Chile

for
Marilyn Sherman
Emporia State University
School of Library and Information Management

Spring 2006

Chile

This website offers a fact sheet about Chile including statistics on geography, population, government, economy, transportation, communication and the military. Chile established itself as a democracy in 1990 after decades of military rule under Salvador Allende, and after his death in a military coup, General Augusto Pinochet.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) began on January 1, 1994 between the countries of Canada, Mexico and North America. This website gives details of the agreement and describes benefits derived from the agreement. This agreement has relevance because southern cone countries, Chile in particular, are interested in joining or extending NAFTA to include South America.

This website gives an opposing view for not expanding NAFTA. The site gives many reasons that expansion of NAFTA, to be called the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is a bad idea, but I found little documentation for the ideas presented. There are links to a news article list dealing with free trade discussions, all of them anti FTAA.

Information on Chile's universities can be found on this web page with a map and links to each individual University.

Catan, T. and Mulligan, M. (2002, April 30). Argentina's neighbors cash in on their changing fortunes: the economic turmoil in Buenos Aires is giving its Latin American rivals a taste of relative prosperity. The Financial Times, p. 20.

Chilean citizens and even Bolivians, considered the poorest in the region, are taking advantage of the cheap prices in Argentina to go on vacations and shopping excursions in border towns and in the capital, Buenos Aries. This role reversal is taking many Argentine citizens by surprise. The normally arrogant Argentine, as perceived by their surrounding neighbors, are "much nicer to tourists", states a Chilean citizen who may not have traveled to Buenos Aries except for this current economic opportunity due to the devaluation of the Argentine peso.

The U.S. Department of State background information and fact sheet on Chile gives not only general information, but also gives detailed information on Chile's foreign relations and U.S.-Chile relations.

El Mecurio and La Tercera are two of Chile's leading newspapers available online.

The Banco Central de Chile (Central Bank of Chile) has a website in Spanish and English describing its policies, economics and most interesting to me, links to search engines in Spanish and English arranged by types of searches, international news sources such as BBC online and the Washington Post, newspapers in Chile and international organizations and the central banks of more than 80 countries.

History of Chile under Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity is a website that explores the rule of Salvador Allende from his rise to power in 1969 to his suicide death during a coup on September 11, 1973. Allende, a socialist, did not receive U.S. support. In fact, the U.S. government imposed economic sanctions on Allende's government and encouraged and funded opposition groups assisting in his downfall.

The above three websites deal with the crimes of the military dictator General Augusto Pinochet from the years 1973 to 1990 when Pinochet was removed from power by elections that had been established in a 1980 constitution. General Pinochet lost the elections to a Christian Democrat in 1990. One of the largest conflicts the new democracy has to deal with is the abuse of human rights and "los desaparecidos," the disappeared ones and bringing justice to victims and victims' families.

Falcoff, M. (2000, Summer). Regionalist momentum in the Southern Cone. Orbis, pp. 417-432.

The first half of this article traces Argentina's economic and political history along with its relationship with the U.S. and neighboring countries Chile and Brazil. Next, Falcoff describes Chile's political past before moving on to a brief discussion of Uruguay. He questions, "Why should the United States pay attention?" These four countries are putting aside their differences by encouraging trade in the region. Falcoff calls for the U.S. to reexamine its relationship with the southern cone countries.

de Contreras, A. (2002, March 21). Chile and Brazil sign trade agreements. EFE News Services. Retrieved April 29, 2002 from Lexis-Nexis database.

The economic outlook is strong since the Presidents of Chile and Brazil signed a series of trade, customs and cooperation agreements March 20, 2002 in Arica, Chile. The agreements, independent of MERCOSUR, are designed to strengthen Chile's regional ties and establish connections to Chile's international trade interests. The agreements cover textiles, overland shipping, automotive and agricultural products among others.

The website explains New Zealand's Latin American Strategy for the next three years. The emphasis is on trade, cultural, academic and people to people links. New Zealand's exports to Chile have risen in the past few years with the view that the middle class with potential buying power will only increase in Chile.