Wednesday, November 30, 2005

NEW PRESIDENT OF STATE DEFENSE COUNCIL NAMED

The President of the State Defense Council (CDE), Clara Szczaranski, announced Tuesday that Carlos MacKenney’s will assume her role as the new president when she steps down on Dec. 1st.

“(Carlos MacKenney) was nominated based on his great professional ability, merit and enormous knowledge of state matters,” said the government spokesman Osvaldo Puccio.

The new president is a trained lawyer and member of the Christian Democratic Party (DC). He has served as the sub-secretary of the navy and was the former chief of legal branch of the Interior Ministry. He is widely respected inside the current presidential administration and is reportedly very close to presidential frontrunner, Michelle Bachelet of the Concertación alliance.

The decision to appoint MacKenney comes after a series of controversies surrounding the outgoing CDE President Clara Szczaranski. In 2000, Szczaranski was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for negligent behavior. In 2004 the attorney angered the human rights community by proposing an “improper amnesty” for human rights violators, and made unfounded accusations against the Secta Moon religious group after the death of a fellow CDE lawyer.

President Lagos’ appointment of MacKenny overrode Szczaranski’s request for reappointment as well as her choice of a potential successor.

FIRST REMAINS OF ‘DISAPPEARED’ DISCOVERED IN URUGUAY

Anthropologists working with the Uruguayan government to locate the remains of people ‘disappeared’ by the military dictatorship there discovered the partial remains of the first victim ever discovered since the end of the dictatorship in 1985.

“This is a drama with two faces,” said Uruguayan President Tabaré Vásquez. “One of satisfaction to be able to fulfill the letter of the law, to finally know what happened to the disappeared, and also the enormous sadness and shock of what happened in our country.”

Since President Vásquez took office in March he has repeatedly pushed the Uruguayan military for information on human rights abuses committed during the military dictatorship between 1973 and 1985. After initial information from the military failed to produce any concrete discoveries President Vásquez threatened to dismiss several army leaders unless they cooperated more fully with investigations (ST, Oct. 5).

Argentine anthropologist José López is coordinating the excavation that found the first remains at a former Air Force base in Pando, 30km outside of Montevideo. Investigators believe the remains belong to either Arpino Vega or Ubagesner Chávez, two communists identified in a document given to the government in August.

López and his team discovered have so far unearthed two legs and a tibia, and expect to find a second body by the end of the week. The remains will be sent to a laboratory for DNA testing that will take at least 6 weeks before the government can definitively identify the remains.

President Vásquez also announced that the team of forensic experts working at Army Barracks 13 and 14 would be presenting “very important discoveries” on Wednesday.

ALDUNATE WILL REMAIN IN HAITI

President Ricardo Lagos decided to keep Gen. Eduardo Aldunate as Chile’s second in command of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Haiti after Judge Alejandro Madrid determined that the general took no part in the 1976 murder of Carmelo Soria, a Spanish-Chilean UN official.

Gen. Aldunate was recalled to Chile for questioning after the murdered UN official’s daughter, Carmen Soria, accused him of taking part in his murder. Chilean officials were asked to review Gen. Aldunate’s military record and investigate allegations that he participated in the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) Mulchén Brigade in the mid-1970s.

Earlier investigations blamed the brigade for Soria’s 1976 murder, but until Ms. Soria’s allegations, Gen. Aldunate had never come under suspicion for committing human rights abuses.

Judge Madrid concluded his investigations into the allegations and determined that Gen. Aldunate was innocent of any connection with the Mulchén Brigade. Following the official ruling, President Lagos approved the decision to return the general to his duties in Haiti.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

CHILE’S PRIVATE PENSION PLAN FAILS TO PROTECT ELDERLY

Presidential Candidates Acknowledge The Need For Urgent Reofrms
As Chile celebrates the 25th anniversary of its private pension funds (AFP) this year, the first generation of workers is preparing to cash in on the promise of a retirement free of the haunting specter of poverty. Yet despite assurances from plan administrators that the funds are performing as planned, politicians and economists are worried that Chile’s AFPs are not providing retirees with enough to survive on.

Chile’s presidential candidates reflect the growing apprehension of the general public in campaign speeches around Chile. Joaquín Lavín, the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) candidate, has promised to give every poor woman over 60 a guaranteed pension. Michelle Bachelet, presidential candidate for the center-left Concertación party, cautioned the public not to believe the claim while promising to review the issue if elected president.

Sebastián Piñera, National Renovation Party (RN) candidate and brother of José Piñera, original architect of the private pension plan, promises a series of reforms aimed at reducing the high cost of fees associated with investing as well as realigning contribution requirements with the realities of Chile’s labor force. Far-left Juntos Podemos Más candidate Tomás Hirsch has outlined a plan to do away with the speculative nature of the current investment system and invite more active public participation in the administration of the plans.

Since the initiation of the AFPs in 1980, over 6 million people have enrolled in various private plans and monetary reserves have grown to US$68 billion, yet the average payment remains far below the amount necessary to support the average retiree.

For example, in 1994 the average AFP paid US$165 a month with 85,205 people registered in the fund. In 2004, the average monthly payment was US$173 with an average increase of 115,000 people paying into the plan.

To understand why the average pension has not increased commensurate with the increase in contributors, it is necessary to look at the profits that the fund managers are receiving. In 1984, the AFPs brought in approximately US$639,877. In 2004, the funds earned more than US$178.2 million.

If you compare the minimum wage against the minimum pension, the privatized plans still fall short of projected results. In 1979, the minimum pension was 60 percent of the minimum wage. Today, the minimum pension is 35 percent of the minimum wage.

The original plan to privatize Chilean pensions was drafted by Jose Piñera, in 1980. The government sold the idea to the nation as an effort to give the average worker more individual liberty and control over their own future.

Under this plan, Chileans would invest their savings in private pension plans managed by large financial institutes with limited government oversight. Security was replaced by opportunity and while not guaranteeing returns, the plans promised a compounded interest rate on individual investments and the possibility of substantial growth of personal savings sufficient to retire comfortably.

According to Mercedes Ezguerra, a member of the state advising committee in 1980, “workers with medium to high incomes should benefit the most from the new program; everyone else should be able to maintain a pension commensurate with the minimum wage.”

The Ministry of Labor hailed the plan as a much needed reform to protect the average Chilean from the threat of communism and poverty. “This reform drastically improves the margins of individual liberty, these, together with the participation of the social base and the economic progressives, constitute the unbreakable barriers against communism. (The reform) will solve one of the elemental aspirations of all Chilean families, security against old age.”

Because Chile was controlled by military dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet at the time, almost no public debate actually occurred on the proposed plan. Opposing the dictator was dangerous and often resulted in imprisonment, torture, or execution. Even so, some did speak out against the plan, calling it a thinly veiled effort of the financial elite to gain access to new sources of investment capital.

Juan Manuel Sepúlveda, vice-president of the National Syndicate Coordinator, said, “the new funds will simply be administrative investment instruments of a privileged group of business and financial entities that will take control of the average workers’ savings.”

Sergio Férnandez Aguayo, former deputy of the Christian Democratic (DC) party, was even more critical, saying “the changes to the current system that the government is pretending to introduce will not benefit the interests of the Chilean worker … It would seem that the system is trying to fortify the private economic concentration instead of creating dynamic social benefits.”

Initially, there were government safeguards against this eventuality. Restrictions were imposed prohibiting workers’ savings from being used as investment capital in private businesses. However, after the economic and banking crisis of 1983, the military junta authorized pension fund administrators to invest in private companies as a means of stimulating the nation’s economy. By the end of 1984, private retirement accounts were in fact being used as an easy source of capital for the nation’s largest conglomerates.

One striking example of how Chile’s financial elite used the private pension funds for personal gains can be seen in the actions of Jose Piñera, the architect of the pension system.

Chilectra Metropolitana was a government owned corporation run by Chile’s Corporation for the Promotion of Production (CORFO) in 1980. When pensions were first privatized, CORFO sold 21 percent of Chilectra’s stock to workers investing in the new retirement accounts. Four years later, the government deregulated the pension funds, restructured Chilectra’s administration and left José Piñera and José Yuraszeck, now president of Chile’s biggest power company, Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (ENDESA), in charge of the company.

Other major players in Chile’s AFPs are the Angelini group, controlled by Anacleto Angelini, the richest man in Chile; Entel Chile, a satellite communication company; and CTC, a telecommunications company. Altogether, these and other business conglomerates control US$68 billion of over 7 million workers, funds that were initially ear-marked for retirement accounts.

In a presentation commemorating the 25th anniversary of the AFPs José Piñera said, “the capital system does not promise pensions, it only says that if a person saves, they may be able to obtain this amount of money plus a compounded interest at the time of their retirement.”

Monday, November 28, 2005

TRADE AGREEMENTS WILL BE TOP PRIORITY FOR FUTURE PRESIDENT

Chile’s next president should expect to assume power with an already packed agenda of free trade negotiations. As current President Ricardo Lagos steps down, at least a dozen trade negotiations are underway with some of the world’s largest economies.

Japan, India, and Mercosur should be the focus of the next administration, but free trade agreements (FTA) with Chile’s Andean neighbors, Peru and Chile, as well as Panama, Vietnam, and Indonesia are also expected to begin within the next presidential term.

“Japan should be at the top of the agenda in 2006,” said Carlos Furche, Chief of the Economic Directorate (DIRECON) at the Foreign Ministry. “We are leaving (the next government) with an active, full and enjoyable agenda.”

Government officials expect the trade negotiations with Japan to be prolonged and complicated before any concrete agreement can be reached.

An FTA with India is also a possibility given the partial FTA Chile agreed to with the Asian country last week (ST, Nov. 24). India was unwilling to agree to a comprehensive FTA citing the need to protect their developing national economy, however, a Chilean feasibility study identified several areas the two countries could expand on.

“The study concludes that there exists the possibility to substantially increase commerce in areas such as investments and leaves the door open for us to negotiate a comprehensive FTA” said Furch. “This is just as important, or more so, than the strictly tariff-oriented agreement we agreed to.”

President Lagos also initiated trade talks with Malaysia and Thailand during the 13th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ meeting in November, promising to evaluate the feasibility of FTAs with the two nations however.

Chile expects to negotiate a bilateral FTA with Turkey in the near future based on mutual agreements each nation has with the European Union (EU). Trade talks with the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) are also advancing but nothing definite has been agreed on because of outstanding trade disputes between Chile and Argentina (ST, Sept. 20).

“If the possibility to negotiate services with Mercosur opens it will be the top priority on the 2006 agenda,” said Furch. “We would like to increase commerce and the flow of goods, and, I hope, solve our controversies.”

GENERAL IMPLICATED IN RIGGS BANK CASE LINKED TO CHILD’S MURDER

The former director of Chile’s Army Weapons Factory (FAMAE), Gen. Luis Iracabal, may soon face prosecution for helping former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s launder millions of dollars during the 1990s. Government investigators linked the man to two offshore bank accounts used to hide illegal kickbacks from weapons sales, as well as the 1979 murder of a six-year-old boy.

Investigative Judge Hernan Cerda, has ordered an investigation into Gen. Iracabal’s personal finances from 1973 to 1995 as well as all financial transactions of spin-off corporations created by FAMAE.

Gen. Iracabal allegedly received US$372,000 in illegal kickbacks from two of Gen. Pinochet’s offshore holding companies, Tasker Investment Ltd and Eastview Finance between 1998 and 2001. Investigators also believe that the 1979 murder of Gen. Iracabal’s nephew, Rodrigo Anfruns, is related to the weapons trafficking scheme.

Iracabal flew to Spain to set up an arms purchase center for Chile’s military regime just days after the boy disappeared. Investigators believe that the child was murdered to force Iracabal into cooperating with military officials but are still unclear about several details, such as why the boy was tortured before his body was dumped a short distance from his home.

Gen. Iracabal was also a member of Chile’s two most notorious secret police forces, the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) and Center of National Intelligence (CNI), both linked to thousands of human rights abuses under Gen. Pinochet.

MEGA PROJECTS LOOM ON CHILE’S HORIZON

A recent study by Chile’s Capital Gains Corporation (CBC) estimates that more than US$21.26 billion could be invested throughout Chile in ‘mega projects’ over the next 10 years. Real estate, electricity, and mining projects account for the majority of the proposed investments, yet the most lucrative opportunities also seem to be the most controversial projects on the horizon.

Electric Power and Distribution Company (ENDESA) plans to spend US$4.67 billion on four new hydroelectric dams in Chile’s water rich south. The projects have sparked a lot of debate between environmentalists and government economists in Chile over the extent that Chile should sacrifice natural areas for additional energy capacity.

Barrick Gold has proposed to spend US$1.4 billion on the Pascua Lama gold mine, however the current plans are still being negotiated with government officials after the company released an environmental impact report strongly differing from an international assessment concerning three glaciers located on top of the proposed site (ST, Nov. 10).

Real estate ventures represent the largest investment sector in the CBC’s ten year investment report. Housing projects, business centers, and casinos are expected to contribute over US$5.95 billion in the 13 years.

Including Pascua Lama, mining investments could add US$5.3 billion to Chile’s economy in the next three years, All proposed energy projects represent US$5.7 billion, and forest products such as cellulose would create an additional US$1.79 billion in the next two years.

The remaining projects listed in the report include public works projects, agricultural industry investments, as well as a US$600 million astronomical observatory in the north of Chile.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

WWF CALLS NATURE SANCTUARY AN ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE

Protests In Valdivia Against Industrial Contamination
Scientists from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) declared the Carlos Anwandter nature sanctuary an “environmental catastrophe” Monday after concluding two environmental impact surveys of the area. The researchers described the area as “an empty expanse of brown, polluted water.”

The Carlos Anwandter nature sanctuary includes an area of approximately 12,000 acres of once pristine wetlands along the Cruces and Chorocamallo River in southern Chile. The wetlands were created after a 1960 earthquake flooded a series of agricultural lands along the banks of these two rivers, creating a rich ecosystem ideal for waterfowl.

In 1981, the site was added to the Ramsar Convention list of internationally important wetlands. The area was at one point home to more than 100 species of rare, endangered, or vulnerable species of birds, including the Coscoroba swan, the white-faced Ibis, and the region’s most famous species, the black-necked swan.

When Celulosa Arauco and Constitución (CELCO) announced plans to build a US$1 billion cellulose plant in 1996, upstream from the protected wetlands, environmental groups in the nearby city of Valdivia immediately protested the plan on the grounds that the plant would cause serious damage to the area. Alejandro Perez, Celco's general director, assured the groups at the time, that company would use adequate waste water technology to ensure the environment was not damaged (ST, Apr. 18, 1996).

Since opening in 2004, the CELCO has been closed twice, once in April of 2004 for failing to secure necessary permits (ST, Apr. 2, 2004), and a second time this June after the company was found guilty of falsifying court documents defending the plant’s environmental policies (ST, June 6).

When WWF visited the CELCO plant in August and again in October they found the waste treatment, storage and disposal safeguards “appalling.” “Filter ashes, which can contain dioxins, and other potentially toxic waste were simply being dumped together in an open air site, where the wind can disperse them,” said David Tecklin, WWF's Valdivia ecoregion coordinator.

According to the WWF report, contaminants from the plant contributed to a massive decline in the swans’ main food source, luchecillo, a type of aquatic vegetation.

Clifton Curtis, director of WWF’s Global Toxic Program, was part of the team that visited the nature sanctuary outside of Valdivia in southern Chile. “We talked to people in Valdivia who said they saw emaciated swans fall from the sky, landing on rooftops and cars," Curtis said. “They were so weak they were unable to carry their own weight.”

The ecological degradation is also affecting the local tourism based economy. According to a recent business survey, river tours are down 60 percent for 2005, representing a reduction of approximately 50,000 tourists this year (ST, Nov 9).

“With the ecological disaster, the tourists just aren’t coming,” said Jimmy Davis, a businessman in Valdivia. “We’ve lost all the sanctuary tours.”

Valdivians also complain of noxious odors and drinking water contamination inside the city limits. Civic groups staged a demonstration Monday to protest the CELCO plant and commemorate the thousands of swans that have died since the plant opened in 2004. During the event, more than 800 people boarded riverboats to journey out to the Carlos Anwandter Nature Sanctuary.

The groups have continuously accused Chile’s government of valuing business interests over local interests. After CELCO shut down the plant last June, President Ricardo Lagos approved a plan to pipe industrial waste to Valdivia’s nearby coastal waters, as well as a request to increase the plant’s arsenic emissions from .001 mg/l to .05 mg/l, the maximum permitted for drinking water in Chile (ST, Sept. 9).

Agreeing with the accusations, the WWF report requested that the Chilean government create a fund to help restore and protect the damaged nature sanctuary. The group suggested that CELCO bear the brunt of restoration costs, as the plant discharges 90 percent of the pollution in the area.

WWF also criticized the National Environmental Commission (CONAMA) for insufficient efforts to inform the public of the extent of the environmental degradation. The report specifically called on CONAMA to publish “all monitoring information since the plant opened, as well as before and after.”

"The sanctuary has suffered so much damage that we won't know, without more research, how long it may take to restore it,” said Tecklin. “The first priority now should be strict measures to reduce pollution at the source.”

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

CHILE SIGNS PARTIAL FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH INDIA

The fifth and final round of trade negotiations between Chile and India ended successfully Tuesday with the initial signing of a partial free trade agreement (FTA). The treaty, if ratified by the countries’ parliaments, would reduce tariff rates on a wide range of important commercial exports.

Chilean Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker called the agreement “an important step in the international economic integration strategy of our country.”

The agreement calls for an immediate reduction on tariffs for 98 percent of Chilean exports to India and 91 percent of Indian exports to Chile. Current tariffs average about 30 percent, the new partial FTA would reduce this to an average of 20 percent on selected products.

Chile will be allowed to export 296 products to India under the agreement, including copper, lumber, salmon, seafood, chemicals and forestry products. India would be able to export 266 products including, textile, medicinal, automotive, and industrial goods.

Chile and India agreed on a partial trade agreement to help protect Indian domestic market growth.

“(A complete FTA) is a little premature,” said Walker. “However, our feasibility study leaves the possibility in the hands of both countries. Our stance is a (complete) FTA, but that requires a development and liberalization strategy on both sides.”

Chile’s President Lagos is expected to sign the agreement in the next few weeks, at which point the bill would be sent to Chile’s Congress. Legislatures are expected to sign the trade agreement into law when meet in January.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

LAN CHILE ACCUSED OF MISLEADING ADVERTISING

Travelers are most likely to complain about flight delays and lost luggage says José Roa, director of the National Consumer Service (SERNAC), but most passengers have no idea about what rights they actually have.

According to Chile’s Aeronautic laws, travelers do have the right to complain and be compensated for inconveniencies while traveling with airlines. These complaints must be resolved by the airline company within 25 days or the passenger has the right to seek redress in court.

Legitimate complaints include flight delays, property damage, suspension of travel, or loss of life or limbs.

For example, if your plane is delayed for more than two hours, you can ask for a snack and should be able to make some phone calls. If your flight is interrupted or suspended, hopefully not while you are actually in the air, companies are required to reimburse the price of your ticket proportionate to the distance not yet covered, provide transportation to the original destination either with the company or a different company, or return you to the point of departure with reimbursement for the total cost of your ticket.

Perhaps you find yourself stuck at the airport, were you bumped off the passenger list? Hopefully you confirmed your ticket, because if so, you are entitled to monetary rewards for the inconvenience, as well as passage on another flight. If you are really put out, you can ask for a complete refund.

Also, according the Chilean law, you are entitled to financial redress should you die while traveling. How much though depends on your destination, the best case scenario is to die en route to another country, you get much less if you were only going to a short distance.

In all cases you should start complaining at the airport and not stop until you exhaust the patience of the company’s staff. According to SERNAC, the primary reason most passengers get no relief is that they are unaware of their rights.

So, tune in, turn on, and start raising your voice.

Monday, November 21, 2005

PINOCHET HIT WITH LEGAL BROADSIDE

Chilean prosecutors brought multiple charges against Gen. Augusto Pinochet Monday in the Operation Colombo and Riggs Bank Cases, as well as a third request to reopen the investigation into the notorious Caravan of Death.

The move follows on the heels of an earlier Supreme Court decision to strip the former dictator of his legal immunity in the two cases and the subsequent ruling by Chile’s Legal Medical Service (SML) that Pinochet is mentally and physically fit to stand trial.

The charges against him include homicide, torture, kidnapping, money laundering, tax evasion, and falsifying documents. The 89 year old retired general had previously managed to evade numerous indictments for these and other crimes that occurred during his 17 year military dictatorship. Monday’s charges represent the first time prosecutors have successfully cleared all of the legal hurdles necessary to indict Gen. Pinochet.

The Operation Colombo charges relate to the 1975 murder of 119 activists from the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). Gen. Pinochet is formally charged with the disappearance of 15 of them.

The Riggs Bank case is an investigation into the US$27 million Pinochet channeled into secret bank accounts over a period of 25 years while he led the nation and its army. The investigation shocked Chileans and has caused many one time staunch supporters to lose their faith in the former dictator.

The request to reopen the Caravan of Death investigation comes after a 2002 Supreme Court decision to close the investigation into the 1973 murder of 57 people and the kidnapping of another 18, immediately after the Sept. 11, 1973 military coup.

The investigation was closed because doctors ruled that Gen. Pinochet was physically incapable of standing trial. Following the recent SML decision that Pinochet is in fact fit to be tried, prosecutors have asked that judges investigate the executions of two members of former President Salvador Allende’s guard who were not included in the earlier Caravan of Death indictment.

PINOCHET FACE OFF WITH CHILE’S FORMER DIRECTOR OF SECRET POLICE

Contreras Blames Human Rights Abuses On Former Dictator

Chile’s former military dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was called to testify before Gen. Manuel Contreras, his own former director of the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) on Friday morning. Victor Montiglio, the investigating judge in the Operation Colombo case, called Contreras and Pinochet to give joint testimony to help him resolve discrepancies in their respective accounts of the 1975 murder of 119 activists from the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR).

The meeting came as a surprise to Gen. Pinochet’s lawyers, who were notified on Friday morning that Pinochet was to appear before Judge Montiglio later that day. Pinochet’s counsel had hoped to avoid any direct confrontations with government investigators that might further establish Gen. Pinochet’s mental competence after state medical examiners declared him well enough to stand trial in early November (ST, Nov. 11).

Gen. Contreras and Gen. Pinochet have been accused of masterminding Operation Colombo, a joint operation between the military regimes of Chile, Argentina, and Brazil in to cover-up of the execution of 119 members of the militant faction of Chile’s communist party MIR.

On July 13, 1975, a mysterious Argentine publication, Lea, in its sole edition, printed the names of 60 people it claimed had been executed by their own comrades in a settling of political scores. Four days later, the “list of 119” victims was completed when a small Brazilian daily, Novo O Día, published the names of 59 Chileans who, according to its sources, had died in clashes with military forces in Argentina. Later that month, DINA itself published the 119 names and announced that all had died in military operations in Argentina.

Contreras is currently serving a 12-year jail term for the 1975 kidnapping of Miguel Ángel Sandoval, after already serving seven years for the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. (ST, Jan. 31, 2005).

The current issue is essentially a dispute over the command structure of Chile’s 1975 military junta. Contreras maintains that even though he was the director of DINA from 1974-1978; he was ultimately responsible to Gen. Pinochet. To support this claim, he maintains that he delivered a daily intelligence briefing and report of ongoing DINA activities to Gen. Pinochet every morning over breakfast.

His story has been corroborated by Col. Ricardo Lawrence, a former DINA agent, who independently testified in September that, in the event Gen. Contreras was unable to attend the daily meetings, he was required to submit the daily intelligence briefing to Gen. Pinochet detailing DINA activities.

Gen. Pinochet maintains that Gen. Contreras operated on his own and is therefore solely responsible for any human rights abuses committed by DINA agents while he was director.

The claim is consistent with Pinochet’s previous statements to the effect that he was unaware of the more than 35,000 human rights abuses that took place in Chile during his 17 years as dictator.

The rift between the two retired generals arises from a conversation the men had over cocktails in 1993. At the time Contreras was being investigated for his involvement in the Letelier murder and reportedly asked Pinochet, then commander in chief of Chile’s armed forces, for legal support.

According to Contreras, he reminded Pinochet of his oath to defend his soldiers and was told, “I was referring to active-duty officials, not retired ones.”

After serving two years in prison for the murder, Contreras decided to cut a deal with prosecutors and provided a copy of his military record between 1973 and 1978. The document shows the various awards and promotions granted him by Gen. Pinochet, definitively illustrating the command structure between the two men.

The document was later used by Spanish courts to issue an international arrest warrant against Pinochet in 1998 while the former dictator was in London undergoing back surgery.

Since his arrest in London, Pinochet has been accused of numerous other civil and criminal offenses. He is currently being investigated for his role in the murder of 94 Chileans at the Villa Grimaldi torture center, for laundering over US$27 million while in office, as well as the Operation Colombo investigation.

The latest round of interrogations could signal that Chilean prosecutors are ready to bring legal action against the former dictator for crimes committed during his military dictatorship.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

SKA - HIT THE CITY?

The street was quiet; there was only one bouncer at the door. It looked like the suburbs not a music hall, but the address was right, the bouncer looked right, “this must be the place,” I said.

My girlfriend Fernanda and I flashed our tickets and were patted down by the remarkably clean shaven bouncer as we entered the quiet restaurant. “This looks like an old-timey speak easy,” I said to Fernanda, “do you hear any music?”

We were pointed down a long hallway, passing several empty rooms along the way; a smiling lady pointed us even further towards the back of the restaurant. Entering a dark passageway we heard the first faint sounds of Latin rock coming from the distance.

“This is it” said Fernanda, “we made it.”

The passage opened up into a medium-sized concert hall, stage at the far end, a semi circle balcony for the VIP amongst us, a clapboard bar built into the back of the room. It didn’t look altogether different than the downtown music halls in Raleigh, North Carolina where I have spent many a happy night listening to the sweet sounds of Ska, Reggae, Blues, and Bluegrass.

We were at “Ska - Golpea la Ciudad” (Hit the City), a five-band all night Ska festival in Quinta Normal, just west of the center of Santiago. I had seen the posters all over the city for weeks, heard my Chilean friends talking about it and, as I really like Ska, was pumped to check out this music scene here in Chile. I can honestly say I was surprised.

Ska, according to our friends at Wikipedia.org, is a form of Jamaican music which began in the late 1950s. Combining elements of traditional mento and calypso with an American jazz and rhythm and blues sound, it was a precursor in Jamaica to rocksteady and later reggae.

The concert started at 9 p.m. so we arrived fashionably late around 11:30 p.m. The first band was already packed up when we arrived and the “Revolutionarios” were set to go on.

Uno, dos. Dos, dos, dos. I walked over to get us a couple of beers as the sound guys checked the equipment. “Where are all the Rastas?” I wondered. The sea of Goth-garbed spiky haired teenage punks was endless. Mohawks, black leather, chains, facial piercings; it looked like a Marilyn Manson concert, not the granddaddy of Reggae.

Granted, I am sure I looked out of place myself, but where were all the skirts and dredlocks? Where were the barefoot stoners, the smell of petchuly and incense that always wafts through these types of shows?

I got the beers and we went to find a place to sit while we waited for the stagehands to finish up. We found a little table back in one of the empty rooms we had passed on the way in and sat down. As soon as we did, we were joined by a Don Edward Scissor-hands and his girlfriend at the next table. The pair looked around and started cutting out lines of coke.

“Where did I bring us?” I thought, as Fernanda’s eyes got wide. We sat, sipping our beers, watching the couple snorting lines of cocaine as people passed by in the hallway finding nothing out of the ordinary with the scene in front of us.

“Do you want to go back in?” I said after awhile.

As we wandered back into the concert hall the first sounds of music reached our ears. The crowd started to form, the ranks filled in, and the band began to play.

“This is a cover,” Fernanda shouted. “Who?” I yelled back. “Los Fabulosos Cadillacs.” The Cadillacs are a Latin rock band from Argentina, not exactly what you would expect, but they did a good job of covering the song.

The sound of music was an instant call for every spike haired guy in the crowd to shove their way forward and start shoving. I couldn’t believe my eyes, there was a mosh pit at the at a Ska concert. It was violent too. Fists flying, I saw one guy go down hard, he jumped right back up and kept moshing.

The next song they played was a cover, and the next was a Juan Es piece guaranteed to get all the 13 year old girls in the crowd screaming, except there were no 13 year old girls, just black leather.

We listened to the band play for about two hours until Fernanda turned to me and said, “this is the theme song from El Chavo del Ocho.” El Chavo del Ocho was a 1970s Mexican TV show that became the staple of every young Latinos childhood. It was the last straw. We had had enough pop rock, covers, and violent Chileans colliding into us.

We slipped past the combat boots and four-part spiked hairdos and headed for the door. After all, there’s always something else to do in Santiago.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

ANTUCO TRAGEDY FORCES THREE OFFICERS TO RETIRE

Army Commander in Chief Juan Emilio Cheyre announced the results of the Antuco military investigation Monday. Gen. Cheyre formally sanctioned nine officers for their responsibility in a military training exercise that left 45 soldiers frozen on the side of the Antuco volcano last May.

Three career officers were forced to resign, six subordinates were officially reprimanded, and 10 soldiers were praised for their actions. Apart from the forced resignations, the Army Chief of Chile’s Division III Gen. Rodolfo González resigned on Friday as a matter of honor. In his resignation to Gen. Cheyre, the general assumed responsibility for the actions of his subordinates.

Major Patricio Cereceda was forced to retire for giving the order to march. Lieutenant Colonel Luis Pineda was retired for failure to adequately assess the conditions of the order and Colonel Roberto Mercado, commander of the ill-fated Los Angeles Regiment, was forced out for not countermanding Maj. Cereceda’s order to march given the conditions.

“One has to assume that which corresponds, and I assume responsibility for giving the order to march,” said Maj. Cereceda. “I am deeply hurt and very sorry for what happened.”

Besides the three senior officers, six junior officers received jail sentences ranging from two to 10 days and punitive marks on their military records. Gen. Cheyre reprimanded the men for infractions such as the failure to use their mountaineering experience to advise their commanders against the operation, to failure to do more for their subordinates freezing on the march. Of the 45 men that died, only one was an officer.

Gen. Cheyre also praised the actions of two soldiers for questioning the order to march noting that “orders are not sacred words.” Cheyre also praised Sgt. Luis Morales, the only officer to lose his life for exemplary conduct and recommended him for a post mortem promotion.

The results of the six month military investigation were welcomed by the families of the fallen soldiers who had called for the resignation of the officers immediately after the tragedy. Six of the men are also involved in a civilian inquiry into the tragedy, findings in that case may result in further punishment.

BEEF PRICES EXPECTED TO RISE

The price of beef is expected to rise by 15 to 25 percent over November and December following Chile’s recent decision to halt beef imports from Brazil. The ban was imposed after three cases of foot-and-mouth disease were documented in southwestern Brazil in October.

Chile’s Department of Agriculture and Livestock (SAG) announced the beef ban on October 10, closing the door to a third of Chile’s beef supplies. The move sharply increased demand for Argentine beef and forced a price hike of 10 to 12 percent.

The good news is that super markets have been absorbing the cost of the price hike in the short term, only raising the price on select cuts by 5 percent. According to Alejandro Maira, general manager of Quinto Cuarto, supermarkets, comprising 55 percent of national beef sales, are willing to continue to absorb the rising prices. Butchers have been unable to moderate the higher prices and are already charging more for the product.

More than 40 countries have joined Chile in banning beef exports from Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of the meat. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva recently invited U.S. President George Bush to his home for a beef barbeque to show the world that at least in Brazil, it’s still what’s for dinner.

Monday, November 14, 2005

PERUVIANS ARE NOW CHILE’S LARGEST FOREIGN WORK FORCE

Unlike most developing countries, Chile is a land of opportunity for the poor, but opportunity comes at a price. A recently released study from the Directorate of Labor (DOL), entitled “Foreign Labor in Chile,” analyzed the dramatic shifts in the immigrant work force and their working conditions, finding that Peruvians now account for 30 percent of foreign labor and occupy the most undesirable positions.

The study found that the number of Peruvians in Chile has increased five-fold in the last 10 years, going from approximately 7,500 in 1995 to 54,000 today. Forty-two percent of this growth has come in the last three years.

The high immigration rates are largely due to the poor performance of Peru’s economy. According to the World Bank, 54 percent of Peruvians live below the poverty line and 24 percent live in extreme poverty. In metropolitan regions of Peru, 9.6 percent of the population is unemployed with widespread underemployment reported in the countryside.

These poor social conditions leave many Peruvian workers exposed to exploitation both in Chile and around the world. While Chile’s DOL acknowledged that most Peruvians in Chile work without the benefits of labor contracts, Peru made international headlines last month after 560 Peruvians were deployed to Iraq to shore up troop levels of the U.S.-led coalition forces.

The Peruvians were reportedly contracted by private security firms recruiting people in third-world countries for service in Iraq. These private security firms used promises of relatively high salaries to lure the poor to sign on as mercenaries in Iraq. Most of the Peruvian men had previous military or police training and were contracted for one year at US$1,000 a month. This figure is drastically different than the amount paid to U.S. citizens with military experience with some U.S. mercenaries reportedly earning US$350,000 a month in Iraq.

This relative marginalization and exploitation of the poor is also seen inside Chile in the salaries many Peruvians receive compared to their Chilean counterparts.

“I came to Chile 10 years ago to pick fruit in the Copiapó Valley, it was unbelievable,” said Adasme Carranza, a Peruvian immigrant. “They paid us less than the Chileans, to do the same work, and often times we were robbed of our pay.”

Joaquín Cabrera, Director of the department of studies at DOL who released the labor report, corroborated Carranza’s claims. “In the rural areas, especially with the temporary workers, (employers) commit the majority of arbitrary acts and abuses with foreign workers. The workers don’t realize that there is no difference between a Chilean worker and a foreigner.”

Many Chilean employers circumvent this provision by not officially hiring the immigrants. The DOL report found that 67.1 percent of Peruvians work without the benefit of a labor contract. “Some bad employers use this to scare foreign workers into accepting poor labor conditions,” said Cabrera. “I have seen Peruvian and Bolivian temporary workers take off over the fields because they thought our labor inspectors were coming after them.”

“We are not the border patrol,” said Cabrera, “but a labor organization responsible for the preservation of workers’ rights. If employers lower working conditions for this segment, they produce uneven competition for Chileans.”

Women represent 61 percent of the Peruvian workforce in Santiago, with most employed as nannies in upscale homes in the communities of Providencia, Las Condes, and Vitacura. Work conditions in the capital are similar to the countryside where employees of the nation’s wealthiest class typically work without a labor contract and receive no pension or health benefits.

“Many employers intentionally withhold contracts or delay issuing them knowing it is impossible for their employees to do anything because they do not have their documentation in order,” said Manuel Hidalgo, representative of the Association of Peruvians in Chile.
The report noted that even for employees working under contract, the fear of losing their job and having to reinitiate their government visa applications “inhibits (foreign workers) from bringing charges against their employers of whom they are victims.”

Sunday, November 13, 2005

COCHILCO INCREASES COPPER ESTIMATE

The price of copper increased 2.2 percent on the London Metals Exchange Friday, ending the day’s trading at US$1.93 per pound. The news was celebrated with champagne in Chile where the Chilean Copper Commission (COCHILCO) increased the estimates for the 2005 annual average price of copper to US$1.61 per pound.

The record copper prices mean that the government-owned National Copper Corporation (Codelco) can expect to earn US$7 billion for the government this year.

Gustavo Lagos, Director of the Mining Center at the Universidad Católica, said that the high price is caused by low copper reserves at the London Metals Exchange. The reserves are currently at 65,000 metric tons, down from 1 million metric tons four years ago.

Patricio Cartagena, executive vice president of COCHILCO, estimates that the 2006 average will be between US$1.46 and US$1.50 per pound. This means that in 2006, for ever cent of the estimated average price of copper, Chile will earn US$121 million.
COCHILCO increased their estimates based on China’s and India’s steady demand for copper as well the increased demand in the U.S. following a devastating hurricane season.

GENERAL ASSUMES RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANTUCO TRAGEDY

The Army Chief of Chile’s Division III Gen. Rodolfo González resigned on Friday after being cleared of any responsibility in the Antuco tragedy, a mountaineering training exercise that left 45 soldiers dead. Chile’s Army Commander in Chief Gen. Juan Emilio Cheyre praised Gen. González for acting as a general should and going beyond the call of duty by taking responsibility for the actions of his subordinates.

“With his attitude, Gen. González is not evading responsibility for what happened but is taking upon himself the imperative that all commanders have in events of this nature. Even for actions that are not under their direct control, a general cannot remain indifferent” said Gen Cheyre. “This is military honor, to assume responsibility far beyond what the rules require. This is what it means to be a general. This is what is called dignity.”

The resignation came at the end of the full military investigation into the death of 45 soldiers who froze to death during military training exercises on the Antuco volcano in the southern Andes (ST, May 20).

Gen. Cheyre will announce the results of the investigation at a press conference today (Monday).

Thursday, November 10, 2005

LUKSIC TAKES ISSUES WITH LAMARCA'S CRITICISM

Manufacturing magnate Guillermo Luksic criticized recent remarks by Felipe Lamarca calling for a change in Chile’s economic model. Luksic claims that this very economic model is responsible for Chile’s economic success over the last 30 years.

Lamarca, one of Chile’s best-known and most successful businessmen stunned Chile’s financial community with an interview in La Tercera in October strongly criticizing Chile’s economic elite for their failure to work towards creating a more equitable country (ST, Oct. 14). In the interview Lamarca blamed the Chile’s big businesses for monopolizing opportunities and adding to social disparity.

Guillermo Luksic is part of the economic elite Lamarca referred to. He is one of the three Luksic brothers whose combined fortunes are estimated at more than US$ 4.5 billion. Between the three men they control Banco de Chile, the nation's second largest and most profitable bank, CCU, Madeco, Lucchetti, Telefónica del Sur, and the Antofagasta Plc mines.

According to Lamarca, Chile’s market economy is not functioning well because of economic concentration and the lack of competition. “All the economic power is concentrated in just a few hands, and instead of trickle-down, it is more like one drop at a time,” said Lamarca.

A recent World Bank study found that Chile has the 12th-worst distribution of wealth in the world with the poorest 10 percent of citizens earning 1.2 percent of the country’s total income, compared with the top 10-ten percent earning 47 percent. This income disparity, along with other factors, ranked Chile below the majority of African countries (ST, Apr. 20).

Luksic disagrees. “It seems to me that fusion and concentration are necessary…” he said. “The only effective economic model that will produce development and employment is the one we have.”

According to Luksic, “other (economic) models have been tested and found tremendously inefficient at bringing prosperity to the country.”
However, Lamarca is not the only critic of Luksic’s self-proclaimed “only effective economic model.” Jaime Crispi, a former member of the European-American Studies Institute of the European Union and top aide to Finance Minister Nicolás Eyzaguirre recently wrote a report criticizing Chile’s historic economic model (ST, Sept. 21) and a Human Development Report released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) highlighted income disparity as the single greatest obstacle to Chile’s future growth (ST, Sept. 8).

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

EXCAVATIONS BEGIN AT COLONIA DIGNIDAD

Judge Jorge Zepeda and a team of forensic specialists began excavation at Colonia Dignidad Thursday. The team expects to find the remains of at least 30 political prisoners who were last seen entering the compound (ST, Oct. 12).

Colonia Dignidad was right-wing religious compound founded by German immigrants in 1961 near Parral in southern Chile. Its leaders are suspected of collaborating with former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet and Chile’s secret police force, the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA), during the military regime’s 17-year rule.

Judge Zepeda has already discovered several vehicles on the property belonging to people disappeared during the military regime, two large weapons caches, and over 30,000 intelligence profiles collected by DINA.

PRESIDENT LAGOS WELCOMES LITTLE MUSICIANS TO LA MONEDA

Chile’s President Ricardo Lagos and First-Lady Luisa Durán were serenaded by the sweet sound of more than 600 children playing musical instruments outside their garden window Monday. The concert at Chile’s presidential palace, La Moneda, kicked off the 6th annual Children’s orchestra in Santiago.

According to Fernando Rosas, musical director for the event, the Children’s orchestras will perform 60 concerts in various communities around Santiago, with over 2000 children participating in the various concerts.

“This is a social project that allows youth who would not have the opportunity to play an instrument or the money to afford classes to have, dream and live with equal opportunities” said First-Lady Durán.

The Children’s orchestra is composed of youth between the ages of 7 and 24 from all over the country, even Easter Island. Various groups will perform throughout Santiago in high schools and community centers, with the culminating concert held Wednesday at the Cultural Center at Estación Mapocho.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

HUBER MURDER: JUDGE ARRAIGNS THREE MEN

Three retired military officers were formally arraigned in connection to the murder of former Army Chief of Acquisitions Col. Gerardo Huber Wednesday by military judge Claudio Pavez. Repeated interrogations with the men as well as conflicting testimony given by the murdered man’s family led the judge to take precautionary measure of denying them the right to leave the country.

Col. Huber disappeared from a friend’s home in the Cajón del Maipo on Jan 29, 1992. His body was pulled from the Maipo River three weeks later. An initial military investigation determined that Huber killed himself by jumping off the El Toyo Bridge, a short distance from his friend’s home, however, autopsies performed on his remains in 1997 concluded that the man was shot twice in the head and thrown into the river (ST, Sept. 20).

Víctor Lizárraga, former second-in-command of the Directorate of Army Intelligence (DINE), Manuel Provis, former chief of the Battalion of Intelligence (BIE) and Julio Muñoz, a retired Army Major and friend of the Huber family, were all arraigned Monday after Clina Polloni, Huber’s sister-in-law, contradicted earlier statements given by Lizárraga and Provis.

Officials involved in the investigation believe that the order to kill Huber was given by officers in DINE and was carried out by BIE agents days after Huber implicated high-ranking military officers in the illegal weapons sale to Croatia. The case was eventually closed after both Huber and the investigating judge Hernan Carrea died mysteriously in 1992 (ST, Oct. 17).

Polloni, now a resident in the U.S., made a special trip to Chile last week to testify in the investigation. According to Polloni’s testimony, she and Huber’s six-year old son José Ignacio went to her home in Linares, 300 km south of Santiago, immediately after Huber disappeared. While there, she was visited by Lizárraga, Provis, and Muñoz who, she claims, tried to take José Ignacio from her to question him about his father’s actions in the days before he went missing. She also said that all three men threatened her and made the claim that Huber committed suicide, days before his body was pulled from the Maipo River.

Lizárraga maintains that he visited Polloni to ask family members for any information they might have on Huber’s whereabouts. In Provis’ testimony he said that he traveled to Linares to ask a psychic for help finding Huber while Muñoz stated that he went to there to transport José Ignacio to a psychiatric hospital for counseling.
Pavez may charge the men with obstruction of justice but is expected to complete another round of questioning before bringing formal charges.

YAHOO! RESEARCHER SPEAKS IN CHILE

The director of Yahoo!’s research department, Prabhakar Raghavan, gave a presentation Monday on internet ethics, search engines, and Yahoo! “Challenges in Internet Seaches” at the Núcleo Mileno Centro de Investigatión de la Web.

With increasing internet connectivity around the world and the prevalence of large search engines like Yahoo! and Google, privacy laws and web ethics are becoming very serious issues. With over 400 million users daily, Yahoo! is in the middle of the debate and, according to Raghavan, “our challenge is to use the data Yahoo! collects responsibly.

Raghavan pointed to Gmail, Google’s new email site, as an example of the internet privacy concerns. Gmail uses an “AdSense” program to perform a computerized content search of your email messages and links keywords from your message to advertising on the webpage. According to Raghavan, Yahoo! considers monitoring personal mail off limits.
Another theme discussed at the presentation was user control. Have you ever logged on to www.google.com and been directed to www.google.cl, the Chilean version in Spanish? If so, you were usurped by the computer. “Users want power,” said Raghavan, “We shouldn’t be taking it away.”

Monday, November 07, 2005

CHILE SEEKS EXTRADITION OF FORMER DINA AGENT

Chile’s Supreme Court is considering a government prosecutor’s petition to request the extradition of former Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) agent Maj. Armando Fernández Larios from the United States. Maj. Larios is wanted for questioning in the 1974 disappearance of David Silberman.

Silberman was the General Manager of the Cobrechuqui copper mine at the time of the 1973 military coup. Following the coup, he was imprisoned on false charges of embezzling $US13 million.

Silberman was transferred from his prison cell by Maj. Larios on Oct. 4, 1974 to an unidentified torture center where he was held for at least three years, had an arm amputated after an especially brutal torture session, and reportedly died in 1977.

Larios was extradited to the U.S. by the FBI in 1987 to testify in a separate investigation into the 1976 murders of former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his assistant Ronnie Moffit. He was sentenced to three years in jail, but negotiated a plea bargain and was released after only seven months.
Larios was also found “legally responsible” for the 1973 murder of Winston Cabello, a Chilean economist, by a U.S. court in 2003; he was fined US$4 million for his part in the murder (ST, Oct. 16, 2003).

CHILE’S BOOK FAIR DRAWS RECORD CROWDS

Santiago’s 25th International Book Fair wrapped up on Sunday night after 13 very successful days. Over 250,000 people visited the fair where vendors sold over 380,000 books, an increase of 10 percent over 2004.

“We are tremendously happy, tremendously satisfied,” said Eduardo Castillo, president of the Chilean Book Chamber.

Spain was the featured country at this year’s book fair with several notable authors on hand to autograph copies of their books. Rosa Montero, Marcos Ana, and José Merino all made appearances at the fair as well Chilean notables, such as presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet and Pablo Simonetti, who lead the book sales with “Madre que estás en los cielos” and “Vidas Vulnerables.”

At the closing ceremonies on Sunday, the Spanish government presented Chile with 1,000 books for the inauguration of Santiago’s new public library due to open its doors next Friday, Nov. 11.

TOURISM DROPS IN VALDIVIA

The tourist industry in Valdivia is struggling to stay alive as fewer visitors decide to visit the city famous for its rivers and natural beauty. Some locals blame Celulosa Arauco and Constitución’s (Celco) Valdivia pulp and paper plant, which has contaminated the Cruces River and damaged the region’s natural beauty, for keeping tourists away.

According to a local tourism study, river tours are down 60 percent for 2005. This represents a reduction of approximately 50,000 tourists this year.

“With the ecological disaster, the tourists just aren’t coming,” said Jimmy Davis, a businessman in Valdivia. “Everybody that contracted services in advance has cancelled because of the uncertain summer season.”

Environmental and local community groups blame Celco for contaminating the city of Valdivia’s drinking water and polluting the nearby Carlos Anwandter Nature Sanctuary, killing thousands of the region’s endangered black-necked swans. River boat tours to the nature sanctuary have historically been a major attraction for tourists, but since the death of hundreds of the swans, “we’ve lost all the sanctuary tours,” Davis said.

Locals have scheduled a meeting with Óscar Santelices, Director of the National Tourism Service (SERNATUR) on Tuesday to discuss the compatibility of tourism and industrial interests. Locals have long complained that the government disproportionately favors Celco profits over local concerns.

The plant voluntarily shut down last June amid growing protest of the plant’s waste disposal policies, but reopened on Aug 12 after receiving permission from President Ricardo Lagos to install a pipeline to route their waters away from the Cruces River and into ocean waters offshore of Corral. The plan was approved, as well a request to increase the plant’s arsenic emissions from .001 mg/l to .05 mg/l, the maximum permitted for drinking water in Chile (ST, Sept. 9).

The move to reopen was not greeted with much public enthusiasm in Valdivia, or in coastal communities near Corral where the pipeline was slated to be installed (ST, Sept. 23). Local businesses hope that the new tourism impact study will highlight the financial factor in the fight against Celco.
“Our objective is to find a middle ground between the forest industry and tourism,” said Víctor Herrero, owner of a Valdivian tourism business. “We need to know if there is a willingness to save and protect (all Valdivian businesses) or just a few.”

STUDENTS WILL DEMAND UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT’S RESIGNATION

Students from the Universidad Diego Portales plan to stage a protest Tuesday demanding the resignation of Francisco Javier Cuadra, their university’s president. Cuadra, the civilian spokesman for former dictator Augusto Pinochet, launched himself into the press two weeks ago after publicly recounting his role in the aftermath of the 1986 assassination attempt on Pinochet.

After the attack, four left-wing activists were seized from their homes and summarily executed in the streets. In the recent interview, Cuadra claimed that when the bodies started turning up in the streets, “That was when we realized that these were revenge killings.”

Newspapers immediately seized on the claim to point out inconsistencies between his 1986 statement, claiming that the killings were committed by the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), a militant communist group in Chile, and his most recent comments admitting that he knew that the men were murdered by regime officials.

The march is scheduled to take place in front of the Universidad Diego Portales, between Gorbea St. and Vergara at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

SPINIAK ABSOLVED ON WEAPONS CHARGE

Chile’s 5th Court of Appeals absolved Cladio Spiniak Friday of one count of possessing an illegal firearm. He was earlier sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of US$872 for the charge.

Spiniak, the owner of the exclusive "Go Fitness and Spa" gym was arrested on Dec. 17, 2002 after police entered his home and found an .83 caliber pistol and silencer. Police later detained him in his automobile where they found four grams of cocaine in his pocket.

On Sept. 25, 2003 Spiniak was arrested again, this time on charges of involvement in a pedophile ring (ST, Oct. 1, 2003). He has also been charged with drugging underage boys and is accused of hiring male prostitutes and filming them while they were sexually abused.

The Appeals Court decision to overturn the illegal weapons sentence still leaves Spiniak in prison pending investigation into the other charges. Government officials are expected to name a new investigating judge to the case in the next several days after former investigative Judge Sergio Muñoz stepped down after being appointed to Chile’s Supreme Court.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

FIRST TEST OF CHILE’S PENAL REFORM GETS MIXED REVIEW

Since Chile’s new penal reform went into effect on Jun. 16, Chilean courts have seen an increase in the number of crimes being reported. Officials explain the increase as a show of confidence in the new system.

The Ministry of the Interior recently released crime statistics showing a 2.4 percent increase nationally in reported crimes between July and Sept. of 2005 over the same time period in 2004. The study reported that outside of the Santiago criminal charges fell 2.1 percent while rising 8.6 percent inside the capital city. Santiago accounts for 44.2 percent of the national crime rate, encompassing roughly 37 percent of Chile’s population.

While noting the increase in criminal charges, the report showed an 18.2 percent decrease in the number of detentions around the country. Within Santiago, the report detailed a 42.3 percent decrease in the number of police detentions.

“This is a situation that merits some attention,” said Sub Secretary of the Interior Jorge Correa; there are fewer detentions after the penal reform.” When questioned about the decrease in the ability of police to apprehend criminals he said, “(Congress) hopes to increase police powers to uninhibit officers and allow them to better detain serious criminals.”

Friday, November 04, 2005

FELIPE LAMARCA DEFENDS HIS CRITIQUE OF TRICKLE-DOWN ECONOMICS

Business leader Felipe Lamarca defended his critique of Chile’s oligarchic economic model Wednesday at a conference at the Universidad de Los Lagos in Osorno.

Lamarca, the former president of the business lobby group Sociedad de Fomento Fabril (SOFOFA) and former chief executive at Copec, created a stir last month when he strongly criticized Chile’s economic model and the avarice of Chile’s economic elite.

“Just as there are large environmental studies there ought to be large market-competition studies,” Lamarca said Wednesday. “What’s more, they should be maintained over time because, depending on the context, they could produce changes in established conditions.”

The former executive also spoke of the mixed public reaction to his comments.

“I wanted to put the issue up for discussion, and since then the issue has met over a month of resistance in the press not because what I said was nonsense, but because of its truth,” said Lamarca.

According to his presentation, Chile’s economic model requires oversight and standardized legal and institutional ethics in order to break up existing monopolies.

MOLYBDENUM DENIM PROFITS SOAR IN CHILE’S MINING SECTOR

The rising international price of molybdenum, a byproduct of copper extraction used mainly to harden steel, is a major cause of record profits in Chile’s mining sector. Many companies are taking advantage of the bull market to expand their operations in Chile and abroad as experts predict the high prices should continue for the next several years.

Molymet, a Chilean molybdenum processing company, recorded a 369 percent increase in profits for 2005. After molybdenum prices rose to nearly eight times the prices of 2003, the company announced plans to expand its production capacity in Chile as well as open offices in China.

Other Chilean companies have also seen significant profit increases in 2005 as a result of the increase in molybdenum prices. Compañia de Acero del Pacifico (CAP), a company that produces mainly steel, increased its overall profits 30 percent this year even though the price of steel fell 4.5 percent.

SQM (formerly Soquimich), primarily a fertilizer and iodine producing company, has also begun to cash in on molybdenum sales. The company, which increased its profits by 55.9 percent thanks in large part to high molybdenum prices, plans to invest US$450 million over the next three years to increase its production capacity of the copper byproduct.

As prices continue to climb, many companies are starting to extract primarily the molybdenum, turning the valuable copper into the secondary product of the mines.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

NEW POLITICAL SURVEY MAITAINS BACHELET’S LEAD

(Nov. 3, 2005) A new survey of 700 Chileans by the Center for Citizen Opinion Studies (CEOC) concludes that Michelle Bachelet, presidential candidate for the center-left Concertación party, could win the presidential race in the first round of voting.

Opinion polls have been fueling the campaign rhetoric in Chile as Bachelet’s right-wing opponents, Sebastián Piñera, National Renovation Party (RN) candidate and Joaquín Lavín, Independent Democratic Union (UDI) candidate, jockey for a higher percentage of the popular vote to force a second round of elections.

After an August poll showed Lavín’s support slipping, the UDI candidate launched his now signatory campaign platform of penal reform. Lavín proposed various initiatives to combat crimes such as shipping Chilean convicts to an island penitentiary and giving police shoot-to-kill powers to help deter delinquency (ST, Oct. 11).

In the most recent poll Lavín’s popular approval ratings have fallen for the fourth straight month, down to 19 percent from his June high of 23 percent. Piñera has been climbing proportionate to Lavín’s slide, with 23 percent of the approval ratings measured in October, up from 17 percent in June.

On the other side of the political fence, Michelle Bachelet has given ground to the far-left Juntos Podemos Más candidate Tomás Hirsch, after Hirsch’s strong presentation at the Oct. 19th presidential debate. The polls show Hirsch climbing up from 1 percent in June to 5 percent in the popular opinion polls.

Some political analysts have pointed to Hirsch’s increase in the polls as a message to Concertación politicians that the political left is unhappy with Chile’s status quo and expect more changes if Bachelet does in fact win the December elections.

Of those surveyed, 20 percent were still undecided as to which candidate they would vote for. Of all those polled, Sebastián Piñera seemed to have the greatest chance of increasing his overall votes with the possibility of winning 26 percent of the national vote.
The survey predicts that after all of the blank and null votes are discarded, Bachelet will win the election with 50 percent, followed by Piñera with 25 percent, Lavín with 19.6 percent and Hirsch with 5.4 percent.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

CHILE EXHUMES BODY OF FORMER SECRET POLICE AGENT

(Nov. 3, 2005) Investigations into the possible assassination of former President Eduardo Frei have led officials to exhume the body of former Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) agent Manuel Leyton. According to testimonies of former DINA officials, Leyton was killed by a lethal dose of sarin gas in an agency medical clinic on May 29, 1977.

The connection between the two men revolves around yet a third person, Eugenio Berrios, a DINA chemist who is credited for developing the sarin gas for former dictator Augusto Pinochet’s military regime in the mid 1970s.

Berrios disappeared from Chile in 1992 after being called to testify about his role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a prominent critic of the Pinochet regime murdered in Washington, D.C. in 1976.

After his disappearance, Berrios resurfaced in Uruguay in 1993 when he turned himself into police officials, apparently willing to confess to his activities while working for the military regime. However, before he could testify, he was shot twice in the head by DINA agents and left on a beach in Uruguay.

Leyton was poisoned after being arrested for car theft in 1977. While in police custody he confessed that the car belonged to a man who was kidnapped and later thrown out of a military helicopter by agents working for the Pinochet regime.

Former President Frei died under mysterious circumstances in a military hospital after a undergoing a routine gastric hernia operation in 1982. At the time, regime officials blamed a post-surgery infection for Frei’s sudden death.

It is possible that the Leyton murder was a laboratory test of the sarin gas performed by Berrios in 1977 and that chemical analysis of his remains could show similarities to the results of the tests being performed on the body of former President Frei.
Frei’s body was shipped to the U.S. at the beginning of the year for an autopsy, while Leyton’s remains are being examined by Chile’s Legal Medical Service (SML). Officials expect to have the results from the Frei case by the end of November. No dates have yet been given as to when the other autopsy will be complete.

TWO SHIPS SPILL OIL OFF COAST OF CHILE

At 3:30 a.m. on Monday, the EIDER, a Hong Kong oil tanker, crashed into rocks 500 meters off the coast of Antofogasta in northern Chile. The tanker spilled an unconfirmed amount of heavy crude oil in a radius of approximately 2 km around the ship.

Further south near the coastal town of Corral a fishing ship spilled approximately 300 liters of crude oil contaminating a colony of 350 black-necked swans. The swans are at the center of a battle between Chilean environmentalists and Celulosa Arauco y Constitución (Celco), owned by one of the country’s most influential financial groups.

Local officials dispatched the Chilean navy and medical personnel to Antofagasta to help clean up the spill. More than 20 people have been treated for oil exposure-related illnesses. Biologists expect a large number of marine invertebrates, sea fowl, and plant life will be killed by the spill before officials will be able to clean up the area.

“The mortality rates are very high in the sector,” said Carlos Guerra, a biologist from the Universidad de Antofogasta. “We have already seen a large number of invertebrates affected by the spill.”

Jorge Molina, governor of Chile’s northern Region 2, is asking Chile’s government to press charges against the owners of the vessel. The captain and owners of the vessel are expected to face fines depending on the size of the spill as well as any further legal claims brought against the company for related damages.
At the scene of the southern oil spill near Corral, medical veterinarian Daniel Boroschek explained the affect the oil spill had on the endangered black-necked swans. According to Boroschek, swans that came into contact with the oil suffer lung damage from breathing in oil fumes. This type of injury is incurable.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

CHILE NEGOTIATES FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH CHINA

Chile and China celebrated their new free trade agreement (FTA) on Saturday after concluding five days of final negotiations in Beijing. The agreement allows Chilean producers to export their products duty-free to the world’s fastest growing market.

The pact between Chile and China is the first FTA China has ever negotiated with a non-Asian country, for Chile it represents their 42nd. The agreement will be officially ratified by Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and China’s President Hu Jintao at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting in Pusan, Korea on Nov. 17.

Luis Schmidt, president of Chile’s National Agriculture Society and member of the negotiation team in Beijing, was very pleased with the final agreement worked out between the two countries. “We were very anxious when we left for China, said Schmidt. “However, at the end of this round of negotiations, we feel very satisfied with agreement.”

By the end of 2006, 92 percent of Chilean exports to China will enter the country tariff free. This includes primary products such as copper, cellulose, and whey. The negotiations provided a five year window for the removal of trade tariffs on a wide variety of agriculture products like salmon, fruits, and meats. Ten years from now the agreement takes full effect, lifting tariffs on wines, milk, grapes, and apples. The only products that will remain protected in China at that point will be iodine, rice, lumber and televisions.

Chilean can also expect to see a reduction of the price of certain Chinese imports by the end of 2006. Automobiles, heavy machinery, computers, cell phones, video and DVD players are on the list of goods eligible for an immediate tariff removal. In 2011 other electronic equipment will enter Chile tariff free, and at the end of 2016 China will begin to export various textile products to Chile with no protective tariffs. Wheat, sugar, assorted underwear, and washing machines are among the products Chile requested remain outside the FTA.
Chile is also finalizing free trade agreements with Peru, Ecuador, and Panama, all expected to be signed by the end of 2005. When the negotiations are complete, Chile will lead the world with the highest number of bilateral free trade agreements. In 2006, Chile hopes to add Japan and Korea to the list and move even further into the rapidly growing Asian market.