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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
Figure 12. Chile's Claims in Antarctica, 1993
Source: Based on information from Chile, Instituto Geográfico
Militar, Atlas Geográfico de Chile, Santiago, 1988, 39.
With the military coup of 1973, Chile became isolated
politically as a result of widespread human rights abuses.
The
return of democracy in 1990 opened Chile once again to the
world.
President Patricio Aylwin traveled extensively to Europe,
North
America, and Asia, reestablishing political and economic
ties.
Particularly significant was Chile's opening to Japan,
which has
become Chile's largest single trading partner.
In Latin America, Chile joined the
Rio Group (see Glossary) in
1990 and played an active role in strengthening the
inter-American
system's commitment to democracy as a cardinal value.
However,
Chile has shied away from regional economic integration
schemes,
such as the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercado Común del
Cono Sur--
Mercosur; see
Glossary), arguing that the country is
better
off opening its economy to the world, rather than building
regional
markets with neighboring countries. Where in the past
Chile drew on
the prestige of its democratic institutions to bolster its
international standing, the extraordinary success of
Chile's
economic performance in the early 1990s has given Chile
the status
of a "model" country, with a global rather than regional
focus.
Chile's relations with other Latin America countries
have
improved considerably with the return of legitimate
governments in
the region. However, serious border disputes still cloud
relations
with the country's three contiguous neighbors. Chile's
victory over
Peru and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific meant that
Bolivia lost
the province of Antofagasta and became landlocked, while
Peru lost
its southern province of Tarapacá. The quest to regain
access to
the sea became the major foreign policy objective for
Bolivia and
is still a source of tension with Chile. The two countries
do not
maintain full diplomatic relations. A treaty signed in
1929
resolved major boundary disputes with Peru that arose
following the
War of the Pacific, but many Peruvians do not accept the
terms of
the treaty. Tensions between the two countries reached
dangerous
levels in 1979, the centennial of the War of the Pacific.
Chile's most serious border conflict was with Argentina
and
concerned three islands named Picton, Lennox, and Nueva
that are
located south of the Beagle Channel. The two countries
agreed to
submit to arbitration by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. In
May 1977,
the queen ruled that the islands and all adjacent
formations
belonged to Chile. Argentina refused to accept the ruling,
and
relations between the two countries became extremely
tense, moving
to the brink of open warfare. In 1978 the two countries
agreed to
allow the pope to mediate the dispute through the good
offices of
Cardinal Antonio Samoré, his special envoy. The pope's
ruling
resulted in the ratification of a treaty to settle the
dispute in
Rome in May 1985. With the inauguration of democratic
governments
in both countries, relations improved significantly. In
August
1991, presidents Aylwin and Carlos Saúl Menem signed a
treaty that
resolved twenty-two pending border disputes, while
agreeing to
resolve the two remaining ones by arbitration. Chile
continues to
claim a wedge-shape section of Antarctica, called the
Chilean
Antarctic Territory (Territorio Chileno Antártico), that
is also
claimed in part by Argentina and Britain
(see
fig. 12).
Data as of March 1994
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