by President [[Sebastián Piñera]] between 2018 and 2022 with the coalition of parties called [[Chile Vamos]]. The coalition was center-right and took [[progressive]] stands on some moral issues like legalizing [[same sex "marriage"]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2018/11/29/chile-enacts-landmark-gender-identity-law/|title=Chile enacts landmark gender identity law|date=November 29, 2018|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref>

{{main article|2019 Chilean State of Emergency}}
In 2019 Leftist mobs began to burn private and public property (the main public damage were 20 metro stations that were burned and 77 damaged in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metro.cl/noticias/balance-danos-19-de-octubre-2019|title=Balance daños 19 de octubre 2019|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Metro de Santiago}}</ref> starting a political crisis that has on its objectives to make the state bigger, raise taxes, and eliminate the individual capitalization system, as well as a change of the Constitution. This groups have been supported by the international left, the [[Sao Paulo Forum]], the [[Puebla Group]] and [[Nicolás Maduro]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2019/10/20/nicolas-maduro-respondio-las-acusaciones-de-alentar-las-protestas-en-ecuador-y-chile-foro-de-sao-paulo-estamos-cumpliendo-el-plan-ustedes-me-entienden/|title=Nicolás Maduro habló sobre las acusaciones de alentar las protestas en Ecuador y Chile: "Foro de San Pablo, estamos cumpliendo el plan, ustedes me entienden..."|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=Infobae}}</ref> The period is called ''Estallido social'' by the left. [[Diosdado Cabello]], a government official from Venezuela at that time said "The [[Bolivarian]] breeze sweeping the region will become a hurricane"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-diosdado-cabello-amenaza-brisa-bolivariana-recorre-region-convertira-huracan-201910201834_noticia.html|title=Diosdado Cabello amenaza: "La brisa bolivariana que recorre la región se convertirá en huracán"|language=es|date=October 20, 2019|publisher=ABC Internacional}}</ref>

On the 15th of November 2019 the Congress approved to make a referendum on the Constitution, ceding to the radical left.

The referendum was made on October 25, 2020, and the option to change the Constitution won. Several rallies were made for the 'Rejection' (''Rechazo'') option by patriots with a high number of people attending and in which [[Sebastián Izquierdo]] played an important role.

There was a previous proposal of a new Constitution that was a draft from the socialist Michelle Bachelet from the last weeks of her administration and both administrations (Piñera and Bachelet) were committed to follow the globalist [[2030 Agenda]] from the United Nations. The [[Constitutional Convention (Chile)|Constitutional Convention]] which redacted the text made a progressive and globalist proposal, the conservative [[Teresa Marinovic]] was elected to the Convention auditing the far-left institution.

In the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Presidential Election]], the final front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Gabriel Boric]]. Kast won the first round with a 27.91% of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and Boric obtained 25.82% (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13% (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87% (4,620,890 votes) from Boric. Boric got electoed at the age of 35, a former student radical "activist," a self-described [[communist]].<ref name=at22nov21>Monica Showalter, [https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/stunning_good_news_from_chile__and_not_just_for_them_but_for_us.html Stunning good news from Chile...], American Thinker, November 22, 2021</ref>

On September 4, 2022, the second referendum took place in which the 'Rejection' option won with 61.86% of the votes against 38.14% of the 'Approve' option. The main difference with the first election was that the vote was mandatory in the second one and not the first one, having bigger participation of older generations which tend to vote conservative. After the triumph of the 'Rechazo', Gabriel Boric changed the cabinet of ministers of his government.

In 2023 the corrupt political system started a new process to change the Constitution, this time with more control of the establishment parties, without asking on a referendum if the citizens of Chile wanted a new process (they "assumed" that the 2020 referendum result is permanent, even that that process ended with the 2022 referendum). On May 7 the [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|election to elect the counselors of the Constitutional Council]] was held and a massive conservative victory was obtained, the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] won the majority as well as a record "Nulo" (Voluntary refusal to choose a candidate by the citizenry in a mandatory election) votes on 3rd place.

On December 17, 2023 a new referendum was held over the new written text, the Republican Party directive supported the change of the Chilean Constitution, many members of the party opposed this stance change of the party. The Globalist "center-right" coalition, [[Chile Vamos]] and centrist parties such as "Democrats" and "Yellows" (which means "being too moderated") supported the "In Favor" option as well. Chilean Patriots supported the "Against" option as well as the most of the left-wing. The "Against" Option obtained 55.76% of the votes while the "In Favor" Option obtained 44.24%. The dissident right was victorious over the establishment "right-wing" parties who supported the new proposed text.

On June 7, 2024 [[Johannes Kaiser]] founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-globalist, paleo-libertarian party.

José Antonio Kast, a Catholic pro-life conservative who promised to protect Chile against illegal immigration won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Sports==
[[Association Football|Football]] is the most popular sport by far. Chile hosted the 1962 [[World Cup]], notable for the "Battle of Santiago" (a group stage match between host Chile and Italy, which due to the on-pitch action - police had to be called no fewer than four times to gain control between squads - is considered among the poorest displays of sportsmanship in sports history, and eventually led to development of yellow and red cards).

However, the national sport is the Rodeo.

Chile won the Copa América 2015 and Copa América Centenario 2016, obtaining its first two Football titles in the national selection.

The Chilean mountains have important ski centers like Valle Nevado.

The [[Arica]] city in the north has the best waves of the country, something ideal for surfing.

The Chilean [[Patagonia]] is a famous place for trekking and out-door sports, The Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) and many National Parks (including the [[National Park Torres del Paine|Torres del Paine]] one) are visited by people all over the world.

==Culture==
[[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Nicanor Parra]] and [[Pablo Neruda]] are famous Chilean poets. Chillán in the Ñuble Region is a notorious cultural city of Chile.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== See also ==
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]
*[[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]
*[[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina]]
*[[Gallery of Chilean Heroes]]
*[[La Moneda]]
*[[Easter Island]]
*[[Military Government (Chile)]]
*[[Colchane]], Chilean most conservative town
*[[Chilean Antarctic Territory]]
*[[War of the Pacific]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1981.htm]}}}.
|}

{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

José Antonio Kast

2026-03-23T12:30:55Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Political career */

{{Officeholder
|name=José Antonio Kast
|image=President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg
|offices=
|offices={{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Presidential Standard of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]][[President of Chile]]
|terms=11 March 2026 – present
|preceded=[[Gabriel Boric]]
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:LOGO PAR REPUBLICANO otro.png|35px|frameless|center]]President of the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party of Chile]]
|terms=10 June 2019 – 21 November 2021
|preceded= ''Creation of the Party''
|succeeded= Rojo Edwards
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Coat of arms of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]]Member of the Chamber of Deputies of [[Chile]], District 24 ([[Santiago]])
|terms=11 March 2014 – 11 March 2018
|preceded=María Angélica Cristi Marfil
|succeeded=''Disolution of the District''
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:UDI 2017.svg|35px|frameless|center]]Secretary-General of the [[Independent Democrat Union]]
|terms=30 March 2012 – 10 May 2014
|preceded=Victor Pérez Varela
|succeeded=Javier Macaya Danús
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, District 30 (Santiago)
|terms=11 March 2002 – 11 March 2014
|preceded=Pablo Longueira Montes
|succeeded=Jaime Bellolio Avaria
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=City Councilman of Buin
|terms=1996–2000
|preceded=-
|succeeded=-
}}
|religion=[[Catholic]] (Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement)
|party=Independent (2016-2019, since 2026) [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (2019-2026) [[Independent Democrat Union]] (1996-2016)
|spouse=María Pía Adriasola
|children=9
}}
'''José Antonio Kast Rist''' (b. [[Santiago]], January 18, 1966) is the right-wing [[President of Chile|president]] of [[Chile]], Catholic, father of nine with Pía Adriasola, has a pro-life and conservative stance. He is also against illegal immigration built defenses at the border during his presidency. Founder of the Chilean [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]], he previously served as councilman and deputy.

== Political career ==
In 2017 he ran for president as a right-wing alternative to the [[establishment]] candidate [[Sebastián Piñera]] obtaining 7.93 % of the votes (4th place, 523,375 votes). In the second round, he supported Piñera to avoid another government of the Left. In 2018 he founded the [[Republican Action Movement]], in 2019 the Chilean [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] and the think tank Republican Ideas.

In [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 he ran for president]] again being the right-wing candidate of the election and being the alternative from the center-right's Sebastián Sichel obtaining the first majority in first round with a 27.91 % of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and [[Gabriel Boric]] obtained 25.82 % (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13 % (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87 % (4,620,890 votes) from Boric.

José Antonio Kast has been falsely labeled as "far-right" by the media and the Left.<ref>Multiple references:
*{{cite web |title=Far right gains momentum in Chile's presidential elections |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/gains-momentum-chiles-presidential-elections-171216100010489.html |publisher=Aljazeera |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=16 December 2019}}
*{{cite web |title=Far-Right Party Of José Antonio Kast Frightens Chilean Rightwing |url=https://www.chiletoday.cl/far-right-party-of-jose-antonio-kast-frightens-chilean-rightwing/ |publisher=Chile Today |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=18 June 2019}}
*{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast, el Bolsonaro chileno que lidera las encuestas presidenciales|date=21 January 2019|publisher=Público|language=es|url=https://www.publico.es/internacional/chile-jose-antonio-kast-bolsonaro-chileno-lidera-encuestas-presidenciales.html}}
*{{cite web|url=https://www.telesurtv.net/news/extrema-derecha-presidencia-chile-20190611-0038.html|title=Extrema derecha aspira a presidencia de Chile ante inscripción de nuevo partido|published=TeleSur|date=12 June 2019|language=es}}
*{{cite web|url=https://identidades.com.ar/el-candidato-a-presidente-de-chile-jose-antonio-kast-y-su-relacion-con-los-judios-e-israel/|title=El candidato a presidente de Chile José Antonio Kast y su relación con los judíos e Israel|date=10 December 2021|language=es}}
</ref>

In 2023 he started supporting the change of [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] since [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|his party won a significant minority]] in the institution illegitimatelly created to create a new Constitution back in May 2023.<ref>[https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/leftist-takeover-south-america-chilean-conservative-kast-throws/ Leftist Takeover of South America: Chilean Conservative Kast Throws in with Globalists]</ref> This was the reason why [[Johannes Kaiser]] ended up leaving the party to form his own with other former memebers of the Republican Party.

José Antonio Kast won the [[Chile presidential election, 2025|presidential election in December 2025]] defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Views==
[[File:José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|thumbnail|left|150px|Kast in 2010.]]
He is [[pro-life]] and defends a smaller state with fewer taxes.<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast Proposals |url=https://www.servel.cl/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Programa_Jose_Antonio_Kast_Rist.pdf|language=es}}</ref> He is also against the [[Gender ideology]], he is pro-family, [[Nationalism|pronation]], and he is strongly [[Christian]]. Today he is the most important conservative politician of Chile, mostly because he has been shown as an alternative to the center-right coalition "Chile Vamos", however a lot of the members of his new party come from that coalition, and he has a lot of friends there, also he was member of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] for 20 years, one of the main parties of the coalition. JAK has criticized the immigration policies of the [[Michelle Bachelet]] government (2014-2018) which is considered to be a chaos since,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2017/09/14/presidential-candidate-jose-antonio-kast-wants-to-reconstruct-chile/|title=Presidential candidate José Antonio Kast wants to ‘reconstruct’ Chile|date=September 14, 2017|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=José Antonio Kast |title=Inmigrantes sí, clandestinos no |url=https://www.latercera.com/opinion/noticia/inmigrantes-clandestinos-no/137810/|language=es|publisher=La Tercera |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=19 April 2019}}</ref> not only a lot of them were [[Illegal immigration|illegals]] but also the immigrant population of Chile went from being 1% to 6.1% (1 million new immigrants in 4 years).<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> However, during his 2021 second round campaign he published a poster saying "We are all migrants".

He supports a "responsible possession of weapons", not a the full right to wear arms everywhere (since is not a commons stance outside the United States).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2017/10/09/878437/Kast-defiende-tenencia-de-armas-para-civiles-El-delincuente-lo-va-a-pensar-dos-veces-antes-de-entrar-a-una-casa.html|title=Kast defiende tenencia de armas para civiles: "El delincuente lo va a pensar dos veces antes de entrar a una casa"|publisher=Emol|language=es|date=October 9, 2017}}</ref>

He supports what he considers the "good part" of the [[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)|Augusto Pinochet regime]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adnradio.cl/noticias/politica/kast-yo-no-soy-admirador-del-general-pinochet-soy-una-persona-que-defiende-el-gobierno-militar/20181009/nota/3809493.aspx|title=Kast: "Yo no soy admirador del general Pinochet, soy una persona que defiende el gobierno militar"|language=es|published=ADN|date=9 October 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/2018/09/10/video-el-dia-en-que-jose-antonio-kast-apoyo-a-pinochet-en-la-franja-del-si/|title=El día en que José Antonio Kast apoyó a Pinochet en la franja del SÍ|language=es|date=10 September 2018|published=El Desconcierto}}</ref> And thinks that [[Miguel Krassnoff]] is innocent.

He criticized the Second Piñera Government<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2019/04/29/jose-antonio-kast-no-se-la-deja-pasar-a-pinera-no-hay-manual-que-resista-tanta-torpeza-en-un-solo-viaje/|title=José Antonio Kast no se la deja pasar a Piñera: "No hay manual que resista tanta torpeza en un solo viaje"|language=es|published=El Mostrador|date=29 abril 2019}}</ref> for "not following the program of Government" but he also supported what he considered the "good policies of the government".

Similar to [[Donald Trump]], Kast proposed the construction of a ditch in the border with Bolivia to prevent illegal immigration from happening during the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Chilean Presidential Election]] and again in 2025.

Kast is also a huge supporter of [[Carabineros de Chile]] (Police) and the Armed Forces. In 2019 during the protests far-leftists attacked the police and Kast supported the Carabineros.

In the same election he won a lot of support in the Araucanía region since he strongly opposes [[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina|terrorism attacks there]].

After he criticized COVID restrictions on July 2021, during the second round of the presidential election, he said he supported the infamous [[Vaccine passport|COVID vaccine passport]] (called ''Pase de movilidad'' in Chile) after he met with the former health minister of the Piñera Administration, Paula Daza.

==International alliances==
José Antonio is a supporter of [[Brazil]]'s [[Jair Bolsonaro]], endorsing his successful presidential candidacy in 2018.<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast tras la victoria de Jair Bolsonaro en Brasil: "El sentido común sigue triunfando"|date=October 28, 2018|language=es|publisher=T13|url=https://www.t13.cl/noticia/politica/Jose-Antonio-Kast-tras-la-victoria-de-Jair-Bolsonaro-en-Brasil-El-sentido-comun-sigue-triunfando}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eldinamo.cl/nacional/2018/10/30/jose-antonio-kast-los-triunfos-de-la-derecha-en-latinoamerica-favorecen-la-opcion-que-estoy-planteando/|title=José Antonio Kast: "Los triunfos de la derecha en Latinoamérica favorecen la opción que estoy planteando"|date=October 30, 2018|language=es|publisher=El Dínamo}}</ref>

Kast also met with [[Santiago Abascal]] from the conservative Spanish party [[Vox (Spain)|Vox]]<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast es recibido en España por líderes del partido de extrema derecha Vox |url=https://www.24horas.cl/politica/jose-antonio-kast-es-recibido-en-espana-por-lideres-del-partido-de-extrema-derecha-vox-3407442 |publisher=24 Horas |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=25 June 2019|language=es}}</ref> members of the [[Polish]] Party [[Law and Justice]], [[Viktor Orbán]] from the [[Fidesz]] Party, [[Giorgia Meloni]] from the [[Italian]] Party ''[[Brothers of Italy|Fratelli d'Italia]]'', the [[Dutch]] Party [[Forum for Democracy]], the Pro-[[Brexit]] [[British]] politician [[Daniel Hannan]] and other members of the [[Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe|European Conservatives and Reformists Party]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.radioagricultura.cl/internacional/2019/06/27/kast-se-reune-con-europarlamentarios-en-bruselas.html|title=Kast se reúne con europarlamentarios en Bruselas|date=June 27, 2018|publisher=Radio Agricultura|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latercera.com/politica/noticia/desde-roma-j-kast-balance-gira-europa-la-izquierda-se-ha-visto-sorprendida-despertar-del-sentido-comun/726677/|title=Desde Roma, J.A. Kast hace un balance de su gira por Europa: "La izquierda se ha visto sorprendida por el despertar del sentido común"|language=es|date=July 3, 2019|publisher=La Tercera}}</ref> He is also allied with Law and Justice from [[Poland]].

On December 2021 he met [[Marco Rubio]] at the [[Capitol]].<ref>[https://oicanadian.com/the-right-wing-candidate-jose-antonio-kast-went-on-a-tour-of-the-united-states-in-puebla-jose-luis-rodriguez-zapatero-showed-his-support-for-the-leftist-gabriel-boric/ The right-wing candidate, José Antonio Kast, went on a tour of the United States]</ref>

Kast was the president of the international conservative alliance [[Political Network for Values]] between 2022 and 2024.

==See also==
*[[Republican Party (Chile)]]
*[[Republican Action Movement]]
*[[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)]]
*[[Sebastián Piñera]]

==External links==
*[https://youtu.be/dSNq5P33abA Election Chile 2017: Exclusive Interview Jose Antonio Kast]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kast, José Antonio}}
[[Category:Chilean Politicians]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Pro-Life]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
[[Category:Guildists]]
[[Category:Neoconservatives]]
[[Category:Current Heads of State]]
[[Category:Current Heads of Government]]
[[Category:Presidents of Chile]]
[[Category:Patriots]]

Chile presidential election, 2025

2026-03-23T12:30:10Z

CatolicoAustral: Created page with "[[José Antonio Kast was elected president in 2025 to serve between 2026-2030.]] The '''2025 Chilean presidenti..."

[[File:President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|150px|thumbnail|[[José Antonio Kast]] was elected president in 2025 to serve between 2026-2030.]]

The '''2025 Chilean presidential election''' was held on Sunday, 16 November 2025 (first round) and 14 December 2025 (second round). In the second round the front-runners were the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican]] [[José Antonio Kast]] and the leftist [[Jeannette Jara]] of the [[Communist Party of Chile|Communist Party]] / Unidad por Chile coalition. Jara won the first round with 26.85 % of the votes (3,476,615 votes) and Kast obtained 23.92 % (3,097,717 votes). But in the second round, Kast won decisively with 58.16–58.18 % (approximately 7,225,021–7,254,850 votes) against 41.82–41.84 % (approximately 5,192,708–5,218,444 votes) from Jara. With this result, Chile shifted to the right, ending the leftist administration of Gabriel Boric and ushering in a conservative, free-market-oriented government focused on security and order under Kast, who took office on 11 March 2026 as the most voted president in Chilean history.

==Background==
On Sunday, November 16, 2025 Chile held its presidential (first round) and parliamentary elections. What sets this election apart from previous ones is that the first round effectively served as a primary among the three right-wing parties, while on the left, the ruling party’s candidate had already won the official primaries.
That candidate stands out as the first time the entire left is represented by a member of the Communist Party, which in turn poses a real communication challenge, since her campaign has sought to convey that she is not only the party’s candidate but also that of the center-left. It has also been quite a challenge to distance her from the government in which she served as labor minister, as it has low approval ratings, and being seen as a continuation of that government risks losing the election.
As for the right-wing candidates, there is José Antonio Kast, founder of the Republican Party, with a history linked to trade unionism and the UDI until 2016, the year in which he began his own political path, with a total of three presidential candidacies since then. Today, the political climate works in his favor; rising insecurity, irregular immigration, and the country’s lackluster economic figures support the narrative he has maintained since his first campaign. Furthermore, he was the one who lost the runoff election to Gabriel Boric in 2021, which literally makes him the counterfactual to Boric’s government.
As for his campaign message, it is worth noting that he has now left out so-called “values-based” issues such as abortion, although he claims he remains the same person with the same ideas, and has focused on proposing what he calls an “emergency government” to address rising insecurity. In contrast, his first campaign in 2017 revolved around those very issues that he now says are not among the priorities of his platform, even though they were central to his 2021 campaign—right up until the runoff.
The current mayor of Ñuñoa, Sebastián Sichel, who was the presidential candidate for the center-right coalition known as Chile Vamos in 2021, conditioned his support for Kast on points he considered non-negotiable; however, he says that the government program proposed today by Kast is more focused on public policies and that it would not be necessary to ask him for that today for the runoff.

In this year’s election, the Chile Vamos candidate, Evelyn Matthei, former mayor of the municipality of Providencia, failed to advance to the runoff. She led the presidential polls a year ago, and from that position ultimately finished in fifth place in Sunday’s election—a result that, beyond being a bitter personal defeat, also symbolizes the final transfer of leadership on the right to new parties with more hardline views.
In fourth place was Johannes Kaiser, who was previously a member of Kast’s party but, following disagreements over the second constitutional proposal in 2023, resigned from the party and formed the National Libertarian Party in record time, bringing together other former Republican members. Kaiser has been broadcasting live political commentary on YouTube for years, which has helped him establish his name. He is also the brother of libertarian activist Axel Kaiser, who has also spent years engaging in political advocacy with the economically liberal Foundation for Progress.

Kaiser’s political messaging revolved around spectacle; he set out to tour the country in a bus bearing his face, holding rallies with AC/DC music and taking a more explicit stance than Kast on the hard-line issues, especially during the debates. Thus, Kaiser succeeded in making Kast appear more moderate in comparison to him, positioning himself between Kast and Matthei.

This presidential election also saw the novelty of introducing artificial intelligence into campaign ads, notably those of Franco Parisi and Marco Enríquez Ominami.
Parisi came in third, sweeping the entire northern part of the country and securing second place in several municipalities in the south and center. Politically, he defines himself as centrist, though one could still say he is closer to the right than to the left, as his economic proposals align more with the ideas of economic liberalism. He also proposed strengthening the border and doubled down on the idea by advocating for the use of anti-personnel mines. Parisi is highly skilled at managing social media; during the 2021 election, his “Bad Boys” program stood out, particularly because he was a candidate campaigning from Alabama, United States. Among the AI-generated videos shown are those that illustrate his proposals, such as the use of drones at the border and infrastructure construction. His party is a catch-all party, featuring figures like Pamela Jiles, who comes from the Humanist Party, and his voters are those dissatisfied with politics in general; he managed to reach voters in the north by appealing to concerns about security and the mining industry.

For his part, Marco is a filmmaker, and he produced videos in which he launched attacks on the other candidates in order to make an impact. He and the other independent candidates garnered around 1% of the vote, marking his fifth election campaign.

Harold Mayne Nichols, on the other hand, who is connected to the world of soccer administration, used skits in his campaign ads, as well as audio from the former coach of the Chilean national team, Bielsa, who was very popular at the time and lent him his support.

Finally, Eduardo Artés, now running for the third time, conveyed his ideological message directly, appealing to classic, hard-line Marxism.
To wrap up, Chile voted for different parties; political forces have been realigned; and the political cycle that began in 2019 with violent protests is now coming to an end with the consolidation of this new political order. Chileans’ priorities have shifted significantly since that year, and the urban destruction caused by those protests ultimately strengthened the right, while the left sought to distance itself from the most destructive groups.

The runoff election took place on Sunday, December 14, 2025 when the country’s next president was decided until 2030. José Antonio Kast, despite trailing Jeannette Jara by 3 points in second place, had a strong chance of winning with the votes of Matthei, Kaiser, and very likely a large percentage of Parisi’s supporters. Jara, having already gone through her coalition’s primary process, has little room to reach new voters; the independent candidates positioning themselves on the left garnered very few votes, so she is also forced to seek support from Parisi’s voters.

==Resultados de la elección==
===Primera vuelta===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidato
! Partido / Coalición
! Votos
! Porcentaje
|-
| [[Jeannette Jara]]
| Partido Comunista / Unidad por Chile
| 3.476.615
| 26,85 %
|-
| [[José Antonio Kast]]
| Partido Republicano
| 3.097.717
| 23,92 %
|-
| [[Franco Parisi]]
| Partido de la Gente
| 2.552.649
| 19,71 %
|-
| [[Johannes Kaiser]]
| Partido Nacional Libertario
| 1.804.773
| 13,94 %
|-
| [[Evelyn Matthei]]
| UDI / Chile Vamos
| 1.613.797
| 12,46 %
|-
| [[Marco Enríquez-Ominami]]
| Independiente
| 154.850
| 1,20 %
|-
| [[Harold Mayne-Nicholls]]
| Independiente
| 102.504
| 1,27 %
|-
| [[Eduardo Artés]]
| Unión Patriótica
| 86.041
| 0,66 %
|}

===Segunda vuelta===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidato
! Partido / Coalición
! Votos
! Porcentaje
|-
| [[José Antonio Kast]]
| Partido Republicano
| 7.254.850
| 58,16 %
|-
| [[Jeannette Jara]]
| Partido Comunista / Unidad por Chile
| 5.218.444
| 41,84 %
|}

[[Category:Chilean Politics]]
[[Category:2020s]]

Franco Parisi

2026-03-23T12:22:59Z

CatolicoAustral:

[[File:Franco Parisi headshot 2013.jpg|thumbnail|150px|Franco Parisi in 2013.]]
'''Franco Parisi Fernández''' (b. [[Santiago]], 25 August, 1967) is a [[Chile]]an business engineer and economist who ran for President in 2013 and 2021 obtaining the third place in the last one. He is the leader of the [[People's Party (Chile)|People's Party]], a center and economically liberal party that supports lower taxes, higher mining royalty, lower salaries for politicians.

The strategy of the party is mainly focused on social media, in 2021 Parisi didn't even arrive to Chile since he lives in [[Alabama]], [[United States]], he was accused of not having paid alimony for his children.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/enigmatic-economist-outperformed-chile-ballot-his-votes-could-decide-runoff-2021-11-23/ Enigmatic economist outperformed in Chile ballot. His votes could decide runoff]</ref><ref>[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-22/celebrity-economist-surprises-with-kingmaker-role-in-chile-vote Chile Celebrity Economist Surprises With Kingmaker Role]</ref>

He criticized Boric's Government for retiring Chilean military personel from the Chilean Embassy in Israel saying: "The potential severing of diplomatic relations with the State of Israel not only represents a historic step backward, but also sends a dangerous signal about the direction your government is taking. Israel is a friendly nation, a strategic partner in technology, science, and defense, and a staunch defender of the democratic values we share".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/chile/2025/05/28/politica-exterior-ideologizada-parisi-fustiga-decision-de-retirar-agregados-militares-de-israel.shtml|title="Política exterior ideologizada": Parisi fustiga decisión de retirar agregados militares de Israel|date=28 May 2025|publisher=Biobío|language=es}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[People's Party (Chile)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parisi, Franco}}
[[Category:Chilean Politicians]]

José Antonio Kast

2026-03-23T12:20:53Z

CatolicoAustral: /* References */

{{Officeholder
|name=José Antonio Kast
|image=President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg
|offices=
|offices={{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Presidential Standard of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]][[President of Chile]]
|terms=11 March 2026 – present
|preceded=[[Gabriel Boric]]
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:LOGO PAR REPUBLICANO otro.png|35px|frameless|center]]President of the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party of Chile]]
|terms=10 June 2019 – 21 November 2021
|preceded= ''Creation of the Party''
|succeeded= Rojo Edwards
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Coat of arms of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]]Member of the Chamber of Deputies of [[Chile]], District 24 ([[Santiago]])
|terms=11 March 2014 – 11 March 2018
|preceded=María Angélica Cristi Marfil
|succeeded=''Disolution of the District''
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:UDI 2017.svg|35px|frameless|center]]Secretary-General of the [[Independent Democrat Union]]
|terms=30 March 2012 – 10 May 2014
|preceded=Victor Pérez Varela
|succeeded=Javier Macaya Danús
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, District 30 (Santiago)
|terms=11 March 2002 – 11 March 2014
|preceded=Pablo Longueira Montes
|succeeded=Jaime Bellolio Avaria
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=City Councilman of Buin
|terms=1996–2000
|preceded=-
|succeeded=-
}}
|religion=[[Catholic]] (Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement)
|party=Independent (2016-2019, since 2026) [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (2019-2026) [[Independent Democrat Union]] (1996-2016)
|spouse=María Pía Adriasola
|children=9
}}
'''José Antonio Kast Rist''' (b. [[Santiago]], January 18, 1966) is the right-wing [[President of Chile|president]] of [[Chile]], Catholic, father of nine with Pía Adriasola, has a pro-life and conservative stance. He is also against illegal immigration built defenses at the border during his presidency. Founder of the Chilean [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]], he previously served as councilman and deputy.

== Political career ==
In 2017 he ran for president as a right-wing alternative to the [[establishment]] candidate [[Sebastián Piñera]] obtaining 7.93 % of the votes (4th place, 523,375 votes). In the second round, he supported Piñera to avoid another government of the Left. In 2018 he founded the [[Republican Action Movement]], in 2019 the Chilean [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] and the think tank Republican Ideas.

In [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 he ran for president]] again being the right-wing candidate of the election and being the alternative from the center-right's Sebastián Sichel obtaining the first majority in first round with a 27.91 % of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and [[Gabriel Boric]] obtained 25.82 % (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13 % (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87 % (4,620,890 votes) from Boric.

José Antonio Kast has been falsely labeled as "far-right" by the media and the Left.<ref>Multiple references:
*{{cite web |title=Far right gains momentum in Chile's presidential elections |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/gains-momentum-chiles-presidential-elections-171216100010489.html |publisher=Aljazeera |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=16 December 2019}}
*{{cite web |title=Far-Right Party Of José Antonio Kast Frightens Chilean Rightwing |url=https://www.chiletoday.cl/far-right-party-of-jose-antonio-kast-frightens-chilean-rightwing/ |publisher=Chile Today |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=18 June 2019}}
*{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast, el Bolsonaro chileno que lidera las encuestas presidenciales|date=21 January 2019|publisher=Público|language=es|url=https://www.publico.es/internacional/chile-jose-antonio-kast-bolsonaro-chileno-lidera-encuestas-presidenciales.html}}
*{{cite web|url=https://www.telesurtv.net/news/extrema-derecha-presidencia-chile-20190611-0038.html|title=Extrema derecha aspira a presidencia de Chile ante inscripción de nuevo partido|published=TeleSur|date=12 June 2019|language=es}}
*{{cite web|url=https://identidades.com.ar/el-candidato-a-presidente-de-chile-jose-antonio-kast-y-su-relacion-con-los-judios-e-israel/|title=El candidato a presidente de Chile José Antonio Kast y su relación con los judíos e Israel|date=10 December 2021|language=es}}
</ref>

In 2023 he started supporting the change of [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] since [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|his party won a significant minority]] in the institution illegitimatelly created to create a new Constitution back in May 2023.<ref>[https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/leftist-takeover-south-america-chilean-conservative-kast-throws/ Leftist Takeover of South America: Chilean Conservative Kast Throws in with Globalists]</ref> This was the reason why [[Johannes Kaiser]] ended up leaving the party to form his own with other former memebers of the Republican Party.

José Antonio Kast won the presidential election in December 2025 defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Views==
[[File:José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|thumbnail|left|150px|Kast in 2010.]]
He is [[pro-life]] and defends a smaller state with fewer taxes.<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast Proposals |url=https://www.servel.cl/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Programa_Jose_Antonio_Kast_Rist.pdf|language=es}}</ref> He is also against the [[Gender ideology]], he is pro-family, [[Nationalism|pronation]], and he is strongly [[Christian]]. Today he is the most important conservative politician of Chile, mostly because he has been shown as an alternative to the center-right coalition "Chile Vamos", however a lot of the members of his new party come from that coalition, and he has a lot of friends there, also he was member of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] for 20 years, one of the main parties of the coalition. JAK has criticized the immigration policies of the [[Michelle Bachelet]] government (2014-2018) which is considered to be a chaos since,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2017/09/14/presidential-candidate-jose-antonio-kast-wants-to-reconstruct-chile/|title=Presidential candidate José Antonio Kast wants to ‘reconstruct’ Chile|date=September 14, 2017|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=José Antonio Kast |title=Inmigrantes sí, clandestinos no |url=https://www.latercera.com/opinion/noticia/inmigrantes-clandestinos-no/137810/|language=es|publisher=La Tercera |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=19 April 2019}}</ref> not only a lot of them were [[Illegal immigration|illegals]] but also the immigrant population of Chile went from being 1% to 6.1% (1 million new immigrants in 4 years).<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> However, during his 2021 second round campaign he published a poster saying "We are all migrants".

He supports a "responsible possession of weapons", not a the full right to wear arms everywhere (since is not a commons stance outside the United States).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2017/10/09/878437/Kast-defiende-tenencia-de-armas-para-civiles-El-delincuente-lo-va-a-pensar-dos-veces-antes-de-entrar-a-una-casa.html|title=Kast defiende tenencia de armas para civiles: "El delincuente lo va a pensar dos veces antes de entrar a una casa"|publisher=Emol|language=es|date=October 9, 2017}}</ref>

He supports what he considers the "good part" of the [[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)|Augusto Pinochet regime]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adnradio.cl/noticias/politica/kast-yo-no-soy-admirador-del-general-pinochet-soy-una-persona-que-defiende-el-gobierno-militar/20181009/nota/3809493.aspx|title=Kast: "Yo no soy admirador del general Pinochet, soy una persona que defiende el gobierno militar"|language=es|published=ADN|date=9 October 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/2018/09/10/video-el-dia-en-que-jose-antonio-kast-apoyo-a-pinochet-en-la-franja-del-si/|title=El día en que José Antonio Kast apoyó a Pinochet en la franja del SÍ|language=es|date=10 September 2018|published=El Desconcierto}}</ref> And thinks that [[Miguel Krassnoff]] is innocent.

He criticized the Second Piñera Government<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2019/04/29/jose-antonio-kast-no-se-la-deja-pasar-a-pinera-no-hay-manual-que-resista-tanta-torpeza-en-un-solo-viaje/|title=José Antonio Kast no se la deja pasar a Piñera: "No hay manual que resista tanta torpeza en un solo viaje"|language=es|published=El Mostrador|date=29 abril 2019}}</ref> for "not following the program of Government" but he also supported what he considered the "good policies of the government".

Similar to [[Donald Trump]], Kast proposed the construction of a ditch in the border with Bolivia to prevent illegal immigration from happening during the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Chilean Presidential Election]] and again in 2025.

Kast is also a huge supporter of [[Carabineros de Chile]] (Police) and the Armed Forces. In 2019 during the protests far-leftists attacked the police and Kast supported the Carabineros.

In the same election he won a lot of support in the Araucanía region since he strongly opposes [[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina|terrorism attacks there]].

After he criticized COVID restrictions on July 2021, during the second round of the presidential election, he said he supported the infamous [[Vaccine passport|COVID vaccine passport]] (called ''Pase de movilidad'' in Chile) after he met with the former health minister of the Piñera Administration, Paula Daza.

==International alliances==
José Antonio is a supporter of [[Brazil]]'s [[Jair Bolsonaro]], endorsing his successful presidential candidacy in 2018.<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast tras la victoria de Jair Bolsonaro en Brasil: "El sentido común sigue triunfando"|date=October 28, 2018|language=es|publisher=T13|url=https://www.t13.cl/noticia/politica/Jose-Antonio-Kast-tras-la-victoria-de-Jair-Bolsonaro-en-Brasil-El-sentido-comun-sigue-triunfando}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eldinamo.cl/nacional/2018/10/30/jose-antonio-kast-los-triunfos-de-la-derecha-en-latinoamerica-favorecen-la-opcion-que-estoy-planteando/|title=José Antonio Kast: "Los triunfos de la derecha en Latinoamérica favorecen la opción que estoy planteando"|date=October 30, 2018|language=es|publisher=El Dínamo}}</ref>

Kast also met with [[Santiago Abascal]] from the conservative Spanish party [[Vox (Spain)|Vox]]<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast es recibido en España por líderes del partido de extrema derecha Vox |url=https://www.24horas.cl/politica/jose-antonio-kast-es-recibido-en-espana-por-lideres-del-partido-de-extrema-derecha-vox-3407442 |publisher=24 Horas |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=25 June 2019|language=es}}</ref> members of the [[Polish]] Party [[Law and Justice]], [[Viktor Orbán]] from the [[Fidesz]] Party, [[Giorgia Meloni]] from the [[Italian]] Party ''[[Brothers of Italy|Fratelli d'Italia]]'', the [[Dutch]] Party [[Forum for Democracy]], the Pro-[[Brexit]] [[British]] politician [[Daniel Hannan]] and other members of the [[Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe|European Conservatives and Reformists Party]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.radioagricultura.cl/internacional/2019/06/27/kast-se-reune-con-europarlamentarios-en-bruselas.html|title=Kast se reúne con europarlamentarios en Bruselas|date=June 27, 2018|publisher=Radio Agricultura|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latercera.com/politica/noticia/desde-roma-j-kast-balance-gira-europa-la-izquierda-se-ha-visto-sorprendida-despertar-del-sentido-comun/726677/|title=Desde Roma, J.A. Kast hace un balance de su gira por Europa: "La izquierda se ha visto sorprendida por el despertar del sentido común"|language=es|date=July 3, 2019|publisher=La Tercera}}</ref> He is also allied with Law and Justice from [[Poland]].

On December 2021 he met [[Marco Rubio]] at the [[Capitol]].<ref>[https://oicanadian.com/the-right-wing-candidate-jose-antonio-kast-went-on-a-tour-of-the-united-states-in-puebla-jose-luis-rodriguez-zapatero-showed-his-support-for-the-leftist-gabriel-boric/ The right-wing candidate, José Antonio Kast, went on a tour of the United States]</ref>

Kast was the president of the international conservative alliance [[Political Network for Values]] between 2022 and 2024.

==See also==
*[[Republican Party (Chile)]]
*[[Republican Action Movement]]
*[[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)]]
*[[Sebastián Piñera]]

==External links==
*[https://youtu.be/dSNq5P33abA Election Chile 2017: Exclusive Interview Jose Antonio Kast]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kast, José Antonio}}
[[Category:Chilean Politicians]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Pro-Life]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
[[Category:Guildists]]
[[Category:Neoconservatives]]
[[Category:Current Heads of State]]
[[Category:Current Heads of Government]]
[[Category:Presidents of Chile]]
[[Category:Patriots]]

Johannes Kaiser

2026-03-23T12:20:33Z

CatolicoAustral:

{{Officeholder
|name=Johannes Kaiser
|image=Deputy Johannes Kaiser.jpg
|offices=
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Partido Nacional Libertario (cropped).jpg|25px|frameless|center]]President of the [[National Libertarian Party]]
|terms=7 June 2024 –
|preceded=''Founder of the party''
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Coat of arms of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]]Member of the Chamber of Deputies of [[Chile]], District 10 ([[Santiago]])
|terms=11 March 2022 – 11 March 2026
|preceded=Luciano Cruz-Coke Carvallo
|succeeded=
}}
|religion=[[Orthodox Christian]]
|party=[[File:Partido Nacional Libertario (cropped).jpg|17px]] [[National Libertarian Party]] (2024-) [[File:LOGO PAR REPUBLICANO otro.png|17px]] [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (2019-2021, 2022-2024)
|spouse=Ivette Avaria Vera
}}
'''Johannes Maximilian Kaiser Barents-Von Hohenhagen''' (born 5 January 1976, [[Santiago]]) is a [[Chile]]an from German descent [[right-wing]] deputy and political commentator, who uses the pseudonym "The National Libertarian" and on June 2024 founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-establishment party.<ref>{{cite web |title=“No somos conservadores, somos reaccionarios”: diputado Kaiser anuncia la creación del Partido Nacional Libertario |url=https://www.latercera.com/politica/noticia/no-somos-conservadores-somos-reaccionarios-diputado-kaiser-anuncia-la-creacion-del-partido-nacional-libertario/LIUBAM22MNGXDHVDJGNZB42WOY/ |publisher=La Tercera |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Partido Nacional Libertario: ¿Cuáles son los lineamientos del nuevo partido liderado por Johannes Kaiser? |url=https://www.duna.cl/noticias/2024/06/11/partido-nacional-libertario-cuales-son-los-lineamientos-del-nuevo-partido-liderado-por-johannes-kaiser/ |publisher=Duna |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Con Gonzalo de la Carrera y Gloria Naveillán: el Partido Nacional Libertario, la nueva tienda política que busca formar Johannes Kaiser |url=https://www.theclinic.cl/2024/06/11/partido-nacional-libertario-los-principios-de-la-nueva-tienda-politica-que-fundara-johannes-kaiser-tras-su-paso-por-republicanos/ |publisher=The Clinic |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref>

He informs what the [[Mainstream media]] doesn't and has shown how the Chilean State is following the UN [[2030 Agenda]].

Kaiser strongly opposes [[Globalism]], [[Socialism]], [[Terrorism in the South of Chile]], [[Gender Ideology]], [[Immigration|Mass immigration]] and [[Abortion]].

He endorses [[Patriotism]], [[Capitalism]] and the values of the [[Republic]].

Johannes is the brother of [[Axel Kaiser]] (Classic Liberal political commentator), [[Vanessa Kaiser]] (Right-wing political commentator) and [[Leif Kaiser]] (gun rights defender in Chile).

In 2021 he got elected deputy thanks to the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] of [[José Antonio Kast]], after he got elected he had to renounce for a controversy, and decided to rejoin on 2022 to renounce again in 2024.

Kaiser defends the innocence of the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisoner]] [[Miguel Krassnoff]].

He wants to be precandidate to the Presidency in the right-wing primaries on 2025.

About the Russo-Ukrainian War he blames the West for it, aligning with the Russian narrative, having a pro-Russia stance.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hUHkHmo-bI|title=El Conflicto Ucraniano - Ruso, Johannes Kaiser {{!}} Ideas con Fuerza|date=7 March 2025|publisher=El Conquistador FM|language=es}}</ref>

He also criticized Boric for removing Chilean military personel from the Chilean Embassy in Israel saying that "We owe that country a debt of gratitude" (because Israel sold weapons to [[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)|President's Pinochet Government]], but they also did so with Argentina, Chile's enemy at the time) and that Boric was "puting in risk the national security".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.t13.cl/noticia/politica/kaiser-acusa-boric-poner-riesgo-seguridad-nacional-al-retirar-agregados-militar-28-5-2025|title=Kaiser acusa a Boric de "poner en riesgo la seguridad nacional" al retirar agregados militares de Israel|date=28 May 2025|publisher=T13|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/chile/2025/05/28/kaiser-por-retiro-de-agregados-militares-en-israel-tenemos-una-obligacion-de-gratitud-con-ese-pais.shtml|title=Kaiser por retiro de agregados militares en Israel: "Tenemos una obligación de gratitud con ese país"|date=28 May 2025|publisher=Biobío|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://tele13radio.cl/show/mesa-central/episode/johannes-kaiser-y-postura-del-gobierno-por-israel-lo-unico-que-puede-influir-es-si-le-conviene-a-chile-o-no-|title=Johannes Kaiser y postura del Gobierno por Israel: "Lo único que puede influir es si le conviene a Chile o no"|date=2025|language=es|publisher=Tele 13}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[National Libertarian Party]]
*[[Axel Kaiser]]
*[[Teresa Marinovic]]

==External links==
*[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2tdSec2KF32KGz6E9YWRQA ''El Nacional Libertario'' YouTube Channel]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiser, Johannes}}
[[Category:Orthodox Christians]]
[[Category:Chilean Politicians]]
[[Category:Conservative Media]]
[[Category:Libertarian Media]]
[[Category:Chilean Alternative Media]]
[[Category:Pinochet Apologists]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Patriots]]
[[Category:Political Commentators]]

Johannes Kaiser

2026-03-23T12:20:07Z

CatolicoAustral:

{{Officeholder
|name=Johannes Kaiser
|image=Deputy Johannes Kaiser.jpg
|offices=
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Partido Nacional Libertario (cropped).jpg|25px|frameless|center]]President of the [[National Libertarian Party]]
|terms=7 June 2024 –
|preceded=''Founder of the party''
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Coat of arms of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]]Member of the Chamber of Deputies of [[Chile]], District 10 ([[Santiago]])
|terms=11 March 2022 –
|preceded=Luciano Cruz-Coke Carvallo
|succeeded=
}}
|religion=[[Orthodox Christian]]
|party=[[File:Partido Nacional Libertario (cropped).jpg|17px]] [[National Libertarian Party]] (2024-) [[File:LOGO PAR REPUBLICANO otro.png|17px]] [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (2019-2021, 2022-2024)
|spouse=Ivette Avaria Vera
}}
'''Johannes Maximilian Kaiser Barents-Von Hohenhagen''' (born 5 January 1976, [[Santiago]]) is a [[Chile]]an from German descent [[right-wing]] deputy and political commentator, who uses the pseudonym "The National Libertarian" and on June 2024 founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-establishment party.<ref>{{cite web |title=“No somos conservadores, somos reaccionarios”: diputado Kaiser anuncia la creación del Partido Nacional Libertario |url=https://www.latercera.com/politica/noticia/no-somos-conservadores-somos-reaccionarios-diputado-kaiser-anuncia-la-creacion-del-partido-nacional-libertario/LIUBAM22MNGXDHVDJGNZB42WOY/ |publisher=La Tercera |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Partido Nacional Libertario: ¿Cuáles son los lineamientos del nuevo partido liderado por Johannes Kaiser? |url=https://www.duna.cl/noticias/2024/06/11/partido-nacional-libertario-cuales-son-los-lineamientos-del-nuevo-partido-liderado-por-johannes-kaiser/ |publisher=Duna |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Con Gonzalo de la Carrera y Gloria Naveillán: el Partido Nacional Libertario, la nueva tienda política que busca formar Johannes Kaiser |url=https://www.theclinic.cl/2024/06/11/partido-nacional-libertario-los-principios-de-la-nueva-tienda-politica-que-fundara-johannes-kaiser-tras-su-paso-por-republicanos/ |publisher=The Clinic |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref>

He informs what the [[Mainstream media]] doesn't and has shown how the Chilean State is following the UN [[2030 Agenda]].

Kaiser strongly opposes [[Globalism]], [[Socialism]], [[Terrorism in the South of Chile]], [[Gender Ideology]], [[Immigration|Mass immigration]] and [[Abortion]].

He endorses [[Patriotism]], [[Capitalism]] and the values of the [[Republic]].

Johannes is the brother of [[Axel Kaiser]] (Classic Liberal political commentator), [[Vanessa Kaiser]] (Right-wing political commentator) and [[Leif Kaiser]] (gun rights defender in Chile).

In 2021 he got elected deputy thanks to the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] of [[José Antonio Kast]], after he got elected he had to renounce for a controversy, and decided to rejoin on 2022 to renounce again in 2024.

Kaiser defends the innocence of the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisoner]] [[Miguel Krassnoff]].

He wants to be precandidate to the Presidency in the right-wing primaries on 2025.

About the Russo-Ukrainian War he blames the West for it, aligning with the Russian narrative, having a pro-Russia stance.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hUHkHmo-bI|title=El Conflicto Ucraniano - Ruso, Johannes Kaiser {{!}} Ideas con Fuerza|date=7 March 2025|publisher=El Conquistador FM|language=es}}</ref>

He also criticized Boric for removing Chilean military personel from the Chilean Embassy in Israel saying that "We owe that country a debt of gratitude" (because Israel sold weapons to [[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)|President's Pinochet Government]], but they also did so with Argentina, Chile's enemy at the time) and that Boric was "puting in risk the national security".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.t13.cl/noticia/politica/kaiser-acusa-boric-poner-riesgo-seguridad-nacional-al-retirar-agregados-militar-28-5-2025|title=Kaiser acusa a Boric de "poner en riesgo la seguridad nacional" al retirar agregados militares de Israel|date=28 May 2025|publisher=T13|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/chile/2025/05/28/kaiser-por-retiro-de-agregados-militares-en-israel-tenemos-una-obligacion-de-gratitud-con-ese-pais.shtml|title=Kaiser por retiro de agregados militares en Israel: "Tenemos una obligación de gratitud con ese país"|date=28 May 2025|publisher=Biobío|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://tele13radio.cl/show/mesa-central/episode/johannes-kaiser-y-postura-del-gobierno-por-israel-lo-unico-que-puede-influir-es-si-le-conviene-a-chile-o-no-|title=Johannes Kaiser y postura del Gobierno por Israel: "Lo único que puede influir es si le conviene a Chile o no"|date=2025|language=es|publisher=Tele 13}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[National Libertarian Party]]
*[[Axel Kaiser]]
*[[Teresa Marinovic]]

==External links==
*[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2tdSec2KF32KGz6E9YWRQA ''El Nacional Libertario'' YouTube Channel]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiser, Johannes}}
[[Category:Orthodox Christians]]
[[Category:Chilean Politicians]]
[[Category:Conservative Media]]
[[Category:Libertarian Media]]
[[Category:Chilean Alternative Media]]
[[Category:Pinochet Apologists]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Patriots]]
[[Category:Political Commentators]]

Johannes Kaiser

2026-03-23T12:19:15Z

CatolicoAustral:

{{Officeholder
|name=Johannes Kaiser
|image=Deputy Johannes Kaiser.jpg
|offices=
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Partido Nacional Libertario (cropped).jpg|25px|frameless|center]]President of the [[National Libertarian Party]]
|terms=7 June 2024 –
|preceded=''Founder of the party''
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Coat of arms of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]]Member of the Chamber of Deputies of [[Chile]], District 10 ([[Santiago]])
|terms=11 March 2022 –
|preceded=Luciano Cruz-Coke Carvallo
|succeeded=
}}
|religion=[[Orthodox Christian]]
|party=[[File:Partido Nacional Libertario (cropped).jpg|17px]] [[National Libertarian Party]] (2024-) [[File:LOGO PAR REPUBLICANO otro.png|17px]] [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (2019-2021, 2022-2024)
|spouse=Ivette Avaria Vera
}}
'''Johannes Maximilian Kaiser Barents-Von Hohenhagen''' (born 5 January 1976, [[Santiago]]) is a [[Chile]]an from German descent [[right-wing]] deputy and political commentator, who uses the pseudonym "The National Libertarian" and on June 2024 founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-establishment party.<ref>{{cite web |title=“No somos conservadores, somos reaccionarios”: diputado Kaiser anuncia la creación del Partido Nacional Libertario |url=https://www.latercera.com/politica/noticia/no-somos-conservadores-somos-reaccionarios-diputado-kaiser-anuncia-la-creacion-del-partido-nacional-libertario/LIUBAM22MNGXDHVDJGNZB42WOY/ |publisher=La Tercera |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Partido Nacional Libertario: ¿Cuáles son los lineamientos del nuevo partido liderado por Johannes Kaiser? |url=https://www.duna.cl/noticias/2024/06/11/partido-nacional-libertario-cuales-son-los-lineamientos-del-nuevo-partido-liderado-por-johannes-kaiser/ |publisher=Duna |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Con Gonzalo de la Carrera y Gloria Naveillán: el Partido Nacional Libertario, la nueva tienda política que busca formar Johannes Kaiser |url=https://www.theclinic.cl/2024/06/11/partido-nacional-libertario-los-principios-de-la-nueva-tienda-politica-que-fundara-johannes-kaiser-tras-su-paso-por-republicanos/ |publisher=The Clinic |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref>

He informs what the [[Mainstream media]] doesn't and has shown how the Chilean State is following the UN [[2030 Agenda]].

Kaiser strongly opposes [[Globalism]], [[Socialism]], [[Terrorism in the South of Chile]], [[Gender Ideology]], [[Immigration|Mass immigration]] and [[Abortion]].

He endorses [[Patriotism]], [[Capitalism]] and the values of the [[Republic]].

Johannes is the brother of [[Axel Kaiser]] (Classic Liberal political commentator), [[Vanessa Kaiser]] (Right-wing political commentator) and [[Leif Kaiser]] (gun rights defender in Chile).

In 2021 he got elected deputy thanks to the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] of [[José Antonio Kast]], after he got elected he had to renounce for a controversy, and decided to rejoin on 2022 to renounce again in 2024.

Kaiser defends the innocence of the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisoner]] [[Miguel Krassnoff]].

He wants to be precandidate to the Presidency in the right-wing primaries on 2025.

About the Russo-Ukrainian War he blames the West for it, aligning with the Russian narrative, having a pro-Russia stance.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hUHkHmo-bI|title=El Conflicto Ucraniano - Ruso, Johannes Kaiser {{!}} Ideas con Fuerza|date=7 March 2025|publisher=El Conquistador FM|language=es}}</ref>

He also criticized Boric for removing Chilean military personel from the Chilean Embassy in Israel saying that "We owe that country a debt of gratitude" and that Boric was "puting in risk the national security".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.t13.cl/noticia/politica/kaiser-acusa-boric-poner-riesgo-seguridad-nacional-al-retirar-agregados-militar-28-5-2025|title=Kaiser acusa a Boric de "poner en riesgo la seguridad nacional" al retirar agregados militares de Israel|date=28 May 2025|publisher=T13|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/chile/2025/05/28/kaiser-por-retiro-de-agregados-militares-en-israel-tenemos-una-obligacion-de-gratitud-con-ese-pais.shtml|title=Kaiser por retiro de agregados militares en Israel: "Tenemos una obligación de gratitud con ese país"|date=28 May 2025|publisher=Biobío|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://tele13radio.cl/show/mesa-central/episode/johannes-kaiser-y-postura-del-gobierno-por-israel-lo-unico-que-puede-influir-es-si-le-conviene-a-chile-o-no-|title=Johannes Kaiser y postura del Gobierno por Israel: "Lo único que puede influir es si le conviene a Chile o no"|date=2025|language=es|publisher=Tele 13}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[National Libertarian Party]]
*[[Axel Kaiser]]
*[[Teresa Marinovic]]

==External links==
*[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2tdSec2KF32KGz6E9YWRQA ''El Nacional Libertario'' YouTube Channel]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiser, Johannes}}
[[Category:Orthodox Christians]]
[[Category:Chilean Politicians]]
[[Category:Conservative Media]]
[[Category:Libertarian Media]]
[[Category:Chilean Alternative Media]]
[[Category:Pinochet Apologists]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Patriots]]
[[Category:Political Commentators]]

Johannes Kaiser

2026-03-23T12:13:21Z

CatolicoAustral:

{{Officeholder
|name=Johannes Kaiser
|image=Deputy Johannes Kaiser.jpg
|offices=
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Partido Nacional Libertario (cropped).jpg|25px|frameless|center]]President of the [[National Libertarian Party]]
|terms=7 June 2024 –
|preceded=''Founder of the party''
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Coat of arms of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]]Member of the Chamber of Deputies of [[Chile]], District 10 ([[Santiago]])
|terms=11 March 2022 –
|preceded=Luciano Cruz-Coke Carvallo
|succeeded=
}}
|religion=[[Orthodox Christian]]
|party=[[File:Partido Nacional Libertario (cropped).jpg|17px]] [[National Libertarian Party]] (2024-) [[File:LOGO PAR REPUBLICANO otro.png|17px]] [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (2019-2021, 2022-2024)
|spouse=Ivette Avaria Vera
}}
'''Johannes Maximilian Kaiser Barents-Von Hohenhagen''' (born 5 January 1976, [[Santiago]]) is a [[Chile]]an from German descent [[right-wing]] deputy and political commentator, who uses the pseudonym "The National Libertarian" and on June 2024 founded the [[National Libertarian Party]], a dissident right anti-establishment party.<ref>{{cite web |title=“No somos conservadores, somos reaccionarios”: diputado Kaiser anuncia la creación del Partido Nacional Libertario |url=https://www.latercera.com/politica/noticia/no-somos-conservadores-somos-reaccionarios-diputado-kaiser-anuncia-la-creacion-del-partido-nacional-libertario/LIUBAM22MNGXDHVDJGNZB42WOY/ |publisher=La Tercera |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Partido Nacional Libertario: ¿Cuáles son los lineamientos del nuevo partido liderado por Johannes Kaiser? |url=https://www.duna.cl/noticias/2024/06/11/partido-nacional-libertario-cuales-son-los-lineamientos-del-nuevo-partido-liderado-por-johannes-kaiser/ |publisher=Duna |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Con Gonzalo de la Carrera y Gloria Naveillán: el Partido Nacional Libertario, la nueva tienda política que busca formar Johannes Kaiser |url=https://www.theclinic.cl/2024/06/11/partido-nacional-libertario-los-principios-de-la-nueva-tienda-politica-que-fundara-johannes-kaiser-tras-su-paso-por-republicanos/ |publisher=The Clinic |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=es |date=11 June 2024}}</ref>

He informs what the [[Mainstream media]] doesn't and has shown how the Chilean State is following the UN [[2030 Agenda]].

Kaiser strongly opposes [[Globalism]], [[Socialism]], [[Terrorism in the South of Chile]], [[Gender Ideology]], [[Immigration|Mass immigration]] and [[Abortion]].

He endorses [[Patriotism]], [[Capitalism]] and the values of the [[Republic]].

Johannes is the brother of [[Axel Kaiser]] (Classic Liberal political commentator), [[Vanessa Kaiser]] (Right-wing political commentator) and [[Leif Kaiser]] (gun rights defender in Chile).

In 2021 he got elected deputy thanks to the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] of [[José Antonio Kast]], after he got elected he had to renounce for a controversy, and decided to rejoin on 2022 to renounce again in 2024.

Kaiser defends the innocence of the [[Military Political Prisioners of Chile|Military Political Prisoner]] [[Miguel Krassnoff]].

He wants to be precandidate to the Presidency in the right-wing primaries on 2025.

About the Russo-Ukrainian War he blames the West for it, aligning with the Russian narrative, having a pro-Russia stance.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hUHkHmo-bI|title=El Conflicto Ucraniano - Ruso, Johannes Kaiser {{!}} Ideas con Fuerza|date=7 March 2025|publisher=El Conquistador FM|language=es}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[National Libertarian Party]]
*[[Axel Kaiser]]
*[[Teresa Marinovic]]

==External links==
*[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2tdSec2KF32KGz6E9YWRQA ''El Nacional Libertario'' YouTube Channel]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiser, Johannes}}
[[Category:Orthodox Christians]]
[[Category:Chilean Politicians]]
[[Category:Conservative Media]]
[[Category:Libertarian Media]]
[[Category:Chilean Alternative Media]]
[[Category:Pinochet Apologists]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Patriots]]
[[Category:Political Commentators]]

José Antonio Kast

2026-03-23T12:11:01Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Political career */

{{Officeholder
|name=José Antonio Kast
|image=President José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg
|offices=
|offices={{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Presidential Standard of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]][[President of Chile]]
|terms=11 March 2026 – present
|preceded=[[Gabriel Boric]]
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:LOGO PAR REPUBLICANO otro.png|35px|frameless|center]]President of the [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party of Chile]]
|terms=10 June 2019 – 21 November 2021
|preceded= ''Creation of the Party''
|succeeded= Rojo Edwards
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:Coat of arms of Chile.png|35px|frameless|center]]Member of the Chamber of Deputies of [[Chile]], District 24 ([[Santiago]])
|terms=11 March 2014 – 11 March 2018
|preceded=María Angélica Cristi Marfil
|succeeded=''Disolution of the District''
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=[[File:UDI 2017.svg|35px|frameless|center]]Secretary-General of the [[Independent Democrat Union]]
|terms=30 March 2012 – 10 May 2014
|preceded=Victor Pérez Varela
|succeeded=Javier Macaya Danús
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, District 30 (Santiago)
|terms=11 March 2002 – 11 March 2014
|preceded=Pablo Longueira Montes
|succeeded=Jaime Bellolio Avaria
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=City Councilman of Buin
|terms=1996–2000
|preceded=-
|succeeded=-
}}
|religion=[[Catholic]] (Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement)
|party=Independent (2016-2019, since 2026) [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] (2019-2026) [[Independent Democrat Union]] (1996-2016)
|spouse=María Pía Adriasola
|children=9
}}
'''José Antonio Kast Rist''' (b. [[Santiago]], January 18, 1966) is the right-wing [[President of Chile|president]] of [[Chile]], Catholic, father of nine with Pía Adriasola, has a pro-life and conservative stance. He is also against illegal immigration built defenses at the border during his presidency. Founder of the Chilean [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]], he previously served as councilman and deputy.

== Political career ==
In 2017 he ran for president as a right-wing alternative to the [[establishment]] candidate [[Sebastián Piñera]] obtaining 7.93 % of the votes (4th place, 523,375 votes). In the second round, he supported Piñera to avoid another government of the Left. In 2018 he founded the [[Republican Action Movement]], in 2019 the Chilean [[Republican Party (Chile)|Republican Party]] and the think tank Republican Ideas.

In [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 he ran for president]] again being the right-wing candidate of the election and being the alternative from the center-right's Sebastián Sichel obtaining the first majority in first round with a 27.91 % of the votes (1,961,387 votes) and [[Gabriel Boric]] obtained 25.82 % (1,814,777 votes). But Kast lost the second round obtaining 44.13 % (3,650,088 votes) against 55.87 % (4,620,890 votes) from Boric.

José Antonio Kast has been falsely labeled as "far-right" by the media and the Left.<ref>Multiple references:
*{{cite web |title=Far right gains momentum in Chile's presidential elections |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/gains-momentum-chiles-presidential-elections-171216100010489.html |publisher=Aljazeera |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=16 December 2019}}
*{{cite web |title=Far-Right Party Of José Antonio Kast Frightens Chilean Rightwing |url=https://www.chiletoday.cl/far-right-party-of-jose-antonio-kast-frightens-chilean-rightwing/ |publisher=Chile Today |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=18 June 2019}}
*{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast, el Bolsonaro chileno que lidera las encuestas presidenciales|date=21 January 2019|publisher=Público|language=es|url=https://www.publico.es/internacional/chile-jose-antonio-kast-bolsonaro-chileno-lidera-encuestas-presidenciales.html}}
*{{cite web|url=https://www.telesurtv.net/news/extrema-derecha-presidencia-chile-20190611-0038.html|title=Extrema derecha aspira a presidencia de Chile ante inscripción de nuevo partido|published=TeleSur|date=12 June 2019|language=es}}
*{{cite web|url=https://identidades.com.ar/el-candidato-a-presidente-de-chile-jose-antonio-kast-y-su-relacion-con-los-judios-e-israel/|title=El candidato a presidente de Chile José Antonio Kast y su relación con los judíos e Israel|date=10 December 2021|language=es}}
</ref>

In 2023 he started supporting the change of [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|Constitution]] since [[Chile constitutional council election, 2023|his party won a significant minority]] in the institution illegitimatelly created to create a new Constitution back in May 2023.<ref>[https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/leftist-takeover-south-america-chilean-conservative-kast-throws/ Leftist Takeover of South America: Chilean Conservative Kast Throws in with Globalists]</ref> This was the reason why [[Johannes Kaiser]] ended up leaving the party to form his own with other former memebers of the Republican Party.

José Antonio Kast won the presidential election in December 2025 defeating his communist opponent by receiving 58% of votes and ending leftist domination of the country.

==Views==
[[File:José Antonio Kast Rist.jpg|thumbnail|left|150px|Kast in 2010.]]
He is [[pro-life]] and defends a smaller state with fewer taxes.<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast Proposals |url=https://www.servel.cl/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Programa_Jose_Antonio_Kast_Rist.pdf|language=es}}</ref> He is also against the [[Gender ideology]], he is pro-family, [[Nationalism|pronation]], and he is strongly [[Christian]]. Today he is the most important conservative politician of Chile, mostly because he has been shown as an alternative to the center-right coalition "Chile Vamos", however a lot of the members of his new party come from that coalition, and he has a lot of friends there, also he was member of the [[Independent Democrat Union]] for 20 years, one of the main parties of the coalition. JAK has criticized the immigration policies of the [[Michelle Bachelet]] government (2014-2018) which is considered to be a chaos since,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://santiagotimes.cl/2017/09/14/presidential-candidate-jose-antonio-kast-wants-to-reconstruct-chile/|title=Presidential candidate José Antonio Kast wants to ‘reconstruct’ Chile|date=September 14, 2017|publisher=Santiago Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=José Antonio Kast |title=Inmigrantes sí, clandestinos no |url=https://www.latercera.com/opinion/noticia/inmigrantes-clandestinos-no/137810/|language=es|publisher=La Tercera |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=19 April 2019}}</ref> not only a lot of them were [[Illegal immigration|illegals]] but also the immigrant population of Chile went from being 1% to 6.1% (1 million new immigrants in 4 years).<ref>{{cite web|language=es|url=http://www.diarioestrategia.cl//texto-diario/mostrar/1116871/chile-pais-americano-mayor-aumento-inmigrantes|title=Chile es el país americano con mayor aumento de inmigrantes|publisher=diarioestrategia.cl|date=9 November 2018}}</ref> However, during his 2021 second round campaign he published a poster saying "We are all migrants".

He supports a "responsible possession of weapons", not a the full right to wear arms everywhere (since is not a commons stance outside the United States).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2017/10/09/878437/Kast-defiende-tenencia-de-armas-para-civiles-El-delincuente-lo-va-a-pensar-dos-veces-antes-de-entrar-a-una-casa.html|title=Kast defiende tenencia de armas para civiles: "El delincuente lo va a pensar dos veces antes de entrar a una casa"|publisher=Emol|language=es|date=October 9, 2017}}</ref>

He supports what he considers the "good part" of the [[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)|Augusto Pinochet regime]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adnradio.cl/noticias/politica/kast-yo-no-soy-admirador-del-general-pinochet-soy-una-persona-que-defiende-el-gobierno-militar/20181009/nota/3809493.aspx|title=Kast: "Yo no soy admirador del general Pinochet, soy una persona que defiende el gobierno militar"|language=es|published=ADN|date=9 October 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/2018/09/10/video-el-dia-en-que-jose-antonio-kast-apoyo-a-pinochet-en-la-franja-del-si/|title=El día en que José Antonio Kast apoyó a Pinochet en la franja del SÍ|language=es|date=10 September 2018|published=El Desconcierto}}</ref> And thinks that [[Miguel Krassnoff]] is innocent.

He criticized the Second Piñera Government<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2019/04/29/jose-antonio-kast-no-se-la-deja-pasar-a-pinera-no-hay-manual-que-resista-tanta-torpeza-en-un-solo-viaje/|title=José Antonio Kast no se la deja pasar a Piñera: "No hay manual que resista tanta torpeza en un solo viaje"|language=es|published=El Mostrador|date=29 abril 2019}}</ref> for "not following the program of Government" but he also supported what he considered the "good policies of the government".

Similar to [[Donald Trump]], Kast proposed the construction of a ditch in the border with Bolivia to prevent illegal immigration from happening during the [[Chile presidential election, 2021|2021 Chilean Presidential Election]] and again in 2025.

Kast is also a huge supporter of [[Carabineros de Chile]] (Police) and the Armed Forces. In 2019 during the protests far-leftists attacked the police and Kast supported the Carabineros.

In the same election he won a lot of support in the Araucanía region since he strongly opposes [[Terrorism in the South of Chile and Argentina|terrorism attacks there]].

After he criticized COVID restrictions on July 2021, during the second round of the presidential election, he said he supported the infamous [[Vaccine passport|COVID vaccine passport]] (called ''Pase de movilidad'' in Chile) after he met with the former health minister of the Piñera Administration, Paula Daza.

==International alliances==
José Antonio is a supporter of [[Brazil]]'s [[Jair Bolsonaro]], endorsing his successful presidential candidacy in 2018.<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast tras la victoria de Jair Bolsonaro en Brasil: "El sentido común sigue triunfando"|date=October 28, 2018|language=es|publisher=T13|url=https://www.t13.cl/noticia/politica/Jose-Antonio-Kast-tras-la-victoria-de-Jair-Bolsonaro-en-Brasil-El-sentido-comun-sigue-triunfando}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eldinamo.cl/nacional/2018/10/30/jose-antonio-kast-los-triunfos-de-la-derecha-en-latinoamerica-favorecen-la-opcion-que-estoy-planteando/|title=José Antonio Kast: "Los triunfos de la derecha en Latinoamérica favorecen la opción que estoy planteando"|date=October 30, 2018|language=es|publisher=El Dínamo}}</ref>

Kast also met with [[Santiago Abascal]] from the conservative Spanish party [[Vox (Spain)|Vox]]<ref>{{cite web |title=José Antonio Kast es recibido en España por líderes del partido de extrema derecha Vox |url=https://www.24horas.cl/politica/jose-antonio-kast-es-recibido-en-espana-por-lideres-del-partido-de-extrema-derecha-vox-3407442 |publisher=24 Horas |accessdate=25 June 2019 |date=25 June 2019|language=es}}</ref> members of the [[Polish]] Party [[Law and Justice]], [[Viktor Orbán]] from the [[Fidesz]] Party, [[Giorgia Meloni]] from the [[Italian]] Party ''[[Brothers of Italy|Fratelli d'Italia]]'', the [[Dutch]] Party [[Forum for Democracy]], the Pro-[[Brexit]] [[British]] politician [[Daniel Hannan]] and other members of the [[Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe|European Conservatives and Reformists Party]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.radioagricultura.cl/internacional/2019/06/27/kast-se-reune-con-europarlamentarios-en-bruselas.html|title=Kast se reúne con europarlamentarios en Bruselas|date=June 27, 2018|publisher=Radio Agricultura|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latercera.com/politica/noticia/desde-roma-j-kast-balance-gira-europa-la-izquierda-se-ha-visto-sorprendida-despertar-del-sentido-comun/726677/|title=Desde Roma, J.A. Kast hace un balance de su gira por Europa: "La izquierda se ha visto sorprendida por el despertar del sentido común"|language=es|date=July 3, 2019|publisher=La Tercera}}</ref> He is also allied with Law and Justice from [[Poland]].

On December 2021 he met [[Marco Rubio]] at the [[Capitol]].<ref>[https://oicanadian.com/the-right-wing-candidate-jose-antonio-kast-went-on-a-tour-of-the-united-states-in-puebla-jose-luis-rodriguez-zapatero-showed-his-support-for-the-leftist-gabriel-boric/ The right-wing candidate, José Antonio Kast, went on a tour of the United States]</ref>

Kast was the president of the international conservative alliance [[Political Network for Values]] between 2022 and 2024.

==See also==
*[[Republican Party (Chile)]]
*[[Republican Action Movement]]
*[[Augusto Pinochet regime (Chile, 1973–90)]]
*[[Sebastián Piñera]]

==External links==
*[https://youtu.be/dSNq5P33abA Election Chile 2017: Exclusive Interview Jose Antonio Kast]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kast, José Antonio}}
[[Category:Chilean Politicians]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Pro-Life]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
[[Category:Guildists]]
[[Category:Neoconservatives]]
[[Category:Current Heads of State]]
[[Category:Current Heads of Government]]
[[Category:Presidents of Chile]]

Rodrigo Paz

2026-03-21T13:19:13Z

CatolicoAustral:

{{Officeholder
|name=Rodrigo Paz
|image=
|party=Christian Democratic Party
|spouse= Maria Elena Urquidi
|religion=Catholic
|offices=
{{Officeholder/president
|country=Bolivia
|number=68th
|terms=8 November 2025 – present
|vp=Edmand Lara
|preceded=Luis Arce
|former=n
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/misc
|office=Mayor of Tarija
|terms=30 May 2015 – 24 October 2020
|preceded=Oscar Montes
|former=y
|succeeded=Alfonso Lema
}}
}}

'''Rodrigo Paz Pereira''' (born 22 September 1967) is a Bolivian conservative politician who has been the 68th president of Bolivia since November 2025. He is son of former Bolivian president Jaime Paz (President of Bolivia from 1989 to 1993). Along with another conservative candidate Jorge Quiroga won first round in 2025 election and defeated incumbent president Luis Acre, Rodrigo Paz was able to win centrists then win election. His victory comes after protests in 2024 against corrupt socialist regime of Luis Acre and [[Evo Morales]]. Rodrigo Paz completed his studies in [[American University]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in international relations with a major in economics and a master's in political management which lead to move away from his father marxist beliefs.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paz, Rodrigo}}
[[Category:Current Heads of State]]
[[Category:Current Heads of Government]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Bolivia]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
[[Category:Mayors]]

Peru

2026-03-21T13:18:57Z

CatolicoAustral:

{{Country
|name =''Republica del Perú''
|map =Peru rel 06.jpg
|map2 =Peru1.png
|flag =Flag of Peru.svg
|arms =Arms of Peru.png
|capital =Lima
|capital-raw =
|government =Constitutional Republic
|government-raw =
|language =Spanish
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =José María Balcázar
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Luis Arroyo Sánchez
|pm-raw =
|conservative-leader=Keiko Fujimori
|conservative-leader-raw=
|area =
|pop =33,000,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$222,222,222,222 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc =$6,734 (2020)
|currency =Nuevo Sol
|idd =
|tld =
}}
'''Peru''' is an equatorial country in western [[South America]], bordering [[Ecuador]], [[Colombia]], [[Brazil]], [[Chile]], and [[Bolivia]]. The historic home of the [[Inca]] civilization, Peru attracts many tourists who visit the historic sites such as [[Machu Picchu]] and [[Sacsayhuamán]] near [[Cuzco]].

==People==
[[File:Peru-people.jpg|left|180px]]
Peru is the fifth most populous country in Latin America (after Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina). Twenty-one cities have a population of 100,000 or more. Rural migration has increased the urban population from 35.4% of the total population in 1940 to an estimated 74.6% as of 2005.

Most Peruvians are either Spanish-speaking mestizos—a term that usually refers to a mixture of indigenous and European/Caucasian—or Amerindians, largely Quechua-speaking indigenous people. Peruvians of European descent make up about 15% of the population. There also are small numbers of persons of African, Japanese, and Chinese ancestry. Socioeconomic and cultural indicators are increasingly important as identifiers. For example, Peruvians of Amerindian descent who have adopted aspects of Hispanic culture also are considered mestizo. With economic development, access to education, intermarriage, and large-scale migration from rural to urban areas, a more homogeneous national culture is developing, mainly along the relatively more prosperous coast. Peru's distinct geographical regions are mirrored in a socioeconomic divide between the coast's mestizo-Hispanic culture and the more diverse, traditional Andean cultures of the mountains and highlands.

==Government==
The president is popularly elected for a five-year term. A constitutional amendment passed in 2000 prevents reelection. The first and second vice presidents also are popularly elected but have no constitutional functions unless the president is unable to discharge his duties. The principal executive body is the Council of Ministers, comprised of 15 members and headed by a prime minister. The president appoints its members, who must be ratified by the Congress. All Executive laws sent to Congress must be approved by the Council of Ministers.

The legislative branch consists of a unicameral Congress of 120 members. In addition to passing laws, Congress ratifies treaties, authorizes government loans, and approves the government budget.

The judicial branch of government is headed by a 16-member Supreme Court. The Constitutional Tribunal interprets the constitution on matters of individual rights. Superior courts in departmental capitals review appeals from decisions by lower courts. Courts of first instance are located in provincial capitals and are divided into civil, penal, and special chambers. The judiciary has created several temporary specialized courts in an attempt to reduce the large backlog of cases pending final court action. In 1996 a human rights ombudsman's office was created.

Peru is divided into 25 regions. The regions are subdivided into provinces, which are composed of districts. High authorities in the regional and local levels are elected. The country's latest decentralization program is in hiatus after the proposal to merge departments was defeated in a national referendum in October 2005.

===Principal Government Officials===
*President—Dina Boluarte
*First Vice President—
*Second Vice President—''Vacant''
*President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister)—
*Foreign Affairs Minister—
*Finance and Economy Minister—
*Defense Minister—
*Ambassador to the United States—Hugo de Zela
*Permanent Representative to the United Nations—Manuel Rodríguez Cuadros
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States—Harold Forsyth

===Foreign Relations===
Peru generally enjoys friendly relations with its neighbors.

In November 1999, Peru and Chile signed three agreements that put to rest the remaining obstacles holding up implementation of the 1929 Border Treaty. (The 1929 Border Treaty officially ended the 1879 War of the Pacific.) In late 2005, a declaration of maritime borders by Peru's Congress set off a new round of recriminations with Chile, which claims that the maritime borders were agreed to in fishing pacts dating from the early 1950s. In contrast, the Garcia administration has recently made overtures to Chile, aimed at improving that relationship.

In October 1998, Peru and Ecuador signed a peace accord to resolve once and for all border differences that had sparked violent confrontations. Peru and Ecuador are now jointly coordinating an internationally sponsored border integration project. The U.S. Government, as one of four guarantor states, was actively involved in facilitating the 1998 peace accord between Peru and Ecuador and remains committed to its implementation. The United States has pledged $40 million to the Peru-Ecuador border integration project and another $4 million to support Peruvian and Ecuadorian demining efforts along their common border.

In 1998, Peru became a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, facilitating closer ties and economic relations between Peru and Asian nations. Peru will host the APEC Summit in 2008.

Peru has been a member of the United Nations since 1949, and is a member of the Security Council. Peruvian Javier Perez de Cuellar served as UN Secretary General from 1981 to 1991.

Peru maintains 210 troops in peacekeeping operations in Haiti under the UN's MINUSTAH.

====2022 US-backed coup====
The US ambassador in Peru, Lisa Kenna, worked for the [[CIA]] for 9 years, as well as the [[Pentagon]]. One day before the December 7, 2022 [[coup]] against [[democracy|democratically]] |elected President Pedro Castillo, Kenna met with Peru's defense minister, who then ordered the military to turn against Castillo.<ref>https://youtu.be/QhVdgvgCBtA</ref>

==Economy==
Peru's [[economy]] has shown strong growth over the past five years, helped by [[Market economy|market-oriented]] economic reforms and [[privatization]]s in the 1990s, and measures taken since 2001 to promote [[trade]] and attract [[investment]]. [[Gross Domestic Product|GDP]] grew 8.0% in 2006, 6.7% in 2005, 4.8% in 2004, 4.0 in 2003, and 4.9% in 2002. President Alan Garcia and his economic team have continued these policies. GDP is projected to grow by more than 7% in 2007. Recent economic expansion has been driven by [[construction]], [[mining]], export growth, investment, and domestic demand. [[Inflation]] is projected to remain under 2% in 2007, and the fiscal [[deficit]] is only 0.6% of GDP. In 2006 external [[debt]] decreased to $28.3 billion, and foreign reserves were a record $17.3 billion at the end of 2006.

Peru's economy is well managed, and better [[Taxation|tax collection]] and growth are increasing [[revenue]]s, with [[expenditure]]s keeping pace. Private investment is rising and becoming more broad-based. The [[government]] has had success with recent international [[bond]] issuances, resulting in ratings upgrades. The Garcia administration is studying decentralization [[initiative]]s, and is focused on bringing more small businesses into the formal economy.

===Foreign Trade===
Peru and the U.S. signed the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) on April 12, 2006, in Washington, DC. The PTPA was ratified by the Peruvian Congress on June 28, 2006, but has not yet been ratified by the U.S. Congress. On December 9, 2006, the U.S. Congress extended the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) as amended by the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA)--jointly referred to as ATPA/ATPDEA—through June 2007. On June 30, 2007, the President signed legislation extending ATPA/ATPDEA for an additional 8 months.

Peru registered a trade surplus of $8.8 billion in 2006. Exports reached $23.7 billion, partially as a result of high mineral prices. Peru's major trading partners are the U.S., EU, Chile and Japan. In 2006, 23.0% of exports went to the U.S. ($5.9 billion) and 16.0% of imports came from the U.S. ($2.9 billion). Exports include gold, copper, fishmeal, petroleum, zinc, textiles, apparel, asparagus and coffee. Imports include machinery, vehicles, processed food, petroleum and steel. Peru belongs to the Andean Community, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

===Foreign Investment===
The Peruvian Government actively seeks to attract both foreign and domestic investment in all sectors of the economy. The registered stock of foreign direct investment (FDI) is over $15.4 billion, with the U.S., Spain, and the United Kingdom the leading investors. FDI is concentrated in telecommunications, mining, manufacturing, finance and electricity.

===Mining and Energy===
Peru is a source of both natural gas and petroleum. In August 2004, Peru inaugurated operations of the Camisea natural gas project. Camisea gas is fueling an electricity generator and six industrial plans in Lima, with other facilities in the process of switching to gas. In a second phase, liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be exported to the west coast of the United States and Mexico. The gas and condensates from Camisea are equivalent to some 2.4 billion barrels of oil, approximately seven times the size of Peru's proven oil reserves. The Camisea project, when completed, is expected to gradually transform Peru's economy, catalyze national development and turn Peru into a net energy exporter.

Peru is the world's second-largest producer of silver, sixth-largest producer of gold and copper, and a significant source of the world's zinc and lead. Mineral exports have consistently accounted for the most significant portion of Peru's export revenue, averaging around 50% of total earnings from 1998 to 2005 and 62% in 2006.

==History==
===The Inca Empire and Spanish Conquest===
When the Spanish landed in 1531, Peru's territory was the nucleus of the highly developed Inca civilization. Centered at Cuzco, the Incan Empire extended over a vast region from northern Ecuador to central Chile. In search of Inca wealth, the Spanish conqueror [[Francisco Pizarro]], who arrived in the territory after the Incas had fought a debilitating civil war, conquered the weakened people. The Spanish captured the Incan capital at Cuzco by 1533, and consolidated their control by 1542. Gold and silver from the [[Andes]] enriched the conquerors, and Peru became the principal source of Spanish wealth and power in South America.

Pizarro founded Lima in 1535. The viceroyalty established at Lima in 1542 initially had jurisdiction over all of the Spanish colonies in South America. By the time of the wars of independence (1820–24), Lima had become one of the most distinguished and aristocratic colonial capital and the chief Spanish stronghold in the Americas.

===Independence===
Peru's independence movement was led by Jose de San Martin of Argentina and Simon Bolivar of Venezuela. San Martin proclaimed Peruvian independence from Spain on July 28, 1821. Emancipation was completed in December 1824, when Venezuelan General Antonio Jose de Sucre defeated the Spanish troops at Ayacucho, ending Spanish rule in South America. Spain subsequently made futile attempts to regain its former colonies, but in 1879 it finally recognized Peru's independence.

After independence, Peru and its neighbors engaged in intermittent territorial disputes. Chile's victory over Peru and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific (1879–83) resulted in a territorial settlement in which Peru ceded the department of Tarapaca and the provinces of Tacna and Arica to Chile. In 1929, Chile returned Tacna to Peru. Following a clash between Peru and Ecuador in 1941, the Rio Protocol—of which the United States is one of four guarantors (along with Argentina, Brazil and Chile)--sought to establish the boundary between the two countries. Continuing boundary disagreement led to brief armed conflicts in early 1981 and early 1995, but in 1998 the governments of Peru and Ecuador signed an historic peace treaty and demarcated the border. In late 1999, the governments of Peru and Chile likewise implemented the last outstanding article of their 1929 border agreement. Peru and Chile still dispute the sea boundary.

===Military Rule and Return to Democracy (1968-1980)===
[[File:ADRIAN AIRALDI Mujer de Jauja c. 1975.jpg|thumb|Mujer de Jauja by Adrian Airaldi, ca. 1975.]]
The military has been prominent in Peruvian history. Coups have repeatedly interrupted civilian constitutional government. The most recent period of military rule (1968–80) began when Gen. Juan Velasco Alvarado overthrew elected President Fernando Belaunde Terry of the Popular Action Party (AP). As part of what has been called the "first phase" of the military government's [[left-wing]] pro-[[Socialism|Socialist]] [[nationalism|nationalist]] program, Velasco undertook an extensive agrarian reform program, being the second most radical one in Latin America only behind Cuba; his government nationalized the fishmeal industry, some petroleum and mining companies, press and broadcasting media, and several banks; acquired Soviet military equipment for the Peruvian army; and established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, Eastern Bloc and USSR allies.

Because of Velasco's economic mismanagement and deteriorating health, he was replaced in 1975 by Gen. Francisco Morales Bermudez. Morales Bermudez tempered the authoritarian abuses of the Velasco administration and began the task of restoring the country's economy. Morales Bermudez presided over the return to civilian democratic government under a new constitution and in the May 1980 elections, President Belaunde Terry was returned to office by an impressive plurality.

===Instability in the 1980s (1982-1990)===
Nagging economic problems left over from the military government persisted, worsened by an occurrence of the "El Niño" weather phenomenon in 1982–83, which caused widespread flooding in some parts of the country, severe droughts in others, and decimated the fishing industry. The fall in international commodity prices to their lowest levels since the Great Depression combined with the natural disasters to decrease production, depress wages, exacerbate unemployment, and spur inflation. The economic collapse was reflected in worsening living conditions for Peru's poor and provided a breeding ground for social and political discontent. The emergence of the Maoist terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) in rural areas in 1980—followed, which had killed over 30,000 people during 1980s and 1990s; shortly thereafter by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in Lima—sent the country further into chaos. The terrorists were financed in part from alliances with narcotraffickers, who had established a stronghold in the Peruvian Andes during this period. Peru and Bolivia became the largest coca producers in the world, accounting for roughly four-fifths of the production in South America.

Amid inflation, economic hardship, and terrorism, the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) won the presidential election in 1985, bringing Alan García Pérez to office. The transfer of the presidency from Belaunde to García on July 28, 1985, was Peru's first transfer of power from one [[democratically elected]] leader to another in 40 years.

===The Fujimori Decade (1990-2000)===
Economic mismanagement by the García administration led to hyperinflation from 1988 to 1990. Concerned about the economy, the increasing terrorist threat from Sendero Luminoso, and allegations of official corruption, voters chose a relatively unknown mathematician-turned-politician, Alberto Fujimori, as president in 1990. Fujimori felt he had a mandate for radical change. He immediately implemented drastic economic reforms to tackle inflation (which dropped from 7,650% in 1990 to 139% in 1991), but found opposition to further drastic measures, including dealing with the growing insurgency. On April 4, 1992, Fujimori dissolved the Congress in the "auto-coup," revised the constitution, and called new congressional elections. With a more pliant Congress, Fujimori proceeded to govern unimpeded. Large segments of the judiciary, the military and the media were co-opted by Fujimori's security advisor, the shadowy Vladimiro Montesinos. The government unleashed a counterattack against the insurgency that resulted in countless human right abuses and eventually quashed the Shining Path and MRTA. During this time he also privatized state-owned companies, removed investment barriers and significantly improved public finances.

Fujimori's constitutionally questionable decision to seek a third term, and subsequent tainted electoral victory in June 2000, brought political and economic turmoil. A bribery scandal that broke just weeks after he began his third term in July forced Fujimori to call new elections in which he would not run. Fujimori fled the country and resigned from office in November 2000. A caretaker government under Valentin Paniagua presided over new presidential and congressional elections in April 2001. The new elected government, led by President Alejandro Toledo, took office July 28, 2001.

===The Toledo Administration (2001-2006)===
The Toledo government successfully consolidated Peru's return to democracy, a process that had begun under President Paniagua. The government undertook initiatives to implement the recommendations made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which had been charged with studying the circumstances surrounding the human rights abuses and violations committed between 1980 and 2000. Criminal charges for corruption and human rights violations were brought against former President Fujimori, who is in Chile fighting efforts to extradite him to Peru. Despite being a frequent target of media criticism, Toledo maintained strong commitments to freedom of the press.

Under President Toledo, Peru signed a Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA) with the U.S., to replace the Andean Trade Preferences and Drug Eradication Act, which was due to expire in December 2006. Toledo also unveiled the construction of a road that will connect Brazil and Peru's isolated interior to the Pacific coast.

Toledo's economic management led to an impressive economic boom in Peru that remains strong. Poverty reduction has been uneven, however. Although poverty in some areas has decreased by up to 37% over the last five years, nationally it has only decreased by 5% and over half of Peruvians are still considered to be living below the poverty line (living on less than $2 a day). In 2005 the government implemented "Juntos," a program to double the income of people living under extreme poverty (less than $1 a day).

===2006 Elections and Transition to the Garcia Administration===
On June 4, 2006, APRA candidate Alan García Pérez was elected to the presidency by 52.5% of the voters in his runoff with Ollanta Humala, who ran under the Union for Peru, with the support of his Peruvian Nationalist Party. With 36 seats, APRA has the second largest bloc—next to the Union for Peru Party's 45 seats—in the 120-seat unicameral Congress which was sworn in July 2006. After a disappointing presidential term from 1985 to 1990, García returned to the presidency with promises to improve Peru's social condition, balancing economic stability with increased social spending. His stated primary goal is to decrease poverty through job creation, especially in Peru's southern highlands where poverty is most acute. He has sought to improve relations with Peru's South American neighbors and with the United States, and to present Peru's democratic and pro-free trade path as a model for the region.

{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}

Source = [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35762.htm]

===2020 Protests===
However, the Communist [[Manuel Merino]] did a coup d'état<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/10/peru-coup-accusations-head-of-congress-made-president-predecessor-ousted</ref> against Martin Vizcarra, who called for no corruption.<ref>https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/peru-s-ousted-president-had-pushed-anti-corruption-efforts-what-n1247543</ref> Because of Merino, two protesters died, all for protesting the communist coup d'état.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/15/two-killed-as-huge-pro-democracy-protests-continue-in-peru</ref> Merino, despite being called by the big [[MSM]] as far-right, which means pro-Trump, recognized [[Nicolas Maduro]] and aimed to work with him to promote terror and Communism, and even praised him.<ref>https://elcomercio.pe/mundo/venezuela/nicolas-maduro-sobre-el-peru-les-podemos-mandar-a-juan-guaido-para-que-se-autoproclame-presidente-manuel-merino-renuncia-martin-vizcarra-videos-noticia/</ref> However, Manuel Merino resigned, then the centrist Francisco Sagasti took office, who spoke against pride.

===2021 Elections and fraud protests===
[[File:Keiko Fujimori.gif|thumbnail|150px|Keiko Fujimori]]
On June 11, 2021, Perú Libre (Free Peru) left-wing candidate [[Pedro Castillo]] was elected as president with the 50.1% of the votes in his runoff with the right-wing candidate [[Keiko Fujimori]], daughter of the former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori (who ruled from 1990 to 2000), who ran for the Fuerza Popular (Popular Force) political party. Shortly after the election results were revealed, Fujimori claimed that there was an [[election fraud]] by Pedro Castillo, and several protests were made after that. During the Castillo's administration, he planned a "Second Land Reform", as successor to the 1969 one; however, some Pedro Castillo's government officials and ministers have been linked with the Maoist terrorist organization Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path).

==See also==
* [[South America]]
*[[Gallery of South-American painting]]

*[[Christianity in South America]]
{{Nb countries south america}}

[[Category:Peru]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

Bolivia

2026-03-21T13:18:01Z

CatolicoAustral:

{{Country
|name = ''Plurinational State of Bolivia''
|map = Bolivia rel 2006.jpg
|map2 = Bolivia1.png
|flag = Flag of Bolivia.png
|arms = Arms of Bolivia.png
|capital-raw = [[Sucre]] (constitutional and judicial) [[La Paz]] (executive and legislative)
|government = Plurinational State
|government-raw =
|language = Spanish
|language2 = [[Quechua]], [[Aymara]]
|president = Rodrigo Paz
|president-raw =
|conservative-leader-raw=
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =
|pm-raw =
|area = 424,163 sq mi
|pop = 11,750,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp = $40,000,000,000 (2020)
|gdp-year =
|gdp-pc = $3,404 (2020)
|currency = Boliviano
|idd =+591
|tld =.com.bo
}}
'''Bolivia''' is a [[country]] in [[South America]]. Bolivia has two capital cities: La Paz (administrative) and [[Sucre]] (judicial). Bolivia is located southeast of [[Peru]], south of [[Brazil]], north of [[Paraguay]] and [[Argentina]], and east of [[Chile]]. It is notorious for its high consumption of coca leaves, which are used in the production of [[cocaine]]. The current president of Bolivia is [[Rodrigo Paz]].

Bolivia is divided into nine major political divisions, known as departments: [[Beni]], [[Chuquisaca]], [[Cochabamba]], [[La Paz]], [[Oruro]], [[Pando]], [[Potosí]], [[Santa Cruz]], and [[Tarija]]. Until recently, each department was governed by a prefect who was appointed by the president; however, this changed on December 18, 2005, when the first popular elections for prefects were held.

Bolivia's geography is very diverse, ranging from towering mountains in the west and south-west areas of the country to the [[Amazon]] jungle and savannas in the north to the [[Gran Chaco|Chaco]] and swamps in the east and south-east. In central Bolivia lies the [[Salar de Uyuni]] which is the world's largest and highest salt flat.

== People ==
[[File:La Morenada Mestizos Bolivia.jpg|left|260px]]
Bolivia's ethnic distribution is estimated to be 55% indigenous, 15% European, and 30% mixed or mestizo (self-identified). The largest of the approximately three-dozen indigenous groups are the Quechua (29% or 2.5 million), Aymara (24% or 2 million), Chiquitano (1% or 180,000), and Guarani (1% or 125,000). No other indigenous groups represent more than 0.5% of the population. There are small German, former Yugoslav, Asian, Middle Eastern, and other minorities, many of whose members descend from families that have lived in Bolivia for several generations.

Bolivia is one of the least-developed countries in South America. Almost two-thirds of its people, many of whom are subsistence farmers, live in poverty. Population density ranges from less than one person per square kilometer in the southeastern plains to about 10 per square kilometer (25 per sq. mi.) in the central highlands. The annual population growth rate is about 1.45% (2006).

La Paz is the highest of the world's capital cities—3,600 meters (11,800 ft.) above sea level. The adjacent city of El Alto, at 4,200 meters (13,800 ft.) above sea level, is one of the fastest-growing in the hemisphere. Santa Cruz, the commercial and industrial hub of the eastern lowlands, also is experiencing rapid population and economic growth.

The great majority of Bolivians are Roman Catholic (the official religion), although Protestant denominations are expanding rapidly. Many indigenous communities interweave pre-Columbian and Christian symbols in their religious practices.

About half of the people speak Spanish as their first language. Approximately 90% of the children attend primary school but often for a year or less. The literacy rate is low in many rural areas.

The cultural development of what is present-day Bolivia is divided into three distinct periods: pre-Columbian, colonial, and republican. Important archaeological ruins, gold and silver ornaments, stone monuments, ceramics, and weavings remain from several important pre-Columbian cultures. Major ruins include Tiwanaku, Samaipata, Incallajta, and Iskanwaya. The country abounds in other sites that are difficult to reach and have seen little archaeological exploration.

The Spanish brought their own tradition of religious art which, in the hands of local indigenous and mestizo builders and artisans, developed into a rich and distinctive style of architecture, painting, and sculpture known as "Mestizo Baroque." The colonial period produced not only the paintings of Perez de Holguin, Flores, Bitti, and others but also the works of skilled but unknown stonecutters, woodcarvers, goldsmiths, and silversmiths. An important body of native baroque religious music of the colonial period was recovered in recent years and has been performed internationally to wide acclaim since 1994.

Bolivian artists of stature in the 20th century include, among others, Guzman de Rojas, Arturo Borda, Maria Luisa Pacheco, and Marina Nunez del Prado. Bolivia has rich folklore. Its regional folk music is distinctive and varied. The "devil dances" at the annual carnival of Oruro are one of the great folkloric events of South America, as is the lesser known carnival at Tarabuco.

==Government==
The 1967 constitution, revised in 1994, provides for balanced executive, legislative, and judicial powers. The traditionally strong executive, however, tends to overshadow the Congress, whose role is generally limited to deliberating legislation initiated by the executive. The judiciary, consisting of a Supreme Court, an independent Constitutional Court, and departmental and lower courts, has long been plagued by corruption and inefficiency. Through revisions to the constitution in 1994, and subsequent laws, the government has initiated potentially far-reaching reforms in the judicial system.

For the first time in history, Bolivians chose their departmental prefects (similar to governors) by popular vote on December 18, 2005. Bolivia's nine departments received greater autonomy under the administrative decentralization law of 1995, although several departments—especially Santa Cruz and Tarija—are seeking increased autonomy. In a July 2006 referendum, Bolivia's four eastern provinces voted in favor of increasing regional autonomy, and the other five provinces opposed the measure. The autonomy movement rallied around Sucre's August 2007 demand that the constituent assembly consider moving all branches of government to the traditional capital. Civic committees in six departments (Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, Pando, Cochabamba, and Chuquisaca) supported hunger strikes and protests in Sucre, which led to Bolivian Government-sponsored talks between Sucre and La Paz leaders, which were inconclusive as of September 2007. Some government-aligned parliamentarians have advocated popular elections for the civic committees, which they claim disproportionately represent elite and opposition interests.

Bolivian cities and towns are governed by directly elected mayors and councils. Municipal elections were held in December 2004, with councils elected to 5-year terms. The popular participation law of April 1994, which requires a 20% allocation of national revenues to municipalities for discretionary use, has enabled previously neglected communities to make improvements in their facilities and services.

=== Principal Government Officials ===

*President—[[Rodrigo Paz]]
*Vice President—[[Edmand Lara]]
*President of the Senate—
*President of the Chamber of Deputies—

=== Foreign Relations ===
Bolivia traditionally has maintained normal diplomatic relations with all hemispheric states except Chile. Relations with Chile, strained since Bolivia's defeat in the [[War of the Pacific]] (1879–83) and its loss of the coastal province of Antofagasta, were severed from 1962 to 1975 in a dispute over the use of the waters of the Lauca River. Relations were resumed in 1975, but broken again in 1978, over the inability of the two countries to reach an agreement that might have granted Bolivia sovereign access to the sea. They are maintained today below the ambassadorial level.

In the 1960s, relations with Cuba were broken following Castro's rise to power but resumed under the Paz Estenssoro administration in 1985. Under President Morales, relations between Bolivia and Cuba have improved considerably, and Cuba has sent doctors and teachers to Bolivia. Relations have also improved with Venezuela, which has provided financial assistance to Bolivian municipalities, armed forces, and police since Morales took office. The Bolivian and Venezuelan Governments are also working closely together in the petrochemical industry, with plans to expand cooperation into the mining sector and advance the Venezuelan-sponsored [[Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas]] (ALBA) trade bloc. The Bolivian government announced it would pursue formal relations with Iran and Libya in September 2007, with plans to cooperate in the petrochemical industry and increase Bolivian exports to both countries.

Bolivia has pursued a foreign policy with a heavy economic component and the Morales government seems to be following in this same tradition. Bolivia has become more active in the Organization of American States (OAS), the Rio Group, and Mercosur, with which it signed an association agreement in 1996. Bolivia promotes its policies on sustainable development and the empowerment of indigenous people.

Bolivia is a member of the UN and some of its specialized agencies and related programs, the Organization of American States (OAS), CAN, Non-Aligned Movement, International Parliamentary Union, Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), World Trade Organization (WTO), Rio Treaty, Rio Group, Amazon Pact, and an associate member of Mercosur. As an outgrowth of the 1994 Summit of the Americas, Bolivia hosted a hemispheric summit conference on sustainable development in December 1996.

== Economy ==
Bolivia's estimated 2006 gross domestic product (GDP) totaled $10.3 billion. Economic growth was estimated at 4.5%, and inflation was estimated at 4.3%.

In 1985, the Government of Bolivia implemented a far-reaching program of macroeconomic stabilization and structural reform aimed at maintaining price stability, creating conditions for sustained growth, and alleviating poverty. The most important change involved the "capitalization" (privatization) of numerous public sector enterprises. Parallel legislative reforms locked in place market-oriented policies that encouraged private investment. Foreign investors are accorded national treatment, and foreign ownership of companies is virtually unrestricted in Bolivia. Many of these reforms are currently under review. Nationalizations have taken place in both the hydrocarbon and mining sectors, and the role of the state in the economy continues to be a primary goal of the Morales administration. Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows have dwindled as has long-term investment across most industrial sectors.

The hydrocarbon sector provides the most prominent example of the current investment climate. Bolivia has the second-largest natural gas reserves in South America. The Bolivian state oil corporation, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), has contracts to supply Brazil with natural gas through existing pipelines until 2019. Moreover, in 2006, YPFB signed a "ramp-up" contract with Argentina that steadily increases export levels until 2010, when gas deliveries to Argentina should be more than four times current levels. It does not appear, however, that Bolivia will be able to supply both the domestic market and these contractual obligations. Lack of investment has led to stagnating production. It is estimated that from 2006 to 2007 production will actually decrease slightly. Companies appear to be investing only what is necessary to maintain current operations.

In April 2000, massive protests over widely criticized plans to privatize the water utility in the city of Cochabamba erupted into massive nationwide violence. The government eventually canceled the contract without compensation to the investors, returning the utility to public control. International shareholders' outstanding claims were finally resolved in January 2006, when the Government of Bolivia agreed to purchase 80% of the shares in Aguas del Tunari, the joint venture company originally selected to manage the Cochabamba water concession.

Bolivian exports were approximately $3.7 billion for 2006, up from $652 million in 1991. Imports were $2.9 billion in 2006. Bolivia enjoyed a $500 million trade surplus in the first half of 2006. Bolivian tariffs are uniformly low (10%), with capital equipment entering duty-free or incurring 5% tariffs.

Bolivia's trade with neighboring countries is growing, in part because of several regional preferential trade agreements. Bolivia is a member of the Andean Community (CAN) and enjoys nominally free trade with other member countries (Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia). Bolivia is also an associate member of Mercosur (Southern Cone Common Market). The Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) allows numerous Bolivian products to enter the United States duty-free, including alpaca and llama products and, subject to a quota, cotton textiles. The Bolivian Government has expressed interest in extending ATPDEA benefits beyond their February 2008 expiration date (extended from June 2007).

In 2006, the United States exported $197 million of merchandise to Bolivia and imported $362 million. Bolivia's major exports to the United States are tin, gold, jewelry, and wood products, with textiles playing an increasingly important role. Its major imports from the United States are electronic equipment, chemicals, vehicles, wheat, and machinery. A bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between the United States and Bolivia came into effect in 2001.

Agriculture accounts for roughly 12.8% of Bolivia's GDP. The amount of land cultivated by modern farming techniques is increasing rapidly in the Santa Cruz area, where the weather allows for two crops a year. Soybeans are the major cash crop, sold in the CAN market. The extraction of minerals and hydrocarbons accounts for another 11% of GDP and manufacturing around 17%.

The Government of Bolivia remains heavily dependent on foreign assistance to finance development projects. At the end of 2006, the government owed $3.2 billion to foreign creditors, with 12% of this amount owed to other governments and the balance owed to multilateral development banks. Between 1986 and 1998, Bolivia attended seven rounds of negotiations with Paris Club creditors and received U.S. $1.35 billion of bilateral debt forgiveness. The United States forgave almost all of Bolivia's bilateral debt between 1999 and 2002 and strongly supported efforts to have multilateral institutions do the same. Bolivia received U.S. $1.95 billion in debt relief from HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) I in 1998 and HIPC II in 2001, including almost complete bilateral debt forgiveness.

In June 2005, the G-8 countries decided to provide renewed World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) debt relief for the 18 participant nations of HIPC I and II through the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). Bolivia received the U.S. $232.5 million in debt relief from the IMF in January 2006 and the approximately U.S. $1.5 billion in debt relief from the World Bank in June 2006. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) forgave $1 billion in debt in March 2007. Bolivia was one of three countries in the Western Hemisphere selected for eligibility for the Millennium Challenge Account in 2004. Bolivia qualified again in 2005 and 2006 and presented a proposal to the Millennium Challenge Corporation in December 2005, which has been superseded by a new proposal submitted in September 2007.

== History ==
[[File:Bolivar.jpg|thumb|[[Simon Bolivar]].]]
The Andean region probably has been inhabited for some 20,000 years. Beginning about the 2nd century B.C., the Tiwanakan culture developed at the southern end of Lake Titicaca. This culture, centered around and named for the great city of Tiwanaku, developed advanced architectural and agricultural techniques before it disappeared around 1200 A.D., probably because of extended drought. Roughly contemporaneous with the Tiwanakan culture, the Moxos in the eastern lowlands and the Mollos north of present-day La Paz also developed advanced agricultural societies that had dissipated by the 13th century. In about 1450, the Quechua-speaking Incas entered the area of modern highland Bolivia and added it to their empire. They controlled the area until the Spanish conquest in 1525.

During most of the Spanish colonial period, this territory was called "Upper Peru" or "Charcas" and was under the authority of the Viceroy of Lima. Local government came from the Audiencia de Charcas located in Chuquisaca (La Plata—modern Sucre). Bolivian silver mines produced much of the Spanish empire's wealth, and Potosi, site of the famed Cerro Rico--"Rich Mountain"—was, for many years, the largest city in the Western Hemisphere. As Spanish royal authority weakened during the Napoleonic wars, sentiment against colonial rule grew. Independence was proclaimed in 1809, but 16 years of struggle followed before the establishment of the republic, named for Simon Bolivar, on August 6, 1825.

Independence did not bring stability. For nearly 60 years, coups and short-lived constitutions dominated Bolivian politics. Bolivia's weakness was demonstrated during the [[War of the Pacific]] (1879–83), when it lost its seacoast and the adjoining rich nitrate fields to Chile.

An increase in the world price of silver brought Bolivia a measure of relative prosperity and political stability in the late 1800s. During the early part of the 20th century, tin replaced silver as the country's most important source of wealth. A succession of governments controlled by the economic and social elites followed laissez-faire capitalist policies through the first third of the century.

Living conditions of the indigenous peoples, who constituted most of the population, remained deplorable. Forced to work under primitive conditions in the mines and in nearly feudal status on large estates, they were denied access to education, economic opportunity, or political participation. Bolivia's defeat by Paraguay in the Chaco War (1932–35) marked a turning point. Great loss of life and territory discredited the traditional ruling classes, while service in the army produced stirrings of political awareness among the indigenous people. From the end of the Chaco War until the 1952 revolution, the emergence of contending ideologies and the demands of new groups convulsed Bolivian politics.

=== Revolution and Turmoil ===
The Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) emerged as a broadly based party. Denied its victory in the 1951 presidential elections, the MNR led the successful 1952 revolution. Under President Victor Paz Estenssoro, the MNR introduced universal adult suffrage, carried out sweeping land reforms, promoted rural education, and nationalized the country's largest tin mines.

Twelve years of tumultuous rule left the MNR divided. In 1964, a military [[junta]] overthrew President Paz Estenssoro at the outset of his third term. The 1969 death of President [[Rene Barrientos]], a former member of the junta elected president in 1966, led to a succession of weak governments. Alarmed by public disorder, the military, the MNR, and others installed Col. (later General) Hugo Banzer Suarez as president in 1971. Banzer ruled with MNR support from 1971 to 1974. Then, impatient with schisms in the coalition, he replaced civilians with members of the armed forces and suspended political activities.

The economy grew impressively during most of Banzer's presidency, but human rights violations and eventual fiscal crises undercut his support. He was forced to call elections in 1978, and Bolivia again entered a period of political turmoil. Elections in 1978, 1979, and 1980 were inconclusive and marked by fraud. There were coups, counter-coups, and caretaker governments.

In 1980, Gen. Luis Garcia Meza carried out a ruthless and violent coup. His government was notorious for human rights abuses, narcotics trafficking, and economic mismanagement. Later convicted in absentia for crimes, including murder, Garcia Meza was extradited from Brazil and began serving a 30-year sentence in 1995.

After a military rebellion forced out Garcia Meza in 1981, three other military governments in 14 months struggled with Bolivia's growing problems. Unrest forced the military to convoke the Congress elected in 1980 and allow it to choose a new chief executive. In October 1982–22 years after the end of his first term of office (1956–60)--Hernan Siles Zuazo again became president. Severe social tension, exacerbated by economic mismanagement and weak leadership, forced him to call early elections and relinquish power a year before the end of his constitutional term.

=== Return to Democracy ===
In the 1985 elections, the Nationalist Democratic Action Party (ADN) of Gen. [[Hugo Banzer|Banzer]] won a plurality of the popular vote (33%), followed by former President Paz Estenssoro's MNR (30%) and former Vice President Jaime Paz Zamora's Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR, at 10%). But in the congressional run-off, the MIR sided with MNR, and Paz Estenssoro was chosen for the fourth time as president. When he took office in 1985, he faced a staggering economic crisis. Economic output and exports had been declining for several years. Hyperinflation had reached an annual rate of 24,000%. Social unrest, chronic strikes, and drug trafficking were widespread.

In four years, Paz Estenssoro's administration achieved economic and social stability. The military stayed out of politics and all major political parties publicly and institutionally committed themselves to democracy. Human rights violations, which badly tainted some governments earlier in the decade, were greatly reduced. However, Paz Estenssoro's remarkable accomplishments were not won without sacrifice. The collapse of tin prices in October 1985, coming just as the government was moving to reassert its control of the mismanaged state mining enterprise, forced the government to lay off over 20,000 miners. The highly successful shock treatment that restored Bolivia's financial system also led to some unrest and temporary social dislocation.

MNR candidate Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada finished first in the 1989 elections (23%), though, again, no candidate received a majority of popular votes, so Congress determined who would be president. The Patriotic Accord (AP) between Gen. Banzer's ADN and Jaime Paz Zamora's MIR, the second- and third-place finishers (at 22.7% and 19.6%, respectively), led to Paz Zamora's assuming the presidency.

Paz Zamora was a moderate, center-left president whose political pragmatism in office outweighed his Marxist origins. He continued the economic reforms begun by Paz Estenssoro. Paz Zamora also took a fairly hard line against domestic terrorism, authorizing a 1990 attack on terrorists of the Nestor Paz Zamora Committee and the 1992 crackdown on the Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army (EGTK).

The 1993 elections continued the tradition of open, honest elections and peaceful democratic transitions of power. The MNR defeated the ruling coalition, and Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada was named president by a coalition in Congress.

Sanchez de Lozada pursued an aggressive economic and social reform agenda, relying heavily on successful entrepreneurs-turned-politicians like him. The most dramatic program--"capitalization," a form of privatization under which investors acquired 50% ownership and management control of the state oil corporation, telecommunications system, airlines, railroads, and electric utilities, with moneys directed to the pension system instead of the Treasury—was strongly opposed by certain segments of society, with frequent and sometimes violent protests from 1994 through 1996.

In the 1997 elections, Gen. Hugo Banzer, leader of the ADN, defeated the MNR candidate. The Banzer government continued the free market and privatization policies of its predecessor, and the relatively robust economic growth of the mid-1990s continued until regional, global, and domestic factors contributed to a decline in economic growth. Job creation remained limited throughout this period, and public perception of corruption was high. Both factors contributed to increasing social protests during the second half of Banzer's term.

Banzer instructed special police units to physically eradicate the illegal coca of the Chapare region. The policy produced a sudden and dramatic four-year decline in Bolivia's illegal coca crop, to the point that Bolivia became a relatively small supplier of coca for cocaine. In 2001, Banzer resigned from office after being diagnosed with cancer. He died less than a year later. Banzer's U.S.-educated Vice President, Jorge Quiroga, completed the final year of the term.

In the 2002 national elections, former President Sanchez de Lozada (MNR) again placed first with 22.5% of the vote, this time followed by coca-growing syndicate leader Evo Morales (Movement Toward Socialism, MAS) with 20.9%. The MNR platform featured three overarching objectives: economic reactivation (and job creation), anti-corruption, and social inclusion.

A four-year economic recession, tight fiscal situation, and longstanding tensions between the military and police led to the February 12–13, 2003, violence that left more than 30 people dead and nearly toppled Sanchez de Lozada's government. The government stayed in power, but was unpopular.

Trouble began again in September 2003 when a group of tourists became trapped in the town of Sorata. After days of unfruitful negotiations, Bolivian security forces launched a rescue operation, but on the way out, were ambushed by armed peasants and a number of people were killed on both sides. The incident ignited passions throughout the highlands and united a loose coalition of protestors to pressure the government into halting the proposed project to export liquefied natural gas, most likely through Chile. Anti-Chile sentiment and memories of three major cycles of non-renewable commodity exports (silver through the 19th century, guano and rubber later in that century, and tin in the 20th century) touched a nerve with many citizens. Tensions grew and La Paz was subjected to protesters' blockades. Violent confrontations ensued, and most of the approximately 60 deaths occurred when security forces tried to bring supplies into the besieged city.

In the end, large demonstrations forced Sanchez de Lozada to resign on October 17, 2003. Vice President Carlos Mesa Gisbert assumed office and restored order. Mesa appointed a non-political cabinet and promised to revise the constitution through a constituent assembly, revise the hydrocarbons law, and hold a binding referendum on the country's natural gas deposits. The referendum took place on July 18, 2004, and Bolivians voted overwhelmingly in favor of the development of the nation's hydrocarbons resources. But the referendum did not end social unrest. Large-scale protests led to Congress approving a confiscatory hydrocarbons law on May 17, 2005. After a brief pause, demonstrations resumed, particularly in La Paz and El Alto. President Mesa offered his resignation on June 6, and Eduardo Rodriguez, the president of the Supreme Court, assumed office in a constitutional transfer of power. Rodriguez announced that he was a transitional president, and called for early elections within six months.

=== Morales Administration (2006–2019) ===
[[File:Evo Morales C Fernandez y F Lugo.jpg|right|thumb|350px|Morales with the then presidents of Argentina and Paraguay (both socialists).]]
On December 18, 2005, MAS candidate Juan Evo Morales Ayma was elected to the presidency by 54% of the voters. During his campaign, Morales, a coca union leader of indigenous descent, vowed to nationalize hydrocarbons and alleviate poverty and discrimination toward indigenous people. Morales was and remains highly critical of the "neo-liberal" economic policies that have been implemented in Bolivia over the past several decades. On January 22, 2006, Morales and his Vice President Alvaro García Linera was inaugurated into office.

Since then, President Morales has moved to fulfill his campaign promises, including raising the ceiling for licit coca cultivation from 12,000 hectares to 20,000 hectares. On May 1, 2006, the government issued a decree "nationalizing" the hydrocarbons sector and calling for the renegotiation of contracts with hydrocarbons companies. In November 2006, the government and companies signed new contracts that should result in higher revenues for the government; however, vagaries in the contracts are requiring further negotiations and clarification. Morales has continued to promote greater state control of natural resource industries, particularly hydrocarbons and mining (see Economy section.) These policies have pleased Morales' supporters, but have complicated Bolivia's relations with some of its neighboring countries, foreign investors, and members of the international community.
Under the leadership of Morales and his institution of socialist-oriented economic policies, Bolivia's GDP grew an average of 4.8% a year from 2004 to 2017, while the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty was more than halved from approximately 36% down to 17% during that time. This extremely-rare success of socialist economic policies earned Morales massive public support. However, his massive economic success came at a major cost to the natural environmental splendor of Bolivia, as he prioritized Economic gain above the environment. His encouragement of slash-and-burn farming has led to large wildfires that devastated the delicate forest ecosystems of the Bolivian Amazon, with more than 250,000 acres of forest lost of fire.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/11/26/781199250/how-evo-morales-made-bolivia-a-better-place-before-he-was-forced-to-flee|title=How Evo Morales Made Bolivia A Better Place ... Before He Fled The Country|date=November 26, 2019|publisher=NPR|language=en}}</ref>

President Morales also secured passage of legislation convoking a special election for delegates to a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. The MAS performed well in those elections, capturing 137 of 255 seats. The assembly convened on August 6, 2006, and planned to complete its work by August 2007; however, the Bolivian Congress extended its mandate to December 14, 2007. The assembly has made little progress to date, largely due to a political deadlock over the constituent assembly's voting rules. Although rules were ostensibly clarified in February 2007, the subject reemerged in August, after the legality of a vote to exclude the location of the capital was contested by the opposition. As of September 2007, the constituent assembly was in recess until October.

In Dec. 2009 President far-left [[Evo Morales]] won a second term by a landslide, with 61% of the vote; his '''Movement to Socialism''' party won a two-thirds majority in Congress. The results allow him to implement a new constitution granting new rights to indigenous peoples and to strengthen state control over the economy, which conservatives have denounced as socialism similar to that of [[Hugo Chavez]] in [[Venezuela]].<ref>see [https://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_ID=15065929 '"Economist'' report]</ref>

In 2019, Morales won the presidential election again, though his opponents alleged widespread fraud. This led to widespread protests which led to him fleeing the country, an event some of which have called a coup.<ref>Machicao, Monica; Ramos, Daniel; Limchi, Sergio (November 10, 2019). [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-election-democracy/bolivia-is-shattered-election-crisis-leaves-deeply-divided-nation-idUSKBN1XK0K0 'Bolivia is shattered': Election crisis leaves deeply divided nation]. ''Reuters''. Retrieved November 10, 2019.</ref> Amid massive anti-Morales protests, the military called on him to step down and members of the police joined the protestors.<ref>Multiple references:
*Ramos, Daniel; Machicao, Monica (November 10, 2019). [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-election/bolivias-morales-teeters-as-allies-resign-in-election-backlash-idUSKBN1XK07T Bolivia's military calls on Morales to step down as election fallout widens]. ''Reuters''. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
*Ramos, Daniel (November 9, 2019). [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-election/bolivian-government-decries-coup-as-some-police-join-protests-idUSKBN1XJ0A2 Bolivia military says won't 'confront' the people as pressure on Morales builds]. ''Reuters''. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
*Phillips, Morgan (November 10, 2019). [https://www.foxnews.com/world/police-join-protesters-abandon-their-posts-outside-bolivias-presidential-palace Police join protesters, abandon their posts outside Bolivia's presidential palace]. ''Fox News''. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
*[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-election/bolivian-police-seen-joining-scattered-anti-morales-protests-idUSKBN1XI20M Bolivian police seen joining scattered anti-Morales protests]. ''Reuters''. November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 10, 2019.</ref> On November 10, 2019, under heavy pressure and without support, Morales announced he would resign.<ref>Multiple references:
*Bowden, John (November 10, 2019). [https://thehill.com/policy/international/469821-bolivian-president-announces-resignation-amid-protests Bolivian president announces resignation amid protests]. ''The Hill''. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
*Miles, Frank (November 10, 2019). [https://www.foxnews.com/world/bolivia-president-evo-morales-resigns-election-fraud-allegations Bolivia's socialist President Evo Morales resigns amid election fraud allegations]. ''Fox News''. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
*Halaschak, Zachary; Becker, Carlin (November 10, 2019). [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/bolivian-president-announces-resignation-after-weeks-of-protests ‘This is not Venezuela!’: Socialist leader of Bolivia Evo Morales resigns as protests roil nation]. ''Washington Examiner''. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
*Forero, Juan; Dube, Ryan (November 10, 2019). [https://www.wsj.com/articles/bolivia-s-president-evo-morales-calls-for-new-presidential-elections-11573391449 Bolivian President Resigns After Re-Election Marred by Fraud Allegations]. ''The Wall Street Journal''. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
*Flores, Paola; Valdez, Carlos (November 10, 2019). [https://apnews.com/e4e1977c3e48426f927ce900d2818b4f Bolivia’s president resigns amid election-fraud allegations]. ''Associated Press''. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
*Ramos, Daniel; Machicao, Monica (November 10, 2019). [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-election/bolivias-morales-resigns-after-protests-lashes-out-at-coup-idUSKBN1XK07T Bolivia's Morales resigns after protests, lashes out at 'coup']. ''Reuters''. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
See also:
*Berwick, Angus (November 10, 2019). [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-election-latam/resignation-of-morales-last-of-pink-tide-polarizes-latin-america-idUSKBN1XK0NW Resignation of Morales, last of 'pink tide,' polarizes Latin America]. ''Reuters''. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
*Otis, John; Forero, Juan (November 11, 2019). [https://www.wsj.com/articles/bolivians-celebrate-or-protest-after-president-resigns-11573488650 Bolivia Leaderless After President Quits]. ''The Wall Street Journal''. Retrieved November 11, 2019.
*Slattery, Gram (November 14, 2019). [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-election-ticktock-insight/how-evo-morales-lost-control-of-bolivia-idUSKBN1XO2PQ How Evo Morales lost control of Bolivia]. ''Reuters''. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
*Humire, Joseph M. (December 1, 2019). [https://thehill.com/opinion/international/472356-dispelling-myths-about-the-battle-for-democracy-in-bolivia Dispelling myths about the battle for democracy in Bolivia]. ''The Hill''. Retrieved December 1, 2019.</ref>

=== Jeanine Áñez transitional government (2019–2020) ===
[[File:Jeanine Áñez.jpg|thumbnail|150px|[[Jeanine Áñez]], Conservative Interim President of Bolivia.]]
In November 2019 the [[right-wing]] [[conservative]] senator [[Jeanine Áñez]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/16/world/americas/bolivia-anez-morales.html|title=In Bolivia, Interim Leader Sets Conservative, Religious Tone|publisher= The New York Times|date=November 26, 2019}}</ref> became interim President of Bolivia. During her first day in office she took a [[Bible]] to the presidential office in a sign of God returning to the government after the previous one only venerated Indigenous gods.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-50425098|title=Renuncia de Evo Morales: 4 símbolos con los que la presidenta en funciones de Bolivia quiere diferenciarse del gobierno de Morales|date=November 14, 2019|publisher=BBC World|language=es}}</ref>

She openly denounces Socialists and said that they always want to perpetuate in power.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://youtu.be/2bQpr8_9itI|title=Jeanine Áñez: Don Evo Morales es un estafador de la democracia|date=November 12, 2019|publisher=CNN|language=es}}</ref>

She also implemented a flag in the representation of the Eastern part of Bolivia, and changed the official newspaper (used in Evo's government as propaganda) name from ''Cambio'' to ''Bolivia''.

Áñez gave more power to the military to control the situation in the country, however, she was widely criticized domestically as well as internationally for major human rights abuses against the native Indigenous population, of which were major supporters of former president Morales.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.clarin.com/mundo/bolivia-decreto-jeanine-anez-quitarle-responsabilidad-penal-fuerzas-armadas-protestas_0_AwNOgZKd.html|title=Bolivia: el decreto de Jeanine Áñez para quitarle la "responsabilidad penal" a las Fuerzas Armadas ante las protestas|publisher=Clarin|language=es|date=November 16, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The world’s as divided about Bolivia’s alleged coup as Bolivians themselves|url=https://qz.com/1748281/experts-are-divided-on-evo-morales-and-bolivias-alleged-coup/|publisher=Quartz|date=November 15, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/bolivia-anez-celebrates-militarys-209th-anniversary/1646402|title=Bolivia: Anez celebrates military's 209th anniversary|date=November 15, 2019|publisher=AA}}</ref>

In October 2020 elections were made and the Jeanine Áñez Administration ended on November 8, 2020. The Elections resulted in a landslide victory for the Movimiento al Socialismo candidate, [[Luis Arce]], a former minister of the [[Socialism|Socialist]] [[Evo Morales]].

=== Luis Arce Presidency (2020–2025) ===

Luis Arce, a socialist-oriented economist-turned-politician from the Movimiento al Socialismo party, won the presidency in a landslide vote of 55% and began the path of undoing the changes that former president Áñez had on Bolivia.

In March 2021, the former interim President Áñez was arrested with the charge of 'sedition' after she tried to flee the country to Brazil via Private Plane.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bolivia-Jeanine-Anez-Prevented-From-Leaving-the-Country.-20201124-0015.html|title=JBolivia: Jeanine Anez Prevented From Leaving the Country|date=Nov 24, 2020|publisher=Telesur|language=en}}</ref> Other former government officials from her Administration are being prosecuted for alleged corruption as well as human rights abuses, including attempted genocide.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/23/bolivia-anez-genocide/|title=Anez genocide prosecution tests Bolivian justice under Arce|date=Aug 23, 2021|publisher=Washington Post|language=en}}</ref>

=== Rodrigo Paz Presidency (2025-) ===
His victory comes after protests in 2024 against corrupt socialist regime of Luis Acre and Evo Morales. Rodrigo Paz completed his studies in American University in Washington, D.C., where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in international relations with a major in economics and a master's in political management which lead to move away from his father marxist beliefs.

==See Also==
*[[Christianity in South America]]
== References ==
<references/>

{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}

Source = [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35751.htm]

{{Nb countries south america}}
[[Category:Bolivia]]
[[Category:Landlocked Countries]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Spain

2026-03-21T12:32:49Z

CatolicoAustral: /* See also */

{{Country
|name =''Reino de España''
|map =Spain rel82.jpg
|map2 =Spain location.png
|flag =Flag of Spain.png
|arms =Spanish arms.png
|capital =Madrid
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|government =Constitutional Monarchy
|government-raw =
|language =Spanish
|king =Felipe VI
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =Pedro Sánchez
|pm-raw =
|conservative-leader=Santiago Abascal
|conservative-leader-raw=
|area =195,364 sq mi
|pop =46,750,000 (2020)
|pop-basis =
|gdp =$1,400,000,000,000 (2020)
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'''Spain''' (Spanish: ''España''), officially the '''Kingdom of Spain''' (Spanish: ''Reino de España'') is a country located on the [[Iberian Peninsula]] in southwestern Europe, bordered by [[Portugal]] and the [[Atlantic Ocean]] to the [[west]], [[Gibraltar]] to the [[south]], the [[Mediterranean Sea]] to the east, and [[France]] and [[Andorra]] to the [[north]]. The Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla also border [[Morocco]] in Africa. Spain is a member of both [[NATO]] and the [[European Union]], and a [[United States of America|U.S.]] ally.

Spain has universal government-controlled health care which is virtually free to patients, at the expense of taxpayers. Its system is highly rated by [[liberal]] organizations, but fared very poorly during the [[coronavirus]] pandemic in 2020 with a mortality rate much higher than every country other than [[Italy]].
==People==
[[File:People of Spain.jpg|left|240px]]
[[File:Matador1.jpg|thumbnail|[[Bullfighting]] in Spain.]]
Spain's [[population density]], lower than that of most European countries, is roughly equivalent to [[New England]]'s. In recent years, following a longstanding pattern in the rest of Europe, [[rural]] populations are moving to [[cities]]. [[Urban]] areas are also experiencing a significant increase in [[immigrant]] populations, chiefly from [[North Africa]], [[America (continent)|America]], and [[Eastern Europe]]. Distinct ethnic groups within Spain include the Basques, Catalans, and Galicians. They compromise 91% of the population, 8% are Eastern European immigrants and North Africans number roughly 1%.

Spain has no official [[religion]]. The constitution of 1978 disestablished the [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic Church]] as the official state religion, while recognizing the role it plays in Spanish society. More than 70% of the population is at least nominally Catholic. Among the remaining population, there are about 1.2 million evangelical Christians and other Protestants (2006 est.), 1 million Muslims (2006 est.) and 48,000 Jews (2006 est.).

====Educational system====
About 70% of Spain's student population attends public schools or universities. The remainder attend private schools or universities, the great majority of which are operated by the Catholic Church. Compulsory education begins with primary school or general basic education for ages 6–16. It is free in public schools and in many private schools, most of which receive government subsidies. Following graduation, students attend either a secondary school offering a general high school diploma or a school of professional education (corresponding to grades 9-12 in the United States) offering a vocational training program. The Spanish university system offers degree and post-graduate programs in all fields—law, sciences, humanities, and medicine—and the superior technical schools offer programs in engineering and architecture.

==Government and political landscape==
[[File:Francisco Franco.jpg|thumb|left|Francisco Franco.]]

Parliamentary democracy was restored following the death of General [[Francisco Franco]] in 1975, who had ruled since the end of the civil war in 1939. [[Luis Carrero Blanco]], was designed by Franco to be the successor as the Head of Government, while [[Juan Carlos]] was designed as King and therefore, Head of State. In 1973 Carrero Blanco was assassinated by the terrorist organization [[ETA]] by blowing out his car after he attended Holy Mass, investigations claim that it happened with the help of the [[CIA]]<ref>[https://theobjective.com/espana/pais-vasco/2023-04-01/cia-espias-pnv-asesinato-carrero/ La CIA, los espías del PNV y el asesinato de Carrero Blanco]</ref><ref>[https://www.amazon.es/%C2%A1Fue-CIA-est%C3%BApidos-cumplirse-aniversario/dp/8419074446 ¡Fue la CIA, estúpidos!: A punto de cumplirse su 48 aniversario: La muerte de Carrero Blanco cambió la historia de España, 2021, Amadeo Martínez Inglés]</ref> by commandment of [[Kissinger]],<ref>[https://www.elotropais.com/index.php/reportajes-estenumero-42/313-kissinger-en-el-asesinato-de-carrero-n-59 Kissinger en el asesinato de Carrero (nº 59)]</ref> since Carrero Blanco wanted Spain to have Nuclear Weapons, maintain its system without a liberal democracy and to not join NATO, after the assassination, the destiny of Spain was changed forever.

The 1978 constitution established Spain as a parliamentary monarchy, with the prime minister responsible to the bicameral Cortes (Congress of Deputies and Senate) elected every 4 years. On February 23, 1981, rebel pro-Franco elements among the security forces seized the Cortes and tried to impose a military-backed government. However, the great majority of the military forces remained loyal to King [[Juan Carlos]], who used his personal authority to put down the bloodless coup attempt. The CIA shaped Spain as a liberal democracy with the help of King Juan Carlos who changed the political system that he was supposed to continue.

In October 1982, the Spanish [[Socialist]] Workers Party (PSOE), led by [[Felipe Gonzalez]], swept both the Congress of Deputies and Senate, winning an absolute majority. Gonzalez and the PSOE ruled for the next 13 years. During that period, Spain joined the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] ([[NATO]]) and the [[European Community]].

In March 1996, [[Jose Maria Aznar]]'s Popular Party (PP) won a plurality of votes. Aznar moved to decentralize powers to the regions and liberalize the [[economy]], with a program of privatization, labor market reform, and measures designed to increase [[competition]] in selected markets. During Aznar's first term, Spain fully integrated into European institutions, qualifying for the European Monetary Union. During this period, Spain participated, along with the [[United States]] and other NATO allies, in military operations in the former [[Yugoslavia]]. Prime Minister Aznar and the PP won reelection in March 2000, obtaining absolute majorities in both houses of parliament.
[[Image:Cantabria Santoña.jpg|thumb|240px|Santoña, Cantabria.]]
After the [[terrorist]] attacks on the U.S. on [[September 11, 2001]], Prime Minister Aznar became a key ally in the [[war on terror|fight against terrorism]]. Spain backed the military action against the [[Taliban]] in [[Afghanistan]] and took a leadership role within the [[European Union]] ([[EU]]) in pushing for increased international cooperation on terrorism. The Aznar government, with a rotating seat on the [[UN Security Council]], supported the intervention in [[Iraq]].

Spanish parliamentary elections on March 14, 2004 came only three days after a devastating terrorist attack on Madrid commuter rail lines that killed 191 and wounded over 1,400. With large voter turnout, PSOE won the election and its leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, took office on April 17, 2004. Carrying out campaign promises, the Zapatero government immediately withdrew Spanish forces from Iraq but has continued to support Iraq reconstruction efforts. The Zapatero government has supported coalition efforts in [[Afghanistan]], including maintaining troop support for 2004 and 2005 elections, supported reconstruction efforts in [[Haiti]], sent troops to UNIFIL in [[Lebanon]], and cooperated on counterterrorism issues and many other issues of importance to the U.S.

In 2005, the Spanish parliament approved a [[same-sex marriage]] bill.

The PSOE won a plurality of seats in the Congress of Deputies in the 2008 general election, leading to the second Zapatero government.

On November 20, 2011, the PP won a majority in the Congress, and its leader Mariano Rajoy Brey took office as prime minister on December 21.

In June 2014 King Juan Carlos stepped down. As a result of it his son, Felipe VI is the king of Spain.<ref>http://online.wsj.com/articles/spanish-king-juan-carlos-to-abdicate-prime-minister-says-1401699434</ref>

The subsequent general election, held on December 20, 2015, had an uncertain result, with both the PP and the PSOE falling well short of a majority. Rajoy formed a caretaker government, but negotiations among the four leading parties failed to reach an agreement. A snap election held on June 26, 2016, resulted in a better result for Rajoy's PP but it was still short of a majority. The king gave Rajoy the mandate to form a government, but there was no clear path to a majority coalition or a minority government with outside support. Finally, after [[Pedro Sánchez]] was ousted as its leader, the PSOE agreed that enough of its deputies would abstain to allow Rajoy to win approval on October 26 to lead a new government with the support of the [[Citizens (Spanish political party)|Citizens]] and several minor regional parties.

The second Rajoy government lasted until June 1, 2018, when, amid numerous accusations of corruption in the PP, it lost a vote of no confidence. Pedro Sánchez, who had again become leader of the PSOE, formed a minority government with support of the left-wing [[Unidos Podemos]] alliance and minor parties. In 2019 two general elections were held in which the political party [[Vox (Spain)|Vox]] gained seats in the Parliament. The party is the representative of Spanish Conservatism with its leader [[Santiago Abascal]].

In 2023 Pedro Sánchez perpetuated himself in the government by obtaining the votes of separatist parties, after losing the majority of the vote in the general election. Mass patriot protests erupt in what was called [[National November]].

===Local Government===
[[File:Plaza Virgen de los Reyes, Seville, Spain 2009.jpg|thumb|left|Plaza Virgen de los Reyes, Seville.]]
The 1978 constitution authorized the creation of regional autonomous governments. By 1985, 17 regions covering all of peninsular Spain, the Canaries, and the Balearic Islands had negotiated autonomy statutes with the central government. In 1979, the first autonomous elections were held in the Basque and Catalan regions, which have the strongest regional traditions by virtue of their history and separate languages. Since then, autonomous governments have been created in the remainder of the 17 regions. The central government continues to devolve powers to the regional governments, which will eventually have full responsibility for health care and education, as well as other social programs.

Spain is divided into [[political subdivisions of Spain|seventeen autonomous communities]] and two autonomous cities ([[Ceuta]] and [[Melilla]], which are in north Africa next to [[Morocco]]). The seventeen autonomous communities are further divided into fifty provinces.
{{Clear}}

===Terrorism===
[[File:ETA.jpg|thumb|Mural with the anagram of Batasuna.]]
The Government of Spain is involved in a long-running campaign against Basque Fatherland and Liberty ([[ETA]]), a [[terrorist]] organization founded in 1959 and dedicated to promoting [[Basque]] independence. ETA targets Spanish security forces, military personnel, Spanish Government officials, and politicians of the Popular Party and the Socialist Party (PSOE.) The group has carried out numerous bombings against Spanish Government facilities and economic targets, including a car bomb assassination attempt on then-opposition leader Aznar in 1995, in which his armored car was destroyed but he was unhurt. The Spanish Government attributes over 800 deaths to ETA terrorism since its campaign of violence began. In recent years, the government has had more success in controlling ETA, due in part to increased security cooperation with [[French]] authorities.

In November 1999, ETA ended a cease-fire it declared in September 1998. Following the end of that ceasefire, ETA conducted a campaign of violence and has been blamed for the deaths of some 46 Spanish citizens and officials. Each attack has been followed by massive anti-ETA demonstrations around the country, clearly demonstrating that the majority of Spaniards, including the majority of Spain's Basque populace, have no tolerance for continued ETA violence. In March 2006, ETA declared another ceasefire, which it ended in June 2007. The government continues to pursue vigorous counterterrorist policy and has worked closely with its international allies to foil several suspected ETA attacks.

Spain also contends with a resistance group, commonly known as GRAPO. GRAPO is an urban left-wing terrorist group that seeks to overthrow the Spanish Government and establish a Marxist state. It opposes Spanish participation in NATO and U.S. military presence in Spain and has a long history of assassinations, bombings, and kidnappings mostly against Spanish interests during the 1970s and 1980s.

In a June 2000 communique following the explosions of two small devices in Barcelona, GRAPO claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks throughout Spain during the past year. These attacks included two failed armored car robberies, one in which two security officers died, and four bombings of political party offices during the 1999/2000 election campaign. In 2002 and 2003, Spanish and French authorities were successful in hampering the organization's activities through sweeping arrests, including some of the group's leadership.

[[Al Qaeda]] is known to operate cells in Spain. On March 11, 2004, only three days before national elections, 10 bombs were detonated on crowded commuter trains during rush hour. Three were deactivated by security forces and one was found unexploded. Evidence quickly surfaced that [[jihad]]ist [[terrorist]]s with possible ties to the Al Qaeda network were responsible for the attack that killed 191 people. Spanish investigative services and the judicial system have aggressively sought to arrest and prosecute suspected Al Qaeda members and actively cooperate with foreign governments to diminish the transnational terrorist threat. A Spanish court convicted 18 individuals in September 2005 for their role in supporting Al Qaeda, and Spanish police disrupted numerous [[Islamist]] extremist cells operating in the country. The trial against 29 people for their alleged participation in the Madrid March 11, 2004 terrorist attack started in February 2007, and was declared ready for judgment at the end of June. One of the 29 was absolved during the trial. The prosecutor asked for sentences as high as 30,000 years of jail for some of them. The court is expected to issue the sentence sometime in October 2007.

===Principal government officials===
*Chief of State, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces—King Felipe VI
*President of the Government (Prime Minister)—[[Pedro Sánchez]]
*Minister of Defense—Margarita Robles
*Minister of Foreign Affairs—Miguel Angel Moratinos
*Ambassador to the United States—Carlos Westendorp y Cabeza

===Foreign relations===
After the return of democracy following the death of General Franco in 1975, Spain's foreign policy priorities were to review the status of its African colonies, expand diplomatic relations, enter the European Community, and define security relations with the West.
[[File:Monumento a Alfonso XII parque del Buen Retiro.jpg|thumb|left|270px|Monument to Alfonso XII, Madrid.]]
As a member of NATO since 1982, Spain has established itself as a major participant in multilateral international security activities. Spain's EU membership represents an important part of its foreign policy. Even on many international issues beyond Western Europe, Spain prefers to coordinate its efforts with its EU partners through the European political cooperation mechanism.

With the normalization of diplomatic relations with [[Israel]] and Albania in 1986, Spain virtually completed the process of universalizing its diplomatic relations. The only country with which it now does not have diplomatic relations is [[North Korea]].

Spain has maintained its special identification with [[Latin America]]. Its policy emphasizes the concept of Hispanidad, a mixture of linguistic, religious, ethnic, cultural, and historical ties binding Spanish-speaking America to Spain. Spain has been an effective example of transition from [[authoritarianism]] to [[democracy]], as shown in the many trips that Spain's King and Prime Ministers have made to the region. Spain maintains economic and technical cooperation programs and cultural exchanges with Latin America, both bilaterally and within the EU.

Spain also continues to focus attention on North [[Africa]], especially on Morocco. This concern is dictated by geographic proximity and long historical contacts, as well as by the two Spanish enclave cities of [[Ceuta]] and Melilla on the northern coast of Africa. While Spain's departure from its former colony of Western Sahara ended direct Spanish participation in Morocco, it maintains an interest in the peaceful resolution of the conflict brought about there by decolonization. These issues were highlighted by a crisis in 2002, when Spanish forces evicted a small contingent of Moroccans from a tiny islet off Morocco's coast following that nation's attempt to assert sovereignty over the island.

Meanwhile, Spain has gradually begun to broaden its contacts with Sub-Saharan Africa. It has a particular interest in its former colony of Equatorial Guinea, where it maintains a large aid program.

In relations with the [[Arab]] world, Spain has sought to promote European-Mediterranean dialog. Spain strongly supports the EU's "Barcelona Process" which seeks to expand dialog and trade between Europe and the nations of North Africa and the Middle East, including Israel. It is seen by some as too greatly favoring the European Union. Other proposals are on the table, including one put forward by French President [[Nicolas Sarkozy]] in 2007. The latest meeting on the Barcelona initiative was held on November 29, 2005.

Spain has been successful in managing its relations with its two European neighbors, France and Portugal. The accession of Spain and Portugal to the EU has helped ease some of their periodic trade frictions by putting these into an EU context. Franco-Spanish bilateral cooperation is enhanced by joint action against Basque ETA terrorism. Ties with the United Kingdom are generally good, although the question of [[Gibraltar]] remains a sensitive issue.

During the [[Russo-Ukraine war]], Russian radio pranksters Vovan and Lexus called mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida of Madrid pretending to be mayor [[Vitali Klitschko]] of [[Kyiv]]. They persuaded Martinez-Almeida to organize a [[gay parade]] in honor of [[World War II]] Ukrainian Nazi war criminal [[Stepan Bandera]]. Martinez-Almeida asked if Bandera himself would attend the parade, and expressed condolences to the Ukrainian side after learning that the "icon of the gay community" had already died. Martinez-Almeida also promised to send Ukrainian refugees to fight in Ukraine: "They should not rest on the beaches of Spain. Now their task is to die on the battlefield."<ref>https://youtu.be/HWIcDIrXFmE</ref>

===Military===
[[File:Spanish Minister of Defense.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Maragita Robles, Minister of Defense.]]
Spain has been a member of [[NATO]] since 1982.
{{clear}}

==Economy==
[[File:El Escorial Spain.jpg|thumb|left|320px|El Escorial, an important touristic site.]]
Spain's accession to the European Community—now European Union (EU) -- in January 1986 required the country to open its [[economy]] to [[trade]] and [[investment]], modernize its industrial base, improve [[infrastructure]], and revise economic legislation to conform to EU guidelines. In doing so, Spain increased [[gross domestic product]] ([[GDP]]) growth, reduced the national [[debt to GDP ratio]], reduced [[unemployment]] from 23% in 1986 to 8.47% in first quarter 2007, and reduced [[inflation]] to under 3%. The fundamental challenges remaining for Spain include decreasing unemployment further, reforming labor laws lowering inflation, and raising per capita GDP. Spain is currently the thirteenth-largest economy in the world.

Following peak growth years in the late 1980s, the Spanish economy entered into recession in mid-1992. The economy recovered during the first Aznar administration (1996-2000), driven by a return of consumer confidence and increased private consumption, although growth has slowed in recent years. Unemployment remains a problem at 8.47% (2007, first quarter), but this still represents a significant improvement from previous levels. Devaluations of the peseta during the 1990s made Spanish exports more competitive, but the strength of the euro since its adoption has raised recent concerns that Spanish exports are being priced out of the range of foreign buyers.

Following the financial problems starting in the [[USA]] the economy of Spain had serious problems. Like the US, it had a huge housing bubble. Unlike the US, the banking sector relied on small Cajas de Ahorros. When the housing market collapsed, most of the Cajas de Ahorros found themselves with red balance sheets, sparking the Spanish banking crisis. The collapse of the housing market also had a devastating effect on the construction and service sector. A surplus of housing also led to the collapse of prices in the rental sector.

Spain's public sector is proportionally smaller than most, including those of the US. Nevertheless, Mariano Rajoy's government has sought to privatize most of the remaining state-run sector while increasing subsidies to banks like Santander and Bankia and cutting investment in infrastructure. The cost of these reforms has further burdened the Spanish the economy, causing considerable social unrest as cuts to education and health start to bite people find less money in their pockets.

==History==
[[File:Testamento Isabel la Catolica PDWC.jpg|thumb|Will of Isabel I, Queen of Castile.]]
{{Main article|History of Spain}}
===Hispanic Catholic Monarchy===
The peoples, whatever their development, are sustained by their traditions, habits and customs. those who preceded us, in the Americas before the arrival of Spain, managed, thanks to this, to become a very important part of the Christian civilization, as firm guardians of its limits at the edge of the world. The first encounters, as always happened in history, had their altercations, but after getting to know each other, they built during three centuries an Hispanicamerican Empire of peace and prosperity. The indigenous peoples gained access to the improvement of sowing and cultivation, to water management, which is imperative to pass from the tribal state to the civilizing one.

They learned to write and to enrich their native languages. They enriched the Castilian languague by turning it into [[Spanish]], into a universal language. it was in the enveloping forge of those times that those peoples, freed from the most powerful tribes, chose to belong to that new way of seeing and feeling life, to the civilization of Jesus, "the good God", as the first indigenous people who freed themselves from the bloodthirsty despotism of the [[Aztecs]] and other tribes called him.

In those three centuries, the Spanish Catholic Monarchy, which was never called the Spanish Empire, because the faith unified in its diversities all the peoples that belonged to it, managed to maintain an impossible enterprise in a very long period of time, which can only be understood as a miracle germinated in a will of steel. The unity of these peoples by means of a Crown that represented a leap in their development and a spiritual elevation, fused in their souls the ''ethos'' and the ''tellus'', the being of their souls with their land, gave them the final meaning to their lives, consolidated the ''pathos'' that is the understanding with the other. If there is an aboriginal philosophy, it is an heir of Greece and Spain, which had integrated them into the world.

To be Spanish meant for them to understand what it means to be owners of their lands and builders of their destinies. One day, the mists of revolution intrude into that spiritual clarity that was in their lives, and with it they lose all their rights. From being owners of their lands they become permanent exiles, thus losing all dominion in the full sense of the word. They no longer have dominion over their lives. That is why the indigenous people of southern Chile said to [[Charles Darwin]] a few years after the secession of Hispanic America: "You see us as poor now, but it was not like that when we had our king".

That is the legacy of the "liberators": to have collaborated with little political awareness to a global and foreign strategy of domination over Hispanic America. Perhaps that is why Belgrano, Bolivar, San Martin and Aguinaldo expressed their regrets later.

In Asia they traded with the Spanish Currency, until the Empire disappeared and was replaced by the [[Pound|British Pound]] that took the Asian market and we with poverty disguised as freedom. Most of the Indians were loyal royalists, because they trusted more in their kingdom-to-kingdom pacts than in the promises of the criollos.<ref name=Lons>[http://comunidadhispanista.com/ Patricio Lons]</ref><ref>Suereños a las Armas, 2019, Ángelo Guiñez Jarpa</ref>

[[Image:Sorolla The Jota (Aragon ).jpg|thumb|left|The Jota (Aragon) by [[Joaquín Sorolla]]]]
The "Hispanic monarchy", ''rectius'' the "Catholic monarchy", as it was known, corresponds to Christendom.
Christianity, perhaps not to the greater Christianity of the so-called "media", but at least to another of smaller radius which, within a not so small world, wanted to continue to be a part of it. But at least to another of smaller radius that, in the bosom of a not so small world, wanted to continue the furrow of that one with the civilization of the Baroque.

It was, therefore, a reality of unequivocal political sign. it was broken, on both shores of the common nation, by the liberal revolution on the eastern side and on the western side - in addition - by the secession desired by England. those who opposed the first were called royalists and finally would be the Carlists. But the dynastic quarrel does not hide its moral and doctrinal entrails, which those who resisted the second did not always succeed in gauging. It was the success of the unholy enterprise that disjointed the cultural and political community.

Only time healed the wounds: thus emerged - as a substitute term - Hispanidad. which, excluding the political dimension, was based on deep religious, moral and cultural foundations. hence the so-called "patriots" continued to be the object of general worship. and also the "others", the creole realists, were forgotten. it is true that the Novogranadinian Luis Corsi Otálora, the Peruvian Fernán Altuve-Febres or the Rioplatean Manuel González have left us some valuable testimonies about them.<ref>Miguel Ayuso Torres (Madrid, 1961)</ref>

During this the late Dark Age, the [[Inquisition]]s started and would continue through the time of the Protestant Reformation and beyond. The medieval inquisition focused on rooting out Cathars, while the later inquisitions, such as the [[Spanish Inquisition]], focused on people who were believed to be secretly practicing [[Judaism]] or [[Islam]] following the [[Alhambra Decree|legally mandated]] conversion to Christianity of all Jews and Muslims remaining in Spain.

The Lepanto Battle was won by the Christian alliance against the Turks by praying the [[Rosary]], having the intersetion of the Virgin Mary.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cope.es/religion/vivir-la-fe/cultura-y-fe/noticias/lepanto-batalla-historica-que-gano-con-arma-rosario-20211007_265100|title=Lepanto: la batalla histórica contra los turcos que se ganó rezando el rosario|date=October 7, 2021|publisher=COPE|language=es}}</ref>

===Evangelization of the New Discovered lands by Spain===
[[Image:Hernán Cortés.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Hernan Cortés depicted in the conquest of Mexico and the liberation of Aztec victim Indigenous groups.]]
The [[History of Spain#Hispanic Catholic Monarchy|Spanish Empire]] converted into Catholicism the indigenous people of [[the Americas]] and the [[Philippines]], having the miracle of the [[Virgin of Guadalupe]] that helped to convert millions in the New Spain Viceroyalty ([[Mexico]] nowadays).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.religionenlibertad.com/cultura/374248359/virgen-guadalupe-aparicion-juan-diego-america-mexico.html|title=La Virgen de Guadalupe: ¿Cómo se apareció? ¿Qué hechos ocurrieron? ¿Cómo cambió el mundo?|date=December 11, 2023|publisher=Religión en Libertad|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/29884/el-misterio-de-la-virgen-de-guadalupe-mexicana.html|title=El misterio de la Virgen de Guadalupe mexicana|publisher=Catholic.net|language=es|author=P. Jorge Loring}}</ref>

The [[Catholic Monarchs]] asked the [[Salamanca]] University if the people of the [[New World]] were worthy of being evangelized, the answer was yes and this they were considered humans with a soul, like the Europeans. The ''Encomienda'' system was put in place, being reformed with the [[Burgos Laws]] against slavery.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.zendalibros.com/leyes-de-burgos-las-reales-ordenanzas-para-proteger-a-los-indigenas-del-nuevo-mundo/|title=Leyes de Burgos, las reales ordenanzas para proteger a los indígenas del Nuevo Mundo|date=Decemeber 27, 2023|language=es|publisher=Zenda}}</ref> Queen Isabel the Catholic prohibited slavery on June 20, 1500,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.acami.es/efemerides/20-de-junio-de-1500real-provision-de-isabel-i-de-castilla-prohibiendo-la-esclavitud/|title=20 de junio de 1500|publisher=Academia de Ciencia y Artes Militares|language=es}}</ref> following the Catholic doctrine and the advice of the Salamanca University.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.libertaddigital.com/cultura/2014-03-16/desmontando-la-falsa-leyenda-negra-de-isabel-la-catolica-1276513241/|title=Desmontando "la falsa leyenda negra" de Isabel La Católica|March 16, 2014|publisher=Libertad Digital|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.larazon.es/cultura/isabel-la-catolica-la-reina-que-libero-a-los-esclavos-KD24722080/|title=Isabel la Católica, la reina que liberó a los esclavos|date=February 28, 2019|language=es|publisher=La Razón}}</ref>

Thanks to the [[Conquistadors|Spanish Conquistadors]], human sacrifices made by the [[Aztecs]], [[Mayas]] and other groups ceased, having as allies other indigenous groups that were victims of the demonic system. [[Hernán Cortés]] liberated those groups with the help of them.

The Holy [[Inquisition]] was not applied to natives.

While the Church lost many souls in Europe, many more were gained in the Americas and the Philippines.

==The leisure activities==

The so-called national sport of Spain is the [[bullfighting]], although real national sport is Soccer (''Fútbol'').

[[File:Goya Jovellanos 1798.jpg|200px|center|Melchor de Jovellanos by [[Francisco de Goya]], 1798.]]

[[File:Boldini - Anita de la Ferie - The Spanish Dancer.jpg|thumbnail|300px|center| Portrait of Anita de la Ferie, 'The Spanish Dancer']]

==Politics==
In June 2024, Spain's conservative People's Party wins 34.2% of the vote, ahead of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Workers' Party.<ref>[https://www.maariv.co.il/breaking-news/Article-1106001 Drama in Spain: Pedro Sanchez's party is in second place], ''Maariv'', June 10, 2024..
<blockquote>
Spain's conservative People's Party wins 34.2% of the vote, ahead of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Workers' Party with 30.2%.

Almost all the votes have been counted. Recall that Sanchez recently called for the recognition of a Palestinian state and condemned Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip.</blockquote>

*Clara Preve, [https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/06/10/spain-centre-right-pp-beats-sanchez-socialists-by-slight-majority-exit-polls-say Spain: Centre-right PP beats Sanchez' socialists by slight majority, exit polls say], ''Euronews'', June 10, 2024</ref>

== See also ==
[[File:Goya Naturaleza muerta con frutas, botellas, panes, ca 1824-1826.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Francisco de Goya]], Naturaleza muerta con frutas, botellas, panes, ca. 1824-1826.]]
*[[Spanish Painting]]
*[[Gallery of Spanish Masterpieces]]
*[[Famous Spanish Artists]]
*[[Spanish Still Life Painting]]
*[[Spanish Golden Age]]
*[[Villán de Tordesillas]], the most right-wing town of Spain.

[[File:Zurbarán La defensa de Cádiz.jpg|thumb|left|[[Francisco de Zurbarán]], La defensa de Cádiz, 1634.]]
[[File:Estatua del papa Juan Pablo II en Alcala de Henares, España.jpg|thumb|250px|center|Sculpture of pope Juan Pablo II at Alcalá de Henares.]]
{{Clear}}

== External links ==

*[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sp.html Spain] CIA - The World Factbook.
*[http://www.okspain.org/ The Tourist Office of Spain]

==References==
<references/>

{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}

{{European Union}}

[[Category:European Countries]]
[[Category:NATO Members]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]
[[Category:Spain]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Spanish History]]

Villán de Tordesillas

2026-03-21T12:29:41Z

CatolicoAustral:

{{City
|name = Villán de Tordesillas
|country = Spain
|region = Castile and León
|settled =
|co-ordinates = 41°35′33″N 4°55′17″W
|population = 122
|area = 12.30 km² (4.75 sq mi)
|density = 9.92/km² (25.7/sq mi)
|mayor = José Vidal Adalia
|demonym =
}}
'''Villán de Tordesillas''' is a municipality and small town in the [[Province of Valladolid]], [[Castile and León]], Spain, with a population of 122 inhabitants (INE 2025). It is located about 30 km southwest of the city of [[Valladolid]], near [[Tordesillas]], in the Tierra del Vino region, an area traditionally linked to viticulture and cereal agriculture with an aging population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.democrata.es/en/elections-in-spain-and-in-the-world/elections-castilla-y-leon-2026/villan-tordesillas-village-for-very-right-wing-people/amp|title=Villán de Tordesillas, a village for very right-wing people|date=March 2026|publisher=Demócrata|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

The town has gained media attention for its strong and consistent support for right-wing and far-right political forces, diverging from national trends where [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|PSOE]] and [[Partido Popular|PP]] dominate.<ref name="OndaCero">{{cite web|url=https://www.ondacero.es/noticias/sociedad/historia-detras-villan-tordesillas-pueblo-mas-derechas-toda-espana-pueblo-falangista-deberia-seguir-siendolo_2026031869ba8fe5219e1f762b699286.html|title=La historia detrás de Villán de Tordesillas, el pueblo más de derechas de toda España: "Es un pueblo falangista y debería seguir siéndolo"|date=March 18, 2026|publisher=Onda Cero|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

== Politics ==
Villán de Tordesillas has historically voted overwhelmingly for right-wing options, often described by residents as a "falangist village" with a deep-rooted conservative culture.<ref name="OndaCero"/> In the Castilla y León regional elections of March 15, 2026, with 89 votes cast (83.17% turnout from a census of 107), the results were:
* [[Vox]]: 47 votes (52.8%)
* [[Partido Popular|PP]]: 28 votes (31.46%)
* [[Integralism|Falange Española de las JONS]]: 4 votes (4.49%)
* [[Se Acabó la Fiesta]] (SALF, party of Alvise Pérez): 4 votes (4.49%)
* [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|PSOE]]: 2 votes (2.24%)
* [[Izquierda Unida (Spain)|Izquierda Unida]]: 2 votes (2.24%)
* Others (e.g., MEV): 1 vote (1.1%)

Vox, PP, and Falange together accounted for nearly 90% of the votes, while left-wing parties received only 4 votes total.<ref name="OndaCero"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elmundo.es/elecciones/elecciones-castilla-y-leon/resultado/castilla-y-leon/valladolid/villan-de-tordesillas.html|title=Resultados de las Elecciones de Castilla y León en Villán de Tordesillas|date=March 2026|publisher=El Mundo|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

Residents express pride in this tendency: one neighbor stated, "De Falange de toda la vida" ("Falange all our lives"), while another affirmed they have "esa cultura" (that culture) and find it "perfecto" (perfect).<ref name="OndaCero"/> The village has been noted for having a Falange councilor in 2011, the only one in Spain at the time.

The mayor, José Vidal Adalia ([[Partido Popular|PP]]), and his son Juan (Vox voter) appeared on television explaining the split: in municipal elections, people vote for the person; in regional or national ones, "totalmente a la derecha" (totally to the right).<ref name="OndaCero"/> They do not view Falange as far-right, citing past local collaboration, and criticize the PP for shifting away from traditional right-wing positions. The mayor advocates an immediate PP-Vox pact for regional governments, while his son predicts the trend could spread nationally as older PP voters disappear and younger ones, influenced by social media rather than traditional TV, enter the electorate.<ref name="OndaCero"/>

A few left-wing voters exist: one resident said, "Seré la única que soy de izquierdas, soy de Pedro" ("I'll be the only one on the left, I'm for Pedro" — referring to PSOE).<ref name="OndaCero"/>

== Geography ==
The municipality covers 12.30 km² at an average elevation of 748 meters. It features typical Castilian rural architecture, with a town hall and historic buildings.

== See also ==
* [[Valladolid]]
* [[Tordesillas]]
* [[Castile and León]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.villandetordesillas.ayuntamientosdevalladolid.es Official municipal website]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Conservative]]
[[Category:Conservative Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Spanish Cities and Towns]]

Villán de Tordesillas

2026-03-21T12:29:13Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Politics */

{{City
|name = Villán de Tordesillas
|country = Spain
|region = Castile and León
|settled =
|co-ordinates = 41°35′33″N 4°55′17″W
|population = 122
|area = 12.30 km² (4.75 sq mi)
|density = 9.92/km² (25.7/sq mi)
|mayor = José Vidal Adalia
|demonym =
}}

'''Villán de Tordesillas''' is a municipality and small town in the [[Province of Valladolid]], [[Castile and León]], Spain, with a population of 122 inhabitants (INE 2025). It is located about 30 km southwest of the city of [[Valladolid]], near [[Tordesillas]], in the Tierra del Vino region, an area traditionally linked to viticulture and cereal agriculture with an aging population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.democrata.es/en/elections-in-spain-and-in-the-world/elections-castilla-y-leon-2026/villan-tordesillas-village-for-very-right-wing-people/amp|title=Villán de Tordesillas, a village for very right-wing people|date=March 2026|publisher=Demócrata|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

The town has gained media attention for its strong and consistent support for right-wing and far-right political forces, diverging from national trends where [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|PSOE]] and [[Partido Popular|PP]] dominate.<ref name="OndaCero">{{cite web|url=https://www.ondacero.es/noticias/sociedad/historia-detras-villan-tordesillas-pueblo-mas-derechas-toda-espana-pueblo-falangista-deberia-seguir-siendolo_2026031869ba8fe5219e1f762b699286.html|title=La historia detrás de Villán de Tordesillas, el pueblo más de derechas de toda España: "Es un pueblo falangista y debería seguir siéndolo"|date=March 18, 2026|publisher=Onda Cero|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

== Politics ==
Villán de Tordesillas has historically voted overwhelmingly for right-wing options, often described by residents as a "falangist village" with a deep-rooted conservative culture.<ref name="OndaCero"/> In the Castilla y León regional elections of March 15, 2026, with 89 votes cast (83.17% turnout from a census of 107), the results were:
* [[Vox]]: 47 votes (52.8%)
* [[Partido Popular|PP]]: 28 votes (31.46%)
* [[Integralism|Falange Española de las JONS]]: 4 votes (4.49%)
* [[Se Acabó la Fiesta]] (SALF, party of Alvise Pérez): 4 votes (4.49%)
* [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|PSOE]]: 2 votes (2.24%)
* [[Izquierda Unida (Spain)|Izquierda Unida]]: 2 votes (2.24%)
* Others (e.g., MEV): 1 vote (1.1%)

Vox, PP, and Falange together accounted for nearly 90% of the votes, while left-wing parties received only 4 votes total.<ref name="OndaCero"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elmundo.es/elecciones/elecciones-castilla-y-leon/resultado/castilla-y-leon/valladolid/villan-de-tordesillas.html|title=Resultados de las Elecciones de Castilla y León en Villán de Tordesillas|date=March 2026|publisher=El Mundo|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

Residents express pride in this tendency: one neighbor stated, "De Falange de toda la vida" ("Falange all our lives"), while another affirmed they have "esa cultura" (that culture) and find it "perfecto" (perfect).<ref name="OndaCero"/> The village has been noted for having a Falange councilor in 2011, the only one in Spain at the time.

The mayor, José Vidal Adalia ([[Partido Popular|PP]]), and his son Juan (Vox voter) appeared on television explaining the split: in municipal elections, people vote for the person; in regional or national ones, "totalmente a la derecha" (totally to the right).<ref name="OndaCero"/> They do not view Falange as far-right, citing past local collaboration, and criticize the PP for shifting away from traditional right-wing positions. The mayor advocates an immediate PP-Vox pact for regional governments, while his son predicts the trend could spread nationally as older PP voters disappear and younger ones, influenced by social media rather than traditional TV, enter the electorate.<ref name="OndaCero"/>

A few left-wing voters exist: one resident said, "Seré la única que soy de izquierdas, soy de Pedro" ("I'll be the only one on the left, I'm for Pedro" — referring to PSOE).<ref name="OndaCero"/>

== Geography ==
The municipality covers 12.30 km² at an average elevation of 748 meters. It features typical Castilian rural architecture, with a town hall and historic buildings.

== See also ==
* [[Valladolid]]
* [[Tordesillas]]
* [[Castile and León]]

== External links ==
* [Official municipal website](http://www.villandetordesillas.ayuntamientosdevalladolid.es)

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Conservative]]
[[Category:Conservative Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Spanish Cities and Towns]]

Villán de Tordesillas

2026-03-21T12:28:57Z

CatolicoAustral: /* Politics */

{{City
|name = Villán de Tordesillas
|country = Spain
|region = Castile and León
|settled =
|co-ordinates = 41°35′33″N 4°55′17″W
|population = 122
|area = 12.30 km² (4.75 sq mi)
|density = 9.92/km² (25.7/sq mi)
|mayor = José Vidal Adalia
|demonym =
}}

'''Villán de Tordesillas''' is a municipality and small town in the [[Province of Valladolid]], [[Castile and León]], Spain, with a population of 122 inhabitants (INE 2025). It is located about 30 km southwest of the city of [[Valladolid]], near [[Tordesillas]], in the Tierra del Vino region, an area traditionally linked to viticulture and cereal agriculture with an aging population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.democrata.es/en/elections-in-spain-and-in-the-world/elections-castilla-y-leon-2026/villan-tordesillas-village-for-very-right-wing-people/amp|title=Villán de Tordesillas, a village for very right-wing people|date=March 2026|publisher=Demócrata|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

The town has gained media attention for its strong and consistent support for right-wing and far-right political forces, diverging from national trends where [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|PSOE]] and [[Partido Popular|PP]] dominate.<ref name="OndaCero">{{cite web|url=https://www.ondacero.es/noticias/sociedad/historia-detras-villan-tordesillas-pueblo-mas-derechas-toda-espana-pueblo-falangista-deberia-seguir-siendolo_2026031869ba8fe5219e1f762b699286.html|title=La historia detrás de Villán de Tordesillas, el pueblo más de derechas de toda España: "Es un pueblo falangista y debería seguir siéndolo"|date=March 18, 2026|publisher=Onda Cero|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

== Politics ==
Villán de Tordesillas has historically voted overwhelmingly for right-wing options, often described by residents as a "falangist village" with a deep-rooted conservative culture.<ref name="OndaCero"/> In the [[2026 Castilian-Leonese regional election|Castilla y León regional elections of March 15, 2026]], with 89 votes cast (83.17% turnout from a census of 107), the results were:
* [[Vox]]: 47 votes (52.8%)
* [[Partido Popular|PP]]: 28 votes (31.46%)
* [[Integralism|Falange Española de las JONS]]: 4 votes (4.49%)
* [[Se Acabó la Fiesta]] (SALF, party of Alvise Pérez): 4 votes (4.49%)
* [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|PSOE]]: 2 votes (2.24%)
* [[Izquierda Unida (Spain)|Izquierda Unida]]: 2 votes (2.24%)
* Others (e.g., MEV): 1 vote (1.1%)

Vox, PP, and Falange together accounted for nearly 90% of the votes, while left-wing parties received only 4 votes total.<ref name="OndaCero"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elmundo.es/elecciones/elecciones-castilla-y-leon/resultado/castilla-y-leon/valladolid/villan-de-tordesillas.html|title=Resultados de las Elecciones de Castilla y León en Villán de Tordesillas|date=March 2026|publisher=El Mundo|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

Residents express pride in this tendency: one neighbor stated, "De Falange de toda la vida" ("Falange all our lives"), while another affirmed they have "esa cultura" (that culture) and find it "perfecto" (perfect).<ref name="OndaCero"/> The village has been noted for having a Falange councilor in 2011, the only one in Spain at the time.

The mayor, José Vidal Adalia ([[Partido Popular|PP]]), and his son Juan (Vox voter) appeared on television explaining the split: in municipal elections, people vote for the person; in regional or national ones, "totalmente a la derecha" (totally to the right).<ref name="OndaCero"/> They do not view Falange as far-right, citing past local collaboration, and criticize the PP for shifting away from traditional right-wing positions. The mayor advocates an immediate PP-Vox pact for regional governments, while his son predicts the trend could spread nationally as older PP voters disappear and younger ones, influenced by social media rather than traditional TV, enter the electorate.<ref name="OndaCero"/>

A few left-wing voters exist: one resident said, "Seré la única que soy de izquierdas, soy de Pedro" ("I'll be the only one on the left, I'm for Pedro" — referring to PSOE).<ref name="OndaCero"/>

== Geography ==
The municipality covers 12.30 km² at an average elevation of 748 meters. It features typical Castilian rural architecture, with a town hall and historic buildings.

== See also ==
* [[Valladolid]]
* [[Tordesillas]]
* [[Castile and León]]

== External links ==
* [Official municipal website](http://www.villandetordesillas.ayuntamientosdevalladolid.es)

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Conservative]]
[[Category:Conservative Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Spanish Cities and Towns]]

Integralism

2026-03-21T12:28:33Z

CatolicoAustral:

Integralism is an ideology which professes that nation-states have a duty to recognize the [[Catholic Church]] as sovereign and to promote policies in line with Church teachings. Integralists view [[Liberalism]] and [[Capitalism]] as working together to destroy western civilization by promoting the [[homosexual agenda]] and eroding support for the Church, and make a theological argument that Liberalism is in fact sinful. It is often associated with [[Distributism]]. Famous integralists include [[Jose Antonio Primo de Ribera]], [[Pope Pius X]], and [[Paul Salgado]]. Criticism of Integralism generally involves allegations of [[Fascism]] and Catholic [[Sharia]], something which most integralists deny. Falangism and National Syndicalism are subsets of integralism that place importance on the organization of trade unions.

Notable integralist groups include the French Action Françoise, the Polish National Radical Camp, the Lebanese Phalanges, the Bolivian Socialist Falange, the Brazilian Integralist Action the Spanish Falangists, the Spanish Movimiento Falangista de España, and the Spanish Falange Authentica.

[[Category:Catholicism]]
[[Category:Conservatism]]
[[Category:anti-capitalism]]
[[Category:ideologies]]
[[Category:unions]]
[[Category:anti-liberalism]]

Villán de Tordesillas

2026-03-21T12:27:53Z

CatolicoAustral:

{{City
|name = Villán de Tordesillas
|country = Spain
|region = Castile and León
|settled =
|co-ordinates = 41°35′33″N 4°55′17″W
|population = 122
|area = 12.30 km² (4.75 sq mi)
|density = 9.92/km² (25.7/sq mi)
|mayor = José Vidal Adalia
|demonym =
}}

'''Villán de Tordesillas''' is a municipality and small town in the [[Province of Valladolid]], [[Castile and León]], Spain, with a population of 122 inhabitants (INE 2025). It is located about 30 km southwest of the city of [[Valladolid]], near [[Tordesillas]], in the Tierra del Vino region, an area traditionally linked to viticulture and cereal agriculture with an aging population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.democrata.es/en/elections-in-spain-and-in-the-world/elections-castilla-y-leon-2026/villan-tordesillas-village-for-very-right-wing-people/amp|title=Villán de Tordesillas, a village for very right-wing people|date=March 2026|publisher=Demócrata|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

The town has gained media attention for its strong and consistent support for right-wing and far-right political forces, diverging from national trends where [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|PSOE]] and [[Partido Popular|PP]] dominate.<ref name="OndaCero">{{cite web|url=https://www.ondacero.es/noticias/sociedad/historia-detras-villan-tordesillas-pueblo-mas-derechas-toda-espana-pueblo-falangista-deberia-seguir-siendolo_2026031869ba8fe5219e1f762b699286.html|title=La historia detrás de Villán de Tordesillas, el pueblo más de derechas de toda España: "Es un pueblo falangista y debería seguir siéndolo"|date=March 18, 2026|publisher=Onda Cero|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

== Politics ==
Villán de Tordesillas has historically voted overwhelmingly for right-wing options, often described by residents as a "falangist village" with a deep-rooted conservative culture.<ref name="OndaCero"/> In the [[2026 Castilian-Leonese regional election|Castilla y León regional elections of March 15, 2026]], with 89 votes cast (83.17% turnout from a census of 107), the results were:
* [[Vox]]: 47 votes (52.8%)
* [[Partido Popular|PP]]: 28 votes (31.46%)
* [[Falange Española de las JONS]]: 4 votes (4.49%)
* [[Se Acabó la Fiesta]] (SALF, party of Alvise Pérez): 4 votes (4.49%)
* [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|PSOE]]: 2 votes (2.24%)
* [[Izquierda Unida (Spain)|Izquierda Unida]]: 2 votes (2.24%)
* Others (e.g., MEV): 1 vote (1.1%)

Vox, PP, and Falange together accounted for nearly 90% of the votes, while left-wing parties received only 4 votes total.<ref name="OndaCero"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elmundo.es/elecciones/elecciones-castilla-y-leon/resultado/castilla-y-leon/valladolid/villan-de-tordesillas.html|title=Resultados de las Elecciones de Castilla y León en Villán de Tordesillas|date=March 2026|publisher=El Mundo|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

Residents express pride in this tendency: one neighbor stated, "De Falange de toda la vida" ("Falange all our lives"), while another affirmed they have "esa cultura" (that culture) and find it "perfecto" (perfect).<ref name="OndaCero"/> The village has been noted for having a Falange councilor in 2011, the only one in Spain at the time.

The mayor, José Vidal Adalia ([[Partido Popular|PP]]), and his son Juan (Vox voter) appeared on television explaining the split: in municipal elections, people vote for the person; in regional or national ones, "totalmente a la derecha" (totally to the right).<ref name="OndaCero"/> They do not view Falange as far-right, citing past local collaboration, and criticize the PP for shifting away from traditional right-wing positions. The mayor advocates an immediate PP-Vox pact for regional governments, while his son predicts the trend could spread nationally as older PP voters disappear and younger ones, influenced by social media rather than traditional TV, enter the electorate.<ref name="OndaCero"/>

A few left-wing voters exist: one resident said, "Seré la única que soy de izquierdas, soy de Pedro" ("I'll be the only one on the left, I'm for Pedro" — referring to PSOE).<ref name="OndaCero"/>

== Geography ==
The municipality covers 12.30 km² at an average elevation of 748 meters. It features typical Castilian rural architecture, with a town hall and historic buildings.

== See also ==
* [[Valladolid]]
* [[Tordesillas]]
* [[Castile and León]]

== External links ==
* [Official municipal website](http://www.villandetordesillas.ayuntamientosdevalladolid.es)

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Conservative]]
[[Category:Conservative Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Spanish Cities and Towns]]

Villán de Tordesillas

2026-03-21T12:27:40Z

CatolicoAustral: Created page with "{{City |name = Villán de Tordesillas |country = Spain |region = Castile and León |settled = |co-ordinates = 41°35′33″N 4°55′17″W..."

{{City
|name = Villán de Tordesillas
|country = Spain
|region = Castile and León
|settled =
|co-ordinates = 41°35′33″N 4°55′17″W
|population = 122
|area = 12.30 km² (4.75 sq mi)
|density = 9.92/km² (25.7/sq mi)
|mayor = José Vidal Adalia
|demonym =
}}

'''Villán de Tordesillas''' is a municipality and small town in the [[Province of Valladolid]], [[Castile and León]], Spain, with a population of 122 inhabitants (INE 2025). It is located about 30 km southwest of the city of [[Valladolid]], near [[Tordesillas]], in the Tierra del Vino region, an area traditionally linked to viticulture and cereal agriculture with an aging population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.democrata.es/en/elections-in-spain-and-in-the-world/elections-castilla-y-leon-2026/villan-tordesillas-village-for-very-right-wing-people/amp|title=Villán de Tordesillas, a village for very right-wing people|date=March 2026|publisher=Demócrata|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

The town has gained media attention for its strong and consistent support for right-wing and far-right political forces, diverging from national trends where [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|PSOE]] and [[Partido Popular|PP]] dominate.<ref name="OndaCero">{{cite web|url=https://www.ondacero.es/noticias/sociedad/historia-detras-villan-tordesillas-pueblo-mas-derechas-toda-espana-pueblo-falangista-deberia-seguir-siendolo_2026031869ba8fe5219e1f762b699286.html|title=La historia detrás de Villán de Tordesillas, el pueblo más de derechas de toda España: "Es un pueblo falangista y debería seguir siéndolo"|date=March 18, 2026|publisher=Onda Cero|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

== Politics ==
Villán de Tordesillas has historically voted overwhelmingly for right-wing options, often described by residents as a "falangist village" with a deep-rooted conservative culture.<ref name="OndaCero"/> In the [[2026 Castilian-Leonese regional election|Castilla y León regional elections of March 15, 2026]], with 89 votes cast (83.17% turnout from a census of 107), the results were:
* [[Vox]]: 47 votes (52.8%)
* [[Partido Popular|PP]]: 28 votes (31.46%)
* [[Falange Española de las JONS]]: 4 votes (4.49%)
* [[Se Acabó la Fiesta]] (SALF, party of Alvise Pérez): 4 votes (4.49%)
* [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party|PSOE]]: 2 votes (2.24%)
* [[Izquierda Unida (Spain)|Izquierda Unida]]: 2 votes (2.24%)
* Others (e.g., MEV): 1 vote (1.1%)

Vox, PP, and Falange together accounted for nearly 90% of the votes, while left-wing parties received only 4 votes total.<ref name="OndaCero"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elmundo.es/elecciones/elecciones-castilla-y-leon/resultado/castilla-y-leon/valladolid/villan-de-tordesillas.html|title=Resultados de las Elecciones de Castilla y León en Villán de Tordesillas|date=March 2026|publisher=El Mundo|access-date=March 21, 2026}}</ref>

Residents express pride in this tendency: one neighbor stated, "De Falange de toda la vida" ("Falange all our lives"), while another affirmed they have "esa cultura" (that culture) and find it "perfecto" (perfect).<ref name="OndaCero"/> The village has been noted for having a Falange councilor in 2011, the only one in Spain at the time.

The mayor, José Vidal Adalia ([[Partido Popular|PP]]), and his son Juan (Vox voter) appeared on television explaining the split: in municipal elections, people vote for the person; in regional or national ones, "totalmente a la derecha" (totally to the right).<ref name="OndaCero"/> They do not view Falange as far-right, citing past local collaboration, and criticize the PP for shifting away from traditional right-wing positions. The mayor advocates an immediate PP-Vox pact for regional governments, while his son predicts the trend could spread nationally as older PP voters disappear and younger ones, influenced by social media rather than traditional TV, enter the electorate.<ref name="OndaCero"/>

A few left-wing voters exist: one resident said, "Seré la única que soy de izquierdas, soy de Pedro" ("I'll be the only one on the left, I'm for Pedro" — referring to PSOE).<ref name="OndaCero"/>

== Geography ==
The municipality covers 12.30 km² at an average elevation of 748 meters. It features typical Castilian rural architecture, with a town hall and historic buildings.![](grok_render_searched_image_card_json={"cards":[{"cardId":"a2803d","imageId":"0","size":"LARGE"},{"cardId":"36b1b8","imageId":"4","size":"LARGE"}]})

== See also ==
* [[Valladolid]]
* [[Tordesillas]]
* [[Castile and León]]

== External links ==
* [Official municipal website](http://www.villandetordesillas.ayuntamientosdevalladolid.es)

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Conservative]]
[[Category:Conservative Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:Anti-Communism]]
[[Category:Spanish Cities and Towns]]