MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bachelet celebrates epic events of Chilean history in Argentina

Pte. Michelle Bachelet arriving at Bs. Aires airport

Chilean president Michelle Bachelet arrived Sunday in Buenos Aires for talks with her counterpart Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and to participate in seminars celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the 1988 referendum which signaled the beginning of the end of Dictator Augusto Pinochet's 17 year iron fist rule.

In the morning Ms Bachelet is scheduled to sign several bilateral agreements with Mrs. Kirchner and to talk about preparations for this year's celebration of the papal intervention in 1978 which neutralized an armed conflict between, at the time two military regimes over the disputed Beagle channel and surrounding islands. On October 5 of 1988 Pinochet called a plebiscite to amend the constitution and extend his presidential mandate for another eight years, which was rejected by the population (56% against 44%) and split the Armed Forces over their continued future as rulers of Chile. Forced by his pars, a year later December 14, 1989, democratic elections were held and Chile had its first elected civilian president since 1970, Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin who ruled until 1994 in what was considered a transition period. He was supported by a catch all coalition that included 17 different political groupings and which has ruled Chile since. The other historic incident refers to December 1978 when Argentine tanks had begun rolling towards Chilean Patagonian to claim the Beagle channel and islands. Desperate last minute convincing from then Pope John Paul II to the two neighboring countries military regimes froze the situation. The following year the Montevideo understanding with Vatican and Uruguayan mediation opened the way for a peaceful solution to the conflict. Ms Bachelet is scheduled to address a meeting of the Vital Voices, an organization founded by the former US first lady and New York Senator Hillary Clinton which addresses political and social issues of vulnerable population groups. Later she will inaugurate Chile's Culture House in Buenos Aires and participate in a housing seminar "A home for my country", which promotes housing for the poorest social groups and has a home branch "A home for Chile". The Chilean president in the last few weeks has been on the conference trail since 2008 is a year of anniversaries: the 1973 coup and death of elected Socialist president Salvador Allende; Mr. Allende's hundredth anniversary; the almost war of 1978, the plebiscite of 1988 which was the start of the return to democracy for Chile. On these subjects she has been addressing audiences in United States, Chile and now Argentina. However one of her most candid remarks was in Washington, when comparing the political history of many Latinamerican countries and US political stability she asked her audience if they had any clues why the difference. She went directly to the point: "there's no US embassy in the United States".