Chile's Supreme Court Wednesday removed the last legal obstacle to building a giant 2.9 billion dollars hydroelectric complex in the Patagonian wilderness, rejecting a bid by environmentalists to block it.
It is a well known and admitted fact that the Chilean regime of General Augusto Pinochet provided very useful intelligence to the British effort to recover the occupied Falkland Islands in 1982.
Colombia has consistently supported Bolivia in its mission to reclaim a passage to the Pacific Ocean and the country reiterated its support last week during a meeting between the two heads of state in Bogotá.
Chilean Minister of Economy Pablo Longueira announced on Sunday that Punta Arenas in the extreme south of the country which recently suffered a barrage of flash floods will be declared “catastrophe zone”.
President Cristina Fernandez underlined the brotherhood between Argentina and Chile which she described as ‘unalterable’, particularly since both countries are now living under full democracies. She also thanked Chilean support for Argentine claim over the Malvinas and said that the sovereignty dispute has as a crucial element the need to protect the continent’s natural resources.
Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne and Chilean Foreign Affairs Minister Alfredo Moreno agreed to respect their legitimate differences regarding the Argentine/UK dispute over the Falklands’ sovereignty but also emphasized the Chilean (and other Mercosur members) position contrary to an economic blockade of the Islands or isolating its population.
Three plaques remembering prominent explorers of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Discovery, who used the Chilean port of Punta Arenas as their home base when carrying out Antarctic explorations, have been unveiled at the entrance to the Arturo Prat port terminal in downtown Punta Arenas.
Sunday rains and flash floods in Punta Arenas, extreme south of Chile have left an estimated 800 people homeless forcing the city to close schools while the local chapter of the National Emergency office, Onemi, raised the alarm level from orange (moderate) to red (maximum).
Increasing common infrastructure projects such as tunnels and border crossings between Chile and Argentina will be the main motive of this week’s presidential summit between Sebastian Piñera and Cristina Fernandez.
United Kingdom’s Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne on a two-day visit to Chile criticized what he called the “economic blockade” to the Falklands Islands by saying it “wasn’t right” and again reaffirmed the right of self determination for the Islanders.