Chile

• Thursday, March 30th 2017 - 10:37 UTC

  Chile Day in London next June; UK ambassador underlines importance of free trade

  

  The announcement that Chile Day will take place in London in June 2017 is good for the United Kingdom and for Chile, boosting trade and investment between our two nations, said British ambassador in Santiago, Fiona Clouder, who made it a point to praise the significance of free trade.

• Tuesday, March 28th 2017 - 07:54 UTC

  Chile, Argentina and Uruguay planning greater coordination of cruise circuits

  

  Punta Arenas Austral Ports Company, EPA, was part of the Chilean stand at the Seatrade Cruise Global fair which took place in mid March in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and attracts the best of the cruise industry, operators and port terminals from all the world.

• Monday, March 27th 2017 - 07:50 UTC

  Massive protests in Chilean cities against the private pension scheme

  

  Close to 350,000 people in Chile’s capital Santiago and a further two million nationwide took part on Sunday in street protests demanding the replacement of a private pension system imposed under the Pinochet regime, following recommendations from multilateral organisms. The protesters main demand is the elimination of the current pension system, the privately run AFPs (Pension Fund Administrators).

• Friday, March 24th 2017 - 11:09 UTC

  Workers at the world's largest copper mine in Chile end 43/day strike

  

  Workers at the world's largest copper mine, BHP Billiton's Escondida in Chile, ended a lengthy strike Thursday that had caused turbulence on global copper markets. But the company warned they had only made matters worse by pushing negotiations back another year and a half.

• Thursday, March 23rd 2017 - 08:45 UTC

  Chile's ex president Piñera will again run for office; polls show him leading with 40% vote intention

  

  Sebastian Piñera, who was Chile's president from 2010 to 2014, officially declared this week his intention to seek the office again this year, betting that widespread disillusion with the governing coalition will help him win over voters. Conservative Piñera who ranks 745th on the Forbes list of the world's richest billionaires, is bidding for the nomination of the 'Chile Vamos' coalition, formed by his party and the more conservative UDI.

• Monday, February 27th 2017 - 08:47 UTC

  Torrential rains and mudslides leave 4 million people in Santiago with no drinking water

  

  Just two weeks ago Chile was desperately combating with foreign support thousands of acres of bushfires out of control, but now over the weekend rainstorms and landslides killed four and contaminated a major river, forcing authorities to cut off drinking water to four million people in the capital Santiago, authorities said.

• Tuesday, February 21st 2017 - 12:10 UTC

  Chilen Navy operating from Punta Arenas rescues Australian yacht skipper

  

  The Chilean Navy rescued 61-year-old Australian skipper Shane Freeman after his yacht Mushka was knocked down and dismasted 300 nautical miles west of Chile. The Australian was on his way to the Sunday Times Golden Globe race’s start line in the UK in his Tradewind 35 class yacht when the incident happened on 18 February 2017.

• Tuesday, February 14th 2017 - 10:05 UTC

  Punta Arenas cruise season described as “a true record”

  

  Punta Arenas is enjoying a record cruise season with over 20.000 visitors in the last week according to the numbers released by the port's authority. This includes the 4.000 which landed over the weekend from the Silver Spirit, Queen Victoria and Stella Australis.

• Friday, February 10th 2017 - 18:38 UTC

  Greenpeace calls on Mitsubishi not to move salmon farms to Magallanes region in Chilean Patagonia

  

  Greenpeace has urged Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi to stop expanding its salmon farming operations in Magallanes, as part of its new global campaign focused on protecting the seas of Chilean Patagonia. The launch of the campaign, “Save the seas at the end of the world,” brought together people and activists who gathered in lighthouses along Chile's nearly 4,000 kilometres coastline to claim protection for ecosystems of the southern seas.

• Friday, February 10th 2017 - 11:33 UTC

  Strike at world's largest copper mine in Chile; long conflict forecasted

  

  Workers at BHP Billiton's Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world's largest, walked off the job on Thursday in a strike that threatens to disrupt the international supply of the widely used metal. It said no miners arrived for morning work aboard buses that normally carry upwards of 1,200 workers per shift to the vast deposit, which accounted for about 6% of global production in 2015.