History Of Chile

Chile's financial sector has grown faster than other areas of the economy over the last few years; a banking reform law approved in 1997 broadened the scope of permissible foreign activity for Chilean banks. The Chilean Government implemented a further liberalization of capital markets in 2001. Chileans have enjoyed the recent introduction of new financial tools such as home equity loans, currency futures and options, factoring, leasing, and debit cards. The introduction of these new products has been accompanied by increased use of traditional instruments such as loans and credit cards. Chile's private pension system, with assets worth roughly $54 billion in late 2004, has provided an important source of investment capital for the capital market. Chile maintains one of the best credit ratings (S+P A+) in Latin America. There are three main ways Chilean firms raise funds abroad: bank loans, issuance of bonds, and the selling of stock on U.S. markets through American Depository Receipts ... [Read More]

U.S. Dept. of State FOIA Electronic Reading Room - Hinchey Report (CIA Activities in Chile)

Retired Army General Roberto Viaux was a major coup plotter with support from non-commissioned and junior officers; he also headed several right-wing civilian groups.  After CIA was directed to explore prospects for a coup to prevent Allende from taking office, a CIA officer established contact with Viaux on 9 October 1970.  A second meeting with Viaux resulted in the Station forwarding a request to Washington from Viaux for weapons, tear gas and other supplies as well as a life insurance policy for himself.  In reviewing Viaux�s proposal, CIA Headquarters determined that his group had no chance of carrying off a successful coup.  Headquarters advised the Station, and during meetings on 17 .18 October a CIA officer told a member of the Viaux group, that CIA would not entertain their request for support.  The offic ... [Read More]

U.S. Dept. of State FOIA - Church Report (Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973)

1. United States Policy and Covert Action In his 1971 State of the World Message, released February 25, 1971, President Nixon announced: "We are prepared to have the kind of relationship with the Chilean government that it is prepared to have with us." This public articulation of American policy followed internal discussions during the NSSM 97 exercise. Charles Meyer, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, elaborated that "correct but minimal" line in his 1973 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations: Mr. MEYER. The policy of the Government, Mr. Chairman, was that there would be no intervention in the political affairs of Chile. We were consistent in that we financed no candidates, n ... [Read More]

U.S. Dept. of State Press Statement: Chile Declassification Project: Final Release

Media Note Chile Declassification Project: Final Release Today the Department of State, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the National Security Council are releasing newly declassified and other documents related to events in Chile from 1968-91. These documents are part of a discretionary review of U.S. government files related to human rights abuses, terrorism, and other acts of political violence prior to and during the Pinochet era in Chile. National Security Council staff coordinated this interagency effort on behalf of the President. Agencies made an initial release of approximately 5,800 documents on June 30, 199 ... [Read More]

US Department Of State Post Report

For children, there are several amusement parks and arcades, including Chuck E. Cheese. There is a zoo in Parque Metropolitano, which is modest by American standards, but relatively clean. It is accessible via an interesting Swiss-built cog railway car. There is a good interactive children�s museum and several children�s theater groups. Many parks in the Providencia, Los Dominicos and Vitacura areas of Santiago have good-quality playground equipment. Both in Santiago and outside of town, there are farms (granjas educativas) that specialize in teaching children about barnyard animals. During the long summer, children can participate in one or more summer camp programs, often organized around a theme such as sports, art and crafts, or the environment. Social Activities Am ... [Read More]

U.S. Dept. of State's White House Press Statement 11-13-00

11 1 11 111 THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary___________________________________________________________________________For Immediate ReleaseNovember 13, 2000 STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY Today the Department of State, the Central Intelligence Agency, theDepartment of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the NationalArchives and Records Administration, and the Department of Justice arereleasing newly declassified and other documents related to events in Chilefrom 1968-91. These documents are part of a discre ... [Read More]

U.S.-Chile Sign Agreement on Environmental Cooperation

Let me take a moment to express my sincere appreciation to all of you who played a role in concluding this environmental cooperation agreement. I trust that we will continue to work actively to ensure its success. Many of you spent significant amounts of energy and time. In particular, I want to say thank you to the head of the Chilean delegation, Ambassador Jose Manuel Ovalle, Director of the Environment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Alvaro Sapag of the National Environmental Commission, and Edda Rossi, lead negotiator of the environment chapter of the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement. I also want to thank U.S. Ambassador to Chile Bill Brownfield, our Charge d�Affairs Phil Goldberg, and the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bud Rock, all who participated actively in the negotiation of this agreement back in January. And we recognize the lead negotiators of the FTA, Osvaldo Rosales and Regina Vargo, who recognized the importance of linking environmental cooperation ... [Read More]

2004–2005 Fulbright Awards – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
[Read More]

Interview by Amaro Gomez-Pablos of Television Nacional Chile

Democracy is not just having a set of elections and then leaving it to people to sort of fend for themselves. Democracy and democratic development means the creation of stable institutions and that can be done through technical assistance, through help from the Organization of American States. That's the kind of thing that we're going to have to concentrate on. ...

SECRETARY RICE: It's not a matter of anyone lacking. It is a matter of having good candidates. And we have fine relations with Insulza. We have known him for many years when he was Foreign Minister of Chile. I don't think this ought to be thought of in terms of personalities. We will find a really fine Secretary General. We have excellent candidates. And what we need to do is to focus now on finding a way to unify the organization again, finding a way that it doesn�t get read somehow as a North-South split, because I really don't think that that is good for the organization. ... [Read More]