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Chile source: http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/chile/
Library of Congress: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cltoc.html
World History Archives: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/42a/index-d.html
Chile Information Project: http://www.chip.cl/
When the Spanish conquistadors invaded Chile, the
nation
had 99 million acres (40 million hectares) of virgin forest. In 1996
slightly
more than half remained.
(SFC, Z-1, 4/28/96, p.5)
18Mil BC In 2004 Scientists
searching for fossils high in the Chilean Andes mountains unearthed the
remains of a tank-like mammal related to armadillos that grazed about
this time. Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis, was a primitive
relative of a line of heavily armored mammals that culminated in the
massive, impregnable Gyptodon, which died out only about 8,000 BC.
(AP, 12/12/07)
31000BC Stone tools from Monte Verde, Chile, indicate
that people lived there about this time.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A13)
12000BC In 2008 evidence from Monte Verde, Chile,
indicated that a small band of people inhabited the area. Initial
evidence was found in a peat bog there in 1977.
(SFC, 5/9/08,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Verde)
10800BC-10300BC A village in Monte Verde, Chile was
identified to be this old by a team of anthropologists. The site is
described in the 1997 book: "Monte Verde: A Pleistocene Settlement in
Chile" by Tom Dillehay. Dillehay later reported that new excavations
revealed evidence that human bones and tools may date back to about
28,000 BC.
(USAT, 2/11/97, p.A1)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.61)(SFC,
2/17/98, p.A2)
600-800CE Polynesian seafarers 1st landed on Easter
Island, 1400 miles from the coast of South America. They later carved
nearly 900 colossi of compressed volcanic ash: the moai. In 1722 A
Dutch explorer stopped by on Easter Sunday. It later became a
possession of Chile.
(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.W11C)
1100 Statue (moai) building began
about this time on Easter Island and continued to the 1700s.
(SSFC, 9/18/05, p.E14)
1520 Oct 21, Ferdinand Magellan
arrived at Tierra Del Fuego (Argentina-Chile).
(MC, 10/21/01)
1541 Feb 12, Santiago, Chile, was
founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, a lieutenant of
Pizarro. When the Spaniards arrived in Chile, 11 languages were in
widespread use: Quechua, Aymara, Rapanui, Chango, Kunza, Diaguita,
Mapudungun, Chono, Kawesqar, Yagan and Selk’nam. By 2007 only the 1st 3
remained. The last ethnic Selk’nam died in the 1970s.
(PCh, 1992,
p.182)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_de_Valdivia)(SSFC, 8/12/07,
p.A18)
1551 Spaniards in Chile began
producing wine.
(SFC, 8/31/07, p.F4)
1578 Dec 5, Sir Francis Drake
sailed into the port of Valparaiso. He had renamed his flagship, the
Pelican, to the Golden Hind, and ravaged the coasts of Chile and Peru
on his way around the world.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(ON, 7/03, p.7)
1586-1618 The San Francisco Church was built in
Santiago.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T8)
1722 Apr 5, Dutch explorer Jacob
Roggeveen discovered Easter Island, a Polynesian Island 1400 miles from
the coast of South America. They noted that the island was treeless and
wondered how massive statues were erected. Much of the population was
later wiped out and the island became a possession of Chile. An
indigenous script called rongorongo survived but by 2002 was still not
deciphered. In 2005 Steven Roger Fischer authored “Island at the End of
the World: The Turbulent History of Easter Island.”
{Polynesia, Chile, Netherlands, Explorer}
1748-1979 The Cathedral of Santiago was built. The
current structure replaced three earlier ones destroyed by fires or
earthquakes.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T8)
1778 Feb 25, Jose Francisco de San
Martin (d.1850) was born in Argentina. He liberated Argentina, Chile
and Peru. Protector of Peru (1821-1822).
(WUD, 1994 p.1267)(MC, 2/25/02)
1778 Aug 20, Bernardo O'Higgins
was born in Chile. He later won independence for Chile.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1781-1865 Andres Bello, diplomat, politician (a
Senator in Chile - his adopted country), educator, poet and author of a
Spanish grammar, was born in Venezuela. His selected writings were
published by the Oxford Library of Latin America in 1998.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)
1810 Sep 18, Chile declared its
independence from Spain (National Day). Bernardo O’Higgins helped lead
Chile to independence.
(AP, 9/18/97)(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T9)
1810-1817 Colonial revolts against Spain started in
Chile in 1810 and ended in victory in 1817 under the leadership of
Bernardo O‘Higgins and Argentina‘s Jose de San Martin.
(HNQ, 3/30/00)
1817 Feb 12, Under the leadership
of Bernardo O‘Higgins, Chile gained its independence from Spain, when a
combined Argentine and Chilean army defeated the Spaniards. O‘Higgins
went on to become head of state on February 17, supported by the army
but not favored by the oligarchy because he sought abolition of their
privileges. Once the threat from Spain was eliminated from the region,
opposition to O‘Higgins mounted. General unrest and a poor harvest
combined to force O‘Higgins to abdicate his position in 1823. The
official proclamation was made on Feb 12, 1818.
(HNQ, 9/1/99)(AP, 2/12/07)
1817 Feb 12, Argentina’s Jose de
San Martin, having led a revolutionary army over the Andes into Chile,
helped defeat the Spanish forces at Chacabuco.
(www.gdws.co.uk/chacabuco.htm)(Econ, 4/25/09, p.87)
1818 Feb 12, Chile officially
proclaimed its independence, more than seven years after initially
renouncing Spanish rule [see Feb 12, 1817].
(AP, 2/12/07)
1834 Sep 27, Charles Darwin
returned to Valparaiso.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1834 Nov 10, HMS Beagle with
Charles Darwin sailed from Valparaiso.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1834 Nov 21, HMS Beagle anchored
at Bay of San Carlos, Chile.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1834 Dec 25, Charles Darwin
celebrated Christmas on Beagle at Tres Montes, Chile.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1835 Feb 20, Concepcion, Chile,
was destroyed by earthquake and some 5,000 died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1835 Feb 22, HMS Beagle with
Charles Darwin left Valdivia, Chile.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1835 Mar 4, HMS Beagle moved into
Bay of Concepcion.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1835 Mar 7, HMS Beagle returned
from Concepcion to Valparaiso.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1835 Mar 10, Charles Darwin in a
letter to Carolyn Darwin described a massive earthquake in Concepcion,
Chile.
(NH, 5/96, p.7)
1835 Mar 13, Charles Darwin
departed Valparaiso for Andes crossing.
(MC, 3/13/02)
1835 Mar 18, Charles Darwin
departed Santiago, Chile, on his way to Portillo Pass.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1835 Mar 23, Charles Darwin
reached Los Arenales in the Andes.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1835 Apr 10, Charles Darwin
returned to Santiago, Chile.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1835 May 12, Charles Darwin
visited the copper mines in North Chile.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1835 May 14, Charles Darwin
reached Coquimbo in Northern Chile.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1839 Jan 20, Chile defeated a
confederation of Peru and Bolivia in the Battle of Yungay.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1862 Peruvian slavers arrived on
Easter Island. Slaves that eventually returned brought smallpox.
(SSFC, 9/18/05, p.E14)
1863 Dec 8, A Jesuit church in
Chile caught fire and 2,500 died in a panic.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1866 May 3, The first submarine in
the Americas, a 39-foot vessel designed in the 1860s by German
immigrant Karl Flach, sank in the Bay of Valparaiso off the coast of
Chile. The crew, two Chileans, two Frenchmen and seven Germans,
including Flach and his 15-year-old son, all died. In 2007 a search
team found the vessel.
(Reuters, 5/3/07)
1879-1883 In the War of the Pacific, Chile’s army won
the nitrate-rich desert lands from Peru and Bolivia. The war was fought
over the treatment of Chilean investors in the desert territories. The
area remained in contention until a 1929 agreement proposed by Pres.
Herbert Hoover.
(SFC, Z-1, 4/28/96, p.5)(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)
1880s The Mapuche Indians were
conquered by the Chilean army. By 2000 they lost nearly 95% of their
land on the Bio Bio River.
(SFEC, 5/7/00, p.A18)
1881 Chilean soldiers pillaged
Peru’s national library during the War of the Pacific. In 2007 Chile
returned 3,778 books taken by its soldiers.
(SFC, 11/7/07, p.A3)
1881 The Mapuches Indians made
peace with the Republic of Chile. Their name means "people of the
earth."
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A12)
1881 A German expedition to Chile
that took 11 Kawesqar Indians to Europe to appear in what was later
described as a human zoo. 5 of the Indians died in 1882 in Zurich,
Switzerland. Their remains were repatriated in 2010.
(AP, 1/12/10)
1883 Chile’s Concha y Toro (Shell
& Bull) wineries were founded by Don Melchor with vines brought
from France.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.T9)(SFC, 8/25/05, p.F3)
1884 Chile established a marital
code the included a prohibition of divorce. A divorce law was passed in
2004.
(WSJ, 10/5/04, p.A1)
1896 Erland Nordenskiold, a
Swedish scientist, explored the Milodon Cave in Patagonia, Chile. He
found a large piece of leather with gray-red hair and declared it to
have been the hide of a milodon, a giant sloth, extinct for 8,000
years. The site was later made famous in the Bruce Chatwin book: In
Patagonia.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, p.T6)
1900 By the beginning of the 20th
century Easter Island had about 200 inhabitants. Most of the island was
leased to a British sheep farming company.
(SSFC, 9/18/05, p.E14)
1904 Jul 12, Pablo Neruda
(d.1973), Chilean poet and political activist (Residence on Earth-Nobel
1971), was born as Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto in Parral, Chile.
(HN, 7/12/01)(SFC, 7/15/04, p.E11)
1904 Oct 20, Bolivia and Chile
signed a treaty ending the War of the Pacific. The treaty recognized
Chile's possession of Bolivia's nitrate-rich coastal province of
Antofagasta, but provided for construction of a railway to link La Paz,
Bolivia, to Arica on the coast.
(HN, 10/20/98)(Econ, 12/6/03, p.34)
1906 Aug 16, An magnitude 8.6
earthquake in Valparaiso left an estimated 20,000 people dead.
(SFEC, 6/13/99, Z1 p.5)(AP, 6/22/02)
1908 Jul 26, Salvador Allende
Gossens, Chile's last elected president (1970-73), was born.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1913 Ricardo Roth Schutz, a guide
of Swiss descent, began leading groups of tourists across Lakes
Crossing (Cruce de Lagos), linking Bariloche in northern Argentina to
Puerto Varas in Chile’s Lakes District.
(SSFC, 1/6/08, p.G4)
1915 Nov 25, Augusto Pinochet
(d.2006), general, coup leader and president of Chile (1974-1990), was
born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet)
1918 Nov 25, Chile and Peru
severed relations.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1923 Pablo Neruda was appointed as
Chile’s consul to Burma.
(SFC, 7/15/04, p.E11)
1929 Jan, Anaconda Copper Co.
purchased the Chuquicamata mine in Chile.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R46)
1929 Jun 3, Chile, Peru &
Bolivia signed an accord about the Tacna-Arica area. Chile and Peru
accepted a proposal by Pres. Herbert Hoover over the outcome of the
1879-1893 War of the Pacific. Chile would retain Arica and return Tacna
to Peru and grant access to the Arica port as a compromise. The accord
was not implemented until 1999.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)(MC, 6/3/02)
1932 Chile and Peru signed an
extradition treaty.
(Econ, 11/12/05, p.40)
1939 Jan 24, Some 28-30,000 were
killed by magnitude 8.3 earthquake in Chillan, Chile.
(MC, 1/24/02)(AP, 6/22/02)
1942 Jan, Chile and Argentina were
the only two Latin American countries that did not comply at once with
the Rio de Janeiro Conference recommendation to those countries who had
not already done so to sever diplomatic and commercial relations with
the Axis powers, Germany, Italy and Japan. Chile eventually broke Axis
relations in January 1943 and Argentina complied in January 1944. The
conference of Western Hemisphere foreign ministers also called for
suppression of pro-Axis activity in the Americas, establishment of an
Inter-American defense board and economic cooperation within the
hemisphere.
(HNQ, 9/24/00)
1942 Mar, British and US
intelligence received information on Nazi plans for the Holocaust: "It
has been decided to eradicate all the Jews." This was part of a
dispatch from a Chilean consul in Prague, Gonzalo Montt Rivas, to
Santiago of a German decree that Jews abroad could no longer be German
subjects.
(SFC, 7/3/01, p.A8)
1942 Jun 24, Eduardo Frei was born.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)
1943 Jan 31, Chile broke contact
with Germany and Japan.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1943 Feb 18, Augusto Pinochet
Ugarte (Chilean gen., dictator) married Lucia Hiriart.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1943 A Vultee BT-13 Valiant
disappeared on a flight from San Antonio, Texas, to Chile. Pilot Werner
Martinez and Sgt. Tomas Ayala were on ill-fated flight, which crashed
in Costa Rica. In 2008 police were led to the crash site after an
anonymous caller reported seeing a local resident carrying plane parts
in the town of San Isidro de El Guarco.
(AP, 2/27/08)
1945 Feb 14, Peru, Paraguay, Chile
and Ecuador joined the United Nations.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1945 Mar 14, Chile declared war on
Germany.
(HN, 3/14/98)
1960 May 22, Chile experienced a
9.5 earthquake (moment magnitude). A slow earthquake was detected just
before the big one. It caused tsunamis in every coastal town between
the 36th and 44th parallels with a death toll of some 1000 people.
(PCh, 1992, p.977)(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A11)(Econ,
10/15/05, p.28)
1961 In Chile Paul Schaefer,
former WW II German corporal, founded the "Colonia Dignidad" (the
Dignity Colony), a reclusive German-speaking colony on a 34,000 acre
site in the Andean foothills. He had fled Germany while under
investigation for allegations of sexually molesting children. In 2005
Schaefer was arrested in Argentina and extradited to Chile.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A14)(AP, 3/13/05)
1962 Aug 8, The Chilean TV variety
show "Sabados Gigantes" (Gigantic Saturdays) debuted with Mario Luis
Kreutzberger Blumenfeld (b.1940) as Don Francisco. In April, 1986, the
show got shortened to the singular version (Sabado Gigante) went it
went on air in Miami, Fla. Kreutzberger was the son of German Jews who
fled Nazi persecution.
(SSFC, 11/9/03, Par p.16)(SFC, 4/14/04,
p.E1)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0250920/)
1963-1973 The 1975 US Church committee report on CIA
activity in Chile included a chronology that covered this period.
(http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/johnson/churchreport.htm)
1964 Eduardo Frei Montalva
defeated Salvador Allende Gossens to become president.
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.E2)
1966 Pablo Neruda authored his
play “Fulgor y Muerte de Joaquin Murieta.” In 1972 a bilingual edition
was published as “Splendor and Death of Joaquin Murieta.”
(SFC, 7/15/04, p.E1)
1967 Jul 20, Pablo Neruda received
the 1st Viareggio-Versile prize.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1967 Oct, Pres. Johnson named
Edward M. Korry (d.2003 at 81) to serve as the US ambassador to Chile.
Korry served until 1971 and was kept ignorant by the Nixon
administration of plans for a coup.
(SFC, 2/1/03, p.A19)
1967 Marxists took power and
nationalized nearly everything.
(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-10)
1968 Jul 25, H. Wroblewski
discovered asteroid #1993 Guacolda on exposures by G. Plouguin and I.
Belyaiev at the University of Chile, Cerro El Roble Station.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Guacolda)
1970 Sep 4, Salvador Allende
Gossens (1908-1973) won the presidential election in Chile. A week
later in Washington Henry Kissinger discussed a "covert action program"
to oust Allende.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.D1)
1970 Sep 15, Pres. Nixon
authorized a US-backed coup in Chile.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F7)
1970 Oct 25, In Chile a US
CIA-backed kidnapping attempt was botched and left Gen. Rene Schneider
dead. Schneider had opposed a US plan for a military coup. In 2001 his
widow and 3 sons filed a suit against Henry Kissinger, Richard Helms
and several other former US bureaucrats.
(SFC, 9/12/01,
p.C4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Schneider)
1970 Nov 3, Salvador Allende was
inaugurated as president of Chile. He was elected with 36% of the vote,
only 40,000 ahead of the candidate of the right.
(AP, 11/3/97)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1970 Dec 31, President Allende
nationalized the Chilean coal mines.
(www.historyorb.com/countries/chile)
1971 Jul 11, Chile’s Congress
passed an amendment, submitted by President Allende, to nationalize all
mines. On July 16 Chile by law nationalized the US-owned copper mines
based on a calculation of the companies' "excess profits" from 1955 to
1970. It was determined that Chile owed American companies Anaconda and
Kennecott Copper nothing for the mines.
{Chile, M&A, USA}
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_nationalization_of_copper)
1971 Jul 22, Salvador Allende and
Alejandro Lanusse, Presidents of Chile and Argentina, signed an
Arbitration Agreement formally submitting the dispute concerning the
territorial and maritime boundaries between them and the title to the
islands Picton, Nueva and Lennox near the extreme end of the American
continent to binding arbitration under auspices of Queen Elizabeth II
of the United Kingdom.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_Channel_Arbitration)(SFC, 8/27/96,
p.A17)
1971 Oct 21, The Nobel Prize for
literature was awarded to Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Neruda)(SSFC,
8/31/03, p.M3)
1971 Dec 1, In Santiago, Chile,
students began a 2-day against the Allende government. The government
banned public demonstrations and declared a state of emergency.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)
1971 Claudio Bravo, Chilean-born
Moroccan based artist, created a surrealist still life of an assemblage
of light bulbs.
(WSJ, 3/17/00, p.W12)
1972 Mar 23, Pres. Nixon discussed
his orders to undermine Chilean democracy after the leak of corporate
papers revealing collaboration between ITT and the CIA to rollback the
election of socialist leader Salvador Allende.
(www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB110/index.htm)
1972 May 13, There was a burglary
at the Chilean Embassy in Washington DC. Two members of Pres. Nixon's
secret White House team, known as the plumbers, were involved.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A4)
1972 Jun 17, Chile’s president
Allende changed his Cabinet. The two most prominent departures were
Brigadier General Pedro Palacios Cameron from Mines and Pedro Vuskovic
from Economy.
(www.rrojasdatabank.org/murder30.htm)
1972 Oct 13, A Uruguay to Chile
plane carrying 45 people crashed in the Andes Mountains. The event was
concluded by December 23, 1972 when the last of 16 survivors were
rescued. The group survived by collectively making a decision to eat
flesh from the bodies of their dead comrades. The book “Alive: The
Story of the Andes Survivors,” published two years after their rescue,
was written by Piers Paul Read, who interviewed the survivors and their
families.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571)
1972 Dec 23, 16 plane crash
victims (Oct 13 flight from Uruguay to Chile) were rescued from the
Andes after 70 died. The group survived by collectively making a
decision to eat flesh from the bodies of their dead comrades.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571)
1972 Chile’s dept. of tourism,
SERNATUR, was established.
(SFC, Z-1, 4/28/96, p.5)
1973 Jul 13, In Chile a strike
began that lasted until the September 11 coup. More than a million
workers were on strike demanding that Allende go. American CIA funding
was involved.
(WSJ, 10/30/98,
p.A19)(http://foia.state.gov/reports/churchreport.asp)
1973 Aug 22, Chile’s Chamber of
Deputies issued its “Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile’s
Democracy.” It accused Pres. Allende of violating laws.
(www.pensionreform.org/icpr/eys/declaration.html)
1973 Aug 23, Gen'l. Augusto
Pinochet was named commander-in-chief of the Chilean army by Pres.
Salvadore Allende.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)
1973 Sep 11, Pres. Salvadore
Allende of Chile was toppled in a bloody military coup in Santiago led
by 4 commanders: Gen’l Augusto Pinochet, Admiral Jose Toribio Merino
(d.8/31/96), air force Gen’l. Gustavo Leigh Guzman (d.1999 at 79) and
police director Gen’l. Cesar Mendoza. Allende blew his head off with an
AK 47 given to him by Fidel Castro. The government was taken over by
Gen. Augusto Pinochet and his economic managers dubbed the "Chicago
boys," for their training at the Univ. of Chicago and belief in free
markets. The first 3 months of fighting claimed 1261 victims. The air
force bombarded the presidential palace to put down resistance by
Allende and a small group of followers.
(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-10)(SFC, 8/31/96, p.A23)(WSJ,
10/30/98, p.A19)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A31)
1973 Sep 15, Victor Jara (b.1932),
one of the best-known members of Latin America's "New Song" folk
movement, died. He had been arrested after the Chilean military coup
that overthrew Allende and taken to a soccer stadium used as a
detention camp. Court papers indicate Jara was tortured, his hands
smashed with rifle butts, and then was shot to death. In 2008 a court
charged retired Col. Mario Manriquez in the case, saying he was
"responsible" for the death. In 2009 Jara’s body was exhumed for a
proper autopsy. Army draftee, Jose Paredes, later described the murder
and named the officers he said were responsible. Paredes told
interrogators that a lieutenant known as "El Loco," the Crazy One, held
Jara against a dressing room wall and played Russian roulette until a
bullet blasted through the singer's skull.
(AP,
5/15/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Jara)(AP, 11/26/09)
1973 Sep 17, Charles Horman, a US
free-lance journalist, was arrested by Chilean security forces. His
body was found months later. In 1999 US intelligence complicity was
reported based on newly declassified material. Horman and Frank Teruggi
worked for a newsletter that reprinted articles and clippings from
American newspapers critical of US policy. Teruggi was also killed. The
1982 film "Missing" was based on their story. In 2003 retired security
officer Rafael Gonzalez (64) became the 1st person formally charged for
the murder.
(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A14)(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.A19)(AP,
12/11/03)
1973 Sep 21, A secret CIA report
indicated that severe repression was planned in Chile and that 300
students were killed in the technical university when they refused to
surrender to the military. The report was made public in 1999.
(SFC, 7/1/99, p.C3)
1973 Sep 22, In Chile Michael
Woodward (42), a suspended priest, died. He had been taken into custody
by security forces in the port city of Valparaiso on Sep. 16, 1973.
Woodward was allegedly tortured with other detainees on at least two
navy ships used as detention centers. In 2008 retired admirals Sergio
Barros, Guillermo Aldoney and Adolfo Walbaum and retired navy captains
Sergio Barra and Ricardo Riesgo were indicted for the kidnapping and
torture of Woodward and other members of leftist groups.
(AP, 4/18/08)
1973 Sep 23, Pablo Neruda
(b.1904), Chilean Nobel laureate poet, died of leukemia. One of his
last works, "The Book of Questions," was published in an English
translation in 1991. In 2003 Ilan Stavans edited "The Poetry of Pablo
Neruda." In 2004 Matilda Urrutia’s “My Life With Pablo Neruda” was
translated into English.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, BR p.2)(WUD, 1994 p.959)(SSFC,
8/31/03, p.M3)(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.M4)
1973 Oct 6, In Chile Andres
Pereira was arrested, assassinated and thrown into the sea. He was
considered disappeared until his death was confirmed in a 2001
government report.
(SFC, 1/9/01, p.A15)
1973 Oct 17, Winston Cabello Bravo
(28) and 12 other political prisoners were shot to death in Copiago,
Chile. Bravo's body was carved with a corvo knife. He had been
Allende's chief of economic planning in 2 northern regions where copper
mines were to be nationalized.
(SFC, 2/3/99, p.A9)
1973 Oct, A group of military
officers toured several cities by helicopter in northern Chile in a
"caravan of death" and had 72 dissidents dragged from jail and
executed. Five high ranking officers, including Gen'l. Sergio Arellano,
were indicted for these executions in 1999. In 2004 Gen. Gonzalo
Santelices, head of the Santiago army garrison, resigned amid
accusations that he was involved in the “Caravan of death.” Santelices
acknowledged that as a young lieutenant he followed orders and
transferred 14 prisoners from a jail in northern Chile to a desert area
where they were executed by firing squad. In 2008 retired Gen. Sergio
Arellano was sentenced to six years in prison for the killing of five
dissidents in the helicopter tour.
(SFC, 6/9/99, p.C2)(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A19)(SFC,
4/28/00, p.D4)(AP, 2/4/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
1973 Nov 11, The Soviet Union was
kicked out of World Cup soccer for refusing to play Chile.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2481)
1973 Dec 8, In Chile soldiers shot
Argentine primary school teacher Bernardo Lejderman and Maria Avalos, a
Mexican citizen, in front of their 2-year-old child. In 2007 a retired
general and two former sergeants were fined and sentenced to 10 years
in prison for killing the leftist couple, and were ordered to pay
$600,000 to Ernesto Lejderman, the son of the slain couple.
(AP,
12/19/07)(www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/chile/chile_1993_pt3_ch1_a2_e.html)
1973 In 2006 Chile’s
government-owned La Nacion newspaper reported that at least 22
dissidents, who disappeared under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto
Pinochet, were killed at the secretive German commune-like Dignity
Colony and their bodies later burned with chemicals. It was later
alleged that the leaders of the Dignity Colony under Paul Schaefer
engaged in sexual abuse and cult-like activity and helped the Chilean
secret police operate a concentration camp after the military coup.
(AP, 7/23/06)(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A14)
1973 Chile’s secret police took
over a mansion in Santiago that had served as the Spanish Embassy in
the 1950s. In 2006 the mansion reopened as the Salvador Allende
Solidarity Museum.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.F8)
1973 Chilean navy officers
allegedly used the tall ship Esmeralda as a hideaway for interrogation
and torture.
(SFC,10/23/97, p.A24)
1973 Bolivia’s Pres. Hugo Banzer
met with Chilean military authorities. The Chilean military Operation
Condor sought Chilean exiles in Bolivia and other countries for return
to Chile for execution.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, p.A26)
1973-1980 Gen’l. Augusto Pinochet led a 17-year
dictatorship. He enacted a constitution that reserves 4 Senate seats
for former military commanders and the national police. Under his rule
the Chilean military Operation Condor was begun where Chilean exiles in
Bolivia and other countries were sought for return to Chile for
execution. Some 3,000 people were killed or disappeared during
Pinochet’s rule. In 2004 John Dinges authored "The Condor Years: How
Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents."
(SFC,12/12/97, p.B6)(SFEC, 11/29/98, p.A26)(SSFC,
2/14/04, p.M6)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.52)
1973-1990 Chile’s National Information Center was the
secret police agency under Gen. Pinochet. It was headed by Gen. Hugo
Salas.
(SFC, 10/30/99, p.A13)
1974 Jun 27, In Chile Gen. Augusto
Pinochet proclaimed himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation" (de facto
provisional president).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet)
1974 Sep 30, Gen. Carlo Prats, a
former Chilean army chief, was killed with his wife by a car bomb in
Buenos Aires. In 2000 an Argentine judge called for the extradition of
Augusto Pinochet for the slaying. In 2000 Enrique Arancibia Clavel was
sentenced in Argentina to life in prison for his role in the murder.
(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A14)(SFC, 11/22/00, p.C6)
1974 Oct 5, in Chile Miguel
Enriquez (b.1944), physician and founder (1965) of the Movimiento de
Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), was shot dead by Pinochet’s security
forces.
(Econ, 5/30/09,
p.39)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Enriquez)
1974 Dec 11, In Chile General
Augusto Pinochet took the title of president of the republic.
(SFC, 12/11/06, p.A4)
1974 Chile’s government created a
military intelligence agency that became a rogue elephant responsible
for many human abuses. It was disbanded by Gen’l. Pinochet in 1978.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1974 Ricardo Claro (1934-2008),
Chile’s ambassador at large, announced to the world, on behalf of the
Pinochet government, that Chile was once again open for business.
(WSJ, 11/8/08, p.A6)
1974-1978 The Villa Grimaldi, a 19th century estate
outside of Santiago, Chile, was used by the National Intelligence
Directorate (DINA) under Gen’l. Manuel Contreras as clandestine
detention center. Some 5,000 political prisoners passed through and
many suffered inside torture chambers and closet-sized cells near the
stables. The main house was used as an administrative center and casino
for officers.
(SFC, 7/15/97, p.A12)
1974-1990 In 1996 a 5-year Chilean government
investigation found that the 16-year dictatorship of General Pinochet
killed 3,197 civilians for political reasons. This included 1,102
people who disappeared after being arrested by his security forces. In
2000 a retired air force colonel charged that 500 political dissidents
were slain by security forces, and that their bodies were weighted down
and tossed into the sea.
(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A20)(SFC, 1/21/98, p.C12)(SFEC,
2/1/98, p.A11) (SFC, 8/4/00, p.D4)
1975 Jul, In Chile 119 dissidents
were kidnapped as part of Operation Colombo. Their bodies were never
found. In 2008 98 people were indicted on charges of kidnapping the
victims.
(SFC, 5/27/08, p.A3)
1975 Oct 6, Chilean Vice Pres.
Bernardo Leighton and his wife, Anita Fresno, were shot in Rome. Anita
was left permanently disabled. In 2000 Chilean authorities arrested
former Gen. Eduardo Iturriaga for the shooting.
(SFC, 3/15/00,
p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leighton_case)
1975 Nov 20, An interim report by
the US Senate’s Church Committee said that the CIA failed to
assassinated Fidel Castro at least 8 times. The report also covered CIA
activity in Chile, the Congo, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere.
(WSJ, 8/5/06,
p.A9)(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Church_Committee)
1975 The Torres del Paine National
park opened in the Patagonia region of southern Chile.
(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.T6)
1976 Sep 21, Chilean exile Orlando
Letelier, one time foreign minister to Chilean President Salvador
Allende, was killed when a bomb exploded in his car in Washington D.C.
He was assassinated by order from Chile by Gen’l. Manuel Contreras,
head of the secret police known as DINA. Ronni Moffitt (25), an
American colleague of Letelier, was also killed. Contreras was
convicted of the order in 1993 and sentenced to a 7-year prison term.
In 2000 Gen. Pinochet was linked to the killing.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A14)(SFC, 7/1/99, p.C3)(SFEC,
5/28/00, p.A7)(AP, 9/21/01)
1976 Gen. Augusto Pinochet
commenced that Carretera Austral project, an effort to connect the
northern Chile to southern Aisen province.
(SFCM, 10/3/04, p.30)
1976 Chile departed the Andean
Community trade block. In 2006 it planned to rejoin.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.30)
1976 Victor Diaz Lopez, former
leader of Chile’s Communist Party, was picked up the DINA, the secret
police of dictator Augusto Pinochet. In 2007 the former leader of the
DINA’s Lautaro Brigade confessed to murdering Victor Diaz in 1977.
(Econ, 4/14/07, p.39)
1976 Gen’l. Juan Jose Torres,
ousted as president of Bolivia in 1971, was kidnapped by a death squad
in Argentina and killed. He was a victim of the Condor Plan, a South
American military pact between Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and
Paraguay to exchange intelligence information and help each other hunt
down suspected leftists.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A16)
1976 A US congressional commission
found that Pres. Nixon had authorized $10 million for a covert CIA
mission to get rid of Allende in Chile. Papers to this effect were
declassified in 1998.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.A12)
1977 Apr 5, A group of Chilean
military men in London announced the formation of a "Front of
Democratic Forces of Chile in Exile." Another similar group was formed
in Brussels and shortly later in East Berlin.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1977 Apr 6, Jaime Estevez spoke
from a Moscow broadcast that the purposes of the newly formed
Soviet-backed entities was to lead the fight for the overthrow of the
fascist junta in Chile.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1977 Aug, The Central Committee of
the Chilean Communist Party constituted itself as "The General Staff of
Revolution."
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1977 Chile’s DINA secret police
reporting to Gen. Pinochet was replaced by the National Information
Center (Centro Nacional de Información--CNI).
(www.fas.org/irp/world/chile/dina.htm)
1978 Jan 4, Chile’s Gen. Pinochet
held a National Consultation, "in defense of the dignity of Chile,"
which took place one week after it was first announced, on December 27.
(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1978 Apr 19, In Chile a law was
enacted that gave amnesty to the military.
(WSJ, 12/1/95,
p.A-10)(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1978 Jul 24, Chile’s Air Force
Gen'l. Gustavo Leigh Guzman was demoted. He was the first junta member
to urge the restoration of civilian rule.
(SFC, 9/30/99,
p.A31)(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1978 Nov 30, In Chile the remains
of 15 disappeared were discovered in Lonquen. The Vicaria publicly
announced the discovery of an illegal burial ground in an abandoned
limestone mine in Lonquén which had been used to conceal the
bodies of 15 people who had disappeared since the onset of the military
regime in 1973.
(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1979 Jan 9, The Act of Montevideo
was signed in Uruguay pledging Argentina and Chile to a peaceful
solution and a return to the military situation of early 1977. Cardinal
Antonio Samore (1905-1983), Vatican representative, mediated the Beagle
conflict.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_conflict)
1979 Chilean Communist Party Sec.
Gen’l. Luis Corvalan proclaimed from Moscow a new era of acute
violence, and endorsed guerrilla warfare, terrorism and a massive armed
uprising.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1980 Sep, Chile’s Gen'l. Pinochet
called for a referendum to approve a constitution extending his rule
for the next 8 years.
(SFC, 12/11/06, p.A4)
1980 Oct 21, Chile’s Gen'l.
Pinochet issued a new constitution that allowed him to stay in power
for another 8 years. It was approved by plebiscite.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)(Econ, 10/23/04, p.36)
1980 Jose Pinera revolutionized
Chile's pension system while he was secretary of labor and social
security. Pinochet wrote a new constitution that included statutes that
forced politicians, journalists and musicians to practice
self-censorship or face prosecution.
(WSJ, 6/28/96, p.A9)(SFC, 12/9/96, p.A18)(AP,
12/12/04)
1981 May 1, Chile completely
privatized Social Security as part of its economic reforms.
(SFC, 6/16/96, Z1 p.7)(SFC, 6/25/96, p.A18)
1981 Jul 2, L.E. Gonzalez
discovered asteroid #3495, Colchagua, from the astronomical station of
Cerro El Roble in Chile.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroids_(3001-4000))
1981 In Chile Paul Schaefer
(b.1921) of the Dignity Colony was accused of child molestation but the
case file disappeared at the courthouse in Parral. The judge lived in a
house owned by the colony.
(SFC, 6/27/97,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sch%C3%A4fer)
1982 Jan 22, Eduardo Frei Montalva
(b.1911), former Chilean President (1964-1970), died from septic shock
as he recovered from stomach surgery at a Santiago clinic. In 2007 his
family filed a court complaint claiming that Frei had been assassinated
by poisoning after a Belgian university investigation found mustard gas
in the body of the former Christian Democratic leader. In 2009 a
Chilean judge ruled that Montalva was assassinated and that his killing
was covered up by people linked to the dictatorship of Gen. Pinochet.
Six people were charged in the case.
(AP, 1/24/07)(AP, 12/7/09)
1982 Feb 23, Tucapel Jimenez, a
Chilean labor leader, was found with his throat cut and face shot in
his car. Gen. Humberto Gordon Rubio (d.2000), secret police chief, was
implicated in the killing.
(SFC, 6/17/00,
p.A20)(www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/single.pl?query=0319822171117)
1982 An economic crises in Chile
caused the establishment of capital controls and a minimum permanence
period for foreign capital of ten years.
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A17)
1983 May, Chile’s Gen'l. Pinochet
reacted to protests with strong repression.
(SFC, 12/11/06, p.A4)
1984 Alpacas from Chile began
arriving in the US after the US lifted a ban.
(WSJ, 4/5/07, p.A10)
1985 Feb 5, The US halted a loan
to Chile in protest over human rights abuses.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1985 Mar 29, In Santiago, Chile,
police killed Rafael and Eduardo Vergara. The 2 young brothers, active
members of the often violent “Movement of the Revolutionary Left”
(MIR), were peppered with bullets by military police during an
anti-Pinochet protest in the low-income Villa Francia district. The
event became known as the “Day of the Young Combatants.”
(SFC, 3/31/08,
p.A3)(http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/6384027.html)
1985 Jan 5, Boris Weisfeiler (43),
a Russian émigré and naturalized US citizen, disappeared
while hiking in Chile. US declassified documents in 2000 indicated that
Boris, a mathematics professor, was detained by the Chilean military
and handed over to Colonia Dignidad.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A8)(SFC, 6/12/08, p.A10)
1986 Sep 7, Chile’s Gen’l.
Pinochet narrowly survived an assassination attempt involving 70
terrorists. 5 of his escorts were murdered.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)
1986 Chile’s military discovered a
clandestine arms shipment that was traced to Cuba. There were enough
arms to support 5,000 men.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1986-2006 In Chile the poverty rate during this
period fell from 45% to just 13.7% of the population.
(Econ, 9/19/09, p.47)
1987 Cecilia Bolocco of Chile won
the Miss Universe crown.
(WSJ, 8/3/01, p.A1)
1987 In Chile a secret police unit
killed 12 members of a pro-communist urban guerrilla gang. In 2007
retired Col. Ivan Quiroz was convicted as a member of the secret police
unit and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Sentenced along with Quiroz
were 10 other agents of Dina, including its director at the time,
retired Gen. Hugo Salas, who received a life sentence.
(AP, 1/24/08)
1988 Apr 2, Police Corp. Alfredo
Rivera Rohas (35) was murdered by 3 youths while carrying home
groceries in Santiago, Chile.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1988 Sep 29, In Chile a
17-year-old girl died from electric torture by military police. This
case was later cited by a Spanish judge as part of the 1998 warrant
against Gen’l. Pinochet.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.D3)
1988 Oct 5, The Chilean population
agreed at referendum their opposition to the Pinochet regime.
(http://tinyurl.com/ew36c)
1988 Oct 6, Gen. Augusto Pinochet,
the president of Chile, conceded defeat in a referendum held the day
before to determine whether he should receive a new eight-year term of
office. He was forced to call for an open election but stayed president
until his term ran out in 1990.
(AP, 10/6/98)(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)
1988 Jacobo Timerman (d.1999 at
76), Argentine journalist, published "Chile: Death in the South."
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.D6)
1988 Chile was kicked out of
America’s system of preferences and cut its average tariffs from 20% to
15% in a bid to lower the cost of imports.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.78)
1988 Ricardo Claro (1934-2008),
Chilean industrialist, became head of Compania SudAmericana de Vapores
(CSAV), a shipping company. He expanded the company 10-fold by 2007
raising its revenues to $4.15 billion.
(WSJ, 11/8/08, p.A6)
1989 Mar 13, The U.S. Food and
Drug Administration began a quarantine of all fruit imported from Chile
after traces of cyanide were found in two Chilean grapes.
(AP, 3/13/99)
1989 Dec 14, Opposition leader
Patricio Aylwin, representing the left and center opposition alliance,
was elected president in Chile's first free election since 1970.
However the generals maintained great power that included the right to
veto political decisions.
(AP, 12/14/02)(WSJ, 1/9/96,
p.A-10)(http://web.mit.edu/17.508/www/week8.html)
1989 Sebastian Pinera (b.1949),
Chilean businessman and politician, was elected senator in Chile. His
fortune in 1996 was estimated at $300 mil.
(WSJ, 3/26/96, p.A-10)
1990 Mar 11, Chile’s General
Augusto Pinochet gave up power after 16 years of rule, but remained
commander of the army. Some 3,200 people were murdered under his
dictatorship and 30,000 more were tortured.
(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A20)(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)(Econ,
12/16/06, p.89)
1990 Mar 12, Vice President Quayle
met in Santiago, Chile, with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who
promised to peacefully relinquish power to Violeta Chamorro, the
U.S.-backed candidate who had won Nicaragua's presidential election.
(AP, 3/12/00)
1990 Chile’s Gen’l. Pinochet sent
troops into the streets of Santiago as a warning to drop an official
investigation into his son’s business dealings.
(SFC, 12/9/96, p.A18)
1990 Patricio Aylwin was elected
president of Chile.
(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-15)
1990 Inflation in Chile hit 26%.
(Econ, 4/30/05, p.74)
1990 Chile exported 23,000 tons of
farmed salmon.
(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A3)
1990 Chile had some 245,000
students in higher education. By 2005 this rose to 600,000.
(Econ, 4/2/05, p.33)
1991 Apr 1, Chilean Senator Jaime
Guzman was assassinated. Sergio Galvarino Apablaza, head of the
left-wing Manuel Rodrizuez Patriotic Front, was later accused of the
murder. In 2005 an Argentine judge refuse to extradite Apablaza.
(WSJ, 7/8/05, p.A11)(http://tinyurl.com/76olz)
1991 Dec, Hungarian officials
discovered 11 tons of rocket launchers and automatic weapons being
loaded on trucks headed for Croatia in violation of a UN arms embargo.
They had been labeled as Chilean humanitarian aid for Sri Lanka. In
Chile Col. Gerardo Huber, who directed purchases at the army's weapons
manufacturer, turned up dead shortly after testifying in a military
investigation. His head had been blown apart by a blast from a machine
gun. In 2009 former Chilean Army Gen. Guillermo Letelier and Air Force
Gen. Vicente Rodriguez were sentenced to prison for shipping arms to
Croatia at the time of its battle for independence from Yugoslavia. 11
people were sentenced by a military court in June, 2009, for their
roles in the deal. In October, 2009, retired Gen. Victor Lizarraga and
retired Col. Manuel Provis got 10 and eight years, respectively, for
conspiracy and homicide. Gen. Carlos Krum and Col. Julio Munoz, also
both retired, got nearly 2 years for conspiracy and murder,
respectively. The identity of the gunman in Huber's murder remained
unknown.
(AP, 6/10/09)(AP, 10/5/09)
1991 In Chile the National
Commission on Truth and Reconciliation probed the abuses of the
military regime and reported that some people arrested by the DINA were
taken to the Dignity Colony, held there and tortured by agents of the
DINA and by people of the colony. The Rettig Commission was named by
the first post-military government to investigate human rights abuses.
It was headed by a former Allende minister and counted a total of 2,279
dead and missing on both sides of the civil war.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A14)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)
1991 Capital controls in Chile
were adjusted to a minimum permanence period of 3 years for foreign
money.
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A17)
1991 Hudson volcano erupted in
Chile’s Aisen province and launched a cubic mile of ash.
(SFCM, 10/3/04, p.51)
1992 Doug Tompkins, founder of
Esprit Corp., began purchasing a 762,000-acre property north of Valle
Chacabuco, Chile. He named the area Pumalin park and opened it as a
nature sanctuary. His townhouse and office building are located in the
coastal city of Puerto Montt. The $60 million deal was concluded in
2001.
(SFC, 7/4/01, p.A10)(SFCM, 9/10/06, p.11)
1993 Dec 11, Eduardo Frei (b.1942)
was elected president of Chile.
(www.hrw.org/reports/1995/WR95/AMERICAS-02.htm)
1993 Chile passed its first law
offering protection, formal recognition and development aid to
indigenous groups. 5 of its original native tribes were already lost.
In 2006 the Kawesqar were down to just 15 full-blooded members. The
Mapuche numbered some 600,000.
(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.A25)
1993 Capital controls in Chile
were reduced to a minimum permanence period of 1 year for foreign money.
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A17)
1994 Mar 11, Eduardo Frei (b.1942)
began office as president of Chile.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Frei_Ruiz-Tagle)
1994 May 29, Erich Honecker (81),
former East German leader (1971-89), died of liver cancer in Chile.
(AP, 5/29/99) (SFC, 8/26/97, p.A17)
1994 Pres. Ruiz-Tagle took office
in Chile.
(SFC, Z-1, 4/28/96, p.5)
1994 Chile’s National Indigenous
Development Corp. (Conadi) was formed to address indigenous issues.
(SFEC, 5/7/00, p.A18)
1994 In Chile Luksic companies
earned $283 mil on revenue of over 2 bil. The Luksic family was into
banking and brewing. It minted coins and mined copper. It served school
lunches and sold cellular phones.
(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-10)
1994 In Chile the giant
state-owned copper company, Codelco, lost more than $200 million in
dealings with the London Metal Exchange at the hands of rogue trader
Juan Pablo Davila.
(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A6)
1994 A French wine expert analyzed
Chilean vines and reported that many of the Merlot vines were actually
Carmenére, a variety that was wiped out in France by a phyloxera
outbreak in 1860.
(WSJ, 12/28/01, p.A17)
1995 May, Chile’s Ministry of
Agriculture imposed a System of Appellation for the wine industry.
Labels would correctly indicate a wine’s region of origin.
(SFC, 1/8/96, zz-1 p.4)
1995 Fall, Chile’s Pres.
Ruiz-Tagle ordered the establishment of an ecotourism and adventure
travel branch for the tourism dept.
(SFC, Z-1, 4/28/96, p.5)
1995 Chile spent nearly $2 billion
on defense this year, about 4% GNP.
(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A8)
1995 Chile’s military received 10%
of the proceeds of exports by the state-owned Codelco copper concern.
That came to $316 million in this year. The government was not allowed
to question the military’s budget.
(SFC, 12/9/96, p.A18)
1995 Argentina and Chile signed an
energy agreement that allowed Argentina to cut supplies in an
emergency, but only in the same proportion as they are restricted at
home.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.34)
1996 In Chile bicyclists formed
“Furiosos Ciclistas” (raging cyclists) patterned after a SF group,
founded in 1992, to promote bicycling as a form of nonpolluting
transportation.
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.A16)
1997 Mar 4, Chile’s prison
population was 25,000 people. They were encouraged to participate as
employees in a joint government-business program.
(SFC, 3/4/97, p.A5)
1997 Apr 14, In SF the winners of
the 1997 Goldman Environmental Prize were: Included were Juan Pablo
Orrego of Chile for his battle to stop the damming of the Bio Bio River.
(SFC, 4/14/97, p.A11)
1997 Jun, Storms in Chile killed
at least 19 people and left 51,000 homeless.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A12)
1997 Jul 7, Chile’s government
agreed to back the 670,000 acre nature preserve of Doug Tompkins,
founder of the Esprit clothing chain.
(SFC, 7/8/97, p.A7)
1997 Jul 28, In Santiago, Chile,
nearly a million children stayed home when the government closed
schools for 2 days due to high smog levels.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 7, Chile’s Pres. Eduardo
Frei and Argentine Pres. Carlos Menem opened a $325 million pipeline
for natural gas from Argentina to Santiago.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1997 Sep 21, From Chile it was
reported that the hanta virus had caused the death of 13 people in
recent months.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.A27)
1997 Sep 29, A fire killed 30
children in a home for retarded children in northern Santiago, Chile.
(SFC, 9/30/97, p.A13)
1997 Oct 14, In Chile an
earthquake that measured 6.8 left 8 dead and 100 injured.
(SFC,10/15/97, p.C3)(WSJ, 10/16/97, p.A1)
1997 Nov 29, It was reported that
giant rats, fattened from feeding on droppings of hormone-fattened
poultry, were attacking barnyard animals in the Maipu suburb of
Santiago, Chile.
(SFC, 11/29/97, p.A20)
1997 Dec-2004 Jan, In 2005
Britain’s Guardian newspaper claimed that during this period a series
of payments totaling $2,098,841 were made by BAE Systems PLC to former
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
(AP, 9/15/05)
1998 Jan 20, The 1st criminal suit
was filed against Chile’s Gen’l. Pinochet for human rights violations.
(SFC, 12/11/06, p.A4)
1998 Jan 26, In Chile Gen’l.
Pinochet (82) backed away from scheduled retirement after the Christian
Democratic Party filed suit to prevent him from becoming a senator for
life.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Mar 11, In Chile Gen’l.
Pinochet could not be removed as head of the army until this date. His
successor would be chosen by Pres. Eduardo Frei from 5 generals
proposed by Pinochet. He had agreed to resign on condition that he be
allowed to assume a Senate seat. Pinochet stepped down and was replaced
by Patricio Aylwin.
(SFC, 12/9/96, p.A18)(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A11)(SFC,
3/25/99, p.A3)
1998 Apr 15, Pres. Clinton
traveled to Chile for a Latin American trade summit.
(WSJ, 4/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 18-19, A 34-nation trade
summit was held over the weekend in Santiago, Chile. Some $45 billion
from the Inner-America Development Bank, The World Bank and the US
Agency for Int’l. Development was to be made available for an array of
development projects.
(WSJ, 4/17/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 4/19/98, p.A24)
1998 Apr 19, In Chile leaders of
the 34 Western Hemisphere democracies at the second Summit of the
Americas agreed on a free-trade zone to be created by 2005. The first
summit met in Miami in 1994.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun, It was reported that the
Catholic Univ. of Valparaiso, Chile, had sold its parcel of land that
cut the Park Pumalin of Doug Tompkins in half. It was sold to Endesa
Corp., a Spanish multinational.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A14)
1998 Aug 19, Chile’s senate
approved a bill to abolish the national holiday marking the 1973 coup
against Pres. Allende. A Unity day was proclaimed instead to begin in
1999.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug, Chile’s Pres. Eduardo
Frei demanded the resignation of the director of the Indigenous Council
in order to proceed with the development of the Ralco Dam through the
land of the Pehuenche people on the Bio Bio River.
(SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T4)
1998 Sep 11, Chile’s last national
holiday to celebrate the end of the Allende government in 1973 was held.
(WSJ, 9/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 12, The anniversary of
the 1973 coup was marked by weekend clashes with police and 2 people
were killed and 77 injured.
(WSJ, 9/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 16, After receiving a
Spanish extradition warrant, British police arrested former Chilean
dictator Augusto Pinochet in London for questioning about allegations
that he had murdered Spanish citizens during his years in power.
Pinochet was held for 16 months as courts decided whether he could be
extradited to Spain; he was allowed in 2000 to return to Chile, where a
court later held that he could not face charges because of his
deteriorating health and mental condition.
(AP, 10/16/03)
1998 Oct 17, Chilean officials
lodged a formal complaint to Britain over the arrest of former Chilean
dictator Augusto Pinochet, who arrested in a London medical clinic
following a request from Spain for his extradition.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 19, A Spanish judge filed
a motion for the extradition of Gen’l. Pinochet from England that
encompassed 94 cases of genocide, as well as the deaths of 79 Spaniards
who were killed in Chile after being abducted by an alliance of south
American intelligence services.
(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 28, Britain’s High Court
ruled that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet could not be tried in
England for anything he did in Chile. Pinochet was still held pending
an appeal. The House of Lords later overturned the decision, saying
Pinochet's arrest could stand. Pinochet was eventually allowed to
return to Chile, where a court later held that he could not face
charges because of his deteriorating health and mental condition.
Pinochet died in 2006.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/28/08)
1998 Nov 10, Chile announced the
promotion of Brig. Gen’l. Sergio Espinoza Davies to Inspector Gen’l. of
the Chilean Army. This followed his departure as chief of the UN
military observer mission in India and Pakistan due to his role in
human rights abuses during the Pinochet dictatorship.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.D2)
1998 Nov 25, In Britain 5 members
of the House of Lords voted 3 to 2 to reject former Chilean dictator
Augusto Pinochet’s claim of immunity from extradition. The rejection
came one day before Pinochet’s 83rd birthday. The final decision rested
with Home Sec. Jack Straw.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A1,B2)(SFC, 11/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 9, Britain’s Home
Secretary, Jack Straw, turned down Gen’l. Augusto Pinochet’s plea to be
set free.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 17, In Britain the high
court set aside its ruling against Gen’l Pinochet because one member
failed to disclose close ties with Amnesty Int’l. A new panel will
rehear Pinochet’s claim of immunity.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.A18)
1998 The film "Chile, Obstinate
Memory" was about Chilean politics and showed at the SF Film Fest.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, DB p.55)
1998 Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas
won the Mexican Octavio Paz Prize for poetry and essay writing.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.E5)
1998 The Funa movement began in
Argentina in the 1990s where it was known as escrache. Protesters
marched to the homes or workplaces of former military agents involved
in "disappearances," where they chanted "If there isn’t any justice,
there’s La Funa!" The movement expanded to Chile especially after
Pinochet was arrested in 1998.
(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.F1)
1999 Jan 17, A forest fire had
destroyed 24,000 acres near San Fernando, some 80 miles south of
Santiago, Chile. It was the worst fire in 25 years.
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A17)
1999 Feb 18, In Chile Lee Pope of
California and 27 demonstrators against the Ralco Dam project on the
Bio Bio River were arrested.
(SFEC, 3/14/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb, Six African lions
escaped from a crashed truck in the north of Chile. By August they had
killed some 600 llamas.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A6)
1999 Mar 24, In Britain the high
court rejected the claim of Pinochet for immunity from prosecution, but
reduced the charges that could be brought against him to offenses after
Sep 29, 1988. 27 of the 30 charges in the Spanish warrant were thrown
out.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)
1999 Apr 9, Cardinal Raul Silva
Henriquez (91), the former archbishop of Santiago, Chile, died. He was
renowned for defending human rights during the dictatorship of Pinochet.
(SFC, 4/10/99, p.A21)
1999 Apr 13, Alejandra Matus,
author, launched her new book "The Black Book of Chilean Justice."
Police confiscated the books the next day and Matus fled the country to
Argentina.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A26)
1999 May 30, In Chile Ricardo
Lagos won the presidential primary to represent the center left
governing coalition against Joaquin Lavin on Dec. 12.
(WSJ, 6/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 8, Five Chilean army
officers were indicted in connection to the executions of 72 dissidents
after a 1973 coup. Indicted were retired Gen'ls. Sergio Arellano, Pedro
Espinoza, retired Cols. Sergio Arredondo, Marcelo Moren, and retired
Capt. Patricio Diaz.
(SFC, 6/9/99, p.C2)
1999 Jun 19, In Chile some 100
Mapuche Indians completed a 24 day walk to Santiago to demand more land
and greater autonomy ahead of a planned demonstration the next day.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.A13)
1999 Jul 1, Sola Sierra, president
of the Chilean advocacy group Families of the Detained and Disappeared,
died at age 63.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)
1999 Oct 8, In London a court
ruled that Gen'l. Pinochet can be extradited to Spain for trial on
torture and conspiracy charges.
(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 29, In Chile a court
charged 7 retired military officers, including Gen. Hugo Salas, for the
kidnapping and killing of 7 leftists of the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic
Front during the rule of Gen. Pinochet.
(SFC, 10/30/99, p.A13)
1999 Nov 13, Peru and Chile signed
an agreement to end a 120-year territorial dispute. Peru was granted
the exclusive use of a pier in the Chilean port of Arica.
(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)
1999 Dec 11, In Chile presidential
elections were held. Ricardo Lagos, a leftist moderate, was the
candidate for the governing Concertacion. Joaquin Lagos, a right-wing
populist, was a member of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic
organization.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.A16)
1999 Dec 12, In Chile Ricardo
Lagos and Joaquin Lavin stood at a virtual tie in presidential
elections. A runoff was set for Jan 16.
(SFC, 12/13/99, p.A12)
2000 Jan 16, In Chile Socialist
Ricardo Lagos (61) won the presidential elections in a 51.3% to 48.7%
vote over Joaquin Lavin, a former aide to Gen. Pinochet.
(SFC, 1/17/00, p.A10)(WSJ, 1/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 16, Spanish papers
reported that former Chilean Gen. Pinochet suffered from brain damage,
according to a leaked British medical assessment, and could not stand
for trial.
(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 1, In Britain Home Sec.
Jack Straw ruled that Gen. Pinochet should not be extradited to Spain.
(SFC, 3/2/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 3, Gen. Pinochet was
flown home to Chile after being released from Britain on medical
grounds.
(WSJ, 3/3/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 11, In Chile Pres.
Ricardo Lagos took power as the 1st socialist president since Salvadore
Allende was killed in a 1973 coup.
(SFEC, 3/12/00, p.A19)(AP, 3/11/01)
2000 Mar 14, In Chile authorities
arrested former Gen. Eduardo Iturriaga for the 1975 shooting of former
Vice Pres. Bernardo Leighton and his wife, Ana, in Rome.
(SFC, 3/15/00, p.A10)
2000 May 24, In Chile an appeals
court ruled that Gen. Pinochet cannot claim immunity from prosecution.
(SFC, 5/25/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 12, The worst rains in 20
years began and caused flooding in Santiago and a large portion of
central and southern Chile.
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.C4)
2000 Jun 13, Chile’s military
agreed to search for the remains of the 1,200 dissidents who
disappeared between 1973-1990 under Gen. Pinochet.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A16)
2000 Aug 1, In Chile the Supreme
Court was reported to have voted in secret to strip Gen. Pinochet of
his senatorial immunity.
(SFC, 8/2/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 7, Chile’s Supreme Court
announced a vote of 14-6 to allow the prosecution of Gen. Pinochet on
human rights charges.
(SFC, 8/9/00, p.A10)
2000 Aug 8, Chile’s Supreme Court
stripped General Augusto Pinochet’s immunity, clearing the way for the
former dictator to be tried on human rights charges. However, an
appeals court later ruled Pinochet unfit to stand trial because of his
deteriorating health and mental condition.
(SFC, 8/9/00, p.A10)(AP, 8/8/01)
2000 Nov 28, Chile’s Pres. Ricardo
Lagos met with technology leaders in California’s Silicon Valley.
(SFC, 11/28/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 1, In Chile an Appeals
Court judge ordered the house arrest of Gen. Pinochet for kidnappings
following the 1973 coup.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 5, In Chile a court of
appeals suspended the house arrest of Gen. Pinochet.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A16)
2001 Jan 7, Chile’s Pres. Lagos
confirmed that an investigation had found that at least 151 dissidents
were assassinated by security forces under Pinochet in the 1970s and
their bodies thrown into rivers, lakes or the pacific Ocean.
(SFC, 1/9/01, p.A15)
2001 Jan 29, In Chile Judge Guzman
reinstated his case against Gen. Pinochet.
(SFC, 1/30/01, p.A10)
2001 May 21, Chile’s Pres. Ricardo
Lagos made a state-of-the-nation address and raised the government’s
job creation pledge to 150,000 to help offset rising unemployment.
(WSJ, 5/25/01, p.A8)
2001 May 21, In Iquique, Chile, 26
prisoners, mostly first time offenders, died after rioting inmates set
fires in their cells. Authorities later said the fire was started by
accident.
(WSJ, 5/22/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 20, It was reported that
Chile had recently abolished its death penalty.
(SFC, 6/20/01, p.A9)
2001 Jul 9, In Chile an appeals
court ruled that Gen. Pinochet was mentally unfit to stand trial.
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A7)
2001 Nov 13, An anthrax tainted
letter was received by a pediatrician in Santiago, Chile. It was
postmarked from Switzerland and marked for return to Florida. It was
actually mailed from NY through a NY-based subsidiary of the Swiss Post
office. The letter was later believed to have been contaminated in a
lab.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A4)(SFC, 11/24/01, p.A9)(WSJ,
11/28/01, p.A4)(WSJ, 11/29/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 5, Oscar Gacitua (76),
pianist, killed himself in Santiago, Chile, by hurling under a subway
train.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A25)
2001 Dec 16, A congressional
election showed the Coalition for Democracy with 47.8% of the vote vs.
445 for the opposition Alliance for Chile.
(SFC, 12/17/01, p.A6)
2001 Chile exported over 200,000
tons of farmed salmon and was expected to become the global leader by
2010. The industry was under fire for heavy use of antibiotics, low
wages and unsanitary conditions.
(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 30, It was reported that
the remains of some 10 victims of the Pinochet regime had been found at
Fuerte Arteaga, an army base north of Santiago, Chile.
(SFC, 1/31/02, p.A9)
2002 Jul 1, Chile's Supreme Court
ruled that former dictator General Augusto Pinochet was suffering from
dementia and dropped all charges against him for human rights
violations during his regime.
(AP, 7/1/03)
2002 Jul 2, In Chile the highest
court halted prosecution of dictator Augusto Pinochet ruling that he
was mentally unfit to stand trial for dozens of political killings by
the notorious "Caravan of Death."
(AP, 7/2/02)
2002 Jul 4, In Chile Augusto
Pinochet resigned as senator-for-life.
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A14)
2002 Aug 12, In Chile hundreds of
thousands of Santiago residents had to walk to work as a strike took
virtually all the buses off the streets in this capital city of 5.5
million people.
(AP, 8/12/02)
2002 Sep 13, Argentine police
arrested Luis Ramirez Pineda (77), a retired Chilean army general, at a
Buenos Aires hotel on an international warrant for alleged involvement
in human rights abuses stemming from the 1973 coup in Chile.
(AP, 9/13/02)
2002 Oct 18, A Chilean judge
indicted six current and retired army officers, including two generals,
in the 1993 slaying of a chemist with former dictator Augusto
Pinochet's secret service.
(AP, 10/19/02)
2002 Nov 23, Chilean artist
Roberto Echaurren Matta (91), a master of surrealist painting and
sculpture, died at a hospital near Rome.
(AP, 11/24/02)
2002 Dec 11, Chile’s Pres. Ricardo
Lagos announced it had reached an agreement for a free trade accord
with the United States.
(AP, 12/11/02)(SFC, 12/12/02, p.A20)
2002 In Chile a census counted 15%
of the population claiming to be evangelicals, a Latin America synonym
for Protestants.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.52)
2003 Feb 25, In Chile a
judge indicted 2 former commanders of the once feared secret police in
the 1974 assassination in Argentina of a former army commander opposed
to then-Pres. Augusto Pinochet. Gen. Manuel Contreras and Brig. Pedro
Espinoza were charged with homicide. 3 others, Gens. Raul Iturriaga,
Jose Zara, and Iturriaga’s brother, Jorge, were also indicted.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Jun 6, Chile became the first
South American country to sign a free trade agreement with the United
States.
(AP, 6/7/03)(WSJ, 6/6/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 15, Roberto Bolano
(b.1953), Chilean author, died in Spain. His novel “2666” was published
posthumously in 2006. In 2007 his novel “The Savage Detectives” (1998)
was made available in English.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/enc3/roberto_bola%C3%B1o)(SSFC, 4/1/07, p.M1)
2003 Sep 3, President Bush signed
legislation to begin free trade with Singapore and Chile.
(AP, 9/3/04)
2003 Oct 22, Chile's Senate
overwhelmingly approved a free trade treaty with the United States,
paving the way for the accord to become effective Jan 1.
(AP, 10/22/03)
2003 Oct, In Santiago, Chile,
Claudio Spiniak, a wealthy businessman, and 6 colleagues were charged
with using a luxury gym for sadomasochistic orgies with children. An
estimated 4,000 children worked in Chile's commercial sex trade.
(SFC, 11/24/03, p.F1)
2004 Feb, South Korea ratified its
1st free trade agreement. Its partner was Chile.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.39)
2004 Apr 19, Chilean troops
prepared to take up posts in central Haiti, extending the peacekeeping
presence where as many as 400 rebels still hold sway.
(AP, 4/19/04)
2004 Apr 21, Chile said it would
begin negotiating a free-trade pact with India beginning in August. It
would at first be limited to commerce in goods.
(WSJ, 4/22/04, p.A17)
2004 May 7, Chile legalized
divorce despite strong opposition from the Catholic Church.
(AP, 5/8/04)
2004 May 26, Argentina said it is
imposing a 20% tax on natural gas exports. Chile, which imports 90% of
Argentina’s gas, would be hard hit.
(WSJ, 5/27/04, p.A18)
2004 Aug 26, Chile’s Supreme Court
stripped Pinochet of his immunity.
(WSJ, 8/27/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 29, Chile's foreign and
defense ministers stepped down in moves making it easier for them to
seek public office.
(AP, 9/29/04)
2004 Oct 14, In Chile Cardinal
Juan Francisco Fresno (90) died. He played a key role in efforts to
restore democracy in Chile during the military dictatorship of Gen.
Augusto Pinochet.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Nov 17, Chile’s 1st divorce
law was scheduled to go into effect.
(WSJ, 10/5/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 27, It was reported that
a coalition of small leftist political groups in Chile has sued Pres.
Bush and other US government officials for the abuses against prisoners
at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
(AP, 10/27/04)
2004 Oct 31, In Chile voters gave
strong support to the center-left government of President Ricardo Lagos
in nationwide municipal elections.
(AP, 11/1/04)
2004 Nov 5, The Chilean army for
the first time assumed institutional responsibility for widespread
human rights violations during the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto
Pinochet.
(AP, 11/5/04)
2004 Nov 10, Chile confronted the
grim legacy of abuses under the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto
Pinochet completing a lengthy report on torture and political
imprisonment with testimonies from some 35,000 victims. The commission
concluded that torture was a habitual practice of the armed forces and
police throughout Pinochet’s dictatorship.
(AP, 11/10/04)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.38)
2004 Nov 17, In Chile top
government ministers from 21 Pacific Rim nations convened high-level
talks on free trade and global security as police battled university
students protesting the summit and a weekend visit by President Bush.
(AP, 11/18/04)
2004 Nov 18, A woman (48) became
the first person in Chilean history to file for divorce.
(AP, 11/18/04)
2004 Nov 19, APEC, the
Asia-Pacific Economic cooperation summit, opened in Chile.
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.40)
2004 Nov 21, In Chile Asia-Pacific
leaders wrapped up an annual summit dominated by US President George W.
Bush's core security agenda.
(AP, 11/21/04)
2004 Dec 2, In Chile an appeals
court ruled to strip former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity
from prosecution for a 1974 car bombing that killed an exiled Chilean
general and the man's wife.
(AP, 12/2/04)
2004 Dec 13, A Chilean judge
indicted former dictator General Augusto Pinochet on charges of
kidnapping nine political dissidents and killing one of them during his
17-year military regime.
(AP, 12/13/05)
2004 Dec 14, Chile’s Congress
passed a bill granting compensation, a monthly pension of $190, to some
28,000 former political prisoners from the dictatorship of Gen.
Pinochet.
(SFC, 12/17/04, p.A27)
2004 Dec 18, Former Chilean
dictator General Augusto Pinochet was hospitalized after suffering a
stroke.
(AP, 12/18/05)
2004 Dec 20, A Chilean appeals
court upheld the indictment and house arrest of General Augusto
Pinochet on murder and kidnapping charges during his rule.
(AP, 12/20/05)
2004 Vitro Centre Chile, a joint
venture between local investors and a Dutch firm, began operations for
bulb production.
(Econ, 4/2/05, p.33)
2004 Goldman Sachs donated a 2,750
square km. property in the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego to the
Wildlife Conservation Society of NY. It became the Karukinka nature
reserve. Goldman acquired the property in 2002 along with loans backing
a failed 1990s project for logging lenga, a type of beech tree.
(Econ, 3/11/06, p.74)
2004 In Chile Doug Tompkins,
founder of Esprit Corp., purchased the 173,000-acre Valle Chacabuco
ranch for $10 million. Their intent was to convert it into a national
park.
(SFCM, 9/10/06, p.10)
2004 Endesa, a Spanish-owned
utility firm, and Hydro-Quebec of Canada announced their Aysen project,
a $4 billion plan to build 4 dams in Chile’s Valle Chacabuco area.
(SFCM, 9/10/06, p.10)
2005 Jan 1, Chile was forecast for
4.6% annual GDP growth with a population at 15.5 million and GDP per
head at $6,180.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.93)
2005 Jan 20, Chile, the world's
biggest copper producer, and India, the world's biggest grains
producer, agreed to launch talks to reduce import tariffs on some goods
to boost bilateral trade.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 28, In Chile Retired Gen.
Manuel Contreras, the chief of the feared security service of former
dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, was forcefully arrested at his home and
sent to prison with four of his top aides after being convicted in an
emblematic human rights case.
(AP, 1/28/05)
2005 Jan, Chile shut halted
operations for a month at a $700m wood-pulp plant opened last year in
Valdivia due to environmental concerns. In June it was shut down
indefinitely.
(Econ, 6/25/05, p.39)
2005 Feb 10, Chile raised its key
interest rate to 2.75% from 2.5%.
(WSJ, 2/11/05, p.A9)
2005 Mar 13, Paul Schaefer (83),
former head of a secretive German colony in southern Chile, was flown
to Santiago after his arrest in Argentina. Schaefer founded Colonia
Dignidad, or Dignity Colony, a commune-like enclave in 1961, and is
accused in the disappearance of a dissident under dictator Gen. Augusto
Pinochet.
(AP, 3/13/05)
2005 Mar 15, A US Senate
investigators released a new report that said 9 US banks, including
Citigroup, Bank of America, and Riggs Bank, enabled Augusto Pinochet,
former Chilean dictator, and family members to build a secret network
of accounts to conceal his wealth. DC-based Riggs Bank merged with PNC
Financial following the inquiry, which also revealed that Pinochet and
Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea, had stashed millions in
private accounts there.
(WSJ, 3/16/05,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riggs_Bank)(Econ, 3/14/09, p.63)
2005 Mar 24, Chile’s Supreme Court
refused to strip Gen. Augusto Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution.
(SFC, 3/25/05, p.A3)
2005 May 2, Jose Miguel Insulza,
Chile’s interior minister, became head of the Organization of American
States.
(WSJ, 5/2/05, p.A16)
2005 May 19, Five Chilean soldiers
froze to death and 65 were missing after a fierce snowstorm pounded the
Andes mountains.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 20, Young Chilean
soldiers who made it out of a blizzard alive said they had to leave
behind comrades who collapsed from exhaustion and cold. The soldiers
were on a training march in the Andes Mountains May 18, when hit by the
worst snowstorm in the area in decades. As many as 41 soldiers, 40
draftees and one officer, were believed to have died.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 Jun 7, A Chilean appeals
court stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution in a
tax evasion case stemming from multimillion-dollar bank accounts the
former dictator held in the US.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 14, A 7.9 earthquake
rattled cities in Bolivia and Peru and heavily damaged mountain
villages in northern Chile, killing at least 11 people including a
family of 6.
(WSJ, 6/14/05, p.A1)(AP, 6/15/05)
2005 Jun 27, France, Germany,
Brazil and Chile called for a tax on airline tickets to help finance
the global fight against poverty.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jul 6, A Chilean court
stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution for his
alleged role in the killing of 119 dissidents in the early years of his
dictatorship.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Aug 10, In Chile Gen. Augusto
Pinochet's wife and younger son were arrested and charged as
accomplices in a tax evasion case linked to an investigation into the
former dictator's multimillion dollar fortune overseas.
(AP, 8/10/05)
2005 Aug 18, Andronico Luksic
(78), Chilean billionaire, died. His holding included beach resorts in
Croatia, where his father was born.
(SFC, 8/30/05, p.B4)
2005 Sep 14, Chile’s Supreme Court
stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution, paving the
way for a trial of the former dictator for his alleged role in the
disappearance and killing of 15 dissidents during his 1973-90 regime.
(AP, 9/15/05)
2005 Sep 17, Chile’s Pres. Lagos
signed a reform of the constitution that deleted what he called
“authoritarian enclaves” left in place from the dictatorship.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.38)(www.americas.org/item_21936)
2005 Sep 30, South American
presidents committed themselves to establishing a continental free
trade zone. The South American summit was attended by the presidents of
Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and
Argentina.
(AP, 10/1/05)
2005 Oct 13, Argentina and Chile
suspended imports of Brazilian meat, joining 28 other countries with
similar bans after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 19, Chile's Supreme Court
stripped former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from
prosecution for corruption charges related to his multimillion dollar
bank accounts overseas. It was revealed that he had up to $27 million
stashed abroad.
(AP, 10/19/05)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.89)
2005 Oct 23, Pope Benedict XVI
named five new saints at the close of a 3-week Synod of Bishops. They
included: Rev. Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, a Chilean Jesuit who was known
for his work with the poor as well as the young.
(AP, 10/23/05)
2005 Nov 6 Former Peruvian
President Alberto Fujimori was arrested, hours after he defied an
international arrest warrant and flew from Japan to Chile. Shortly
after Fujimori's presence in Chile was confirmed, the Peruvian
government asked Santiago to arrest him while a request for his
extradition was filed.
(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 14, Retired Gen. Manuel
Contreras (79), the head of Chile's secret police under Gen. Augusto
Pinochet, was sentenced to three years in prison for the 1976 killing
of Julia Retamal, a teacher opposed to the dictator's regime. Contreras
was already serving a 12-year sentence for a political killing.
(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 18, China and Chile
signed a free-trade agreement on behalf of their nations, the first
between China and a Latin American country.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 23, In Chile former
dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was indicted and put under house arrest
on charges of tax evasion and corruption related to his
multimillion-dollar overseas accounts.
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Nov 24, Former Chilean
dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was indicted on human rights charges and
placed under house arrest, hours after he made bail on unrelated
corruption charges filed only a day earlier.
(AP, 11/24/05)
2005 Dec 7, In Chile Gen. Augusto
Pinochet was stripped of his legal immunity by an appeals court,
allowing his trial in the disappearance of 29 additional dissidents
during his 1973-90 dictatorship.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 11, In Chile Michelle
Bachelet easily defeated two feuding right-wing candidates with 46
percent of the vote, but fell shy of the 50 percent needed for victory.
(AP, 12/12/05)
2005 Dec 28, Chilean police took
fingerprints and mugs shots of Gen. Augusto Pinochet following his
indictment for the killing and disappearance of 9 dissidents during his
dictatorship.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 Dec 28, Two members of a
secretive German colony in Chile were indicted on abuse allegations in
connection with the alleged torture of eight children.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 Dec 30, In Chile former
dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was stripped of his legal immunity to
face charges of diverting public funds to personal bank accounts.
(AP, 12/31/05)
2006 Jan 3, Peru formally asked
Chile to extradite former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori so he can
be tried on human rights and corruption charges.
(AP, 1/3/06)
2006 Jan 9, In Chile a judge
granted bail to former military strongman Augusto Pinochet in the case
of nine dissidents who disappeared during his dictatorship, but the
general will remain under house arrest while another court reviews the
decision.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 15, Chileans voted in a
presidential runoff election that pitted Michelle Bachelet, a socialist
pediatrician promising to maintain the country's free-market policies,
against Sebastian Pinera, a Harvard-trained economist and
multimillionaire businessman vowing to fight poverty. Michelle Bachelet
(54) won the elections with 53% of the vote, compared to 46% for Pinera.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 20, In Chile former
dictator Augusto Pinochet was stripped of immunity from prosecution on
charges involving 59 cases of torture and kidnapping at a secret
detention center where hundreds of dissidents were held.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 23, In Chile Gen. Augusto
Pinochet's wife and four grown children were indicted and ordered
arrested on charges of tax evasion related to the former dictator's
multimillion-dollar accounts at overseas banks.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 25, The older daughter of
former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was detained upon arrival in
Washington after failing to obey a summons by a Chilean judge, who
indicted her on tax evasion charges.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 30, Chile’s
President-elect Michelle Bachelet unveiled a Cabinet that fulfilled her
campaign promise to give half the jobs to women and kept a balance
among the four parties in her center-left coalition.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Chile received two US
F-16 warplanes out of 10 it had ordered as part of a major military
upgrade that has worried some of its South American neighbors.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Feb 15, A Chilean
environmental agency approved ambitious plans for an open-pit mine high
in the Andes mountains were unanimously, but the project's future
remained unclear because the agency rejected its most controversial
aspect, relocating three glaciers to reach the gold underneath.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Mar 11, Michelle Bachelet, a
Socialist pediatrician who suffered prison, torture and exile under
Chile's military dictatorship, was sworn in as the nation's first
female president.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 13, Newly inaugurated
President Michelle Bachelet said that all Chileans older than 60 will
immediately begin receiving free care at public hospitals.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 21, In Chile 13 retired
army officers were indicted on homicide charges for their participation
in the Caravan of Death under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto
Pinochet. The new warrants were issued against officers who were
serving at regiments visited by the Caravan and allegedly helped the
repression by participating in illegal executions and burials.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 22, In northern Chile a
tour bus swerved to avoid an approaching truck and tumbled 300 feet
down a mountainside, killing 12 American tourists and injuring two
others.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar, Sebastian Pinera,
Chilean businessman and politician, paid some $6 million for 1,150
square km. on Chiloe Island and planned to invest some 20 million over
the next 5 years to develop ecotourism there.
(Econ, 3/11/06,
p.74)(www.businesschile.cl/portada.php?w=old&lan=en&id=63)
2006 Apr 7, In Chile an appeals
court upheld the indictment of former dictator Gen. Pinochet on charges
of evading up to $3 million in taxes related to secret accounts in
foreign banks.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 May 18, A smiling Alberto
Fujimori left jail after almost seven months when Chile's Supreme Court
granted the former Peruvian president bail as he fights extradition to
face corruption and human rights charges.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 24, In Chile Paul
Schaefer (84), the leader of now-dismantled Colonia Dignidad, was
convicted of sexually abusing 25 children and sentenced to 20 years in
jail. The colony was founded by German immigrants in southern Chile in
the early 1960s.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 30, A nationwide protest
by Chilean high school students demanding school reforms turned violent
as police struggling to contain hundreds of raucous marchers opened
fire with tear gas and water cannons. Some 600,000 pupils, backed by
university students, teachers and many parents, walked out of classes.
(AP, 5/30/06)(Econ, 6/3/06, p.35)
2006 May 31, In Chile police for a
second day used water cannons to scatter demonstrations by high school
students that turned violent when masked protesters started throwing
rocks near downtown Santiago. President Michelle Bachelet fired the
commander of the Santiago riot police, Col. Osvaldo Jara, in response
to the initial clashes.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 5, In Chile protesters
clashed with police in Santiago as students stepped up demands for
reforms to the country's educational system, saying new government
concessions didn't go far enough.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jul 12, In central Chile
flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rain left at least 11 people
dead and forced 30,000 to flee their inundated homes.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Aug 8, In Chile police used
tear gas and water cannons to disperse about 2,000 rock-throwing
students seeking better equipment for 21 schools in the Santiago area.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 10, In Chile a drug
trafficking network working on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC) was dismantled. Police seized almost a half-ton of
cocaine and arrested 12 people.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Chile a tough
nationwide anti-smoking law that took effect.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 18, Chile's Supreme Court
voted to strip Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution,
allowing him to be tried on corruption charges for his once-secret
multimillion dollar overseas bank accounts.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 18, Anglo-Australian
resources giant BHP Billiton closed its operations at the world's
biggest copper mine in Chile and ended negotiations with striking
workers. The strike began on August 7 at the Escondida Mine, majority
owned by BHP. The Chilean government has signaled it was ready to
intervene.
(AP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 28, In Chile Paul
Schaefer (84), former leader of Colonia Dignidad, or Dignity Colony,
was sentenced to 7 years in prison for arms found at the secretive
enclave near Parral, 200 miles south of Santiago.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Sep 2, In Chile miners at
Escondida returned to work following a 25-day strike that cost the
company some $200 million in lost profits. Their new deal included a
bonus of $12,000 on account of high copper prices.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.40)
2006 Sep 21, Chile's President
Michelle Bachelet said her decision to allow the government to
distribute free morning-after contraception pills to girls as young as
14 was a matter of "equality" within Chilean society.
(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Sep 26, In Chile thousands of
public school teachers held a generally peaceful march in Santiago to
demand higher pay.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Oct 4, In Chile government
officials announced plans to build a 62-mile highway through Pumalin
Park, a nature reserve created by Douglas Tompkins of SF. The
government also signaled that it will push ahead with the proposed $4
billion hydroelectric complex to dam the Baker and Pasqua rivers south
of Pumalin.
(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 27, In Chile former
dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was indicted for abuses at Villa
Grimaldi, one of his regime's most infamous secret prisons, where
President Michelle Bachelet and her mother were once held and
mistreated.
(AP, 10/27/06)
2006 Nov 6, Chile’s President
Michelle Bachelet opened an international gathering of socialist
leaders in Santiago by urging them to take advantage of the "reality"
of globalization instead of fighting it. Police in Chile arrested 4
suspected computer hackers for allegedly belonging to a group accused
of breaking into thousands of government Web sites around the globe,
including NASA's.
(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 12, In central Chile a
bus carrying members of a military band skidded off a precipice in the
rain and fell into the Tucapel River, killing 19 people and injuring
nine.
(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 24, In southern Chile a
twin-engine plane crashed, killing the Chilean pilot and five Brazilian
tourists.
(AP, 11/24/06)
2006 Dec 10, In Chile Gen. Augusto
Pinochet (b.1915) died dashing hopes of victims of his regime's abuses
that he would be brought to justice. He overthrew Chile's
democratically elected Marxist president in a bloody coup and for 17
years.
(AP, 12/10/06)
2006 Dec 15, President Michelle
Bachelet proposed a shake-up of Chile's widely admired but incomplete
private social security system, urging a minimum government pension for
1 million elderly Chileans left out of the current program.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 29, In Chile 13 former
dictatorship-era security agents were sentenced to prison terms ranging
from five to 18 years for four killings committed in revenge for the
bloody 1986 assassination attempt of dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
(AP, 12/29/06)
2006 The population of Chile was
about 16 million.
(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.A25)
2007 Feb 3, In Chile a fire swept
through a small hotel in Punta Arenas, killing 10 foreign tourists,
including two children, as they slept in their rooms. A large gas
explosion rocked a historic area in the port city of Valparaiso,
killing at least one person, injuring 11 more and causing extensive
damage over three city blocks.
(AP, 2/3/07)
2007 Feb, Santiago, Chile,
launched an overhaul of its public-transport system. For a year the
program created a nightmare for the city’s commuters.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.40)
2007 Mar 26, Chile’s President
Michelle Bachelet fired her chief of staff and three other members of
her Cabinet in response to a public transportation crisis that has
badly damaged her government.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Apr 4, In Chile police used
tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesting students
in the capital of Santiago, and detained nearly 100 people.
(AP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 20, Eight workers went
missing after a fire swept through a fish-processing ship off southern
Chile, killing one person. 116 members of the Hercules' crew were
rescued.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 21, An earthquake in
remote southern Chile shook free a landslide of rocks, sending them
smashing into a narrow fjord and causing massive 25-foot waves that
swept away 10 beachgoers. Three bodies were recovered the next day.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 May 21, In Chile Pres.
Michelle Bachelet apologized for failing to fix her capital's public
bus system and promised to raise education spending by hundreds of
millions of dollars.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 Jun 8, In Chile former
Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was put back under house arrest, a
day after a Chilean prosecutor recommended his extradition to face
charges of human rights abuses and corruption in his home country.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 13, Heavy snows hit the
Andean border region of Argentina and Chile, forcing the closure of a
key mountain highway connecting the two countries and idling thousands
of trucks.
(AP, 6/13/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Chile Osvaldo Romo
(70), a security agent who became a symbol of torture and repression
under Gen. Augusto Pinochet's former military dictatorship, died in
prison.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 6, Chile's securities
regulator fined Sebastian Pinera, a leading right-wing politician and
former presidential candidate, for insider trading of LAN Airlines SA
stock.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Aug 18, Chile’s national
poverty line was reported to be $90 per month. The richest tenth of the
population garnered 38.6% of the national income.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.23)
2007 Sep 12, Police in Chile
battled rampaging youths over night on the anniversary of the 1973
military coup. One officer was killed, 41 people injured with some 304
people arrested.
(SFC, 9/13/07, p.A4)
2007 Sep 21, Chile's Supreme Court
ruled that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori must be
extradited to face human rights and corruption charges in Peru.
(AP, 9/21/07)
2007 Sep 22, Former Peruvian
President Alberto Fujimori was flown to his home country in police
custody, one day after the Chilean Supreme Court authorized his
extradition on human rights and corruption charges.
(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Oct 4, In Chile the widow and
five children of Gen. Augusto Pinochet were among 23 people indicted on
charges of corruption related to the dictator's US bank accounts.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 26,
A Chilean appeals court dropped corruption charges against former
dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet's widow and four of his children, who
had been accused of misuse of state funds related to
multimillion-dollar overseas bank accounts.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Nov 14, In Chile a 7.7
magnitude quake, centered near the desert village of Quillagua in the
foothills of the Andes, killed at least 2 people.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 21, Chile’s Supreme Court
threw out embezzlement indictments against former dictator Gen. Augusto
Pinochet's widow and four of his children, who had been accused of
misuse of state funds related to multimillion-dollar overseas bank
accounts.
(SFC, 11/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Dec 19, In Chile a retired
general and two former sergeants were fined and sentenced to 10 years
in prison for killing a leftist couple shortly after Chile's 1973
military coup. The Santiago Court of Appeals said in a communique that
Gen. Fernando Polanco and Sgts. Luis Fernandez and Hector Vallejos, all
retired, were ordered to pay $600,000 to the son of the slain couple,
Ernesto Lejderman.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Chile’s salmon farming
industry produced $2.2 billion in export revenues this year.
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.45)
2008 Jan 2, In southern Chile
hundreds of people fled their homes overnight as the Llaima volcano
erupted, rocking the area with explosions and spewing lava and ash.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 3, In Chile Interior
Minister Belisario Velasco, one of the most powerful officials in
President Michelle Bachelet's government, resigned as part of an
expected Cabinet shake-up. Mapuche Indians trying to reclaim farmland
they say belonged to their ancestors clashed with police in violence
that left one protester dead.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Chile Patricia
Troncoso (39), an imprisoned Indian-rights activist who has been on a
hunger strike for 93 days, was sent to a hospital because of her
deteriorating condition. Troncoso, imprisoned in 2002, is serving a
10-year sentence for participating in a group that set a fire on a farm
claimed by Mapuche Indian activists who say the property belonged to
their ancestors.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 16, Chile's congress
backed a pension reform bill to ensure the country's landmark social
security program for the first time covers every citizen.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Jan 23, In Chile retired Col.
Ivan Quiroz was arrested in the southern city of Concepcion after
remaining at large for four months. He went into hiding to avoid a
10-year prison sentence in a human rights case dating from the
dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet He had been convicted as member
of a secret police unit that killed 12 members of a pro-communist urban
guerrilla gang in 1987.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 28, In Chile Patricia
Troncoso, an indigenous rights activist jailed for setting fire to a
farm once owned by Mapuche Indians, ended her 110-day hunger strike.
(AP, 1/28/08)
2008 Feb 4, In Chile Gen. Gonzalo
Santelices, head of the Santiago army garrison, resigned amid
accusations that he was involved in a case dating back to the nation's
military dictatorship. Santelices had acknowledged that as a young
lieutenant in October, 1973, he followed orders and transferred 14
prisoners from a jail in northern Chile to a desert area where they
were executed by firing squad.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 7, Chile announced it
will try to head off power rationing by cutting electrical voltage,
distributing efficient light bulbs and extending daylight savings time.
(AP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 27, In Chile a small
police plane crashed at a sports field in Chile's capital, killing all
six aboard and five on the ground.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Mar 11, Some 600,000 poor
Chileans will receive monthly pensions starting in July under a law
signed by President Michelle Bachelet that plugs gaps in Chile's widely
copied private pension system.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 13, Chile said it has
agreed to receive 117 Palestine refugees from Iraq who have spent
months living in tents along the desert border with Syria.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 28, In Chile 5 youths,
aged 14-20, attacked 9 German soldiers and took them hostage in the
port city of Iquique. One soldier escaped and police quickly surrounded
the house and arrested four suspects after a shootout.
(AP, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 29, In Santiago, Chile,
violence broke out during the annual commemoration of the “Day of the
Young Combatants.” One man (23) was shot by masked demonstrators. The
demonstration marked the killing of 2 leftists in 1985.
(SFC, 3/31/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 3, In Chile Yasna
Provoste, Chile’s education minister, was impeached following the
discovery of $560 million shortfall in the ministry for 2004-2006.
(Econ, 5/17/08,
p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasna_Provoste)
2008 Apr 4, Chile's Constitutional
Court halted a government program that provided the contraceptive known
as the "morning-after" pill free to women and girls as young as 14.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 8, Chilean police said
Marko Kulju (26), a Finnish tourist who chipped an earlobe off an
ancient Moai on Easter Island, is being allowed to go home after paying
a US$17,000 (euro10,830) fine and agreeing not to return for three
years.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 17, Retired Gen. Manuel
Contreras (78), former chief of Chile's secret police force, was
sentenced to 15 years in prison for the disappearance of a dissident
during the dictatorship of the late Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 18, In Chile 5
high-ranking retired navy officers were indicted for the abduction,
torture and killing a British-Chilean priest and other dissidents in
the days following Chile's 1973 military coup.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 20,
A group of Palestinian refugees stranded on the Iraq-Syria border
since 2006 flew to Chile under a resettlement plan sponsored by the
Catholic Church in the South American country and the UN agency for
refugees.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 May 2, In southern Chile
authorities evacuated hundreds of people from villages after the
snowcapped Chaiten volcano, considered dormant for thousands of years,
erupted.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 6, Chile’s Chaiten
volcano spewed lava and blasted ash more than 12 miles into the sky,
prompting a total evacuation of the provincial capital and other
settlements.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 29, Chile's national
police chief and 10 other people were killed when the aging Panamanian
government helicopter they were riding in crashed into a three-story
building in the heart of Panama City.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 11, A plane carrying 10
people that disappeared four days ago in Chile's frigid southern
forests was found with nine survivors who stayed alive by huddling for
warmth, sharing food and sheltering in the plane's wreckage. The only
fatality was the pilot Nelson Bahamondes (65). The plane had
disappeared June 7 after taking off the Chilean city of Puerto Montt en
route to La Junta.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 12, Chile’s Pres.
Bachelet visited California on a trade mission, addressed the state
Assembly and signed a cooperation agreement with Gov. Schwarzenegger.
(SFC, 6/13/08, p.B12)
2008 Jun 23, Chile’s Pres.
Michelle Bachelet pushed to permanently ban whaling along Chile's coast
at the opening of the weeklong International Whaling Commission meeting.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 30, In Chile Judge
Alejandro Solis said he sentenced retired Gen. Manuel Contreras to two
consecutive life prison terms for the killing of retired army chief
Carlos Prats and his wife, who died when a bomb blew their car in
Argentina in 1974. Contreras was already in prison serving sentences of
more than 70 years for other crimes committed under Pinochet's rule.
(AP, 6/30/08)
2008 Aug 4, In Chile Alberto
Achacaz Walakial, one of the last surviving members of the nomadic
Kaweskar tribe, died of blood poisoning. Government documents listed
Achacaz's age at 79, but some believe he was close to 90. The tribe
once plied the waters off Chile's Patagonian coast. Experts estimate
that only about a dozen full-blooded Kaweskars, or Alacalufes, survive
and the group appears destined to disappear in the near future as there
are no women of fertile age left. Since the arrival of the first
Europeans, Chile has lost five of its original 14 indigenous tribes to
disease, displacement or the overuse of their natural resources.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 14, Chile’s central bank
said it is boosting its lending rate to 7.75%, warning that additional
adjustments will likely be necessary to ensure inflation meets its 3
percent target in the next two years. Annual inflation reached 9.5% in
July, Chile's highest rate since 1994.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Sep 11, Chile’s Senate
unanimously passed a bill submitted by President Michelle Bachelet that
bans whale hunting off the country’s 3,400 mile (5,500 km) coast.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 11, In Santiago, Chile.
clashes erupted as protesters erected burning barricades and attacked
police with firearms and rocks on the 35th anniversary of the 1973
bloody military coup.
(AP, 9/12/08)
2008 Oct 10, A Swedish court
sentenced Chilean tenor Ernesto "Tito" Beltran (43) to two years and
six months in prison for raping an 18-year-old nanny and molesting a
7-year-old girl. The appeals court in Goteborg upheld a previous rape
conviction, but overturned an acquittal in the molestation case.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 15, Chile’s President
Michelle Bachelet signed into law a measure that bans all whale hunting
off Chile's 3,400-mile (5,500-kilometer) coast.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 26, In Chile municipal
elections were held and Alliance, the center-right opposition, won 41%
of the vote for mayors, 2 point more than the governing center-left
Concertacion coalition. This was the first-ever nationwide defeat of
Concertacion, which has ruled since 1990.
(Econ, 11/1/08, p.47)
2008 Oct 28, Ricardo Claro
(b.1934), Chilean industrialist, died. His industrial empire stretched
from shipping (CSAV) to media to wine (Santa Rita). In 1974 he
announced to the world, on behalf of the Pinochet government, that
Chile was once again open for business.
(WSJ, 11/8/08, p.A6)
2008 Oct 10, Chile's President,
Michelle Bachelet, signed law 20.299 making October 31st a new annual
public holiday to coincide with Reformation Day and to be called
"Día Nacional de las Iglesias Evangélicas y
Protestantes". The date marked the 1517 posting by Martin Luther of his
95 thesis in Wittenberg, Germany.
(http://tinyurl.com/62uhnt)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.52)
2008 Dec 12, In Chile admirers of
former dictator Augusto Pinochet inaugurated a museum in his honor, a
move they hope will burnish the image of a man reviled by much of the
world.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 23, It was reported that
Wal-Mart has offered $2.8 billion to buy a majority stake in
Distribucion y Servicio D&S, a Chile-based grocer.
(WSJ, 12/23/08, p.C10)
2009 Jan 5, Chile’s Pres. Michelle
Bachelet announced a $4 billion economic stimulus package.
(WSJ, 1/6/09, p.A9)
2009 Jan 19, Chile's former top
air force commander was arrested on charges of taking graft in the 1994
sale of 25 Belgian military planes to the government. Air Force Gen.
Ramon Vega and three other retired officers were charged with tax
evasion, misappropriation of public funds and improper negotiation.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Feb 12, Chile’s central bank
slashed its key interest rate 2.5% to 4.75%.
(WSJ, 2/13/09, p.A8)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.40)
2009 Mar 27, In Chile the
Progressive Governance Summit, a 2-day gathering of leaders from Latin
America and Europe, opened at the resort city of Vina del Mar. All
agreed for an export-credit fund to get trade flowing again.
(AP, 3/27/09)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.43)
2009 Apr 20, In Chile Gen. Gonzalo
Santelices, former head of the Santiago army garrison, was indicted
along with 2 other officers in the killing of 14 dissidents in the
early days of the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
(SFC, 4/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 26, In Chile a fire
touched off by brawling inmates swept through the Colina prison near
Santiago, killing 10 prisoners.
(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 May 17, Chile confirmed its
first two cases of swine flu in two women who arrived from the
Dominican Republic.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 Jun 1, Chilean plumber,
Fernando Vera, died of swine flu, making him South America's first
swine-flu death.
(AP, 6/2/09)
2009 Jun 9, Two retired Chilean
generals were sentenced to prison for shipping arms to Croatia in 1991
at the time of its battle for independence from Yugoslavia. The arms
had been labeled as Chilean humanitarian aid for Sri Lanka. Army Gen.
Guillermo Letelier and Air Force Gen. Vicente Rodriguez were sentenced
to three years in prison. Letelier also was sentenced to 541 days for
falsifying documents.
(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 25, Spanish legislators
voted to change a law that let judges indict Osama bin Laden and
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, narrowing its scope to cases with a
clear link to this country and yielding to criticism that Spain should
not be a global cop.
(AP, 6/25/09)
2009 Aug 12, In Chile Mapuche
activist Fabian Facundo Mendoza Collio (24) was shot and killed by
police during a confrontation with Mapuche Indians outside Collipulli.
Hours after the Collio was killed, an agricultural warehouse in the
area was set on fire, destroying about $1 million worth of equipment.
(AP, 8/13/09)
2009 Aug 15, In southern Chile
Manuel Calfiu, head of the Mapuche community Meli Wixan Mapu, said
dozens of Indian communities agreed to form the Mapuche Territorial
Alliance to fight for political autonomy, said after several days of
violence over land seizures.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 21, Chile's health
ministry said it ordered a quarantine for two turkey farms outside the
port city of Valparaiso after genetic tests confirmed sick birds were
afflicted with the same swine flu virus circulating in humans.
(AP, 8/21/09)
2009 Sep 1, A Chilean judge
ordered the arrests of 129 former security officers on charges tied to
the disappearance of leftists and the slaying of the communist party
leadership during the Pinochet dictatorship.
(AP, 9/1/09)
2009 Sep 2, In Chile Judge Manuel
Valderrama said the accounts of General Pinochet and his family reached
a value of $25,978,602.79 shortly before his death in December 2006.
The investigating judge said that more than $20 million of the funds
have no justifiable origin.
(AP, 9/2/09)
2009 Sep 11, In Chile police and
hooded protesters clashed Santiago on the anniversary of the 1973
military coup that toppled elected President Salvador Allende. State
television reported one death amid the disturbances.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Oct 5, In Chile 4 former top
army officials were sentenced to prison in the murder of a colonel
shortly after he testified about a 1991 illegal deal to smuggle weapons
to Croatia.
(AP, 10/6/09)
2009 Oct 8, French utility group
GDF Suez said it had signed a contract worth 3.0 billion dollars (2.0
billion euros) to supply electricity to subsidiaries of the Chilean
electricity company EMEL.
(AP, 10/8/09)
2009 Nov 1, It was reported that
hundreds of former Chilean military draftees were making a provocative
offer to Chile's government: They would reveal details of crimes
committed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, but only if their
safety is guaranteed.
(AP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 12, Peruvian media
reported that air force officer Victor Ariza (45) was arrested last
month for allegedly spying for Chile. Peruvian President Alan Garcia
soon accused Chile of assaulting Peru's sovereignty, throwing his
weight behind allegations that Chile paid a Peruvian military officer
to spy. Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez denied the
accusation.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2009 Dec 13, Chile held elections.
Sebastian Pinera, a billionaire who grew rich providing credit cards to
Chileans, strongly led in the polls. With 98% of the vote counted
Pinera won 44% of the vote, to 30% for former President Eduardo Frei
(67). A runoff vote was scheduled for Jan 17.
(AP, 12/13/09)(AP, 12/14/09)
2010 Jan 6, In Chile investigators
accused Rev. Ricardo Munoz Quinteros (55), a Catholic priest, and his
girlfriend, Pamela Ampuero, of soliciting sex from young girls,
including one who later bore his child.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 11, Chile inaugurated the
Museum of Memory to make sure the tens of thousands of people who were
imprisoned, killed or disappeared during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's
dictatorship are not forgotten.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 17, Chile held
presidential elections. Sebastian Pinera won the election by a
52-48%margin over former President Eduardo Frei. His election victory
ended two decades of uninterrupted rule by a center-left coalition, and
returned to power the same political parties that provided civic
support for Augusto Pinochet's brutal 1973-1990 dictatorship.
(AP, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/18/10)
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Subject = Chile
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