Chile on Thursday faced questioning by a United Nations water rights expert who suggested the government could be placing economic development over human rights through controversial agriculture and energy projects.
The Chilean congress passed a measure to ensure that safety protocols will be regulated at voting booths during the plebiscite this October. The measure states that the Electoral Service will dictate safety rules regarding social distancing for voting throughout the country.
Chile's gross domestic product (GDP) plunged 14.1% in the second quarter, the Central Bank said on Tuesday, after the coronavirus pandemic mauled economic activity with the exception of the vital mining sector. Among the worst-hit sectors were manufacturing, construction and the hotel and restaurant sector. In the first quarter, the Chilean GDP had increased slightly by 0.2%.
A Chilean indigenous leader who has spent more than 100 days on hunger strike over his detention during the coronavirus pandemic has agreed to end it after negotiations with the government, the justice minister said on Tuesday.
Indigenous groups in Chile´s lithium-rich Atacama salt flat, fresh off a resounding legal victory earlier this week, said they will push to see top lithium miner SQM´s environmental permits revoked and its operations shut down.
The United Nations has sent a fact-finding team to Chile's restive Araucania region where a jailed Indigenous Mapuche leader has spent more than 100 days on a hunger strike over his detention during the coronavirus pandemic.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said on Friday that more than one million people had received the government's US$ 626 spot payment aimed at staving off the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic and it had approved more than 550,000 requests for soft loans of up to US$ 815.
Chile’s Congress has approved a law to allow the central bank to buy bonds issued by the country’s treasury in the secondary market, potentially giving the bank added firepower to help offset fallout from the COVID-19 crisis.
The Falkland Islands government, FIG, which continues to review connetivity, was informed by LATAM that the weekly air link with Chile, via the Punta Arenas-Santiago route will remain suspended until at least 7 November 2020, and the situation will be reviewed near that date.
Latin America's biggest airline, the Brazilian-Chilean group LATAM, said it was laying off at least 2,700 crew to cope with the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the aviation industry.