CHILE: Peso Plummets The Most Since 1989 Over $12 Billion Currency Buy.

BLOOMBERG/ Sebastian Boyd and Randy Woods /

    The peso fell by 4.6 per cent, the most since June 1989, after central bank president President Jose De Gregorio (pictured) announced a plan yesterday to buy $50 million a day, about $12 billion, from Jan. 5 until Feb. 9. in the foreign-exchange market tomorrow to weaken the currency.
    Until today, the peso had gained 17 percent against the U.S. dollar since July, second only to the Australian dollar, as copper prices surged.
     Economist Pedro Tuesta told Reuters: "If the pretty conservative Chilean central bank intervenes what can you expect of the Brazilian central bank!" 

  MEANWHILE, copper futures fell the most in three weeks because manufacturers may have enough metal to meet demand.
  Copper futures rose 33 percent in 2010 as world economies recovered.
 FOR DETAILS, SEE:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-04/copper-rises-to-record-for-fourth-day-in-london-on-u-s-growth-speculation.html

LATIN AMERICA: Current Robust Growth Surprizing Many.

NYTIMES/ SIMON ROMERO/     "While the United States and Europe fret over huge deficits and threats to a fragile recovery, this region has a surprise in store. Latin America, beset in the past by debt defaults, currency devaluations and the need for bailouts from rich countries, is experiencing robust economic growth that is the envy of its northern counterparts.
     Strong demand in Asia for commodities like iron ore, tin and gold, combined with policies in several Latin American economies that help control deficits and keep inflation low, are encouraging investment and fueling much of the growth. The World Bank forecasts that the region’s economy will grow 4.5 percent this year."

LATIN AMERICAN TRENDS: Desertification Fears For Argentina,Brasil, Chile.

GLOBAL VOICES ONLINE:
"Desertification might sound similar to desert, but there is a fundamental difference between the two: while deserts are one of nature’s wonderful formations, desertification is a process of degradation that lands go through after they are affected by climate change, human activities, and natural forces until they eventually become deserts."

LATIN AMERICAN TRENDS: Indian Political Awareness And Resistence Grow.

AP/MIAMI HERALD/
Throughout Latin America, there's a new political awakening among native Indians, who have lived like second-class citizens for centuries. Indians are 10% of Latin America's half-billion residents and in the Andes and Guatemala, they are far more numerous. Improved education and communications, like the Internet and the cell phone now allow local native leaders to easily share strategies with other countries.

CHILE: A Conservative Leads In Presidential Poll.

FT ONLINE/Profile Of Sabatian Pinera/
After 19 years of leftist control in Chile, right-winger Sebastian Pinera has a big lead for the December election.
One of the nation's richest men – known as “Chile’s Silvio Berlusconi”– Piñera wants to bring efficiency to government. “Efficiency isn’t a word that only interests the world of private companies. Efficiency is a word that does – or ought to – interest the world of politics,” he says.
But critics have raised questions about his business activities.

"The Maid": A Surprizing New Movie From Chile.

LATIMES/
"The phenomena of living with a maid is something I went through during my childhood and adolescence," says 30-year-old director Sebastien Silva of Santiago, Chile. "It wasn't comfortable at all. You already have a mother and father, so you don't want a third figure bossing you around. Then when you are more mature you realize that her situation is quite sad."
The movie won the 2009 Sundance Film Festival's World Cinema Jury Prize Dramatic and Special Jury Prize for Acting.

Proposed Giant Statue Of Late Pope Riles Chile.

GLOBAL POST/
A 40-foot-tall bronze statue of the late Pope John Paul II will tower over a bohemian Santiago neighborhood. But the statue has sparked outrage. Some call it the "Popesaurus." And not even the Catholic Church supports the project.

Thief Crushed To Death In Botched Chile ATM Robbery.

A thief died and two others were seriously injured Friday after being crushed by an ATM that they had stolen from a gas station. As they were getting away in the early morning, an empty bus smashed into their truck.

Chile's Bachelet To Distribute More Land To Mapuches.

LAHT/
Between now and the end of her term in March, Chile's President Michelle Bachelet will distribute 33,000 hectares (81,500 acres) of land among Mapuche Indian communities in Chile’s conflictive southern region of Araucania.Since 1999, 650,000 hectares of land, most of it state-owned, have been returned to the Mapuches.
Once the current initiative is complete, he said, another 150,000 and 170,000 hectares will be needed to fulfill the state’s obligation to the 650,000-strong Mapuche nation, Chile’s largest indigenous group.

Chilean Movie Shows Attrocities Under Military Rule.

GLOBALPOST/ with YouTube Movie Trailer/
The movie, "Dawson, Island 10" is a full-length feature film that shows some of the atrocities that took place under military rule in Chile.
But the movie sometimes sacrifices accuracy to dramatic license.
The movie is based on a book written in 1987 by Sergio Bitar, minister of mining under Allende and currently minister of public works.

Overview Of Latin American Economic Rebound.

McCLATCHY/
"A year after the global financial crisis exploded, most Latin American countries are putting the tough times in the rearview mirror during the final three months of 2009. Brazil, the region's giant and the world's ninth largest economy, is leading the way, along with such other market-friendly countries as Peru, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Panama."

Broadband Penetration Highest In Chile. Still Badly Trails The EU.

MERCOPRESS/
9.7% of Chile’s population can access broadband and 31% of its homes have broadband connections.
Chile is followed by Argentina (9.3%), Uruguay (8.5%) and Brazil (5.8%). Compared with some European countries such as Germany -whose broadband penetration level is 29.9% - and Spain’s 20.3%, Chile is still far behind.

On Chile's Upcoming Presidential Election.

THE ECONOMIST/
"As campaigning formally got under way on September 15th, the latest CEP poll gave Sebastián Piñera, the businessman candidate of the conservative opposition, 37% of the vote. Eduardo Frei, a Christian Democrat who was Chile’s president from 1994-2000 and is the official Concertación candidate, trailed on 28%, while Marco Enríquez-Ominami, a dissident Socialist congressman standing as an independent, had 17%. The past four presidential elections mirrored the result of a plebiscite in 1988 in which 56% of voters backed a return to democracy, whereas 44% wanted General Augusto Pinochet’s 16-year dictatorship to continue. Will this one break the most stable political pattern in Latin America?"

The Government Helps Chileans Learn English.

GLOBAL POST.COM.
Chileans really want to be the “British of America” but most just can’t get it right. In a country tied to foreign markets, learning English has become vital — yet many students can barely get beyond naming the colors and conjugating the verb “to be” and only about 5 percent of public high school graduates have good levels of English.

Chilean Man Hangs Himself While Pictured Chatting Online.

LAHT.
A 26-year-old man in Santiago, Chile hanged himself in front of a Web camera while chatting with his ex-girlfriend, who saw it all happen.

Heralding The Start of El Nino, More Starving Sea Lions.

BLOOMBERG.COM.
Sea lions are starving to death in large numbers along Chile’s northern coast, meaning El Nino is taking hold in the Pacific. The El Nino effect brings warmer water to South American shores, driving away fish the sea lions eat.

Chile Wants 129 Suspects For Human Rights Violations.

CNN.COM.
Arrest warrants for 129 former soldiers and agents of Chile's National Intelligence Directorate were issued for alleged human rights violations during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, when nearly 2,300 people disapppeared from 1973-1990.

Chile With Negative Inflation And Lowest Rate In Latin America.

MERCOPRESS.
Chile has a NEGATIVE inflation rate of 1.2 % through July.
It joins Bolivia (-0.82) as the only two Latin American countries with negative inflation numbers. This is a huge change from 2008, when Chile had the fifth highest inflation in the region.

Government Launches "This Is Chile" Website.

MERCOPRESS.COM.

ESTOESCHILE.CL

New Nixon Memo Reveals Attempt To Include Brasil In Allende Coup.

NYTIMES.

A secret memo just uncovered reveals that on Dec.9, 1971, President Richard Nixon offered Brasil's president,General Emilio Medici, aid to rid South America of leftist governments...including Salvador Allende of Chile and Fidel Castro.

Peter Kornbluh, director of the National Security Archive’s Chile and Brazil projects, said the documents revealed “a hidden chapter of collaborative intervention.”