Free Republic

Leftism: Chile has long been a global model of free-market economics. But on Sunday, it elected socialist Michelle Bachelet, who ran on a platform of tax hikes and "free" education. What drives a country to reject success? Bachelet took an astonishing 62% of the vote against her more conservative rival, Evelyn Matthei, who drew just 38%. It wasn't entirely surprising: Bachelet projected a cheery, confident, maternal demeanor and made few gaffes, quite unlike the less polished Matthei. She also had a good record: As president from 2006 to 2010, she left office with a phenomenal 84% popularity rating — in...

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Chile's once and future leader Michelle Bachelet easily won Sunday's presidential runoff, returning center-left parties to power by promising profound social changes in response to years of street protests. Bachelet won 62 percent of the vote, the most decisive victory in eight decades of Chilean elections. Her conservative rival, Evelyn Matthei only got 37 percent of the vote and conceded defeat in the worst performance for the right in two decades. Bachelet needs the momentum of her resounding victory to strengthen her mandate and try to overcome congressional opposition to fulfill her promises. The 62-year old...

This Sunday, Chileans will head to the polls for the final round of voting in this year’s presidential elections. Constituents choosing to participate will vote for the second time in less than a month, in a runoff election between socialist candidate Michelle Bachelet and the recent minister of labor and social security, Evelyn Matthei.

Chilean presidential candidate, Evelyn Matthei, recently met with evangelicals to discuss her biblically conservative agenda, which she vows to maintain if elected president during the nation's Dec. 15 election. "I pledge to continue with the future of our government and God willing if I get there, nothing will be done that goes against what the Bible says," said Matthei, during her speech, according to her campaign website. "Marriage is between a man and a woman, and life is cared for from the moment of conception until natural death. No to abortion, no to euthanasia. That is a commitment I make...

Only a few years ago it seemed that the free market changes in Chile had created an irreversible positive change. Over the last 30 years I have traveled frequently to the area and have witnessed that no other country in the region can boast of similar positive changes. Also, since the return to democracy, the presidential elections have been very competitive. Although the candidates have varied on their economic ideas, the differences between them were negligible. The left-center coalition that won last week’s election, however, has enough bad ideas and power in congress to put an end to the positive...

Highly secretive trade agreement have been published on the WikiLeaks website with 95 pages that were taken from the recent TPP or better known as Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. The main aim of the TPP is to unite nations such as the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei that combine with itself about 40% of gross domestic product. Barack Obama and other leaders of the outstanding 11 states were keeping the TPP in secrecy for a lot of years. According to the officials, the agreement would stir up the economies of those...

The results are finally in regarding the death of Nobel-Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda — he was not murdered. Friends of the poet launched an investigation based on the testimony of his former driver Manuel Arayas in 2011. According to Arayas, Neruda had been poisoned in September 1973 by agents of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship and the official documents, which claimed he died from cancer, were hiding the truth. Judge Mario Carroza picked up the case, ordering the exhumation of Pablo Neruda in April of this year. After a long list of tests and forensic procedures, including those conducted...

President Obama and his senior cabinet officials are mounting a big push to bolster foreign direct investment in the US – amid evidence that America is falling behind other countries in the race for global capital. The evidence? How about the USA being near the bottom in the Americas with Chile leading and the USA down at the bottom with Mexico, El Salvador and Venezuela. Even Paraguay has a higher FDI as a percentage of GDP! fdiamericas “On the heels of the manufactured crises in Washington, it’s time for folks to come together and focus on doing everything we can...

IRGC and the spiritual vacuum of Latin American leftists The following is a glimpse of the kind of thing I often see while researching the activities of the IRGC (writ large) in Latin America. Communism fails to provide for the spiritual needs of leftwing political activists, and the Islamic Republic of Iran seems to have done a pretty good job of inserting themselves and the Khomeinist version of Shiism into that void. (Either that or the IRI is throwing lots of money around and the leftists are whores, which is certainly possible, but for the moment I'll take the more...

Pensions: In Chile, a major study shows the nation's private retirement accounts provide workers pensions worth 87% of their salaries, 73% of that from profits on savings. So much for the canard about the perils of markets. The story was front-page news in Chile's largest newspapers, El Mercurio and La Tercera, on Sept. 3, a powerful affirmation of what former Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain called "The Chilean Model" of private retirement accounts. The study of 28,000 households by Dictuc, a consultancy affiliated with the Catholic University of Chile, showed that male workers who contributed just 10%...

Songs by the Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias were used "to inflict psychological and physical damage" on prisoners detained during the military dictatorship of Chile's Augusto Pinochet. Dr Katia Chornik, a researcher at Manchester University, has looked into how the military dictator employed songs by Spain's most internationally celebrated singer as part of a "torture soundtrack". Other songs by former Beatle George Harrison, Italian pop artist Gigi l'Amoroso and the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange were played over and over again at high volume in the countless torture houses and concentration camps of Chile's dictatorship years. "Pinochet's system used...

On September 11, 1973 the Chilean military led by General Augusto Pinochet slapped Fidel Castro so smartly that his Stalinist regime (and its dutiful U.S. Media minions) are still sniveling and sniffling and wiping away tears of shock, pain and humiliation. True to form, The New York Times leads the sniveling. They just published an article decrying the Chilean “tragedy” (i.e. Chile saving itself from Castroism with a military coup and today the richest and freest nation in Latin America.) The article’s author Ariel Dorfman is a former advisor to Chile’s Marxist president and Castro acolyte Salvador Allende. This same...

<p>COLUMBUS, N.M. (AP) -- Authorities say an immigrant suspected of entering the country illegally attempted to make his journey in an unusual but hot place - a shipment of red chile.</p> <p>U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers working at a New Mexico border checkpoint said the man was discovered Thursday face down among a commercial load of the spicy stuff.</p>

Explanation: What will become of these galaxies? Spiral galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 are passing dangerously close to each other, but each is likely to survive this collision. Typically when galaxies collide, a large galaxy eats a much smaller galaxy. In this case, however, the two galaxies are quite similar, each being a sprawling spiral with expansive arms and a compact core. As the galaxies advance over the next tens of millions of years, their component stars are unlikely to collide, although new stars will form in the bunching of gas caused by gravitational tides. Close inspection of the...

Ten days ago, I wrote a column that mentioned fresh New Mexico green chile would soon be available at a grocery store in Washington, D.C. Some readers in Washington – and some who had friends or family in Washington – wrote me asking that I let them know when the chile arrives. Well, here’s your notice. The Harris Teeter grocery store at Jenkins Row on Capitol Hill now has a small stash of genuine Hatch green chile in hot, medium-hot and (last I checked) mild. It’s $1.29 per pound. That’s probably more than New Mexicans are used to paying, but...

Explanation: Storm clouds do sometimes come to Chile's Atacama desert, known as the driest place on Earth. These washed through the night sky just last month during the winter season, captured in this panoramic view. Drifting between are cosmic clouds more welcome by the region's astronomical residents though, including dark dust clouds in silhouette against the crowded starfields and nebulae of the central Milky Way. Below and right of center lies the Large Magellanic Cloud, appropriately named for its appearance in starry southern skies. City lights about 200 kilometers distant still glow along the horizon at the right, while bright...

An 11-year-old rape victim has garnered praise from Chile's president, Sebastian Pinera, after saying that she would be happy to keep her baby and shun abortion despite being 14 weeks pregnant through the sexual abuse inflicted upon her by her mother's partner. President Pinera, whose government has opposed lifting the country's complete ban on abortion, even in cases of medical conditions, rape or incest, said in a statement that he is surprised by the girl's "depth and maturity." "I've asked the health minister to personally look after the [girl's] health," Pinera recently told reporters, according to BBC News. "She's 14...

Amnesty International says an 11-year-old girl who was raped by her mother’s partner in Chile should be allowed all medical options, including an abortion. Abortions, even for medical reasons and in the case of rape, have been illegal since Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. President Sebastian Pinera’s government opposes any easing of the ban. …

Chilean President Sebastián Pinera said an 11-year-old girl who is having a baby conceived by rape has shown 'depth and maturity'. Chile's president has praised an 11-year-old girl after she said in a TV interview that she wants to give birth to the baby who was conceived when she was raped by her mother's partner. "I've asked the health minister to personally look after the [girl's] health," Pinera said. "She's 14 weeks pregnant and yesterday she surprised us all with words showing depth and maturity, when she said that despite the pain caused by the man who raped her, she...

Waves as high as 7m (22 ft) have hit parts of Chile and coastal areas are on alert as high winds and tidal currents sweep across parts of South America's coast. Footage showed huge waves surging onto the streets of Antofagasta in Chile where at least one injury was reported following the dangerous weather. In Peru, parts of the country's coastline were hit with waves as big as 5m (16 ft) and the weather caused flooded streets in the seaside city of Chimbote.