Chile

• Monday, December 18th 2017 - 07:09 UTC

  Mudslide buries village in Patagonian Chile: at least 8 dead and 15 missing

  

  At least eight people are dead and 15 are still missing after a landslide swept through a remote village in Patagonian Chile on Saturday, the country's president said. The deadly catastrophe devastated the town of Villa Santa Lucia, near a popular national park in the Chaitén region following a deluge of rain on Friday.

• Monday, December 18th 2017 - 05:55 UTC

  Piñera is Chile's next president: he beat the center left candidate by ten points

  

  Billionaire former President Sebastian Piñera easily won Chile's presidential runoff election on Sunday, moving the world's top-copper producing country back to the right. Piñera got 54.6% of the votes to 45.4% for center-left Senator Alejandro Guillier, with nearly all the ballots counted.

• Saturday, December 16th 2017 - 16:29 UTC

  A disenchanted Chile will elect the least unpopular of two candidates on Sunday

  

  Chile faces on Sunday one of the elections with most uncertain result. Longstanding disenchantment with the center left leaning coalition that has ruled Chile since the return of democracy in 1990, and a Latin American natural reaction which erupts every now and then when an economy stalls and the blame goes to the local elite in combination with outside “treachery capitalists”, seems to be the scenario.

• Thursday, December 14th 2017 - 05:13 UTC

  Chile: Sunday's winner will have to learn to cohabit with the opposition

  

  With only a few days left for next Sunday's runoff in Chile's presidential election two factors have become decisive and a challenge for the two hopefuls, opposition candidate conservative Sebastian Piñera, and Alejandro Guillier, the incumbent, reluctantly accepted by the current system in office.

• Saturday, December 9th 2017 - 19:14 UTC

  Santander sells assets in United States to a Chilean bank

  

  Spain's Banco Santander said it had sold its U.S. unit Totalbank to Chile’s BCI for US$528 million as part of moves to sell non-core assets it inherited when it bought Banco Popular. BCI owns City National Bank of Florida and had been in talks with TotalBank’s former owner Banco Popular before it was acquired by Santander.

• Monday, December 4th 2017 - 16:32 UTC

  Calved glacier on the loose in south Chile threatening local ship navigation

  

  The recent calving of a large iceberg from a southern Chilean glacier threatens local ship navigation and could result in flooding for coastal communities, experts said. An iceberg measuring some 350 by 380 meters broke from the Grey glacier in far southern Chile in late November.

• Wednesday, November 29th 2017 - 07:53 UTC

  Scotiabank en route to becoming Chile's third largest private bank

  

  Bank of Nova Scotia is pushing deeper into Latin America with a US$2.2-billion bid for control of a Chilean rival, looking to ignite its growth as the bank's fourth-quarter profit edged higher but missed expectations.

• Tuesday, November 21st 2017 - 07:32 UTC

  Piñera on the tight rope: math show he can be defeated by left-leaning coalition in December's runoff

  

  The strong performance by Chile’s left-wing parties in Sunday’s election left conservative presidential frontrunner Sebastian Piñera facing a tight battle to win a December runoff and likely opposition to tax breaks in Congress if elected. Piñera came first with more than 36% of the vote, but his two main leftist rivals made a stronger-than-expected showing, garnering a combined 43% between them.

• Tuesday, November 21st 2017 - 07:22 UTC

  Chilean markets didn't like red Sunday: Peso and the IPSA stock market fall strongly

  

  Chilean markets and investors did not like Sunday's election results: the Peso currency and benchmark IPSA stock index fell on Monday after market-friendly presidential candidate Sebastian Piñera garnered less support than expected in the country's election.

• Monday, November 20th 2017 - 11:19 UTC

  Ex Chilean Junta member and supporter of the UK effort during the Falklands conflict has died

  

  Fernando Matthei Chile's ex commander of the Air Force and member of the military Junta, led by Augusto Pinchet, died on Sunday at the age of 92. The former pilot, was the father of Evelyn Matthei, who run and lost against Michelle Bachelet in the 2013 presidential election and since 2016 is mayor of Providencia, one of the main districts fo the capital Santiago.