Chile

• 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.

• Thursday, February 9th 2017 - 11:47 UTC

  New outbreak of toxic algae in south Chile kills causes massive death of smolt

  

  An estimated 149,000 salmon that were being transported to a site of Nova Austral located in the Magallanes Region of Chile, to be stocked, presumably died because of a toxic microalga.The company's general manager, Nicos Nicolaides, said that the death of 105,000 fish of 210 grams that were transported by the ship Don Pedro and another 44,000 fish of 420 grams carried by the ship Maria Ines, occurred near Gulf Penas.

• Friday, February 3rd 2017 - 11:42 UTC

  Falklands implements closer educational links with Chilean university

  

  A Chilean professor from the Chilean British University in Santiago will be arriving in the Falkland Islands on Saturday to begin the implementation process of the MOU signed between the Islands government and the university to have Chilean students complete their degree levels in Falklands.

• Friday, February 3rd 2017 - 11:10 UTC

  Chile creates new 11.000 km2 marine eco-region in Juan Fernandez Island

  

  The alfonsin, the orange roughy and the cod, as well as a variety of species of fragile environments, are part of the ecosystem that is now located in the new Coastal Marine Protected Area of Multiple Uses (AMCP-MU) called “Mar de Juan Fernandez”, placed in the archipelago of the same name.

• Thursday, February 2nd 2017 - 17:35 UTC

  Petrobras scandal reaches Chile: Bachelet denies receiving any financial support

  

  Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday denied reports she received financial support for her 2013 campaign from a construction conglomerate that is involved in Brazil's huge Petrobras corruption scandal. Grupo OAS is among dozens of Brazilian companies that are embroiled in a kickback scheme that is the biggest corruption scandal in Brazil's history.

• Monday, January 30th 2017 - 11:36 UTC

  Chile arrests 43 people suspected of stoking some of the forest fires

  

  Authorities in Chile have detained 43 people suspected of stoking some of the deadly forest fires that have killed 11 people and destroyed large swaths of land, according to President Michelle Bachelet.

• Sunday, January 29th 2017 - 09:37 UTC

  Over 6.000 cruise visitors in Punta Arenas on one day; 44 calls scheduled before the end of the season

  

  Last Friday was the busiest cruise season day for Punta Arenas in the extreme south of Chile: over 6.000 visitors, passengers and crew members, landed making it a great day for local tours operators, artisans, shops and all those linked to the industry.