Chile narrowly stretches along the southern half of the west coast of South America. The bordering countries are Bolivia, and Peru in the north and over the Andes, to the east, lies Argentina. Chile has over 5.000 km of coast on the South Pacific Ocean. It also has a claim to a portion of Antarctica.
Regions
NorthCentralSouthExtreme Southnote: Argentina and Chile's claims to Antarctica overlap. However, under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty, no country's territorial claims are exercised or recognized.
Cities
AricaIquiqueAntofagastaCalamaLa SerenaValparaísoVina del MarSantiagoRancaguaCuricoTalcaConcepciónTemucoValdiviaPuerto VarasPuerto MonttAncudQuellónPunta ArenasChaitenMaitencilloReñacaNational Parks
1. Lauca
2. Volcán Isluga
3. Llullaillaco
4. Pan de Azúcar
5. Llanos de Challes
6. Nevado Tres Cruces
7. Bosque de Fray Jorge
8. La Campana
9. Archipiélago Juan Fernández
10. Rapa Nui
11. Palmas de Cocalán
12. Laguna del Laja
13. Huerquehue
14. Villarrica
15. Nahuelbuta
16. Tolhuaca
17. Conguillio
18. Puyehue
19. Vicente Pérez Rosales
20. Alerce Andino
21. Chiloe
22. Hornopirén
23. Corcovado
24. Isla Guamblin
25. Laguna San Rafael
26. Queulat
27. Isla Magdalena
28. Bernardo OHiggins
29. Torres del Paine National Park
30. Pali Aike
31. Alberto de Agostini
32. Cabo de Hornos
Other destinations
GeneralCochamóPatagonia - especially the Torres del Paine National ParkPucónSan Pedro de AtacamaSkiingEl ColoradoPortilloIslandsChiloe IslandEaster Island (Isla de Pascua)Robinson Crusoe IslandIsla Sala y GómezGet in
Please be aware that although American citizens need a valid passport to enter the country, no visa is necessary.
Citizens of many countries must pay a "reciprocity fee" of varying amounts (for example, USD 100 for American citizens, USD 132 for Canadian citizens, USD 56 for Australian citizens, and USD 15 for Mexican citizens). This fee is equivalent to the amount that country requires for entry visas from Chilean citizens. The fee is only for tourists entering by plane, and the one-time charge is good for the life of your passport. US citizens should have crisp $20 bills to pay the $100 fee.
When entering Chile (By cruise, vehicle or plane), at customs, travelers will need to fill out a tourist card that allows them to stay for up to 90 days. Travelers will have to present the tourist card to Customs officials when leaving the country. Be aware that hotels waive Chile's 19% room tax when the guest shows this card and pays with U.S. dollars. On flights leaving Chile, there is an airport tax of US$18, or the equivalent in Chilean pesos. On domestic flights, airport tax is included in the price of the ticket. For tourism information of Chile please visit: www.visitchile.org. For consulate information please visit the Embassy web site: www.chile-usa.org. More info at Embassy of Chile, UK: www.echileuk.demon.co.uk/consulatevisas.htm.
From the Chile Tourism office at the Embassy of Chile in Washington DC (ofitur@embassyofchile.org)
Agriculture is very important to Chile, and to avoid contamination it is illegal to bring into the country: fruits, vegetable, meats, eggs, honey, etc.
Remember that Chile is an unitary country, so the laws are the same everywhere.
By planeThe most common entry point for oversea visitors is the international airport
of the capital Santiago. There are airports in major towns but Santiago offers the best connections. LAN Airlines is Chile's flagship airline.
By busIf you are already in South America a cheaper and still reliable way is to go by bus to Chile. Chile has borders with Argentina (daily bus from Mendoza), Peru (bus from Arequipa) and Bolivia. Also from Brazil (bus from São Paulo, on Mondays and Thursdays).
Be aware that crossing to Chile means that high altitude points might be present (Up to 4000m - 6600ft), also the roads from Peru and Bolivia are a bit poor in quality so be patient.
Get around
BusThe bus system is pretty sophisticated providing a great way to get from town to town. Take in mind that for the most part going from one city to the next will take longer than expected because they stop at many bus stations along the way. Some company's that travel all the country are Turbus and Pullman Bus. In Santiago, you can find both terminal's and more company on Universidad de Santiago subway station.
La MicroMicro = transit/local buses. The word is the contraction of Microbus. Larger cities have bus routes to get around for a very affordable price. There are no maps with all the routes so a little bit of Spanish and the audacity to ask around can get you places effectively. Recently changed to a new more modern system in Santiago only. http://www.transantiago.cl
ColectivoA mix between a micro and a taxi. These small cars have routes and get around quicker and more comfortably. Slightly more expensive or cheaper than the micros depending of the hour.
MetroA metropolitan railway system operating in Santiago, Valparaiso and Concepcion. A reliable way to move around in the city. You must pay the fee only once (when you enter the system) and you can ride in it as much as you want. Now there are more stations because of the recent construction of two new lines. http://www.metrosantiago.cl
Eat
Pastel de choclo: corn casserole filled with ground beef, onions, chicken, raisins, hardboiled egg, olives, and topped with sugar and butter.Empanada de pino: a baked pie filled with ground beef, onion, raisins, a piece of boiled egg and a black olive. Watch for the pit.Empanada de queso: a deep fried patty filled with cheese. Found everywhere, including McDonald's.Cazuela de vacuno: beef soup with a potato, rice, a piece of corn and a piece of squash.Cazuela de ave (or de pollo): same as above, but with a piece of chicken.Cazuela de pavo: idem, with turkey.Porotos granados: stew made with fresh beans, squash, corn, onion and basil.*con choclo: with grains of corn*con pilco or pirco: with corn thinly chopped*con mazamorra: with ground corn*con riendas:with thin sliced noodlesCuranto: lots of sea food, beef, chicken and pork, potatoes, cheese, and potato "burguers", prepared in a hole in the ground ("en hoyo") or in a pot ("en olla"); a dish from ChiloéSouthern sopaipillas: a fried pastry cut as 10 cm circles, with no pumpkin in its dough (see Northern sopaipillas in the desserts section). They replace bread. They are known South of Linares.Lomo a lo pobre: a beefsteak, fried potatoes, a fried egg (in restaurants you should expect two) and fried onions.Besides typical foods, you should expect food you normally found in any Western country. Normal diet includes rice, potatoes, meat and bread. In central Chile
vegetables are abundant. If you are concerned about the amount of food, consider that the size of the dish increases the farther south you travel.
With such an enormous coastline you can expect fish and seafood almost everywhere. Locals used to eat bundles of
raw shellfish, visitors should be cautious on raw shellfish because of frequent outbreaks of red tides. Chile is the worlds 2nd largest producer of
salmón, as well as number of other farmed sea products, which include oysters, scallops, mussels, trout, turbot. Local fish offer includes
corvina (sea bass),
congrio(conger eel),
lenguado (flounder), albacora (swordfish), yellow fin tuna, etc.
SandwichesHotdog or completo. Not similar to the American version. This one takes mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, tomato, mashed avocado (palta), sauerkraut (chucrut) and chilli (ají). All of it makes a full sandwich, i.e. un completo. With mayonnaise, tomato and avocado it's un italiano with the colors of the Italian flag.Lomito. Cooked pork steaks served with anything that can go in a hotdog. Italiano is the preferred form but German purists prefer it with sauerkraut (chucrut).Chacarero: a thin beefsteak (churrasco) with tomato, green beans, mayonnaise and green chilli (ají verde).Barros Luco: Named after President Ramón Barros Luco. Thinly sliced beefsteak with cheese.Choripán: Bread with "chorizo", which is a highly-seasoned pork sausage. Named that way because the contraction of "Pan con Chorizo" or "Chorizo con Pan".A common combination is meat with avocado and/or mayonnaise, e.g.
Ave palta mayo (chicken with avocado and mayonnaise) or
Churrasco palta (thinly sliced beefsteak with avocado). The strong presence of avocado is a Chilean standard for sandwiches that even makes it to the fast food franchises who include it in their menus.
DessertsMote con huesillos: dried peach (huesillos) cooked with with lots of sugar (giving a fresh syrup) with optional mote added. Mote is fresh cooked barley with almost no flavor. Since the syrup is very sweet, the mix is good.Northern sopaipillas: a fried pastry cut as 10 cm circles, which includes pumpkin in its dough, and normally is eaten with chancaca, a black treacle or molasses. It's customary to make them when it rains and it's cold outside. Sopaipillas as a dessert are known only north of San Javier. From Linares to the South they are not dessert and they are made with no pumpkin. So, when it rains, Chilean Southerners must cook picarones.Kuchen (or cújen, pronounced KOO-hen). It's German for pie. In the South ask for kuchen de quesillo, a kind of cheesecake.Strudel (pronounced ess-TROO-dayl). A kind of apple pie.Berlín. When they translate John Kennedy's famous gaffe they say it's a “jelly doughnut”. The Chilean version is a ball of dough (no hole) filled with dulce de membrillo, crema pastelera or manjar. Powder sugar is added just in case you have a sweet tooth.Cuchuflí. "Barquillo" (tube of something crunchy like a cookie) filled with "manjar".As a major fruit producer, in Central Chile you can easily get fruit for dessert. There is a broad offer that includes apples, oranges, peaches, grapes, watermelons, strawberries, raspberries, ''chirimoyas', etc.
Drink
Wine: Chile produces some excellent wines, competing with California, Australia and New Zealand for world markets. Notable are the Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere in red, along with whites from the Casablanca valley.Mote con Huesillo: Dehydrated peaches with stewed barley often in water or peach juice.Chilean Pisco: Brandy made from Muscat grapes. Popular brands are Capel,Alto del Carmen,Valle Elqui.Pisco Sour: One of Chile's most popular mixed drinks, this consists of Pisco mixed with lemon juice and sugar. It has a delicious tart sweetness.Mango Sour: Pisco mixed with mangos juice.Piscola: Pisco mixed with CokeBorgoña: Red wine and strawberries.Schop: Beer on tap.Fan-Schop: Beer mixed with orange Fanta soda. A refreshing alternative on a hot summer day.Beers: Cristal is the most popular (light). Several other main brands, Heineken, Brahma, Becker and premium Kunstmann.Unlike other latin countries, in Chile it's illegal to drink on the streets or public areas, SO DON'T!.
The alcohol laws also severely restrict vendors hours depending on the week day (in no case after 3 AM or before 9 AM). For Foreigners it's allowed to consume alcoholic beverages around the clock but only with their passport and in the hotel they're staying.
Currency
Chile's official currency is the Chilean peso, other currencies are not widely accepted everywhere, so try to carry pesos instead of US dollars or Euros.
When exchanging currency, try to ask your travel agency or your tour guide where to do it. It's not advisable to do it in the hotel or the airport, the rates are awful. Just be patient.
Never exchange money on the streets, even if the "helper" indicates you to follow them.
The automatic tellers network in Chile is respectable in size and they're all connected to the same service, so they're all good for usual transactions.
In June of 2007, el tipo de cambio : 1USD - 524Pesos
Sleep
Chile has many types of hotels in the cities like Sheraton, Kempinsky, Marriott, Hyatt, Holiday Inn, etc. and a lot of hostels and little hotels of varying qualities. In the backpacker trail a local hostel version can be found in every small city
residencial.
There is also a variety of accommodation in the mountain ski centers, the world class resort Portillo, 80 km north of Santiago, "Valle Nevado" in the mountain close to Santiago (35 km) or "Termas de Chillan" ski resort and hot springs, about 450 km south of Santiago.
Learn
Along with Mexico and Argentina, Chile continues to grow as a preferred destination for studies abroad. It is not uncommon to find groups of European or North American students taking interdisciplinary studies in Spanish in one of its many reputed universities.
Universidad de ChilePontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Universidad de Concepcion http://www.udec.cl Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso Universidad de Santiago de Chile Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María Work
Foreigners need to apply for a work visa before arriving (it can be done after, but it is a lot harder to get one). Temporary permits are issued to spouses and people with a contract. Under-the-table jobs are normally not well paid, lack the mandatory health insurance and retirement plans, and are a reason to get deported.
Stay safe
Santiago suffers from a high rate of pickpocketers and muggings. Do not travel in the downtown area wearing expensive-looking jewelry or watches, even during the day. Stay alert and be especially careful in all crowded areas in Santiago.
Chilean Carabineros (National Police) are very trustworthy, call 133 if you need assistance. If you have a working GSM mobile phone, call to 112. Some municipalities (such as Santiago or Las Condes) have private guards; however they usually don't speak English.
;
Diplomatic representation from the US :
embassy: Avenida Andrés Bello 2800, Las Condes, Santiago
mailing address: APO AA 34033
telephone: (2) 232-2600
FAX: (2) 330-3710
;
Disputes - international : Bolivia continues to demand a sovereign corridor to the South Pacific Ocean since the Atacama region was lost to Chile in 1884; territorial claim in Antarctica (Chilean Antarctic Territory) partially overlaps Argentine and British claims; dispute with Peru over the economic zone delimited by the maritime boundary
;
Illicit drugs : A growing transshipment country for cocaine destined for the US and Europe; economic prosperity and increasing trade have made Chile more attractive to traffickers seeking to launder drug profits, especially through the Iquique Free Trade Zone; imported precursors passed on to Bolivia; domestic cocaine consumption is rising
Thankfully for many visitors, Chilean drivers are not as erratic and volatile as those in neighbouring countries.
Stay healthy
Having relatively good standards in medicine throughout the country, it is not difficult to stay healthy. However, one will usually find more refined resources at a private medical facility.
In case of emergency call 131 (don't expect an english-fluent operator).
No vaccinations are necessary.
Respect
Formerly a deeply conservative nation, Chile has since liberalized many facets of its society. Simply keep in mind that it has a largely Catholic population.Unlike other countries in Latin America, the Chilean police force, despite not being really well-paid, is admired for its honesty and competence. Report any complaints to the police the moment you receive them, including that of a crime. Bribing is not acceptable in Chile in comparison with the rest of the Latin America, and you'll likely get arrested for it.Do not assume that your hosts in Chile will have the opinion that Pinochet is bad. He still has supporters (say, 20%-40%) - be careful when raising the issue.Contact
PhoneChile has an extensive network of communications. Mobile telephony (mostly GSM networks) is ubiquitous in major cities and central and southern Chile. If you stay for a considerable amount of time, you could even buy a
prepaid cellular phone. Prepaid cards for mobile phones and landline networks and sold at most newspaper kiosks. A prepaid SIM card from ENTEL costs 5000 pesos. You don't need to show an ID card. It comes without credit though, which you need to buy as well to be able to call. The phone system is not as ridiculously complicated as in Argentina.
InternetThere are
cybercafes in every major and midsize city and at all tourist destinations. Some libraries are in a program called Biblioredes, with free computers and Internet (they may be very sensitive if you plug your camera or something like that). In some remote locations, public libraries have
internet satellite connections.
Also notice if there's a Wi-Fi hotspot around. They're usually in metro stations, airports, malls, public buildings. (Check for the ones that say "gratis" = for free)
Chile, officially the
Republic of Chile (Spanish:
), is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific forms the country's entire western border, with Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage at the country's southernmost tip. Chile claims 1,250,000 km² of territory in Antarctica.
Etymology
There are various theories about the origin of the word
Chile. According to one theory the Incas of Peru, who had failed to conquer the Araucanians, called the valley of the Aconcagua "Chili" by corruption of the name of a tribal chief ("cacique") called
Tili, who ruled the area at the time of the Incan conquest. Another theory points to the similarity of the valley of the Aconcagua with that of the Casma Valley in Peru, where there was a town and valley named
Chili. "the deepest point of the Earth,", or "sea gulls;" or from the Quechua
chin, "cold", or the Aymara
tchili, meaning "snow." Another meaning attributed to
chilli is the onomatopoeic
cheele-cheele—the Mapuche imitation of a bird call. A military government, led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, took over control of the country. The first years of the regime were marked by serious human rights violations. On October 1973, at least 70 people were murdered by the Caravan of Death. At least a thousand people were executed during the first six months of Pinochet in office, and at least two thousand more were killed during the next sixteen years, as reported by the Rettig Report. Some 30,000 were forced to flee the country, and tens of thousands of people were detained and tortured, as investigated by the 2004 Valech Commission. A new Constitution was approved by a highly irregular and undemocratic plebiscite characterized by the absence of registration lists, on September 11 1980, and General Pinochet became President of the Republic for an 8-year term.
In the late 1980s, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union and limited political activity. The right-wing military government pursued free market economic policies. During Pinochet's nearly 17 years in power, Chile moved away from state involvement, toward a largely free market economy that saw an increase in domestic and foreign private investment, although the copper industry and other important mineral resources were not returned to foreign ownership. In a plebiscite on October 5, 1988, General Pinochet was denied a second 8-year term as president (56% against 44%). Chileans elected a new president and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress on December 14, 1989. Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin, the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the
Concertación, received an absolute majority of votes (55%). President Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994, in what was considered a transition period.
In December 1993, Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, the son of previous president Eduardo Frei Montalva, led the Concertación coalition to victory with an absolute majority of votes (58%). Frei Ruiz-Tagle was succeeded in 2000 by Socialist Ricardo Lagos, who won the presidency in a unprecedented runoff election against Joaquín Lavín of the rightist Alliance for Chile. In January 2006 Chileans elected their first woman president, Michelle Bachelet Jeria, of the Socialist Party. She was sworn in on March 11 2006, extending the
Concertación coalition governance for another four years.
Politics
Chile's Constitution was approved in a highly irregular national plebiscite in September 1980, under the military government of Augusto Pinochet. It entered into force in March 1981. After Pinochet's defeat in the 1988 plebiscite, the Constitution was amended to ease provisions for future amendments to the Constitution. In September 2005, President Ricardo Lagos signed into law several constitutional amendments passed by Congress. These include eliminating the positions of appointed senators and senators for life, granting the President authority to remove the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces, and reducing the presidential term from six to four years.
Chileans voted in the first round of presidential elections on December 11 2005. None of the four presidential candidates won more than 50% of the vote. As a result, the top two vote-getters—center-left Concertación coalition’s Michelle Bachelet and center-right Alianza coalition’s Sebastián Piñera—competed in a run-off election on January 15 2006, which Michelle Bachelet won. She was sworn in on March 11 2006. This was Chile’s fourth presidential election since the end of the Pinochet era. All four have been judged free and fair. The President is constitutionally barred from serving consecutive terms.
Chile's bicameral Congress has a 38-seat Senate and a 120-member Chamber of Deputies. Senators serve for 8 years with staggered terms, while Deputies are elected every 4 years. The current Senate has a 20-18 split in favor of pro-government Senators. The last congressional elections were held in December 11 2005, concurrently with the presidential election. The current lower house—the Chamber of Deputies—contains 63 members of the governing center-left coalition and 57 from the center-right opposition. The Congress is located in the port city of Valparaíso, about 140 kilometers (84 mi.) west of the capital, Santiago.
Chile's congressional elections are governed by a binomial system that rewards large representations. Therefore, there are only one Senate and two Deputy seats apportioned to each electoral district, parties are forced to form wide coalitions and historically, the two largest coalitions (Concertación and Alianza) split most of the seats in a district. Only if the leading coalition ticket out-polls the second-place coalition by a margin of more than 2-to-1 does the winning coalition gain both seats. In the 2001 congressional elections, the conservative Independent Democratic Union surpassed the Christian Democrats for the first time to become the largest party in the lower house. In 2005, both leading parties, the Christian Democrats and the UDI lost representation in favor of their respective allies Socialist Party (which became the biggest party in the Concertación block) and National Renewal in the right-wing alliance. The Communist Party again failed to gain any seats in the election. (
See Chilean parliamentary election, 2005.)
Chile's judiciary is independent and includes a court of appeal, a system of military courts, a constitutional tribunal, and the Supreme Court. In June 2005, Chile completed a nation-wide overhaul of its criminal justice system. The reform has replaced inquisitorial proceedings with an adversarial system more similar to that of the United States.
Regions and provinces
Chile is divided into 13 regions, each of which is headed by an intendant appointed by the President. Every region is further divided into provinces, with a provincial governor also appointed by the President. Finally each province is divided into communes which are administered by municipalities, each with its own mayor and councilmen elected by their inhabitants for four years.
Each region is designated by a name and a Roman numeral, assigned from north to south. The only exception is the region housing the nation's capital, which is designated
RM, that stands for
Región Metropolitana (Metropolitan Region).
Two new regions were created in 2006: Arica-Parinacota in the north, and Los Ríos in the south. Both will become operative in October 2007.
Geography
A long and narrow coastal Southern Cone country on the west side of the Andes Mountains, Chile stretches over 4,630 kilometers (2,880 mi) north to south, but only 430 kilometers (265 mi) at its widest point east to west. This encompasses a remarkable variety of landscapes.
At 292,240 mi² (756,950 km²), Chile is the world's 38th-largest country (after Turkey). It is comparable in size to Zambia, and is somewhat larger than the US state of Texas.
The northern Atacama Desert contains great mineral wealth, primarily copper and nitrates. The relatively small Central Valley, which includes Santiago, dominates the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. This area also is the historical center from which Chile expanded in the late nineteenth century, when it integrated the northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in forests, grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes. The southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands. The Andes Mountains are located on the eastern border. Chile is the longest (N-S) country in the world (over 4,200 km / 2,600 mi), and also claims 1,250,000 square kilometers (482,628 sq. mi) of Antarctica as part of its territory. However, this latter claim is suspended under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty, of which Chile is signatory.
Chile controls Easter Island and Sala y Gómez Island, the easternmost islands of Polynesia, which it incorporated to its territory in 1888, and Robinson Crusoe Island, more than 600 kilometers (375 mi) from the mainland, in the Juan Fernández archipelago. Easter Island is nowadays a province of Chile. Also controlled but uninhabited are the small islands of Sala y Gómez, San Ambrosio and San Felix, these islands are notable because they extend Chile's claim to territorial waters out from its coast into the Pacific.
Time zones Because of the distance between the mainland and Easter Island, Chile uses 4 different UTC offsets:
The mainland uses UTC-4, and in summer as daylight saving time UTC-3.Easter Island uses UTC-6, and in summer as daylight saving time UTC-5. Economy
After a decade of impressive growth rates, Chile began to experience a moderate economic downturn in 1999, brought on by unfavorable global economic conditions related to the Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997. The economy remained sluggish until 2003, when it began to show clear signs of recovery, achieving 4.0% real GDP growth. The Chilean economy finished 2004 with growth of 6.0%. Real GDP growth reached 5.7% in 2005 before falling back to 4.0% growth in 2006. Higher energy prices as well as lagging consumer demand were drags on the economy in 2006. Higher Chilean Government spending and favorable external conditions (including record copper prices for much of 2006) were not enough to offset these drags. For the first time in many years, Chilean economic growth in 2006 was among the weakest in Latin America.
The 1973-90 military government sold many state-owned companies, and the three democratic governments since 1990 have continued privatization, though at a slower pace. The government's role in the economy is mostly limited to regulation, although the state continues to operate copper giant CODELCO and a few other enterprises (there is one state-run bank). Chile is strongly committed to free trade and has welcomed large amounts of foreign investment. Chile has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with a whole network of countries, including an FTA with the United States, which was signed in 2003 and implemented in January 2004. Over the last several years, Chile has signed FTAs with the European Union, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, People's Republic of China, and Japan. It reached a partial trade agreement with India in 2005 and began negotiations for a full-fledged FTA with India in 2006. Chile plans to continue its focus on its trade ties with Asia by negotiating in 2007 trade agreements with Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia.
High domestic savings and investment rates helped propel Chile's economy to average growth rates of 8% during the 1990s. The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21% of GDP. However, the AFP is not without its critics, who cite low participation rates (only 55% of the working population is covered), with groups such as the self-employed outside the system. There has also been criticism of the inefficiency and high costs due to a lack of competition among pension funds. Critics cite loopholes in the use of pension savings through lump sum withdraws for the purchase of a second home or payment of university fees as fundamental weaknesses of the AFP. The Bachelet administration plans substantial reform, but not an overhaul, of the AFP during the next several years.
Unemployment stubbornly hovered in the 8%-10% range after the start of the economic slowdown in 1999, well above the 5%-6% average for the 1990s. Unemployment finally dipped to 7.8% at the end of 2006, due largely to the fact that fewer Chileans were entering the workforce rather than to a substantial and sustained creation of new jobs. Most international observers place some of the blame for Chile’s consistently high unemployment rate on complicated and restrictive labor laws. Wages have risen faster than inflation as a result of higher productivity, boosting national living standards. The percentage of Chileans with incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a person's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 46% in 1987 to around 13.7% in 2006 as resulted in a recent study in June 2007. Critics in Chile, however, argue true poverty figures are considerably higher than those officially published. In 2006, according to statistics released by Chile's CAS Informática, around 58% of Chileans lived near or below poverty levels; 20.6% in extreme poverty. In relation to income distribution, some 6.2% of the country populates the upper economic income bracket, 15% the middle bracket, 21% the lower middle, 38% the lower bracket, and 20% the extreme poor. (the product of racial mixture between colonial Spanish settlers and indigenous tribes, in varying degrees of admixture) and Europeans, with a notable Amerindian minority.
About 85% of the country's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in Greater Santiago. Chile's population growth is among the lowest in Latin America; at around 0.97%, it comes third only to Uruguay and Cuba.
Indigenous communities na= not applicable
Bibliography
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, United States Department of State, August 2006Library of Congress country profileEncyclopaedia Britannica, Chile - Country PageThe (CIA) World Factbook: ChileDisputes between Chile and Argentine External links
Official resourcesGobierno - Government (English version)Presidencia - Presidency (English version)Ministerio del Interior - Interior MinistryMinisterio de Relaciones Exteriores - Ministry of Foreign AffairsMinisterio de Hacienda - Ministry of Finance (English version)Congreso Nacional - National CongressSenado - SenateCámara de Diputados - Chamber of DeputiesBiblioteca del Congreso Nacional - Library of National CongressPoder Judicial - JudiciaryBanco Central - Central Bank (English version)Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) - National Statistics InstituteGeneral informationAtacama, Chile Web SiteAtacama ChileOpen Directory Project - Chile directory categoryChile Information, Travel, Living Abroad, Human Rights & Environment The Chile Information ProjectChile News The Santiago TimesSeveral links compiled by LANICCouncil of Hemispheric Affairs An independent source of Latin American News and OpinionCongressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding ChileInvest in ChileNative flora species
