By Jorge Castañeda - Chile has long been something of a bellwether in Latin America. So, when Chilean voters elected the left-wing Gabriel Boric, a 35-year-old former student leader, as president on Sunday, the rest of Latin America wanted to know: What does this mean for Chile – and for us?
Unemployment in Chile is down to 7,5%, the lowest since January 2020, according to the country's stats office INAE. The 7,5% figure is the seventh consecutive mobile quarter, (September-November), which has seen a systematic reduction in unemployment plus a simultaneous standing recovery of lost jobs, some 74,6% of the two million wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.
United States president Joe Biden on Thursday contacted Chilean president-elect Gabriel Boric to congratulate him on his electoral victory on 21 December and to talk about future collaboration and cooperation between the two countries.
The Chilean Government of President Sebastián Piñera Tuesday announced the return to active duty of former Deputy Health Minister Paula Daza, who will now be in charge of handling the transition to the new administration of President-elect Gabriel Boric from a sanitary point of view focused mainly on COVID-19.
Chilean president-elect Gabriel Boris announced he contacted president Sebastián Piñera to thank him for the invitation to attend the January 26/27 Prosur and Pacific Alliance summits in Colombia, --the current head of government last overseas trip--, but will not join him.
In addition to having staged one of the most prolific anti-COVID-19 vaccination campaigns on humans, Chile now intends to expand that achievement onto other living beings after three lions, three tigers, three pumas, and an orangutan have been injected at Santiago's Buin Zoo.
The indigenous Mapuche tribe violent groups in southern Chile, involved in arson and destruction attacks, have warned that as long as forestry and construction companies keep ”devastating our resources, and the jails of southern Chile continue full of Mapuche patriots incarcerated, weichan (armed resistance) will not cease to be it under (president) Piñera or (elected president) Boric”.
Chilean health authorities Thursday announced a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine is to be administered to people over 60 years old, while a survey has shown an overwhelming support for mandatory vaccination at workplaces.
The Falkland Islands Government Head of Communications has confirmed that “we are still waiting for a response from the Government of Argentina,” on the matter of the Falklands Islands request for a compassionate charter flight to Chile, “so no further information since the request was made eleven days ago.”
The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) Wednesday asked Chile's Constitutional Convention to guarantee the broadest access to public information and to prohibit Congress from enacting laws that restrict freedom of the press in the new text being drafted.