Chile's Minister of Finance declared "Good news for Chileans," meaning that there was a .5% drop in consumer price index this means, "greater purchasing power and greater income," according to the Minister.
Chile has a pretty free economy which was ranked the 7th freest economy in the Index of Freedom in 2013. The countries economy seem to be doing better than last year; growth in business and investment freedoms has helped increase the economy. Chile also has the highest economic and investment freedom in South and Central America. In 2010 Saul Pinera Chile's current president raised taxes intervened to stop the construction of a coal-fired electric plant that had already cleared all regulatory hurdles. (Chiles Economy:Population Growth...) Chile is also the world's main exporter of copper that helps tthe economy. Chile is very opened to exporting; it also exports fruit, wine, minerals and wood. I will post the link below because it expains better the export economy of Chile than I would ever be able to.
http://www.heritage.org/index/country/chile
http://www.ilovechile.cl/2013/05/09/larran-weighs-chile-cpi-drop-good-news-chileans/85594
Chile
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Chilean Student Movement
In 2011 university students as well as high school students began to protest, demanding free and public education. They want to demand an end to privatizes education. The student movement has historical roots coming from the dictatorship.During Pinochets dicatorship he practiced the free market economy and privatised undemocratic period. He was given a huge amount of funds and others left with little money and so this lead to the mis distrubution of funds and wealth that exist in Chile today. Public health in Chile was free that is until Pinochet came to power. Medical students in Chile pay some of the highest tuition's in the world. In general Chile Universities have some of the highest fees in the world, yet many of its people have little money or are poor. I know I keep referring back to the dictatorship, but these issues always seem to continuously be connected in one form or another to the dictatorship and the violation of human rights).
April 2013: More than 10,000 Students Protest in the streets of Chile. Police fire back with tear gas and water cannons to break up the marches. Eight officers were injured and 109 protesters detained. As we learned in class, Chile had an extremely high educational rates, yet students claim that its system is extremely unfair. The middle and upper class students have some of the best education yet the poor have some the worst access to education. These students have been protesting for 2 years and yet nothing has gotten done. Local media said that they believed that this march was the first biggest march since two decades ago. Authorities estimated 80,000 protesters and a total of 150,000 student leaders that participated in the march, but in total there were more than 250,000 protesters in this march. Overall the march was pretty peaceful, that is until the tension between the police and students heated up. The student movement has been the biggest since 1990 when Chile regained democracy.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22118682
<<<Clip from the march April 2013
 |
This qoute from Allende seemed proper for the Student Movement, here is my rough translation, "Being young and not being a revolutionry is a biological contradiction" Chilean students and the tinoamericanos they were hand in hand, mandandirun dirun din. In this beautiful garden, to odds and dinosaurs, the young revolucionaurios they have finally said enough. Stop it! That comes the guanaco and behind the Paços the pump forward, the paralyzing, also the purgative and the hilarious, ay which are all the same These watchmen The young secondary and the University with the proletarian they want a revolution. [Chorus] Mobile oil special Mobile oil special Mobile oil special... In a University fight for reform to put in the last the blessed and the national. We are reformers, the revolutionaries the anti-imperialist University! |
National Staduim Dark Past
1973.” http://publichistorycommons.org/national-stadium-national-memory-a-personal-letter/http://www.usfcam.usf.edu/InsideART/Inside_
Former prisoner speaks about his expirienace in the national stadium.
Here is a trailer of the movie "Missing"
National Stadium: Political Prisoners
Los 3 Grandes de Chile: Investigations after the Dictatorship
Joan Jara spoke from her heart: " It seems almost impossible that we are
back. We have fought for decades and things are now moving. It is very
difficult to talk .. There is a time for celebration but a time when we
must be calm and know that there is much work ahead to finally achieve
true justice. And especially true justice for all victims. "
We spoke on class on the need to hold people/government accountable and responsible for the thousands of death that have occurred in Latin America due to dictatorships etc; recently there has been investigations of 3 Chilean deaths, Victor Jara, Pablo Nureda and Salvador Allende (these are what I call Chilean icon's). Very few of people have be charged for the deaths of thousands.
President Salvador Allende (1970-1973)
Leftist leader Allende help found Chile's first Socialist Party. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in the 1952, 1958, and 1964 elections. In 1970, he won the presidency, and became Chile's first Socialist President. During a military coup in 1973, the presidential palace was attacked and Allende was killed. Allende's death has been debatable for sometime now. Some believe that we has killed in the palace, while others believe he committed suicide before the attack. History books claim the Allende shot himself ( with a gun Fidel Castro gave him) as Pinochet's army closed in to the palace.
Since his death had been debatable for decades, in 2011 Allende's body was exhumed and by pathology experts. An Uruguayan forensic specialist claims that there is a video were you can clearly see that Allende was hit by two bullets.Allende's family believe the original story that Allende committed suicide to prevent humiliation or be put under different circumstances.
News Reports http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/05/salvador-allende-death-investigation-chile
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/8553069/Death-of-Chiles-President-Salvador-Allende-may-not-have-been-suicide.html
Victor Jara
Jara was and is an political figure in Chile. He was a musician, a professor and theater instructor. Jara's music appealed the folk of Chile. He loved his country and the working class of Chile, so because of this he dedicated his time on making and performing songs of the people of Chile. His music attacked the injustices and political scandals that Chile faced. He was a supporter of President Allende. In September 11th 1973 after the overthrow of the presidency and Allende, Jara was abducted from this job by the military and was tortured at Chile's National Stadium for 5 days. He died September 17th 1973; he was shot 44 times.
Investigation:
It had be "unknown" who exactly shot and killed Jara. In December 2012, eight retired men were charged with Jara's death in Santiago Chile. "Judge Miguel Vásquez charged two of the former officers, Pedro
Barrientos and Hugo Sánchez, with committing the murder and six others
as accomplices." It took four decades to finally charge someone with the death of Jara. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/29/world/americas/eight-charged-with-victor-jaras-1973-murder-in-chile.html?_r=0
http://tomasdinges.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/how-victor-jara-died-last-minutes/
http://peoplesworld.org/after-four-decades-victor-jara-s-killers-charged/
2 songs by Victor Jara!
Pablo Neruda (Death: September 23rd 1973)
Neruda has been given by some the greatest writer/poet of all time. Since we live in a "democratic" country many America's do not give him any credit, since he had a commitment to communism. It was been known that Nureda died of prostate cancer, however his driver claims that this is not so true. "Neruda’s body taken
from his tomb in Isla Negra, Chile, in early April 2013, as part of an
investigation opened after Neruda’s former driver Manuel Araya said that
the real cause of the poet’s death was an unscheduled injection that he
received a few hours before dying." Neruda's death is of great controversy, because he died just 24 hours before fleeing the country, that he was given the injection that contained "poised." His friends and family questioned his death and believed that he had been murdered in the hospital. In April a judge ordered that his body be exhumed to prove the cause of his death. However, it has been 40 years since his death so it might be hard to detect any poises and hard to detect if his body was really poisoned. The investigation is said to take few months and it may not clear all the speculation on Neruda's "mysterious" death. Personally, I find it a coincidence that he died 24 years before fleeing the country and a few days after Jara's, and Allende's death and the attack at the Palace Sept 11, 1973. We shall find out the "truth."
Poem by Neruda:
tombs full of soundless bones,
the heart threading a tunnel,
a dark, dark tunnel :
like a wreck we die to the very core,
as if drowning at the heart
or collapsing inwards from skin to soul.
There are corpses,
clammy slabs for feet,
there is death in the bones,
like a pure sound,
a bark without its dog,
out of certain bells, certain tombs
swelling in this humidity like lament or rain.
I see, when alone at times,
coffins under sail
setting out with the pale dead, women in their dead braids,
bakers as white as angels,
thoughtful girls married to notaries,
coffins ascending the vertical river of the dead,
the wine-dark river to its source,
with their sails swollen with the sound of death,
filled with the silent noise of death.
Death is drawn to sound
like a slipper without a foot, a suit without its wearer,
comes to knock with a ring, stoneless and fingerless,
comes to shout without a mouth, a tongue, without a throat.
Nevertheless its footsteps sound
and its clothes echo, hushed like a tree.
I do not know, I am ignorant, I hardly see
but it seems to me that its song has the colour of wet violets,
violets well used to the earth,
since the face of death is green,
and the gaze of death green
with the etched moisture of a violet's leaf
and its grave colour of exasperated winter.
But death goes about the earth also, riding a broom
lapping the ground in search of the dead -
death is in the broom,
it is the tongue of death looking for the dead,
the needle of death looking for the thread.
Death lies in our beds :
in the lazy mattresses, the black blankets,
lives a full stretch and then suddenly blows,
blows sound unknown filling out the sheets
and there are beds sailing into a harbour
where death is waiting, dressed as an admiral.
http://blogs.nature.com/news/2013/05/tests-cofirm-pablo-neruda-had-terminal-cancer.html
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/world-our-backyard/2013/apr/14/poet-pablo-nerudas-body-exhumed-chile/
We spoke on class on the need to hold people/government accountable and responsible for the thousands of death that have occurred in Latin America due to dictatorships etc; recently there has been investigations of 3 Chilean deaths, Victor Jara, Pablo Nureda and Salvador Allende (these are what I call Chilean icon's). Very few of people have be charged for the deaths of thousands.
Leftist leader Allende help found Chile's first Socialist Party. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in the 1952, 1958, and 1964 elections. In 1970, he won the presidency, and became Chile's first Socialist President. During a military coup in 1973, the presidential palace was attacked and Allende was killed. Allende's death has been debatable for sometime now. Some believe that we has killed in the palace, while others believe he committed suicide before the attack. History books claim the Allende shot himself ( with a gun Fidel Castro gave him) as Pinochet's army closed in to the palace.
News Reports http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/05/salvador-allende-death-investigation-chile
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/8553069/Death-of-Chiles-President-Salvador-Allende-may-not-have-been-suicide.html
Victor Jara
Jara was and is an political figure in Chile. He was a musician, a professor and theater instructor. Jara's music appealed the folk of Chile. He loved his country and the working class of Chile, so because of this he dedicated his time on making and performing songs of the people of Chile. His music attacked the injustices and political scandals that Chile faced. He was a supporter of President Allende. In September 11th 1973 after the overthrow of the presidency and Allende, Jara was abducted from this job by the military and was tortured at Chile's National Stadium for 5 days. He died September 17th 1973; he was shot 44 times.
Investigation:
http://tomasdinges.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/how-victor-jara-died-last-minutes/
http://peoplesworld.org/after-four-decades-victor-jara-s-killers-charged/
2 songs by Victor Jara!
Poem by Neruda:
Death Alone
There are lone cemeteries,tombs full of soundless bones,
the heart threading a tunnel,
a dark, dark tunnel :
like a wreck we die to the very core,
as if drowning at the heart
or collapsing inwards from skin to soul.
There are corpses,
clammy slabs for feet,
there is death in the bones,
like a pure sound,
a bark without its dog,
out of certain bells, certain tombs
swelling in this humidity like lament or rain.
I see, when alone at times,
coffins under sail
setting out with the pale dead, women in their dead braids,
bakers as white as angels,
thoughtful girls married to notaries,
coffins ascending the vertical river of the dead,
the wine-dark river to its source,
with their sails swollen with the sound of death,
filled with the silent noise of death.
Death is drawn to sound
like a slipper without a foot, a suit without its wearer,
comes to knock with a ring, stoneless and fingerless,
comes to shout without a mouth, a tongue, without a throat.
Nevertheless its footsteps sound
and its clothes echo, hushed like a tree.
I do not know, I am ignorant, I hardly see
but it seems to me that its song has the colour of wet violets,
violets well used to the earth,
since the face of death is green,
and the gaze of death green
with the etched moisture of a violet's leaf
and its grave colour of exasperated winter.
But death goes about the earth also, riding a broom
lapping the ground in search of the dead -
death is in the broom,
it is the tongue of death looking for the dead,
the needle of death looking for the thread.
Death lies in our beds :
in the lazy mattresses, the black blankets,
lives a full stretch and then suddenly blows,
blows sound unknown filling out the sheets
and there are beds sailing into a harbour
where death is waiting, dressed as an admiral.
http://blogs.nature.com/news/2013/05/tests-cofirm-pablo-neruda-had-terminal-cancer.html
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/world-our-backyard/2013/apr/14/poet-pablo-nerudas-body-exhumed-chile/
Michelle Bachelet Chile's First Female Presidenta!
As we all know other counties in the world have elected women
presidents unlike the United States who has yet to have a women in
the presidency. I would like to introduce you to Chile's first
 |
| Presidenta Michelle Bachelet |
female Presidenta (president), Michelle
Bachele.
Bachelet became the first female
Socialist president. One of her main goals was to shirk the economic
gap between the rich and the poor. She won 53% of the votes from
Chile's center-left coalition. Bachelet's opposition Sebastian Pinera
took 47% of the votes by the government.
Background:
She was 54 years of age when she was elected in
2006. She is a trained doctor and has a degree in Military science. She attended the University of Chile. At the university she became student leader and became involved with the Unidad Popular of Salvador Allende and participated in the Youth Socialist Movement.
Her father was a general in the Arm Forces and was a supporter of Allende. The same day of the Pinochet's coup "over through", Allende the soldiers took General Bachelet and he was accused of treason. He later died of a heart attack from the torture he had be put though. Michelle continued her education, but in 1975 Michelle and her mother were detained by the soldiers and where taken to a detention center. When released they fled as exiles to Austria and East Germany. She continued her medical school in Germany. She also got married (to another Chilean exile) and had two children. She finally returned to Chile in1979 where she became a surge in 1984; and specialized for 4 years in pediatrics and public health.
Political Background:She became politically active with different organizations to help restore democracy in Chile.She got hired to work with children who had be traumatized by the dictatorship. In 1990 when democracy was restored there was a need for professionals to help restore Chiles public health system, so she was hired as an epidemiologist.
She was later "chosen by the Central Committee of the Socialist Party to run for the city council of the Santiago-area district of Las Condes in 1996. In 1998, she was chosen by the party’s Central Committee to join its Political Committee." In 2000 she was appointed as Minister of Public Health; one of her task was to eliminate the waiting list for people to be able to use the public hospital; she was able to reduce this waiting list by 90% with in her first 100 days of her appointment. In 2002 she was appointed to the Minister of Defense where she promoted reconcile gestures between the military and victims of the dictatorship; as well as, introduced gender policies intended to improve the conditions of women in the military and police forces. She was the first women to be given this title in Chile, as well in Latin America.
PRESIDENTA:
Bachelet has support and her popularity was at a peek.She was asked by the PPD (Party for Democracy) and Socialist Parties to be there candidate. In 2004 she resigned from her position of Minister of Defense to focus on the election and her presidential campaign. In 2006 she won the election and became the first president in Chile. She was also the first woman who was not the wife of a previous head of state or political leader to reach the presidency of Latin America in a direct election. Her cabinet was equal in gender as she had promised in her election gender equality.
http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/directorate/former-ed-michelle-bachelet/biographical-sketch-michelle-bachelet/
http://www.remezcla.com/2011/latin/women-presidents-government-officials-latin-america/
http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/directorate/former-ed-michelle-bachelet/
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