Chile News and Culture

Here's a roundup of Chile news stories from 2005 -- both interesting and obscure.

CZECHS TO HELP REBUILD BURNED PARK
Czechs Rally to Compensate for Countryman’s Negligence In Torres Del Paine

(March 4, 2005) The Czech National Conservation Union will launch a campaign next week to raise money for the regeneration of fire-damaged forests in the Torres del Paine National Park, Region XII.

“The idea is to support the regeneration of Torres del Paine as the fire has damaged part of its infrastructure. We think the funds could be used to rebuild pathways, but it’s up to the people at the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF),” said Lad Ptacek, President of the International Relations Committee at the Czech National Conservation Union.

The broadcast media in the Czech Republic are helping to publicize the launch of the nationwide campaign. Prague-based dailies have been closely following the news of the fires in Torres del Paine, which were “a worry and a matter of great regret for the Czech government and people,” according to a statement issued by the Czech Embassy in Santiago.

The news of the campaign came as Czech government officials Vladimir Zavázal and Eduard Janota arrived Thursday in Chile to discuss the possibility of offering logistical and financial aid in the aftermath of the Torres del Paine fires, which were caused by the negligence of one of their countrymen.

Janota and Zavázal met with Chilean government officials at 5 p.m. Thursday to finalize their schedule and discuss the resources they can offer to rectify the fire damage.

The Czech ministers will meet with the regional governor of Punta Arenas (Region XII) at midday on Saturday before touring the fire-damaged areas of the park around Laguna Amarga.

The fires have now destroyed about 16,000 hectares of woodland, thicket and grassland in Torres del Paine, which was declared a World Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1978. Around 3 percent of this area is made up of native trees that only grow in Torres del Paine.

CONAF is currently working on a project to artificially regenerate the native woodland that has been lost, while also examining how to replant other, more common species and return animals to their native habitat. CONAF announced Monday the regeneration plan would be ready by April 14.

A team of academics and forestry specialists from the United States will arrive later this month to lend their expertise in planning the regeneration project.

The Chilean government is likely to solicit international help to raise the US$2.4 billion that it estimates will be needed to regenerate the area. So far, there are no indicators of how big the Czech contribution will be.

“It’s difficult to know how much money we will collect,” Ptacek said.

Meanwhile, it was feared that tourism would suffer as a result of the fires, following the closure of one of the park’s exits and the evacuation of dozens of campers (ST, Feb. 28).

The National Tourism Service (SERNATUR) has responded to the crisis. SERNATUR Director Oscar Santelices announced a “campaign to re-brand Torres del Paine because more damage has been done to the park’s image than to its fauna.”

The fires started Feb. 17 when Czech tourist Jiri Smitak accidentally knocked over a gas stove in an area of the park where fires are prohibited (ST, Feb. 28).

The flames raged for 10 days as 800 firefighters battled to bring them under control. As well as destroying about 5 percent of the park’s total area, putting out the fires has cost the Chilean government US$1.4 million.

SOURCE: LA TERCERA, EL MERCURIO,
By Emily Byrne (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

US HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ASSESSES CONDITIONS IN CHILE
Insulza Incensed by Superpower’s Appraisal

(March 3, 2005) The United States criticized Chile’s human rights record, prisons and social shortcomings in its annual Human Rights Country Reports released this week.

Interior Minister José Miguel Insulza, a candidate to become the Organization of American States’ secretary general, was outraged by the report’s criticisms. He questioned whether the United States should be making moral evaluations of other nations.

“We have our problems and they have theirs too. The only thing is, there was no evaluation of the United States in the report,” Insulza said.

The United States is in no position to judge, said Dep. Gabriel Ascencio, the president of the Chamber of Deputies.

“If we were to evaluate what the (United States) does in the world, it would be a devastating report,” Ascencio told Radio Cooperativa.

The U.S. Embassy in Santiago refused to comment on Chilean reactions to the report.

The U.S. State Department’s report scrutinizes Chile’s “overcrowded and antiquated” prisons because some detention centers that were designed to hold 23,025 prisoners now accommodate as many as 37,000 inmates. The majority of prisoners live in “sub-standard sanitary conditions,” while prison food only meets “minimal nutritional needs.” There were also isolated cases where prison guards were accused of abusing prisoners.

Insulza rebuffed the accusations that Chilean prisons are substandard.

“We are building a great number of detention centers that will be opened in the coming months,” he said.

Domestic violence against women and the ill treatment of children were also highlighted as serious problems in Chile. The report quotes a 2001 Universidad de Chile study that revealed that over 50 percent of Chilean women had experienced violence in their relationships with their partners. The National Service for the Protection of Minors (SENAME) also provided statistics to substantiate the report’s claims.

In October, violent clashes between the indigenous Mapuche groups and local landowners, logging companies and government authorities occurred in Region IX. The U.S. report denounced the prosecution of 10 Mapuche protesters under anti-terrorism laws, harking back to the military government’s rule. Since the ruling, Chilean human rights organizations have been protesting the law, and the nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch labeled it “unacceptable in a democratic society” (ST, Oct. 29, 2004).

The U.S. report also praised some of the country’s human rights policies. For example, Chile was lauded for making human rights courses a core requirement of police and military academies’ curriculums. The report also recognized that Chile’s censored media is a thing of the past, and today’s broadcast media is “free of direct government influence.”The report recognizes that Chile has made progress in the courtroom, applauding the Chilean judicial system for overcoming legal and institutional bureaucracy to lift ex-dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s immunity and indict other former military-government officials.

The report says Chile’s human rights policies are largely satisfactory, but the report is “not very different from the previous year’s,” said Sebastián Brett, head of the Chilean branch of Human Rights Watch.

Chile failed to make significant progress in 2004 because it has a tendency to regard human rights issues as a thing of the past, Brett said.

“Human rights should be a constant issue in every country,” he said. The report evaluated human rights conditions in 196 countries worldwide.

Cuba and Venezuela are the worst human rights offenders in Latin America according to the report. Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, China and Sudan were also denounced for breaches of human rights, including instances of torture and organized assassinations.

This year’s Human Rights Country Reports have been labelled part of President George W. Bush’s new National Security Strategy, a policy “based on the principle that promoting political and economic freedom and respect for human dignity will build a safer and better world.”

“The survival of liberty in our land depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world,” Bush said in his second inaugural address on Jan. 20.

Brett questioned Bush’s authority on human rights issues.

“If the country writing this report had a reputation as a promoter and protector of human rights, it could have a positive effect. But the abuses and tortures we have seen in 2004 in Abu Ghraib in Iraq, in Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan take away any credibility (the United States) may have had,” Brett said.

The U.S. anti-terrorism policies and the CIA’s detention and rendition policies have caused controversy in recent months. A Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, and Australian-born Mamdouh Habib both claim to have been victims of the U.S. government’s torture and disappearance practices (ST, Feb. 28). Arar has filed a lawsuit against the government, which will bring the United States’ own human rights policies under scrutiny.

Chile was not alone in its indignation. Government officials in Mexico, China and South Africa also spoke out to defend their country’s human rights situation following the report’s release.

SOURCE: RADIO COOPERATIVA, LA NACIÓN, EL MERCURIO
By Emily Byrne (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

SEX TRIAL DECISION PENDING FOR CHILE SENATOR
Private Meeting Between Lavandero And Public Prosecutor Criticized

(March 1, 2005) The Supreme Court is expected to rule on Sen. Jorge Lavandero’s immunity from prosecution within two weeks, a decision that could lead to a trial on charges that he sexually abused four children.

Lavandero has maintained his innocence and blamed mining companies and political rivals of conspiring against him to destroy his career. In January, he appealed a decision by the Appeals Court of Temuco, Region IX, that stripped him of the immunity he enjoys as member of Congress (ST, Jan. 28).

The senator’s protestations notwithstanding, the investigation conducted by Public Prosecutor Xavier Armendáriz has gone steadily forward and it appears as though Lavandero will most likely face trial.

In related developments, commentators and politicians were stunned by revelations of a Nov. 20 meeting between National Public Prosecutor Guillermo Piedrabuena and Lavandero. News of the meeting was first published in a Feb. 20 interview in La Tercera and served to undermine public confidence in the independence of the National Prosecutor’s office and the way in which the Lavandero investigation had been conducted.

The original prosecutor in the Lavandero case, Region IX Public Prosecutor Esmirna Vidal, was dismissed from her position by Piedrabuena for allegedly failing to properly pursue complaints against Lavandero. She was replaced by a public prosecutor sent from Santiago - Xavier Armendáriz.

But Vidal has fought her dismissal, claiming she was a scapegoat and that her boss Piedrabuena had been fully informed of the status of her less-than-enthusiastic investigation of Lavandero, a powerful Christian Democratic Party senator.

Vidal and Piedrabuena were in the midst of mutual recriminations when the news of Piedrabuena’s meeting with Lavandero came to light and the revelation did not serve to enhance Piedrabuena’s standing in the dispute.

During the 15-minute interview between the nation’s foremost public prosecutor and the senator, Lavandero supposedly told Piedrabuena he was innocent of all charges. Piedrabuena supposedly told the senator that such matters had to be discussed with Prosecutor Armendáriz, who is in charge of the case and was aware of the interview.

Defending himself after news of the meeting became public, Piedrabuena said, “I think it’s an obligation to accept any request that comes from a senator, because at that time he wasn’t being investigated nor had he lost his immunity, so I thought that it has to do with public relations and I didn’t commit myself to anything.”

Interior Minister José Miguel Insulza criticized the meeting, but he said the matter will be handled by the public prosecutor’s office and the Supreme Court, and the government will not intervene. “Considering the way the public prosecutor has performed, I don’t think the meeting had any effect at all,” Insulza said.

Soledad Alvear, a Christian Democratic Party presidential precandidate for the Concertación coalition, declined to comment at any length on the meeting, saying only, “I wouldn’t have done it.”

But the president of the Supreme Court, Marcos Libedinsky, who also met with Lavandero, defended Piedrabuena, saying, “All authorities have open doors to anyone who, in certain circumstances, wants to talk with them.”

Libedinsky denied that his meeting with Lavandero had to do with sex abuse charges against the senator, and insisted they talked only about the proposed royalty tax on copper.

While waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision, Lavandero has sheltered himself in one of his properties in Carahue, near Temuco, after having had to leave his former property in Metrenco, also in Region IX, which he sold to José Albornoz last month. After learning about the sale of the Metrenco property, a court in Temuco ordered Lavandero to refrain from selling any other property held in his name (ST, Feb. 3).

PINOCHET-ERA INTERIOR MINISTER INDICTED IN CHILE
Action Against UDI Sen. Sergio Fernández Under Consideration

(Feb. 28, 2005) Two former interior ministers – retired Gens. Enrique Montero Marx and César Raúl Benavides – were indicted last week by investigative Judge Juan Guzmán as alleged accomplices to forced disappearances that occurred in Chile during the 1973-1990 military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

The indictments represent a major expansion of Guzmán’s investigation into Pinochet-era human rights abuses, aimed now at the top military and political commanders who allegedly planned and ordered disappearances, or worked to cover them up. Heretofore Guzmán’s investigations had centered on the secret police networks and agents who did the dirty work.

More than 1,200 people disappeared during the Pinochet regime and at least 27,000 people were tortured, according to official government reports.

Guzmán is also weighing a plaintiff’s request to indict a former civilian interior minister during the Pinochet regime, Sergio Fernández, who is currently an elected senator for the rightist Independent Democratic Union (UDI) party. Guzmán is expected to decide on this request Monday.

The expansion of Guzmán’s investigation has political overtones that may well impact this year’s presidential election, where the UDI’s Joaquín Lavín will challenge a candidate from the governing Concertación coalition, an alliance of center-left political parties that has ruled Chile since Pinochet stepped down as head of state in 1990. Lavín – who during the military regime was an editor for El Mercurio newsgroup – and other UDI leaders have loudly denounced Guzmán’s indictments against the former top military officials and have rushed to the defense of Fernández.

Guzmán’s indictment of Montero is especially revealing, inasmuch as Montero has been working the past 22 years as the right-hand man to Agustín Edwards, owner of El Mercurio newsgroup and patriarch of Chile’s conservative media establishment.

Montero, who was second in command at Chile’s Interior Ministry from under Benavides, Interior Minister between 1973 and 1978, and was himself Interior Minister between 1982 and 1983, began working for Edwards just after retiring from the Army in 1983. Montero has an office immediately adjacent to Edwards’ on the third floor of the El Mercurio newspaper building on Avenida Santa Maria, and the two are reportedly inseparable friends.

Montero and Benavides are accused by Guzmán of being accomplices in the disappearance of victims in the so-called Operation Colombo, and Guzmán last week openly condemned El Mercurio for its collaboration with the Pinochet military regime and its “disinformation” campaigns in that era.

The Operation Colombo affair was an especially complex disinformation campaign aimed at convincing the Chilean public that 119 individuals “disappeared” by the military regime had, in fact, left Chile and killed one another in various shoot-outs in Brazil and Argentina.

Family members of each of the 119 victims had presented habeas corpus actions before Chilean courts, alleging the individuals had been illegally detained by the state’s secret police. The courts then asked government authorities – in this case Montero and Benavides – who affirmed that the individuals had not been arrested by state personnel.

In bringing his indictment against the two former military junta leaders, Judge Guzmán alleges that men in their positions “could not have been ignorant of the privation of liberties that was occurring.” Specifically, Montero is charged with complicity in the disappearance of five individuals, and Benavides with the disappearance of 15 individuals.

The Edwards family-owned media – the morning daily El Mercurio and the afternoon tabloid dailies La Segunda and Las Últimas Noticias – allegedly played a key role is promoting the Pinochet regime’s disinformation campaign about the 119 disappeared individuals. An analysis from Sunday’s La Nación put it thusly:

“Operation Colombo was nothing other than an outrageous communications campaign led by the occupants of La Moneda with the intention of covering up the massive human rights violations that were going on, most especially with respect to the disappearance of people. The press of that era played its part impeccably. Thousands of Chileans still have vivid memories of the headline that appeared in the Edwards family’s afternoon daily on July 26, 1975. ‘They died like rats,’ said La Segunda, referring to the 119 individuals that had supposedly killed one another in different internecine power struggles.”

The sophisticated disinformation campaign counted on an international cast of media, including a specially created magazine from Argentina reporting about the deaths of 60 of the disappeared, and Chile’s diplomatic representative in Rio de Janeiro giving Brazilian media another list of 59 individuals who had also supposedly killed one another. These reports from Argentina and Brazil were meticulously reproduced by the Edwards-owned media in Chile – no questions asked.

SOURCE: EL MERCURIO, LA NACIÓN, DIARIO SIETE, LA TERCERA
By Steve Anderson (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

PEHUENCHES TO HELP WITH SENDERO IN CHILE
Chile Indigenous Community Will Oversee 26 km Of Path

(Feb. 11, 2005) Indigenous Pehuenches will be in charge of a 26 km section of the Sendero de Chile (Path of Chile).

Twenty Pehuenches will work at a national reserve in southern Region VIII to open a new route that they hope will attract tourism. The route will be called Rgpagcherrue (“path of the man of the winds” in the indigenous language).

This path has been used by Pehuenche communities for generations, and it goes through the native Araucaria forest and Ralco River waterfalls, said Juan Purrán, one of the leaders of the Pehuenche community.

“This section is very important, and it will remain for the future generations. The good thing is that it will bring some income to the local families,” he said.

Sendero de Chile is an ambitious project announced by President Ricardo Lagos during his first address to the nation in 2000. It aims to open the country’s many rural areas to commercial tourism. The path will stretch 8,000 km and be completed in time for the country’s bicentenary in 2010.

Sendero de Chile intends to promote the protection of natural resources and facilitate access to nature. The project will respect the environmental characteristics of the territory so the people who use it can establish new relationships with nature.

Working together with local communities was more than just a goal of the project, it was a requirement, said Esteban Delgado, general coordinator of Sendero de Chile, in an interview with The Santiago Times.

So far he has worked with Aymaras and Atacameños in Region I, agricultural communities in Region IV and V, and Mapuches in Region VIII and in other southern regions.

This year, the constructors will work in the north in Region II and IV, in the center in the Metropolitan Region and Region VII, and in the south in Regions VIII, IX, XI and XII. Beyond opening new sections, they want to improve the current conditions of those that are ready to be visited by the public.

Delgado said they will focus on achieving standard quality conditions, such as adequate infrastructure and environmental education, to give real options for ecotourism in Chile.

The path not only will cover continental Chile but also the Juan Fernández archipelago.

Robison Crusoe Island includes a submarine section, which provides a place to learn about the value of sea resources. It is rich in sea fauna, and it is also suitable for diving and snorkelling.

The National Environmental Commission (CONAMA), in charge of coordinating the project, has financed seven projects aimed at providing training for local tour guides in English, arts and crafts and environmental issues.

Delgado said the project will encompass Easter Island as well, but the requirements of the Rapa Nui community are different from those of the natives of Robison Crusoe island in the archipelago.

“They are more complex compared to other communities … they have shown interest in doing a submarine section, but they want to gain experience on the terrestrial part of the sendero first,” he said.

Sendero de Chile intends to include local communities, especially indigenous ones, which have been ignored and repressed by the Chilean government for years. The conflict between authorities and the Mapuche communities is among Chile’s oldest and most divisive problems.

The Mapuches, the country’s largest indigenous community, have struggled to recuperate their ancestral land that has been lost in the first days of the Spanish colonization. Governments have consistently repressed the Mapuches, especially through the application of the antiterrorist law, which has caused alarm in many international human rights organizations.

It is hoped that nitiatives such as Sendero de Chile, in which the indigenous communities are allowed to manage their ancestral lands, will go some way towards solving the conflict by acknowledging indigenous peoples as the owners of the disputed land.

SOURCE: EL MERCURIO
By Cristina Cifuentes (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

GUZMAN ISSUES MURDER CHARGES OVER CHILE'S CARAVAN OF DEATH

Eighteen To Face Trial Over 1973 Massacre; Cheyre Hits Back At El Mercurio

(Feb. 10, 2005) Judge Juan Guzmán has brought charges including murder and kidnapping against 18 military officers and officials involved in the “Caravan of Death,” the execution squad that roamed Chile in the wake of the September 1973 coup.

Seven years after initiating the investigation, Guzmán wrapped up the preliminary stage on Tuesday and submitted his summary to the judiciary.

“I am very satisfied,” the judge told reporters. “This investigation has been very efficient (and) has produced far-reaching insight into the matter.”

The Caravan of Death, allegedly personally authorized by Gen. Augusto Pinochet after he swept to power, comprised a group of senior officers that traversed the country in Puma helicopters during September and October 1973, carrying out summary executions of detained supporters of Salvador Allende’s ousted socialist government.

Guzmán now has 20 days to notify the members of that group of the 94 counts of human rights violations he has brought against them.

Human rights lawyer Carmen Hertz, whose husband, lawyer and journalist Carlos Berger, was among the murder squad’s victims, hailed the indictments for “one of the most atrocious massacres of the military regime.”

It was this case that led to the first human rights charges brought against Pinochet in Chile, where he returned after two years under house arrest in Britain. Between August 2000 and January 2001, the ex-dictator was stripped of immunity from prosecution, charged and detained for 57 counts of murder and 19 of aggravated kidnapping.

But the case was scuppered when the Supreme Court ruled in July 2001 that the octogenarian general was mentally unfit to stand trial.

Among the accused are former National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) agent Armando Fernández Larios, the mastermind behind the 1976 assassination in Washington, D.C., of Allende’s Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, Carlos López Tapia, Guzmán’s cousin, and agent Col. Marcelo Moren Brito, already serving a 10-year sentence at the Cordillera Prison for abduction.

Retired Gen. Sergio Arellano Stark was indicted as the caravan’s chief.

“The judge should be sanctioned,” said Sergio Arellano Iturriga, the general’s son, alleging that Guzmán, a veteran of the human rights circuit, was “incompetent and slanted.” He said the judge had refused to supply documents to the defense and had hurriedly wound up the investigation.

Guzmán had good reason to hasten the end of the preliminary stage.

Last month, the Supreme Court issued a controversial order that all pending human rights cases stemming from the military’s 17-year rule must be brought to fruition or be dismissed within six months (ST, Jan. 26).

That decision, vilified by victims’ families as an effective amnesty for many abusers, has nonetheless prompted a swathe of submissions in human rights cases.

Most recently, prosecutors filed Monday for Pinochet to be stripped of his immunity to answer for the massacre of 119 dissidents in 1975 as part of Operation Colombo (ST, Feb. 8). On Tuesday, Guzmán, who also heads that investigation, accepted attorney Hernán Quezada’s request. The Santiago Appeals court will shortly decide whether to uphold his decision.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Guzmán thanked the Chilean Army for its cooperation in his investigations, fueling the vitriol of those on the Chilean right who say the military has abandoned its former sons.

The principle target for such criticism has been the Army’s commander in chief, Gen. Juan Emilio Cheyre.

In a letter to El Mercurio published Tuesday, Cheyre hit back at an editorial in which the paper opined that the armed forces “have ended up seeing history the way it is written by their adversaries and have, for reasons of convenience or pusillanimity, switched sides.”

The paper mocked the Army’s “lukewarm reaction” to the recent conviction of five former senior officers – including DINA chief Gen. Manuel Contreras – who were pelted with eggs and coins as they arrived at court to hear their sentences (ST, Jan. 31).

“How would El Mercurio wish the Army of Chile to act?” asked Cheyre in his letter. “To endorse the disrespecting of judicial decisions? To act as a pressure group against the state and other authorities? To use the Army, entrusted by society with the defense of Chile, in actions of force of whatever grade or nature?”

His duty as chief of staff, he wrote, was to ensure that “every Chilean has the security of counting on an Army committed to upholding constitutional order.”

SOURCE: LA TERCERA, EL MERCURIO, LA NACIÓN, RADIO COOPERATIVA
By Tom Burgis (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

CHILE FORESTRY GIANT STUNG BY CONTINUED CLOSURE OF ITS US$1.5 BILLION PLANT

Greenpeace Hails Further ‘Victory For Citizenry’

(Feb. 9, 2005) Celulosa Valdivia, the flagship plant of Chile’s largest forestry corporation, will remain closed after authorities in Region X found it had failed to rectify numerous breeches of environmental regulations.

The executive committee of the Regional Environmental Commission (COREMA) rejected an application from the plant’s management to have the closure order lifted. The order was handed down Jan. 18 and is costing the company US$1 million a day in lost revenue (ST, Jan. 19).

The report filed by the company last week did not contain sufficient guarantees that the plant would comply with norms in the future, said Jorge Vives, the president of COREMA, at a press conference Tuesday evening.

An inspection by the Operative Regulation Committee (COF) also found that the plant had not done enough to correct the 19 operational breeches detected in an earlier inspection on Jan. 13 that led to the closure order.

“This is fantastic news,” said Gonzalo Villarino, head of Greenpeace Chile, one of the member organizations of the Coordination for the Protection of the River Cruces Nature Sanctuary.

“The government is finally upholding the rule of law. This is a victory for the citizenry, which forced the government to act. It is a victory for the future,” Villarino told The Santiago Times.

The Coordination and Valdivian citizens groups stung the government into action with a series of protests against the US$1.2 billion plant in Valdivia and Santiago (ST, Jan. 14). It claims waste from the plant is responsible for the devastation of rare black-necked swans in the Carlos Andwanter Nature Sanctuary 10 km from the plant. Independent research also found that 400 people in nearby San José de la Mariquina had symptoms of chemical contamination, 100 of whom were critically ill.

But a preliminary study by the Universidad Austral found no causal link between the plant’s dumping of waste water in the Cruces River and the contamination of the waterways.

COREMA’s inspectors did find that the plant, which makes wood pulp for paper, was exceeding production limits by about 60 percent and that it was using an illegally fitted waste duct.

Vives said more concrete measures were now needed to ensure that the plant, which has been closed twice and fined four times in its year of operation, begins to comply with the rubrics of the Resolution on Environmental Qualification (RCA).

The plant will not be allowed to reopen until a team of external auditors is in place to monitor its compliance with regulations, a clear procedure to deal with further breeches of norms is drawn up, and a duct illegally used to extract subterranean water is removed.

Daily and monthly production quotas will replace the current annual quota of 550,000 tons.

A statement issued by COREMA suggests that its patience with the serially offending plant is wearing thin:

“In relation to the subterranean waters (illegally used by the plant), the company promised not to use them and to become certified by way of an audit. But, in the opinion of the authorities, a more effective guarantee is required.”

Alejandro Peréz, the general manager at Celulosa Arauco y Constitución (Celco), declined to comment Tuesday night.

Dep. Alejandro Navarro, the head of the Chamber of Deputies’ Environmental Commission, has repeatedly called on Peréz to resign for “betraying public trust” (ST, Jan. 20).

The prolonged closure may assuage environmentalists’ fears that the initial sanction was no more than a publicity stunt orchestrated in the face of increasingly hostile public opinion at home and abroad.

There was outrage when it emerged that Anacleto Angelini, the billionaire owner of Celco and a beneficiary of the shotgun privatizations of the Pinochet military government, had been privately informed of the closure in advance by President Ricardo Lagos.

It seems Angelini’s clout – he is a major political backer and the kingpin of Chilean forestry – has proved insufficient, especially with the government facing stern tests of its environmental resolve by observers from the Organization of Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), a club of 30 of the world’s richest nations to which Chile aspires.

No date has yet been set for COREMA’s next discussion on Celulosa Valdivia’s fate, but green groups say the fight is far from over.

“We will go on campaigning until the plant is closed once and for all,” Villarino said.

By Tom Burgis (editor@santiagotimes.cl)Victor Henriquez-->

(Feb. 8, 2005) Chile’s economy performed even better than the high expectations set for it – it grew 5.9 percent in 2004, the highest rate since 1997, according to figures released Monday by the Central Bank.

The country’s rapid growth is mostly based on China’s enduring demand for copper, Chile’s largest and most important export. China bought so much copper in 2004 that it depleted worldwide supplies of the metal and drove up its price on metal markets.

Those high prices meant copper companies here could make much more money for the same product they’ve been selling all along. Copper prices surged 26 percent last year, boosting profits to private mining companies and state-run Codelco.

And the growth is not showing any sign of slowing down.

In December, the economy grew by 7.7 percent compared to the same month in 2003, which exceeds the predictions of 7.4 percent expected by analysts, according to the Monthly Economic Activity Index (Imacec). November’s growth was 7.5 percent.

“Everything seems to indicate that the pace of growth we have will be maintained,” said Budget Director Mario Marcel.

The Central Bank said last month that 2005’s growth could reach 6.25 percent. Growth was only 3.3 percent in 2003.

Exports in January rose 37 percent to US$2.97 billion, up from US$2.17 billion the year before. On the year, exports jumped 52 percent to US$32 billion from US$21 billion in 2003, according to the Central Bank (ST, Jan. 10).

Chile will likely outpace the rest of Latin America, which is expected to expand at an average rate of 4 percent in 2005, the United Nations said in December.

“We are going to see another increase at the close of 2005, given all the positive predictions we have in so many distinct sectors,” said economist Michelle Labbé.

But Labbé warned that the country still faces many challenges, such as diversifying its economy so it has greater flexibility and reducing the unemployment rate.

“Nothing has changed. There was nothing done in the way of labor flexibility, and the results are being seen: the unemployment rate continues to be high,” Labbé said.

Chile’s present may be bright, but it needs to expand into other industries to prepare for a future when it can’t depend on copper for most of its revenues, economists say.

Overall copper exports to China, the world’s biggest buyer of copper, skyrocketed 70 percent to US$3.2 billion in 2004. Copper made up 44.8 percent of Chile’s total exports last year, compared to 35.6 percent in 2003, according to the Central Bank (ST, Jan. 27).

The price of copper is expected to fluctuate between US$1.16 and US$1.20 per pound this year after averaging US$1.31 a pound in 2004, according to the Chilean Copper Commission (ST, Feb. 1).

But some officials say the economy isn’t solely dependent on copper exports. Industries such as construction, commercial sales and manufacturing also did well in 2004.

“All the sectors of the economy are increasing and not just exports,” said Marcel. “There is no risk of overheating the economy. Inflation is under control and I don’t see any important warnings of disequilibrium in any part of economic activity.”

The good news on the economy was expected since December, but no one knew exactly how good it would be. In the beginning of January, Finance Minister Nicolás Eyzaguirre proclaimed that Chile’s hard economic times are over, and the country is entering a new age of prosperity (ST, Jan. 3).

A deputy spokesman for the Chilean government, Patricio Santamaría, echoed Eyzaguirre in comparing the growing economy to the Old Testament story of seven years of hardship and “skinny cows” followed by seven years of prosperity.

“The sense is that this is the end of the period of skinny cows. Also, the sum of a series of other indexes that have shown that internal demand … has also increased gives us confidence in businesses. We believe that we are going in a very good direction,” Santamaría said.

Another recent survey by English consulting company Consensus Economics predicts that Chile will be the fastest growing economy in Latin America in 2006 with a 5.1 percent growth rate (ST, Jan. 25). The study, based on a survey of 21 financial agents in Chile and abroad, also said the country’s growth will exceed the average growth of countries in Europe, North America and Asia.

Economist Franco Farisi said the rising growth figures will help bring investment and additional business to the country.

“This is very good news, and it is explained especially by the strong recovery that we have had in internal demand, that is to say that we are consuming all that is produced by Chileans,” he said.

SOURCE: RADIO COOPERATIVA, LA NACIÓN, EL MERCURIO, BLOOMBERG
By Mark Niesse (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

CHILE ECONOMY BEATS FORECASTS
No End In Sight For Growth

(Feb. 8, 2005) Chile’s economy performed even better than the high expectations set for it – it grew 5.9 percent in 2004, the highest rate since 1997, according to figures released Monday by the Central Bank.

The country’s rapid growth is mostly based on China’s enduring demand for copper, Chile’s largest and most important export. China bought so much copper in 2004 that it depleted worldwide supplies of the metal and drove up its price on metal markets.

Those high prices meant copper companies here could make much more money for the same product they’ve been selling all along. Copper prices surged 26 percent last year, boosting profits to private mining companies and state-run Codelco.

And the growth is not showing any sign of slowing down.

In December, the economy grew by 7.7 percent compared to the same month in 2003, which exceeds the predictions of 7.4 percent expected by analysts, according to the Monthly Economic Activity Index (Imacec). November’s growth was 7.5 percent.

“Everything seems to indicate that the pace of growth we have will be maintained,” said Budget Director Mario Marcel.

The Central Bank said last month that 2005’s growth could reach 6.25 percent. Growth was only 3.3 percent in 2003.

Exports in January rose 37 percent to US$2.97 billion, up from US$2.17 billion the year before. On the year, exports jumped 52 percent to US$32 billion from US$21 billion in 2003, according to the Central Bank (ST, Jan. 10).

Chile will likely outpace the rest of Latin America, which is expected to expand at an average rate of 4 percent in 2005, the United Nations said in December.

“We are going to see another increase at the close of 2005, given all the positive predictions we have in so many distinct sectors,” said economist Michelle Labbé.

But Labbé warned that the country still faces many challenges, such as diversifying its economy so it has greater flexibility and reducing the unemployment rate.

“Nothing has changed. There was nothing done in the way of labor flexibility, and the results are being seen: the unemployment rate continues to be high,” Labbé said.

Chile’s present may be bright, but it needs to expand into other industries to prepare for a future when it can’t depend on copper for most of its revenues, economists say.

Overall copper exports to China, the world’s biggest buyer of copper, skyrocketed 70 percent to US$3.2 billion in 2004. Copper made up 44.8 percent of Chile’s total exports last year, compared to 35.6 percent in 2003, according to the Central Bank (ST, Jan. 27).

The price of copper is expected to fluctuate between US$1.16 and US$1.20 per pound this year after averaging US$1.31 a pound in 2004, according to the Chilean Copper Commission (ST, Feb. 1).

But some officials say the economy isn’t solely dependent on copper exports. Industries such as construction, commercial sales and manufacturing also did well in 2004.

“All the sectors of the economy are increasing and not just exports,” said Marcel. “There is no risk of overheating the economy. Inflation is under control and I don’t see any important warnings of disequilibrium in any part of economic activity.”

The good news on the economy was expected since December, but no one knew exactly how good it would be. In the beginning of January, Finance Minister Nicolás Eyzaguirre proclaimed that Chile’s hard economic times are over, and the country is entering a new age of prosperity (ST, Jan. 3).

A deputy spokesman for the Chilean government, Patricio Santamaría, echoed Eyzaguirre in comparing the growing economy to the Old Testament story of seven years of hardship and “skinny cows” followed by seven years of prosperity.

“The sense is that this is the end of the period of skinny cows. Also, the sum of a series of other indexes that have shown that internal demand … has also increased gives us confidence in businesses. We believe that we are going in a very good direction,” Santamaría said.

Another recent survey by English consulting company Consensus Economics predicts that Chile will be the fastest growing economy in Latin America in 2006 with a 5.1 percent growth rate (ST, Jan. 25). The study, based on a survey of 21 financial agents in Chile and abroad, also said the country’s growth will exceed the average growth of countries in Europe, North America and Asia.

Economist Franco Farisi said the rising growth figures will help bring investment and additional business to the country.

“This is very good news, and it is explained especially by the strong recovery that we have had in internal demand, that is to say that we are consuming all that is produced by Chileans,” he said.

SOURCE: RADIO COOPERATIVA, LA NACIÓN, EL MERCURIO, BLOOMBERG
By Mark Niesse (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

PINOCHET OFFERS HIDDEN MILLIONS TO REPAY CHILE TREASURY

President Of Banco De Chile Steps Down

(Feb. 7, 2005) Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s defense is seeking permission to use money from his notorious Riggs Bank accounts to repay US$5 million to the Chilean Tax Service (SII).

Fernando Barros, one of the ex-dictator’s defense lawyers, met with SII executives Thursday to discuss repayments of around US$5 million owed by the ex-senator in unpaid taxes, interest and fines, La Tercera reported.

SII sources, quoted by Radio Cooperativa, vigorously denied the claims, insisting that no deal had been struck.

A criminal complaint filed by the SII on Sept. 30 against Pinochet and his executor, Oscar Aitken, claimed they dodged around US$4 million in taxes from 1998 to 2003 (ST, Oct. 4, 2004).

In July, following the discovery of Pinochet’s secret accounts held at Washington, D.C.-based bank Riggs, Pinochet’s defense, family and supporters unanimously denied that the ex-president had hidden the extent of his fortune from the SII to avoid tax payments.

But now it has been revealed that the money in his Riggs Bank accounts, which at one point amounted to around US$8 million, was never included in his annual tax declarations.

Judge Sergio Muñoz – who has temporarily relinquished his handling of the case to substitute Judge Dobra Lusic – is investigating the SII’s allegations. As part of the inquiry into the general’s private finances, Muñoz is also investigating charges of money laundering and misuse of public funds.

If Pinochet’s defense team comes to an agreement with the SII and successfully makes the payments, they will have effectively quashed Muñoz’s principal line of enquiry because the other allegations of money laundering and misuse of public funds are proving harder to substantiate.

Furthermore, if Pinochet repays the money he owes to the state in full, it would be viewed as a “goodwill gesture” and could result in a reduced sentence.

In repaying the tax, Pinochet would simply be exercising his legal rights. According to Chilean law, “every citizen can demand that their tax declarations be revised,” a statement confirmed recently by the SII.

“The SII filed a criminal complaint for tax evasion, and like any other person in Chile that this happens to, (Pinochet) can make a repayment whenever convenient,” one of Pinochet’s family members anonymously told La Tercera.

But the central issue in this investigation is that Pinochet does not have access to the US$6.5 million from his Riggs accounts. Before Pinochet can repay his taxes, Muñoz has to lift the embargo on the general’s funds that have been under judicial control since the case began.

A lawyer from the State Defense Council (CDE) told La Tercera it is unlikely that Muñoz will accept the agreement because the judge “can’t participate in the (repayment) negotiations, they don’t contribute anything to his investigation, and he would lose control of the money that he has been safeguarding.”

Muñoz would also have to investigate where the money came from to establish if it is the product of criminal activity. “While this is not clear, he can’t free up Pinochet’s funds,” the same source said.

Some have doubts that Pinochet’s savings will be sufficient to repay the SII. On top of the US$4 million owed in retroactive tax, Pinochet owes around US$300,000 in interest. In addition, fines could be anything “between 50 percent to 300 percent of the amount due,” according to the Tributary Code.

What’s more, if Muñoz lifts the embargo, Pinochet “would also be liable for further taxes due on new revenue,” said a source related to the case.

Nevertheless, Pinochet’s defense requested that Muñoz lift the embargo on the general’s funds in December. The petition was denied by the judge and is now being reconsidered by the Santiago Appeals Court.

Sources say that Pinochet’s lawyers are confident the Appeals Court will allow the retroactive tax payments. If this does not happen, the matter will be decided by the Supreme Court.

If Pinochet’s funds are made available to him so he can pay his tax debts, it will mark a first in Chilean legal history.

In a similar case in 1997, Mario Silva Leiva, or “Cabro Carrera” – the supposed head of Chile’s largest ever narcotics trafficking and money laundering ring – also sought to have his assets reinstated so he could pay back taxes. But his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court.

While negotiations between Pinochet’s defense and the SII continue, Muñoz is also investigating whether Pinochet used his Banco de Chile accounts to transfer up to US$16 million when he closed his Riggs Bank accounts in 2002 (ST, Jan. 24).

The bank is being investigated in the U.S. for not having complied with the Patriot Act, which demands that banks keep a list of accounts held by politically exposed persons and report any suspicious activity.

Bank executives claim they were unaware that the accounts belonged to Pinochet because they were held under pseudonyms. Despite the closure of Pinochet’s accounts, both in the United States and Chile, the ex-generalissimo’s finances continue to cause problems at the bank (ST, Feb. 3).

Following the dismissal of Hernán Donoso Lira, the general manager of Banco de Chile’s New York branch, Segismundo Schulin-Zeuthen, the bank’s president, has announced he will not stand for another term.

The president, who will relinquish his role March 17, has been involved with the bank for nearly 20 years.

“It was always agreed that I would cease to be president in March 2005,” said Schulin-Zeuthen.

But some believe that he is leaving due to the recent scandal, as it is surprising that he should choose to step down after the bank obtained record results last year.

It is likely that Fernando Cañas, former general manager of Banco O’Higgins and Banco Santiago, will be elected as president in March.

Banco de Chile is awaiting the ruling of a U.S. regulatory board to see if it will be fined.

SOURCE: EL MERCURIO, LA TERCERA, RADIO COOPERATIVA By Emily Byrne (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

SHARP INCREASE IN CHILE PESTICIDE POISONINGS
Pesticide Poisonings Could Threaten Agriculture Exports

(Feb. 4, 2005) There were 285 victims of pesticide-related poisoning in November and December of 2004, nearly three times as many as in 2003, according to the Health Ministry.

The 132 poisonings recorded in December more than tripled World Health Organization (WHO) estimates and more than doubled the Health Ministry’s most pessimistic forecasts.

Dep. Adriana Muñoz of the Party for Democracy (PPD) denounced the number of pesticide accidents in 2004, saying the two fatalities and 568 intoxications were unacceptable. Although January’s statistics have not yet been released, specialists predict that the worrying trend will continue.

The sharp rise in the number of known cases is partly due to new regulations, which took effect in October, making it compulsory to notify the Health Ministry of pesticide-related poisonings within 48 hours.

The ministry suspects some employers were concealing cases of chemical poisoning prior to the ruling, given the high number of temporary workers, the majority of whom have no employment contract and some of whom may be working illegally.

A joint Agricultural and Labor Ministry initiative hopes to put an end to such practices. “Job Done, Contract Signed,” launched last month, aims to encourage informal workers to refuse to do jobs where they will not be protected by an employment contract.

“The important issue is to implement better standards and working conditions more quickly, with particular focus on the health of agricultural workers,” said Labor Minister Ricardo Solari.

About 5,200 agricultural workplaces will be subjected to a Labor Ministry inspection before the end of 2005 to ascertain whether safety standards are being met. In addition, the Heath Ministry will carry out 2,000 inspections to ensure agricultural workers’ health is not being jeopardized.

It is hoped that the findings of the inspections will push the government to introduce new legislation regulating the use of herbicides and pesticides.

Muñoz said any such law should also restrict where fumigation can take place to avoid repeats of a 2003 incident where 30 children suffered chemical poisoning after an aerial fumigation near their school (ST, Oct. 29, 2003).

But the real battle is to persuade agricultural firms and pesticide producers to adhere to any new government initiatives.
“The frequency of these pesticide accidents show that (companies) are not complying with any of the current laws because fines are very low,” said María Elena Rozas, regional coordinator of the Latin American Network for Action to find Alternatives to Pesticides (RAP-AL).

Given that the 10 main producers of agricultural materials control 84 percent of the world market and saw total sales of around US$3 billion in 2000, small fines are not a big enough threat.

Confronted with the economic power that these multinationals wield, the pesticide problem has become a development issue. Poorer nations forced to relax regulations governing the use of pesticides and choose cheaper but are potentially harmful products.

The three most-used pesticides in Chile – Folpet, Linuron and Carbaril – are banned in Malaysia, Norway and Jordan respectively. Three other pesticides, Aclonifen, Metidation and Teflutrina, are only classified as moderately harmful substances in Chile, despite their WHO classification as highly dangerous.

Given lax regulation of pesticide use in the developing world, it is not surprising that statisticians from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization found that 99 percent of cases of pesticide-related poisoning occur in developing countries.
Rozas said Chilean authorities should ensure tighter controls on the use of pesticides that can cause health problems.

“Many products can affect the reproductive system, while others, such as teratogenic pesticides that are still being used, can cause cancer or congenital deformities,” she said.

Rozas added that Chile should be especially cautious because of its important agricultural export market.

Chile’s agricultural exports have been put under international scrutiny twice in recent years when traces of pesticides were found on Chilean-exported apples and grapes. The levels of pesticides found on the fruits, which had been exported to Germany, exceeded European Union limits.

Chile’s potential export market has grown enormously in past months after trade agreements were signed with India, Japan and Italy. But if Chile’s agricultural industry is to take advantage of this expansion, pesticide regulations will have to be improved to comply with international standards.

But the main concern for the moment is the safety of Chile’s agricultural workers. Agricultural Minister Jaime Campos is optimistic that agricultural firms will begin to address safety issues soon.

“Every day farmers are realizing that to sustain the agricultural industry, they must take note of social and environmental concerns and not only financial issues,” he said.

SOURCE: LA NACIóN By Emily Byrne (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

CONTRERAS PENS WILL, LAWYERS ATTACK CHILE JUDGE

Secret Will Of Gun-Toting Mamo Exposed


(Feb. 3, 2005) Manuel Contreras, the military government’s secret police chief, made secret arrangements to dispose of his wealth prior to his transfer to the Cordillera Prison to begin a 12-year term, La Nación revealed. In an exclusive, the state-owned daily reported the contents of a copy of a letter it had obtained signed by Contreras, in which the retired general and convicted murderer instructed Julio Tapia Falk, a former colonel and adviser to Augusto Pinochet’s junta, to take charge of his finances in the event of his death. The will, dated Jan. 25, three days before Contreras began his sentence for the 1975 kidnapping of leftist activist Miguel Ángel Sandoval, requests that Tapia divide his assets – 21,400,000 pesos (US$35,000) and a further US$35,000 – between his wife, Nélida Gutiérrez Rivera, and his daughter and son from a previous marriage. The document adds fuel to the notion that Contreras, who pulled a gun when detectives arrived at his house to take him to his notification hearing on Friday, thought that day might be his last. Adding to the ever-lengthening charge sheet against him, the Group of Families of the Politically Executed (AFEP) filed a criminal suit that the gun – a registered Walther 7 mm, James Bond’s weapon of choice – constitutes an offensive weapon in the hands of the man convicted of the 1976 car bomb murder of former Foreign Affairs Minister Orlando Letelier. Lawyers for the AFEP submitted the suit to the 27th Bench of the Criminal Court of Santiago, citing a psychiatric report that detected in the general “a strong subjugation of ethical and moral limits to the desired end, an overweening ego by which he considers those beneath him as mere instruments, and other characteristics that demonstrate his dangerousness and readiness to use violence illegally.” The government has hit back at claims in a leaked letter from senior Army officers claiming that security surrounding the notification hearings for convicted DINA agents was lax. The letter, which appeared in evening daily La Segunda hours before it was delivered to the defense minister, questioned why crowds were able to get close enough to Contreras to pelt him with eggs, tomatoes, coins and insults as he was rushed into Santiago’s central court. The government “does not enjoy finding out the opinion of an Army commander through the press,” said a clearly displeased Francisco Vidal, the government spokesman. He was at pains to clarify that the letter, signed by Chief Commandant Javier Urbina, was not a formal complaint but a recommendation that, in the future, the block surrounding the court should be sealed off. Such a measure would prevent scenes such as those seen Friday, when demonstrators thronged to denounce as “assassins” Gen. Contreras, Brig. Miguel Krassnoff, Col. Marcelo Moren Brito, Lt. Col. Gerardo Godoy of the Carabineros and Brig. Fernando Laureani. The five men were brought to the court under heavy police escort to hear sentences of between five and 12 years from Judge Alejandro Solís for the kidnapping of 26-year-old dissident Sandoval two years after the putsch in which Pinochet seized power (ST, Jan. 31). All five were members of DINA, the bulldog of the Pinochet dictatorship. The letter suggests vacillation on the part of Uribe and Army high command, which only a day earlier had distanced themselves from Contreras, 75, a retired general who has been out of favor in military circles since 1980. Over the weekend, the Army issued a statement in which it described Contreras’ repeated allegations of treachery against Army chief Gen. Juan Emilio Cheyre, Urbina and Col. Maurice Laree as “absolutely unjust and offensive.” What friends that Contreras – once the most feared man in Chile and known as “Mamo” – still had after his fifth human rights conviction, he is losing rapidly. Other senior officers called his attempts to shift blame onto Pinochet “weak.” Contreras’ lawyer hit back with two further complaints against Solís. Having already asked the Supreme Court to examine the procedure by which the judge ordered his client’s detention, Juan Carlos Manns filed two motions Tuesday – one to the Supreme Court, the other to the Santiago Appeals Court – arguing that the decision to order the “frail” Contreras to appear in person despite the mass protests at the court endangered his health. Manns requested that Solís be relieved of the several high-profile human rights cases he is handling. Among those cases is the assassination in Buenos Aires in 1974 of Carlos Prats, Pinochet’s predecessor as chief-of-staff, and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert. Solís is currently in the United States gathering evidence for a prosecution of the DINA agents believed to have carried out the attack (ST, Feb. 2). Should his efforts come to fruition, Contreras could find himself in the dock again, possibly accompanied by Pinochet, to whom he was once an invaluable ally but who he now accuses of “deserting” him. SOURCE: LA NACIÓN, EL MERCURIO, LA TERCERA, LA SEGUNDABy Tom Burgis (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

CHILE'S INSULA BIDS FOR OAS THRONE

(Feb. 2, 2005) Chile’s Interior Minister José Miguel Insulza has embarked on a trip to gather support for his candidacy for the top job at the Organization of American States (OAS).

Insulza addressed the OAS permanent council Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and presented his platform to lead the organization. He stressed the importance of the promotion of democracy, human rights, development and security across the Americas, and said the 34 OAS countries have to be driven by the common desire to rise to the challenges of the globalized world.

“If we extensively discuss the present and future of the OAS and create consensus that will help overcome a mistaken sense of irrelevance that damages our hemispheric effort, we can transform this crisis into an opportunity,” said Insulza, referring to the temporary lack of leadership of the OAS.

Since Miguel Ángel Rodríguez resigned as secretary-general in October amid allegations of corruption during his 1998-2002 presidential term in Costa Rica (ST, Oct. 14, 2004), Assistant Secretary General Luigi Einaudi, from the United States, has held the fort.

Insulza pointed out that the OAS can play an important role within the region only if its member states and its leaders are capable of tuning in to the new reality surrounding the organization.

“We have to recognize realistically that at times we set our agenda on themes that are not the most urgent for our peoples,” he said. “We have to continue giving priority to democracy, human rights, security and development, but we also have to tackle the concrete problems that our peoples have been suffering from for decades and that we haven’t been able to solve yet.”

During his 30-minute speech, Insulza also voiced his concern regarding the deterioration of support for democracy shown by a 2004 report by the Latinobarometro organization (ST, Aug. 16, 2004).“The Achilles’ heel of democracy is in governability,” he said. “The OAS has to stay on the alert for any attempts to subvert or bring down the democratic order of any of its member states.”

The Chilean interior minister also referred to his experience in foreign affairs, saying he wished to dedicate himself to the OAS, “an organization that has a calling for the realization of the shared values in the hemisphere and the negotiation of the rules that will lead the world in the future.”

Insulza, who is called “La Moneda’s panzer” by the Chilean press, worked as political adviser to the foreign affairs ministry in Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government and foreign affairs minister under Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1994-1999). He has been interior minister since March 2000.

He is the only South American running for the OAS; his opponents are Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez and El Salvador’s former President Francisco Flores. The United States has backed Flores, saying that the leadership should remain within Central America.

Insulza, who on Monday gave a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center think-tank, rehearsed parts of his OAS platform and said that if he were to win, there would be no trouble with the United States.“The United States, like any other country, has to vote for someone,” he said in an interview with CNN. “I hope that this (the backing of Flores) does not mean a rejection of my candidacy … on the contrary, I have been guaranteed cooperation should I be elected.”

The White House is also pushing for elections to take place by the end of the month. If this were the case, Insulza would not have enough support. A candidate must receive 18 votes to be elected, but the Chilean has so far only received support from Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Uruguay’s President elect Tabaré Vazquéz, who will start his term on March 1.“I don’t think it would be good to anticipate the elections, since the Caribbean hasn’t made up its mind yet,” Insulza said.

Insulza and other Chilean officials are concentrating their efforts in the Caribbean. The 14 members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have not yet chosen who to support.

On Tuesday, the Chilean panzer met for lunch with the 14 CARICOM ambassadors to the OAS before flying to Jamaica, the first of eight Caribbean nations he will visit in the coming days.

Meanwhile, Chilean Education Minister Sergio Bitar is in Haiti and on Tuesday met with the prime minister of the interim government, Gerard Latortue, to lobby for Insulza’s candidacy.Chile has been one of the most active countries in the peacekeeping efforts on the troubled island state since March 2004, when former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected head-of-state, left the country and went into exile after months of violent unrest (ST, March 3, 2004).

Chilean President Ricardo Lagos is also expected to travel to the Caribbean later this month to lobby for Insulza at a meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to be held in Guyana Feb. 19.