Chile to Become First Country in the Americas to Ban Plastic Bags

May. 31, 2018

Chile is set to become the first country in the Americas to ban plastic bags to help protect the environment and especially the ocean.

Congress unanimously approved the measure on Wednesday. The bill was initially designed to outlaw plastic bags in Patagonia, but was later extended nationwide.

President Sebastian Piñera celebrated the news.

"We have taken a fundamental step to take better care of Chile and the planet. Today we are more prepared to leave a better planet to our children, grandchildren and the generations to come," he tweeted Wednesday.

Erik Solheim, the head of the United Nations Environment Program, also offered congratulations to the South American country. He called the move a "bold step" ahead of World Environment Day this June 5, which has the theme "Beat Plastic Pollution."

The law will apply to all major retailers within a year, while smaller businesses have two years to comply, The Santiago Times reported. Before entering into force, all retailers are allowed to provide a maximum of only two plastic bags to consumers for their purchases.

Climate Action reported that municipalities will be in charge of implementing the new law, which can carry a fine of up to $230,000 for offenders.

The bag ban is not as extreme as it may sound. The Environment Ministry's website, chaobolsasplasticas.cl, shows that Congress members have worked on this initiative for about a decade. The vast majority (about 95 percent) of surveyed Chileans across all age groups approved of the plastic bag ban. There are also 78 communes in the country that already have measures regulating the usage of plastic bags.

In October, former president Michelle Bachelet signed a bill that prohibits the sale of single-use plastic bags in coastal villages and towns.

"We will ... become the first country in the Americas to implement a law of this type and we call on other countries to assume this responsibility," Bachelet said of the initiative at the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

According to the Association of Plastic Manufacturers (Asiplas), Chile uses more than 3.4 billon plastic bags annually, or roughly 200 bags per person per year. About 97 percent of those plastic bags end up in landfills or in oceans, where they take centuries to degrade.

Worldwide, an estimated eight million tons of plastic trash gets dumped into our oceans each year, literally choking marine life, harming ocean ecosystems and threatening the larger food chain.

This is a landmark piece of legislation for both South and North America. The Santiago Times noted that a number of states and municipalities in the U.S. and Canada have similar bans but none on the national level yet. But Costa Rica announced in August that it wants to be the first country in the world to ban all single-use plastics by 2021.

Elsewhere around the globe, Rwanda and Kenya have enforced complete bans on plastic bags. In 2002, Bangladesh became the world's first country to ban the items.

Source: EcoWatch.
Link: https://www.ecowatch.com/chile-plastic-ban-2573881713.html.

Powerful earthquake shakes Chile, no deaths reported

December 25, 2016

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A powerful earthquake shook southern Chile on Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of deaths and only minor known damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.6 quake struck at 11:22 a.m. local time (9:22 a.m. EST; 1422 GMT) near the southern tip of Chiloe Island, about 25 miles (39 kilometers) south-southwest of Puerto Quello and at a depth of 22 miles (35 kilometers). The area, some 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) south of the capital of Santiago, is relatively sparsely populated.

National emergency director Ricardo Toro told a news conference that some 4,000 people were evacuated for fear of a possible tsunami following the quake, but the alert was eased about 90 minutes after the temblor.

"There is no information of loss of life," Toro said, though he said some highways were damaged. The local electric company reported that power was cut to about 22,000 customers. Taxi driver Luis Ramirez told The Associated Press by telephone from the town of Ancud that he was washing his car when the quake hit. "I'm 48 years old and I've never felt anything so strong," he said.

Ramirez said cars equipped with loudspeakers roamed the streets urging people to evacuate beach areas. A much stronger magnitude 8.8 earthquake in February 2010 generated a tsunami and killed 524 people in Chile.

Chile to countersue Bolivia at UN court over water dispute

March 28, 2016

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said Monday that her government is ready to countersue Bolivia over a water dispute at the International Court of Justice. Bolivian President Evo Morales said Saturday that his country would sue Chile in the Netherlands-based court seeking to force Chile to pay compensation for using the Silala river in a border region.

Bachelet said that Bolivia is claiming ownership over shared water resources and that the Silala flows into Chile by the simple law of gravity. She said Bolivia has recognized the Silala as an international river for more than 100 years.

Landlocked Bolivia asked the international court in 2013 to order Chile to negotiate over Bolivia's claim for access to the Pacific. The case is being heard by the court, whose rulings are final and binding.

Chile plans hydropower plant -- in desert

Santiago, Chile (AFP)
Dec 10, 2015

Building a $400-million hydroelectric power plant in the world's most arid desert may seem like an engineering debacle, but Chile sees it as a revolutionary way to generate green energy.

The idea is to take advantage of the Atacama Desert's unique geography to solve one of the most sticky problems of renewable energies like solar and wind power: inconsistency.

The sun is not always shining and the wind is not always blowing, but in long and narrow Chile, there are always mountains next to the sea.

Chilean energy company Valhalla wants to use solar power to pump water from the Pacific Ocean into two reservoirs high in the Andes mountains.

Then it will be allowed to rush back down into a hydroelectric plant with a capacity of 300 megawatts -- enough to power three provinces in Chile, a net energy importer that relies mainly on fossil fuels.

"This is the only place in the world where a project of this kind can be developed," said Francisco Torrealba, the company's strategy manager.

The two mountaintop reservoirs will hold as much water as approximately 22,000 Olympic swimming pools, enough to generate electricity around the clock.

"The technology has been super well tested around the world. It's this particular combination that has never been tried," said Torrealba.

The plant got the green light from environmental authorities last week.

Valhalla is seeking investors and hopes to break ground in late 2016, with an estimated construction timeline of three and a half years.

It is also studying three other areas with similar characteristics.

Source: Solar Daily.
Link: http://www.solardaily.com/reports/Chile_plans_hydropower_plant_in_desert_999.html.

A New "Republic" to Save Chile's Glaciers

By Marianela Jarroud

SANTIAGO, Feb 4 2015 (IPS) - Chile’s more than 3,000 glaciers are one of the largest reserves of freshwater in South America. But they are under constant threat by the mining industry and major infrastructure projects, environmentalists and experts warn.

The lack of legislation to protect them allowed the global environmental watchdog Greenpeace to create the Glacier Republic in March 2014 – a virtual country created on 23,000 sq km of glaciers in the Chilean Andes, which already has over 165,000 citizens and 40 embassies spread around the world.

“The Glacier Republic emerged in response to a need, because the glaciers in this country aren’t protected,” the executive director of Greenpeace Chile, Mat?as As?n, told Tierramérica.

A glacier is a huge mass of ice and snow that forms where snow in the wintertime gathers faster than it melts in the summer and flows slowly over an area of land. Most of the world’s freshwater — 69 percent — is locked away in glaciers and ice caps.

“These are strategic reserves of water that contribute in a significant manner during periods of drought and are found not only in the high mountains but also in the south of the country,” As?n explained.

“Many glaciers have been buried and conserve important reserves of water,” he added. “These supply water to the river basins, and not only the most basic human activities but also agriculture and the economy of the country depend on the basins.”

Chile, a mining country whose main source of wealth is copper, has 82 percent of South America’s glaciers, according to Greenpeace. However, most of them have visibly retreated due to the impact of climate change and large-scale mining activities.

Addressing the Chilean legislature in 2014, glaciologist Alexander Brenning, from the University of Waterloo, Ontario said the magnitude of interventions on glaciers in Chile was unparalleled in the world, and urged that the cumulative effects be assessed.

“The experts are emphatic: Chile has one of the worst records in the world in terms of destruction of glaciers,” As?n said. “This is the sad situation that forced us to found the Glacier Republic.”

“Because the glaciers were in no man’s land, we used that legal vacuum to found the Glacier Republic. We took possession of the entire surface area of glaciers in Chile and declared ourselves an independent republic,” he added.

The Glacier Republic, created as an awareness-raising campaign, was founded on the basis of the Convention on Rights and Duties of States, better known as the Montevideo Convention after the city where it was signed in 1933. The first article of the convention establishes four requisites for declaring the creation of a state: a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.

The aim of the Glacier Republic is to push for what the citizens describe as a “five-star” law on glaciers, which would guarantee the total protection of Chile’s glaciers.

The activists want protection of the glaciers as a national asset for public use to be introduced in the constitution.

They also argue that the law should establish that “the glaciers represent strategic reserves of water in a solid state,” and that it should include a legal definition of glaciers and descriptions of the different kinds of glaciers and their ecosystems, and specify what kinds of activities are permitted and prohibited in each ecosystem.

In addition, the idea is to establish in the law a grace period and specific timeframe for activities currently carried out in protected or potentially protected areas to adapt to the new law.

In May 2014, lawmakers from the self-described “glacier caucus”, which includes the former student leader and current Communist legislator Camila Vallejo, introduced a draft law in Congress to create a legal framework to protect the country’s glaciers.

The current legislation allows activities like mining or the construction of infrastructure to affect a glacier, if the impact is spelled out in the environmental impact assessment and compensated for in some way.

In August, Congress agreed to try to move towards passage of a new law. But the draft law, which has drawn criticism from different sides, has not yet been approved.

Chilean glaciologist Cedomir Marangunic, who works with different technologies to save and create new glaciers, told Tierramérica that he believes certain well-regulated activities, such as tourism or development projects, can be allowed in the areas of the glaciers, unless prohibiting all human activity is indispensable for the survival of a specific glacier.

But he said glaciers, especially the ones located on privately owned territory, should be in the public domain by law.

Marangunic, a geologist at the University of Chile with a PhD in glaciology from Ohio State University in the U.S., said that although “some mining” hurts glaciers, “the pollution caused by large cities like Santiago or the smoke from the burning of grasslands and forests” also damage them.

But for the Diaguita Community of Huasco Valley in the arid northern region of Atacama, where the Canadian company Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama gold and silver mine is located, there is no room for doubt.

“Glaciers are the reservoirs of water that we have had for thousands of years. And today, in times of drought, it is the glaciers that keep us alive and supplied with water,” the indigenous community’s spokesman, Sebasti?n Cruz, told Tierramérica.

Huasco Valley, in the Atacama desert, the driest in the world, runs across the Andes mountains to the sea and is fed by water from the glaciers, added the representative of the Diaguita native community, who live in that vulnerable ecosystem.

Far from living up to the commitment expressed in the environmental impact study, the Pascua Lama gold mine has destroyed “nearly 99 percent of the Esperanza glacier and the Toro 1 and 2 glaciers,” Cruz said.

The Diaguita community argues that a new law on glaciers must guarantee protection for certain conservation areas and must ban any extractive or mining activities in the glaciers and the surrounding landscape.

Socialist President Michelle Bachelet promised to protect the glaciers, in a May 2014 speech to the nation. But since then she has not referred publicly to the issue. A group of legislators from the governing Nueva Mayor?a have backed the draft law.

The citizens of the Glacier Republic promise they won’t back down until a strong law on glaciers is passed.

“For the time being, the glaciers belong to the Glacier Republic, and we will be in a dispute with the Chilean state until we see a determined commitment to a real law,” As?n said.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/02/a-new-republic-to-save-chiles-glaciers/.

Spain playing for World Cup survival vs Chile

June 18, 2014

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The magnitude of Spain's opening 5-1 loss to Netherlands comes into sharper focus Wednesday when the defending champions must fend off World Cup elimination against Chile, less than a week into the tournament.

Spain and 2010 runner-up Netherlands were expected to advance from Group B, but plenty of pundits — including Brazilian great Pele — tipped Chile as a genuine contender to progress at the expense of one of the European powers.

The Chileans opened with a 3-1 win over Australia, and a second straight victory by the South Americans almost would certainly knock Spain out of the competition. The Dutch play Australia, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament, in the first of Wednesday's three matches. That is followed by Spain vs. Chile and the Group A match between Croatia and Cameroon.

THE CHANGE IN SPAIN

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque stuck with the core group of players who have helped deliver two European championships and a World Cup in a tremendous streak starting in 2008. But after the humiliating loss to the Netherlands, he has forecast changes. Spain needs at least a draw against Chile to remain in contention.

There's speculation that Cesc Fabregas could replace Diego Costa and Pedro Rodriguez could come in for David Silva. Captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas' spot is also under close scrutiny.

"In life, there are solutions for everything," Del Bosque said. "It's still in our hands."

Chile hasn't beaten Spain in 10 games.

"A draw is not bad, but this group of players does not come with the idea to draw a game," midfielder Marcelo Diaz said. "We came out with the idea of winning."

Big games by Arturo Vidal and Barcelona forward Alexis Sanchez are crucial to Chile's chances. Vidal, the creative midfielder from Juventus, is recovering after knee surgery and played for an hour against Australia.

DUTCH TREAT

Even after its stunning win over Spain, Netherlands doesn't want to leave anything to chance when it comes to qualifying for the next stage. That means Australia could be in serious trouble.

Wesley Sneijder put it bluntly: "We have three points, and we want six more."

Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal's strategic masterstroke of playing a 5-3-2 formation worked perfectly against Spain as his team blunted their attack and then made the most of the counterattacking opportunities. Forwards Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben capitalized by tearing the Spanish defense to shreds.

Even so, van Gaal may revert to a more traditional Dutch 4-3-3 system against Australia, which has had two injury setbacks since its opening loss: defender Ivan Franjic and veteran midfielder Mark Milligan are ruled out with hamstring injuries.

Australia coach Ange Postecoglou doesn't want his team to sit back and try to defend the whole match, and he has given them orders to attack at every opportunity. Getting the ball to Tim Cahill, the Socceroos' all-time leading scorer, is the key for Australia.

ETO'O AND OUT

Both Cameroon and Croatia are looking to bounce back from defeats, with Cameroon losing 1-0 to Mexico, and Croatia enduring a 3-1 loss to Brazil in the tournament's opening match. It appears Croatia has come out of defeat in better shape than its African rival.

Chelsea striker Samuel Eto'o had a brace on his right knee as the Cameroon squad left its training base to travel to Manaus and already has posted on social media that he's unlikely to play against Croatia.

Losing the captain is a big setback for Cameroon, which has won just one of its 13 World Cup games since reaching the quarterfinals in 1990.

Barcelona's Alex Song will have to take on extra responsibility in midfield, while Mainz forward Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting is likely to cover for Eto'o and 22-year-old Lorient striker Vincent Aboubakar may get his chance at the World Cup.

Croatia playmaker and Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric is expected to recover from a foot injury and take his place against Cameroon.

The Croatians were furious about a penalty awarded to Brazil in their opening match, which allowed the home team to take the momentum, and are desperate to put that behind them with an important win.

Chile leader to relocate Valparaiso fire victims

April 16, 2014

VALPARAISO, Chile (AP) — President Michelle Bachelet vowed Tuesday to reconstruct this once-beautiful port city according to a master plan that would prevent many of the 12,500 victims of devastating wildfires from rebuilding on hills that cannot be protected from disasters.

The fires that started Saturday and leaped from hilltop to densely populated hilltop may take 20 days to extinguish, Chile's forestry agency said. While Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said authorities hope to have them fully controlled by Wednesday, every stiff wind threatened to lift burning embers, putting more neighborhoods at risk.

By Tuesday night, the fires had consumed 2,900 homes and killed 15 people while injuring hundreds more, he said. "We think this is a tremendous tragedy, but ... it is also a tremendous opportunity to do things right," Bachelet said in an interview with El Diario de Cooperativa. "What we're looking at in terms of reconstruction is how to rebuild in a more orderly manner, better and more worthy" of Valparaiso's status as a World Heritage City.

UNESCO granted the city that honor in large part because of its unique architecture, laid out on narrow, curving streets that climb hills so steep that many people commute by climbing stairways or riding cable cars. Brightly painted, improvised wooden houses hug forested hills and ravines, which form a natural amphitheater around Chile's second-largest port.

While the city is often blanketed by fog from the Pacific Ocean, it has been plagued throughout history by wildfires that can spread quickly when the wind blows out to sea. Indigenous Changos who lived there before the Spanish conquest called the area "Alimapu," which means "land destroyed by fire," said Orion Aramayo, an urban planning expert at Valparaiso's Catholic University.

While fire victims include middle-class families, thousands more lived in primitive conditions, sharing structures built on tiny ledges of land carved into the hills. Many of these homes were built illegally, lacking water and sewer connections, with improper foundations on dangerous slopes and no way for emergency vehicles to reach them in a crisis.

With so many houses reduced to rubble and 4.2 square miles (1,090 hectares) of the compact city's forests turned to ash, Chileans debated about whether bulldozers might help solve longstanding problems.

Urban planners called for safer structures, wider streets and better infrastructure. Some cultural representatives expressed concerns that new construction could endanger the city's rich character. And thousands of fire victims returned to their home sites on the hills, squatting amid charred rubble on denuded slopes that could turn to landslides in the next rain.

Many experts blame the Chilean state for decades of uncontrolled growth. "The government is responsible for having allowed homes to be built in dangerous areas, and somehow it has to show these people that they're in a place where their lives are at risk," said architecture professor Jonas Figueroa at the University of Santiago.

Valparaiso Mayor Jorge Castro bemoaned the city's disorderly development Sunday, saying that "we are too vulnerable as a city: We have been the builders and architects of our own dangers." By Monday, he was acknowledging that many people would rebuild in the same vulnerable spots.

Bachelet, however, appeared firm in Tuesday's interview. "Protecting the people comes first. And second, relocating them," she said, suggesting that the state will expropriate land if it has to. "Honestly, I believe we have to do something more. It's not enough to reinstall houses or support families. We have to do something more substantive."

Just 34 days after taking office a second time, Bachelet is confronting twin disasters. Two earthquakes in northern Chile left 2,635 homes uninhabitable, and 5,000 more with lesser damage. She said the reconstruction will likely occupy her entire four-year term.

Housing Minister Paulina Saball avoided saying openly where the evacuees would go. She suggested that camps for evacuees would have to be built elsewhere to house people who had been illegally squatting on unstable land.

"They want to keep living here. The people don't want to leave," said Nancy Ortega, a social worker who has spent decades assisting about 100 families in Cuesta Colorada, a neighborhood on the Ramaditas hilltop that was mostly destroyed.

Many people were already leaving the city's overflowing shelters and retaking their ruins. Hundreds of volunteers helped, climbing through the wreckage with bottles of water and shovels. "We're going to rebuild right here. Where else would we go?" said Carolina Ovando, 22, who lost the humble home where she had lived with three small children.

All of Valparaiso remained under military rule Tuesday. About 5,000 firefighters, police, forest rangers, soldiers, sailors and civil defense workers joined the fight against the wildfires, which the forestry agency said could take 20 days to fully extinguish. More than 20 helicopters and airplanes flew overhead, dropping water on the smoldering ruins.

Aftershocks rattle Chile as military keeps order

April 04, 2014

IQUIQUE, Chile (AP) — Coastal residents of Chile's far north spent a second sleepless night outside their homes as major aftershocks continued Thursday following a magnitude-8.2 earthquake that damaged several thousand homes and caused six deaths.

No new major damage or casualties were reported, and a heavy police and military presence kept order. The infrastructure in the area is nearly entirely intact, but with aftershocks continuing, life has been anything but normal. Power remains out in many areas, and hospitals were handling only emergencies. Schools were closed, and large supermarkets and gas stations coordinated their reopenings Thursday with police and military to avoid problems with long lines of customers.

After a magnitude-7.6 aftershock struck just before midnight Wednesday, Chile's Emergency Office and navy issued a tsunami alert, and for two hours ordered everyone living in low-lying areas along the country's entire 2,500-mile (4,000-kilometer) Pacific coastline to evacuate.

Among those moved inland was President Michelle Bachelet, who was in the city of Arica assessing damage in the north from Tuesday night's powerful quake. "I was evacuated like all citizens. One can see that the people are prepared," she tweeted early Thursday.

Chile's evacuation order was lifted at around 2 a.m. Thursday. Some 900,000 people also were affected the night before when the entire coast was evacuated for several hours after Tuesday's bigger quake, although the tsunami proved small.

A 6.1-magnitude aftershock 47 miles (76 kms) southwest of Iquique shook the area again late Thursday. The repeated aftershocks have shaken buildings and sent people running into the streets in the port of Iquique, the largest city closest to the epicenter. About 45 minutes before the 7.6 quake, a magnitude-6.5 aftershock also rattled Iquique. The shaking loosened more landslides near Alto Hospicio, a poor area at the entrance to Iquique where about 2,500 homes had been damaged in Tuesday's larger quake.

The Ministry of Education suspended classes again in schools in the north for Thursday, while the region's top prosecutor, Manuel Guerra, said his office is taking action against speculators who sharply raised prices for bread, water, milk and diapers. "They will be detained and charged," Guerra tweeted, calling on the community to denounce "intolerable" abuses.

The largest aftershock was felt across the border in southern Peru, where people in the cities of Tacna and Arequipa fled buildings in fear. Police Lt. Freddy Cuela in Tacna said no damage or injuries were reported. Peru's navy tweeted a tsunami alert for the country's extreme southern coast, which is next to the Chilean region hit by the quakes.

Authorities have reported six deaths, but didn't rule out the possibility others could have been killed in older structures made of adobe in remote communities that weren't immediately accessible. The tsunami after Tuesday night's quake caused the sea to rise only 8 feet (2.5 meters) in Iquique, but that was enough to sink and damage many fishing boats, lifting some onto city streets and piling others up in the harbor.

Still, as Bachelet deployed hundreds of anti-riot police and soldiers to prevent looting and round up escaped prisoners, it was clear the loss of life and property could have been much worse. The mandatory evacuations have been announced through cellphone text messages and Twitter, and reinforced by blaring sirens in neighborhoods where people regularly practice earthquake drills. But many Chileans have not downloaded the smartphone application that can alert them to evacuation orders, and some communities still lack warning sirens.

Chile is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and tsunamis are a particular danger because the fault zone lies just offshore, where the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the South American plate.

Associated Press writers Eva Vergara in Santiago, Michael Warren in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Frank Bajak in Lima, Peru, and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

New evacuations in Chile after major aftershock

April 03, 2014

IQUIQUE, Chile (AP) — Coastal residents of Chile's far-north spent a second sleepless night outside their homes early Thursday after a major aftershock rattled an area hit a day earlier by a magnitude-8.2 earthquake that caused some damage and six deaths. No new major damage or casualties were reported.

After the 7.6-magnitude aftershock struck just before midnight Wednesday, Chile's Emergency Office and navy issued a tsunami alert and ordered a precautionary evacuation of low-lying areas for the country's whole 2,500-mile (4,000-kilometer) Pacific coastline.

Among those moved inland was President Michelle Bachelet, who was in the city of Arica assessing damage in the north from Tuesday night's powerful quake. "I was evacuated like all citizens. One can see that the people are prepared," she tweeted early Thursday.

Chile's evacuation order initially applied to the full coast, but authorities quickly lifted the alert for all but the far-northern shore and even ended it there around 2 a.m. Thursday. The whole coast also was evacuated for several hours after Tuesday's quake, and for the night in the north, although the tsunami proved small.

The aftershock caused buildings to shake and people to run out into the streets in the port of Iquique, which was one of the cities that saw damage from the Tuesday earthquake. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries from the aftershock, which was one of dozens that have followed the magnitude-8.2 quake.

State television said the aftershock caused some landslides near Alto Hospicio, a poor area in the hills above Iquique where about 2,500 homes were damaged by Tuesday' earthquake. The Ministry of Education suspended classes again in schools in the north for Thursday.

The aftershock was felt across the border in southern Peru, where people in the cities of Tacna and Arequipa fled buildings in fear. Police Lt. Freddy Cuela in Tacna said no damage or injuries were reported. Peru's navy tweeted a tsunami alert for the country's extreme southern coast, which is next to the Chilean region hit by the quakes.

Earlier, authorities reported just six deaths from Tuesday's magnitude-8.2 quake, but didn't rule out the possibility others could have been killed in older structures made of adobe in remote communities that weren't immediately accessible.

The tsunami after Tuesday night's quake caused the sea to rise only 8 feet (2.5 meters) in Iquique, a city of nearly 200,000 people, although that was enough to sink and damage many fishing boats. Iquique's fishermen poked through the wreckage Wednesday trying to assess what it will cost to repair and replace.

Still, as Bachelet deployed hundreds of anti-riot police and soldiers to prevent looting and round up escaped prisoners, it was clear the loss of life and property could have been much worse from Tuesday's powerful tremor.

Tuesday night's mandatory evacuation lasted 10 hours in Iquique and Arica, the cities closest to the epicenter, and kept 900,000 people out of their homes along Chile's coast. The order to leave was spread through cellphone text messages and Twitter, and reinforced by blaring sirens in neighborhoods where people regularly practice earthquake drills.

But the system has its shortcomings: The government has yet to install tsunami warning sirens in parts of Arica, leaving authorities to shout orders by megaphone. And less than 15 percent of Chileans have downloaded the smartphone application that can alert them to evacuation orders.

Chile is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and tsunamis are a particular danger because of activity in the fault zone just offshore where the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the South American plate.

Associated Press writers Eva Vergara in Santiago, Michael Warren in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Frank Bajak in Lima, Peru, and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Five killed, several injured in strong Chile earthquake

Wed Apr 2, 2014

At least five people have been killed and several others seriously injured in Chile following an earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale in the country’s northern region.

According to Chile’s Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo, four men and a woman were confirmed dead in the cities of Iquique and Alto Hospicio.

The ministry said the victims had died of either a heart attack or falling debris.

Earlier reports had placed the number of the deaths at two.

The US Geological Survey said that the earthquake hit at 08:46 pm local time (2346 GMT) on Tuesday at a depth of 20.1 kilometers (12.5 miles), 95 kilometers (59 miles) northwest of Iquique on Chile’s northern coast.

Meanwhile, Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet has declared parts of the country’s north disaster zones. The president is expected to travel to the regions of Arica and Tarapaca on Wednesday.

Following the earthquake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for Latin America’s entire Pacific coast.

A number of roads in Chile were reportedly blocked by landslides. The quake has also caused power cuts.

Thousands of Chileans living in coastal areas have been ordered to evacuate their homes.

The northern areas of Chile had been witnessing quakes in recent days.

On March 30, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck off Chile’s Pacific coast, followed by at least two moderate aftershocks, the USGS said.

Chile is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/02/356875/earthquake-kills-in-chile/.

Peru gets more ocean, Chile keeps fishing grounds

January 28, 2014

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The United Nations' highest court set a maritime boundary between Chile and Peru on Monday that grants Peruvians a bigger piece of the Pacific Ocean while keeping rich coastal fishing grounds in the hands of Chilean industry.

Despite high emotions over the dispute, especially in Peru, the ruling is expected to have little effect on cordial ties between the two neighbors whose economic interdependence has grown greatly in recent years.

Chile's outgoing president, Sebastian Pinera, called the International Court of Justice's ruling "a lamentable loss" in a nationally televised address. But President-elect Michelle Bachelet, who takes office in March, said that "most of the fishing occurs inside the area that the court ratified as belonging to our country."

Peru's leader, Ollanta Humala, told his countrymen on national TV that he was satisfied with the outcome, saying the court had recognized Peru's argument that no maritime treaty previously existed between the South American neighbors.

Peruvian patriots might crow, but Chilean commercial fishing fleets appeared to be the biggest beneficiaries, analysts said. In Chile's northern port of Arica, police dispersed a group of fewer than 100 small-time fishermen with water cannon after some, considering themselves losers, hurled stones at a military barracks.

"Only the rich are profiting from this," said Eduardo Ferreira, a street vendor who sells paintings on the main square of Chile's capital, Santiago, where police had to break up a few heated arguments between Chileans and Peruvians.

The ruling announced in a European courtroom ends a decades-old dispute centered on nearly 38,000 square kilometers (14,670 square miles) of the world's richest fishing grounds - the value of the area's annual catch has been estimated at $200 million.

Peruvian historian Nelson Manrique called the ruling an "intelligent verdict" that is "not going to please anyone but it's also not going to bring anyone to fits." The case filed by Peru in 2008 was a matter of national pride for Peruvians, some of whom maintain rancor over the 1879-83 War of the Pacific in which Chile gained its three northernmost provinces by winning territory from Peru and Bolivia. Bolivia lost its coast in the conflict.

Humala, a retired army officer when he was elected Peru's president, called Monday "one of the days that will mark my life, and I feel proud to have lived as a soldier and now as a politician. I feel prouder every day to be Peruvian." The national anthem then played.

Peru had sought a sea border perpendicular to the coast, heading roughly southwest. Chile insisted the border extend parallel to the equator. The court, whose rulings cannot be appealed, compromised by saying a border already existed parallel to the equator extending 80 nautical miles from the coast. From there, it drew a line southwest to where the countries' 200-mile territorial waters end.

Patricia Majluf, a leading Peruvian fisheries scientist, said the area remaining in Chilean hands "is where the Chilean boats fish the most." "All the anchoveta is fished in that zone," she said. The species of anchovy is converted into fish meal for an insatiable global market that uses it in animal feed, fertilizer and fish oil pills. Peru is the world's No. 1 exporter of fish meal and Chile is second as they share the world's most productive fishing grounds, the cold Humboldt current,

Majluf said about 1 million tons of anchoveta are harvested annually off the northern Chile coast, about the same amount as off the southern Peruvian coast. Peruvian economist Juan Carlos Sueiro said the verdict maintains the status quo in the anchovy industry, benefiting in particular Chile's Grupo Angelini, while Peruvian fishermen can catch shark, tuna, mackeral, cuttlefish and mahi-mahi farther offshore will also benefit.

The director of Peru's largest producer of fish meal, Humberto Speziani of TASA, predicted "a positive impact" for big Peruvian fishing fleets like his although environmentalists expressed concern about overfishing by such fleets continuing to deplete stocks.

The leader of small-time Peruvian fishermen in the region, David Patino, was not happy, however. "We haven't won anything. We are in the same situation as the past," he said. Despite differences over fishing, the border area has been a model of coexistence. Citizens of both countries travel across it freely, with Chileans crowding into hospitals and clinics in Tacna, Arica's sister city for cheaper health care. Peruvians work in construction and other day jobs on the Chilean side.

Peru and Chile have seen their annual trade grow from $500 million in 2006 to $4.3 billion today. Chilean government figures put Peruvian investment in Chile at $11 billion last year and Chilean investment in Peru at $13.5 billion.

Associated Press writer Frank Bajak reported this story in Lima, Peru, and Mike Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. AP writers Eva Vergara and Luis Henao in Santiago, Chile, and Franklin Briceno in Lima contributed to this report.

Chile's Bachelet favored to win presidency

November 17, 2013

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chileans were preparing to return Michelle Bachelet to the presidency on Sunday, hoping she can fulfill promises to reform a dictatorship-era system they blame for keeping the working classes poor and indebted to the privileged few.

Chile is the world's top copper producer and its fast-growing economy, low unemployment and stable democracy are the envy of Latin America. But millions of its citizens have taken to the streets in recent years, venting their frustration over the huge wealth gap between the rich and poor and a chronically underfunded education system.

Many voters blame policies imposed during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship for keeping wealth and power in very few hands. His regime privatized natural resources and many government functions and ended the central control and funding of public schools.

Bachelet, 62, is a former political prisoner, pediatrician, defense secretary and Socialist Party stalwart who is a centrist at heart. She left office with sky-high approval ratings after her 2006-2010 presidency despite failing then to bring about major changes in society. But this time, she's taken up the protesters' cause, vowing major changes in taxes and education to reduce the wealth gap.

Bachelet and her closest rival on Sunday, Evelyn Matthei, were childhood friends and daughters of generals who found themselves on opposite sides after Chile's 1973 coup, when Matthei's father ran the military school where Gen. Alberto Bachelet was tortured to death for remaining loyal to ousted President Salvador Allende.

The last survey by Chile's top pollster CEP found 47 percent of declared voters going for Bachelet, suggesting she has a good chance at an outright majority when voters who didn't reveal their preferences to pollsters cast ballots. Matthei got 14 percent in the poll, which had a 3 percentage point error margin. Seven other candidates trailed, although independents Franco Parisi and Marco Enriquez-Ominami were gaining ground on the right and left.

Chileans also will choose 120 members of the lower House of Congress and 20 out of 38 Senate seats on Sunday. Unfortunately for Bachelet, her New Majority coalition won't be able to secure more seats unless it wins at least two-thirds of the votes in each district, under Pinochet's "binomial" electoral system, which was designed to frustrate change.

"You almost feel sorry for her because she's going to be stuck between the future and the past," said Peter Siavelis, a political science professor at Wake Forest University and author of "Democratic Chile: The Politics and Policies of a Historic Coalition".

"There all these demands in the streets for constitutional reform but she's facing a Congress that's going to be elected by the binominal elections system," Siavelis said. "There's not going to be a majority there. So the influence of the dictatorship is going to impact on her reforms."

Chile shuts luxury jail for dictatorship criminals

September 27, 2013

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile's president announced Thursday that he will close a luxury prison for dictatorship-era military officials convicted of crimes against humanity, taking away their tennis courts, barbecues and a pool.

The Cordillera prison, located on an army base, offers the officers jailed for killings, torture and other abuses during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-90 dictatorship far better conditions than Chile's normal penitentiaries. The inmates live in small cabins with private bathrooms, have hot showers and get lots of natural light.

President Sebastian Pinera said his government decided to close Cordillera taking into account "equality before law" as well as the security of the prison's 10 inmates, who will now serve time at Punta Peuco, another special jail for human rights offenders.

The decision came after Manuel Contreras, the former chief of Pinochet's secret service gave an interview inside Cordillera ahead of the 40th anniversary of the military coup. Contreras, who is serving combined sentences of more than 100 years for kidnappings and murders, mocked prison guards, saying they were only there "to hold his cane," and he claimed that all of the thousands of disappeared during the dictatorship were armed leftists killed in gunfights.

Cordillera was built in 2004 during the presidency of Ricardo Lagos to avoid overcrowding at Punta Peuco. Former President Michelle Bachelet, who was held and tortured during the dictatorship, praised the decision to close Cordillera.

"This means that the country now has the political conditions to do this," said Bachelet, who is the front-runner in the campaign for the Nov. 17 presidential election. The privileged conditions at Cordillera have been criticized ever since it was built.

But the public outcry reached a high point Wednesday when supporters of former Brigadier Miguel Krassnoff tried to organize a BBQ in his honor at Cordillera, where he is serving a 144-year sentence. An event honoring Krassnoff in 2011 ended in clashes between his supporters and human rights activists.

"It's unbelievable that Chilean society allowed jails with these types of luxuries for human rights criminals," Claudio Escobar Caceres, 51, said at a demonstration by human rights activists outside the prison. He held up a sign that read in Spanish: "Justice. Nothing more."

The current governing coalition, led by the Independent Democratic Union and the National Renovation, is the first conservative government since Chile's return to democracy in 1990. Members of both parties supported Pinochet's dictatorship and several Pinochet-era officials now serve as lawmakers.

In 2011, Pinera's government officially recognized 9,800 more victims of the dictatorship. That increased the total list of people killed, tortured or imprisoned for political reasons during Pinochet's regime to 40,018. The government estimates 3,095 of those were killed, including about 1,200 who were forcibly "disappeared."

About 700 military officials face trial for the forced disappearance of dissidents and about 70 have been jailed for crimes against humanity. A recent report by police said the 10 inmates at Cordillera have been looked after by 35 guards, compared to one guard per 50 prisoners at regular Chilean prisons.

"How much did this luxury jail for murderers cost?" said Carolina Soto, 33, a teacher protesting outside the prison.

Associated Press writer Eva Vergara contributed to this report.

Michelle Bachelet says she's going back to Chile

March 16, 2013

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who became head of the U.N. agency promoting women's equality in July 2010, said Friday night that she is giving up the post and returning home, an announcement that comes amid widespread speculation she plans to run for president again this year.

Bachelet, who was Chile's first woman president, ended a speech at the closing session of a two-week meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women on a personal note. However, she did not mention Chile's presidential race or give any specifics on when she was leaving or what her future plans are.

"This will be my last CSW," she said. "I'm going back to my country." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Bachelet had informed him of her intention to step down and expressed "tremendous gratitude for her outstanding service."

"Michelle Bachelet was the right person in the right job at the right time," he said. "Her visionary leadership gave UN Women the dynamic start it needed. Her fearlessness in advocating for women's rights raised the global profile of this key issue. Her drive and compassion enabled her to mobilize and make a difference for millions of people across the world."

Ban said her achievements include new steps to protect women and girls from violence, new advances on health, and a new understanding that women's empowerment must be at the core of what the United Nations does.

"This is a stellar legacy, and I am determined to build on it," he said. Bachelet is widely expected by Chileans to be a candidate in the Nov. 17 presidential election, though she did not address the political angle. Recent polls have said that 54 percent of voters support her, and the center-left opposition views her as its best chance to defeat conservative President Sebastian Pinera and regain power.

"I'm happy for the country," Osvaldo Andrade, leader of the Socialist party told CNN Chile. "There must be a nervous breakdown in downtown Santiago. It's an unequivocal sign." Carlos Larrain, head of the conservative National Renewal party, said a Bachelet candidacy "will be healthy for the system" by giving voters a choice between the social welfare policies of her previous term and those of Pinera's right-of-center government.

Chile is respected for its fast-growing economy and transparent institutions, but it also has the worst inequality rate among the 34 countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and widespread protests of inequalities have harried the administrations of both Bachelet and her successor, Pinera.

Millions of Chileans have staged widespread and frequent protests demanding a wider distribution of Chile's copper riches, free education and the return of ancestral lands to Mapuche Indians in a southern region where members of Chile's largest indigenous group often clash with timber companies and landowners.

The 62-year-old Bachelet, who was elected president of Chile in 2006 and served one term that ended in 2010, is the daughter of an air force general who was tortured to death for opposing the coup that put Gen. Augusto Pinochet in power. She and her mother also were arrested and then exiled. After returning to Chile, Bachelet became a pediatrician and then entered politics, serving as minister of health and as minister of defense before winning the presidency.

After she left office, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon chose her as the first head of UN Women, which combined four U.N. bodies dealing with the advancement of women under a single umbrella. Bachelet was tipped as a possible leader of the agency immediately after the General Assembly voted unanimously in July 2010 to create UN Women. But U.N. officials said she initially told them she wasn't interested because she wanted to remain active in Chilean politics after stepping down from the presidency in March 2010 with high approval ratings.

The secretary-general made no mention when he announced her appointment of what changed Bachelet's mind. But Ban said: "I am confident that under her strong leadership, we can improve the lives of millions of women and girls throughout the world."

Bachelet made her announcement minutes after more than 130 countries adopted a 17-page U.N. blueprint to combat violence against women after two weeks of tough negotiations at the Commission on the Status of Women. She called the document "historic."

Chile: Couple dies defending home amid protests

January 04, 2013

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — An elderly couple whose family's vast landholdings have long been targeted by Mapuche Indians in southern Chile were killed in an arson attack early Friday while trying to defend their home. The president quickly flew to the scene and announced new security measures, including the application of Chile's tough anti-terrorism law and the creation of a special police anti-terror unit backed by Chile's military.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which some Mapuche Indians repudiated Friday as senseless and abhorrent. But Chile's interior minister said pamphlets condemning police violence and demanding the return of Mapuche lands were left at the scene. The presidentially appointed governor of the remote southern region of Araucania, Andres Molina, called the attackers "savages."

"This attack affects the entire country and causes gigantic damage, for the pain and the delays that it means for thousands of families who want to live in peace," Pinera said. "This government is united in its effort to combat terrorism that affects the region. We will not hesitate to apply the full weight of the law."

"It should be completely clear," Pinera added, "that this fight is not against the Mapuche people. It's with a minority of violent terrorists who must be fought with everything the law allows." Werner Luchsinger, 75, fired a weapon in self-defense, and struck a man from the nearby Mapuche community of Juan Quintrupil before his home burned to the ground, regional police chief Ivan Bezmalinovic said.

Luchsinger's wife Vivian McKay called relatives for help during the attack, but when they arrived just 15 minutes later the house was already in flames and she didn't answer her phone, according to the victim's cousin, Jorge Luchsinger.

The attack began Thursday night as one of many political protests around Chile commemorating the death five years ago of Mapuche activist Matias Catrileo, who was shot in the back by an officer who served a minor sentence and then rejoined the police. The Indians scattered pamphlets related to the anniversary while on the Luchsinger property, Interior Minister Andres Chadwick said.

The victims' Lumahue ranch is just 16 miles (25 kilometers) from the spot where Catrileo was killed on Jan. 3, 2008. Celestino Cordova Transito, 26, was detained near the scene early Friday. Police have him under arrest in a hospital in Temuco, where he was being treated for a gunshot wound in the neck, the chief said.

Gov. Molina said that Werner Luchsinger's gunshot, by enabling police to capture the wounded suspect, may help solve not only the couple's death but previous arson attacks as well. "I want to thank Don Werner, because probably thanks to him we're closer to finding these savages who have done such damage to Araucania," he said.

Pinera also met briefly with the Luchsinger family as well as other local landowners next to the burned-out home, but Chile's El Mercurio said the meeting was cut short when some fled due to a false rumor that Mapuche activists were targeting their properties even as the president spoke. Other landowners shouted out in anger, asking for tougher security measures, and then briefly blocked the main highway in protest.

Jorge Luchsinger said earlier Friday that masked Indians have repeatedly attacked his and other relatives' properties as well, despite the considerable police presence in the area. "It's obvious that the authorities are completely overwhelmed," he told radio Cooperativa.

Many of Chile's Mapuche activist groups were silent Friday about the murders, repeating instead their complaints about continuing police violence of the kind that killed Catrileo years ago. But Venancio Conuepan, who described himself as a law student who comes from a long line of Mapuche leaders, wrote an editorial Friday condemning the violence, rejecting the idea that armed conflict can win their demands, and calling for the killers to be identified and tried in court. He said the vast majority of the Mapuche people agree with him.

"Enough of people using violence in the name of the Mapuche people. Our grandfathers never covered their faces. The Mapuche created parliaments, and always put dialogue first," wrote Conuepan on Radio BioBio's web site, titling his editorial, "Although you don't believe me, I'm Mapuche and I'm not a Terrorist."

The Luchsinger family has been among the most outspoken in defending the property rights of the region's landowners against ancestral land claims by the Mapuche. But Jorge said his cousin had taken a lower profile and refused police protection.

Lorena Fries, the director of Chile's official Human Rights Institute, warned Friday against cracking down using the anti-terror law, which allows for holding suspects in isolation without charges, using secret witnesses and other measures that have been discredited by Chile's courts in previous cases of Mapuche violence. Instead, she said Pinera should reach out to the Indians, and honor their demands for self-governance and the recovery of ancestral land. "Something has to be done so that everyone puts an end to the violence," she said.

The Mapuches' demands for land and autonomy date back centuries. They resisted Spanish and Chilean domination for more than 300 years before they were forced south to Araucania in 1881. Many of the 700,000 Mapuches who survive among Chile's 17 million people still live in Araucania. A small fraction have been rebelling for decades, destroying forestry equipment and torching trees. Governments on the left and right have sent in police while offering programs that fall far short of their demands.

The Luchsinger family also arrived in Araucania in the late 1800s, from Switzerland, and benefited from the government's colonization policies for decades thereafter, becoming one of the largest landowners in Chile's Patagonia region. Their forestry and ranching companies now occupy vast stretches of southern Chile, and impoverished Mapuches live on the margins of their properties.

Chilean car shines in solar auto competition

Calama, Chile (AFP)
Oct 2, 2011

Latin America's first big solar car competition has a winner: a Chilean entry named Intikalpa sped to success in the Atacama Solar Challenge.

Intikalpa -- which means solar energy in the indigenous Quechua language of the Andes -- beat out 30 entries from seven countries across the Americas on a 1,060 kilometer (660 miles) course.

Racers hit the road with clean green vehicles in the Friday through Sunday competition which saw vehicles travel through Iquique, Antofagasta and Calama, crossing the Atacama desert, the world's driest.

On the Atacama Solar Challenge track of the competition, for cars only, the Intikalpa had some stiff competition but pulled out ahead.

Built by the Chilean team Antakari, it chalked up an impressive average speed of 75 km/h. The team was made up of engineers from the private Los Pelambres mining company and students at the Universidad de La Serena.

"All the hard work was really worth it. We were the most competitive team in developing the car, and that is where we outdid the competition," Jaime Munoz, the winning team's driver, told AFP.

Another track of the competition was for mixed solar and pedal-powered tricycles.

Source: Space Mart.
Link: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Chilean_car_shines_in_solar_auto_competition_999.html.