Lawmaker Ivan Moreira from the ruling coalition junior partner UDI said that Chile should not get involved in the Falklands/Malvinas issue which has to be addressed between Argentina and the UK, and recalled that Chile has its own problem with the coming International Court of Justice dispute with neighbouring Peru.
“We are well aware that Chile has a different position to us regarding the Falklands and this we understand, but it must be the Islanders who determine their political future, not London, not Buenos Aires or third countries”, said UK ambassador in Chile Jon Benjamin in an interview with the Chilean media.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Argentine president Cristina Fernandez are expected to visit Chile in the near future as pressure mounts on the conservative government of President Sebastian Piñera because of the ongoing UK/Argentina diplomatic dispute over the Faklands/Malvinas issue.
“Chile’s support to Argentina’s claim over the Malvinas Islands is a state policy for our country” said Chilean Executive secretary Andres Chadwick, but it does not mean any impediment to that “very special relation we have with the UK”.
Police were investigating a criminal gang that allegedly stole blocks of ice from the Jorge Montt Glacier in southern Chile.
Chile’s unemployment rate unexpectedly declined in the three months through December to 6.6% from 7.1% as the retail, mining and construction industries expanded, the National Statistics Institute said on Tuesday. The situation according to economists is close to “full employment”.
Wood chip exports from Latin America are on track to reach a record high of almost eight million tons in 2011, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly. This would be an increase of 7% from last year and of almost 60% higher than in 2006.
Jack mackerel stocks have plummeted from an estimated 30 million tons to less than 3 million in 20 years. An eight-country investigation of the fishing industry in the southern Pacific by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) shows that this phenomenon foreshadows progressive collapse of fish populations across the world's oceans.
Chile has emerged as the most globalized economy in Latin America and moved up to 25th place in the world, according to global consulting firm Ernst & Young. Chile is among the countries to improve their position despite global economic uncertainty, the firm’s annual Globalization Index found.
With President Sebastián Piñera signature at a ceremony in the Presidential Palace, Chile joined a community of nations in which all eligible voters are automatically registered to vote.