After getting out of its most severe recession in history in 2017, Brazil remains in a state of economic malaise, notching up a mere 1% of growth last year, with public debt forecast to snowball from 77% of GDP to 140% by 2030, according to the World Bank.
The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, has said that at the time of the overthrow of the Salvador Allende government in 1973, Chilean democracy was sick and that the crisis of the country was unsustainable.
Chile's Supreme Court ordered the seizure of more than US$1.6 million from the assets of the late dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The top court also sentenced three former military officers to four years in prison for embezzlement of public funds in a case involving Pinochet, but allowed them to remain free under conditional liberty.
Chilean president Michelle Bachelet is ending her term with an ambitious proposal for a new constitution that would ensure equal pay for men and women and strengthen guarantees of the right to strike. Bachelet sent the proposal to Congress on Tuesday, just five days before she leaves office.
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.
Conservative Sebastian Piñera, who held a commanding lead in Chile's first round of presidential voting, and leftist former TV journalist Alejandro Guillier will contest a runoff next month. Ex-president Piñera had a 36.6% lead to Guillier's 22.7% with more than 98% of the votes, --of a very low turnout, 46.6%--, counted after the first round.
A Chilean appeals court Wednesday ruled that $4.8-million in cash and assets frozen during a legal investigation is to be returned to the family of late longtime dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Victims of a secretive German colony in Chile hope that Germany's decision to declassify documents will help shine light on human rights abuses committed there. For three decades beginning in 1961, the enclave of Colonia Dignidad, or Dignity Colony, was the site of torture, slavery and child abuse.
The former president of Chile, Patricio Aylwin, has died aged 97 of natural causes, his family reported. Aylwin, a centre-right Christian Democrat, became president in 1990 and oversaw the transition to democracy following 17 years of military rule under General Augusto Pinochet.
Chilean judge Hernán Crisosto sentenced 64 former secret police officers (DINA) to jail time for the detention and disappearance of Washington Cid Urrutia in 1974 during the country’s military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).