MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile president pushes social agenda

President Michelle Bachelet said yesterday that Chile will use some of the billions of dollars from its booming copper exports to advance her social agenda, creating 130,000 jobs while investing in health, housing and education.

In her first state-of-the nation address, Chile's first female president said the big spending plans did not mean the government will abandon its fiscal discipline. She vowed to maintain annual budget surpluses of at least one percent of gross domestic product.

Addressing Congress in the port city of Valparaíso, Bachelet also promised to seek ??truth and justice'' for the human rights violations during the 1973-90 military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, including the fate of hundreds of dissidents who remain unaccounted. ??We will never stop searching for them,'' said Bachelet, whose father died as a political prisoner.

As Bachelet spoke, police used tear gas and water cannons to scatter scores of masked demonstrators who threw rocks and destroyed traffic lights at a plaza a few blocks from the Congress building.

Police arrested at least 35 protesters, according to deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe. He said the protesters, whose demands were not immediately clear, infiltrated a peaceful march organized by the Communist Party.

Bachelet, who took office March 11, announced a one-time 35 dollar grant to some 1.2 million Chilean families with low income.

Bachelet gave no figures on her social-spending plans but she has cash to work with; income from copper exports was 3 billion dollars more than expected during the first quarter of the year.

Chile is the world's largest copper exporter, and the price of the metal has posted unprecedented price gains this year, topping four dollars a pound.

Part of the additional income will be used to build two hospitals and provide modern equipment to others. The government is also building nursery schools throughout Chile and financing scholarships for poor students and housing projects.

But Bachelet promised strict fiscal discipline. ??Latin American history shows too many periods of economic bonanza that ended in crisis,'' she said.

The Socialist pediatrician also said her government will work to erase continued discrimination against women in Chilean society, which include having women pay higher rates for medical insurance during their childbearing years and receiving lower salaries than men for the same work.(BAH)