Chile

Geography

Chile is the most elongated country in the world, hemmed in by the Andes Mountains, which form an almost impenetrable barrier along the border with Argentina. In the north is the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on earth, with vast deposits of copper ore and nitrates. The central region is blessed by a mild Mediterranean climate that provides excellent growing conditions for grapes and apples, many of which are exported to the U.S. Further south one encounters a cooler, moister climate, much like the temperate rain forest of the Pacific Northwest. At the frigid southern tip of the continent, Chile controls the entire Straits of Magellan and half of the island of Tierra del Fuego. The capital, Santiago, is the only large city.

History

The two outstanding figures in early Chilean history were Bernardo O'Higgins, an Irish-born naval hero of independence (1818), and Diego Portales, a headstrong minister of finance who had visions of greatness for Chile. Chile has always had tense relations with its neighbors; in the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) it conquered vast amounts of land from Peru and Bolivia. Aside from a brief civil war in 1890, Chile has enjoyed much more stability than the rest of the continent. There were military coups and social turmoil in the 1920s and 1930s, and a socialist government ruled briefly in 1930. Strong social-democratic tradition, with Marxist minority; politics were very hard-fought but peaceful. In 1970 Socialist Salvador Allende became president, even though he only won a plurality of the vote. He pushed for a socialist revolution and nationalized U.S. copper mines, angering the Nixon administration. The CIA began covert intervention, disrupting the economy. As the result of strikes and his own economic policies, Chile was becoming quite chaotic, and in September 1973 the armed forces attacked the presidential palace and General Augusto Pinochet took control of the country. He launched a brutal "dirty war" murder of Orlando Letelier in Washington in 1976. Soon a group of conservative economists known as the "Chicago boys" launched a radical free market economic policy that caused great disruption and suffering at first eventually succeeded, though 1982 debt crisis almost ruined their plans. It set the stage for prolonged stable growth by the mid-1980s. Pinochet won referendums in 1978 and 1980, but stepped down after losing such a plebiscite in 1988. Elections in 1990 were won by Patricio Aylwin, a moderate. Socialist Ricardo Lagos won 1999 election.

Culture

Like Argentina and Uruguay, the people of Chile are predominantly of European descent. Many Basque people (a minority group with a distinctive language and culture from northern Spain) settled in Chile. German military advisers had a big impact on Chilean society in the early 20th century, and there are a number of towns where German is spoken; southern Chile resembles the mountainous regions of Bavaria and Austria. Some Chilean people identify with the Andean culture of Peru and Bolivia, as expressed in folk music and art, but most see themselves as Europeans. There are Indian communities in the southern part of the country, which did not come under control of the central government until late in the 19th century. Most Chileans today are fiercely proud of their country.

Santiago de Chile, the capital city of this pleasant Mediterranean corner of the Southern Hemisphere.

Politics

Chileans are torn between alternative paths toward integration with the outside world. During the 1970s Chile belonged to the Andean Group but left in 1978 in order to pursue a free-market capitalist economic model. Argentina and Brazil solicited Chile to join MERCOSUR during the 1990s, while some in the United States wanted to reward Chile's economic success by offering to let Chile join NAFTA. Chile is competing with Peru to build a pipeline to help Bolivia export its natural gas to North America, but resists Bolivia's call for territorial compensation for lands it lost to Chile in 1879. Most Chileans would like to see retribution for the crimes committed by Pinochet's military government, but many are thankful for the prosperity and stability he brought to the country. Unlike other countries in South America, Chile is unlikely to diverge much from its present course of moderate democratic capitalism. Since the return to democracy in 1990, Socialists have held the presidency except for 2010-2014, when free-market conservative Sebastian Piñera was president. In 2005, a series of constitutional reforms were adopted, most notably reducing the presidential term from six years to four.

National elections are held in November, with a runoff election in December if no candidate attains a majority of the vote. The 38 Senate seats (formerly 46) are elected for eight-year terms, staggered such that half (19) are elected every four years. The 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies are elected for four-year terms. For both chambers there are two seats per district. Note that the left-leaning parties are grouped together in the "Concertación," and the right-leaning parties form the "Alliance for Chile."

Seats in Chilean Congress, 2015

 

Party name	Comm- unist Party (PC)	Radical Social Demo- cratic Party (PRSD)	Party for Democracy (PPD)	Socialist (PS)	Christian Democrat (PDC)	Indep- endent, etc.	Independent Democratic Union (UDI)	National Renewal (RN)
.	.	Ricardo Nuñez	Victor Barrueto	Adolfo Zaldivar	.	Jovino Novoa	Sergio Diez
Ch. of Dep.	.	S: 3 / CD: 7	S: 3 / CD: 23	S: 8 / CD: 15	S: 6 / CD: 21		S: 9 / CD: 34	S: 8 / CD: 20
Ch. of Dep.	6	6	15	16	21	12	29	15
Sen.	.	.	6	6	6	6	8	6

NOTE: Width of each column shows each party's approximate strength. Colors and position (left to right) represent approximate ideological leanings. Numbers show how many seats each party has in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Minor parties are not shown.

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Sources, external links

CIA World Factbook

Chilean Congress: senado.cl; camara.cl

Embassy of Chile in Washington, D.C.; also see embassy-worldwide.com