Chilean president-elect Sebastian Piñera, who narrowly won last Sunday’s runoff election against Sen. Eduardo Frei of the governing center-left Concertación coalition, has added new meaning to an old adage: to the victor go the spoils.
The news that the rightwing multi-millionaire Sebastian Piñera had won Chile’s presidential runoff on Sunday January 17 with 51.6% of the vote left the Concertación coalition of Socialists and Christian Democrats reeling. Piñera is the first Chilean conservative to win a presidential election in over half a century, and the first right-winger to ever garner the 50% of the popular vote necessary to win the presidency today.
For the first time since Chile’s return to democracy, the country’s ruling political coalition may lose the presidency. The centrist "Concertación" coalition is being challenged from both the left and the right, facing perhaps its toughest electoral battle yet. […]
A judge in Chile has charged a former soldier in the 1973 murder of internationally renowned Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara. Up to now, the only person prosecuted in the case was the commanding officer at the temporary prison camp where the songwriter was killed shortly after the Sept. 11, 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.
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The 35th anniversary of the September 11th, 1973 Washington-backed coup which saw Chilean general Augusto Pinochet overthrow the democratically elected administration of Salvador Allende offers a standard to measure President Bush’s "War on Terrorism," his legacy of human rights abuses, and how he might one day face justice. […]
In the last five months there have been several incidents of arrest, detainment, and in one case expulsion of documentary filmakers by Chilean authorities. Each case is unique, but what they all have in common is that all three groups have been filming documentaries about the Mapuches. […]
Chile’s Chamber of Deputies approved the contentious General Education Law (LGE) with 96 votes in favor, 12 against, and seven abstentions on June 19. Officials from Chile’s National Teacher’s Association criticized the Chamber’s decision and the said they would urge the Senate to vote against the proposal.
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A sea of umbrellas flooded Santiago’s central Plaza de Armas around midday last Wednesday as teachers, high schoolers, university students, and parents took over the rainy Santiago streets in a national protests called by the Teacher’s Association. The protest was against the General Education Law (LGE), an education reform package being put forward to replace the existing Organic Constitutional Education Law (LOCE).
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