As the echoes of Monday’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) continued to reverberate in Santiago and Lima, Presidents Ollanta Humala and Sebastián Piñera of Peru and Chile met on the sidelines of the CELAC (Community of Latin America and Caribbean States) summit in Havana in a show of unity.
With the decision over ongoing maritime dispute between Chile and Peru just weeks away, government officials on both sides insist relations between them are strong. On Jan. 27 Peru and Chile are set to find out who has legal ownership over 14,500 square miles of fishing waters off their borders, putting an end to a centuries-long dispute and ending a five year international court case.
Michelle Bachelet is set to resume her former position as president of Chile in March 2014 after a resounding second round victory against her opponent and former childhood playmate, Evelyn Matthei. In an acceptance speech late Sunday night the president-elect touched on two key platforms of her campaign: free higher education and a new constitution.
Socialist Michelle Bachelet, who was Chile's president from 2006 to 2010, cruised to victory in Sunday's presidential runoff.
Chileans are set to head to the polls this Sunday to choose their next president, but experts fear much more than half the electorate will opt not for Michelle Bachelet or Evelyn Matthei, but to stay at home on election day instead. The election’s first round, held Nov. 17, saw the debut of the voluntary voting system in Chilean presidential elections and a turnout of 6.7 million, half-a-million-votes less than were counted in 2010, when voting was still mandatory for those on the electoral role.
Voter turnout in Chile's extreme north and south fell far short of national average, and candidates will look further afield for votes in upcoming elections December 15. As Chile’s presidential candidates turn their heads to the country’s far-flung regions, a report by La Tercera demonstrates the particularly high rates of abstention in rural areas in both the extreme north and south.
By R Viswanathan (*) The Leftist coalition candidate Michelle Bachelet won 47% of the votes in the presidential elections held on 17 November while her rightist rival Evelyn Matthei got just 25% votes.
“God, how much I missed you”, were the first words from Argentine president Cristina Fernandez to her supporters, mostly young, who congregated on Wednesday late evening in the several patios of Casa Rosada to welcome her first live appearance since the 45-day long medical leave.
Chileans went to the polls Sunday and chose to send Michelle Bachelet and Evelyn Matthei to a runoff election with 46.7% and 25% of the vote respectively, but abstention far outstripped them both — less than half the number of voters on the electoral roll cast a vote.
Vallejo's victory and those of independent candidates Giorgio Jackson and Gabriel Boric and fellow communist Karol Cariola, former comrade-in-arms in the student movement, who also gained seats in Chile's lower house on Sunday is significant for presidential front-runner Michelle Bachelet's bid to have her Nueva Mayoria coalition gain a stronger foothold in both houses of Congress.