UK Ice Patrol HMS Protector is in Chile where she is taking part in Unitas - the world’s longest running multinational maritime exercise sponsored by the US Navy. This year the Chilean Navy is hosting the exercise, while the Royal Navy's icebreaker served as the backdrop to the opening ceremony.
According to the latest bulletin from Chilean authorities Sunday, at least 112 people had been killed as wildfires kept multiplying nationwide during the weekend, particularly in the Valparaiso region. Some 40,000 people have been left homeless or displaced, it was also reported.
At least ten people were reported Friday to have died in Chile as forest firest gripped the Valparaíso area, where President Gabriel Boric Font decreed a state of emergency.
Chile's Navy Wednesday took action against protesting fishermen off Valparaíso, who were insisted they had not worked for more than 100 days and demanded promises made eight years ago be delivered.
No crew member of Argentina's training sailship ARA Libertad was allowed to go ashore as the vessel docked in the Chilean port of Valparaíso while diplomatic tension between the two countries mounts.
With historically low river flows and reservoirs running dry due to drought, people in central Chile have found themselves particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic. Years of resource exploitation and lax legislation have allowed most reservoirs in that part of the country to run dry.
A voracious fire in the Chilean city of Valparaíso began on Tuesday and extended until after Christmas Eve on Wednesday, leaving about 245 homes destroyed, 2000 people without power and a dozen injured. The authorities believe that the fires in the tourist city were intentional.
At least six people have died after two houses collapsed in the historic Chilean port city of Valparaiso late on Tuesday, the city’s authorities have confirmed, and a regional official said the death toll could rise further.
The crew of HMS Montrose have spent the end of Christmas week on the remote Pacific Easter Island – famous for its huge stone statues. It’s thought to be the first time this century a British warship has visited the Chilean territory, which is about the size of Sheffield – but home to fewer than 8,000 people.
HMS Montrose joined Chile’s party of the year as the country celebrated the 200th birthday of its Navy. The frigate was invited to join old friends – former British warships HMS Grafton, Sheffield and Marlborough, now serving under the Chilean flag – and make new friends in the port of Valparaiso where a series of high-profile anniversary events were staged over nine days.