Chilean Government Research Articles

The 1970s Chile: lessons and warnings for contemporary democracy

The article analyses the communication factors that led up and contributed to General Pinochet’s coup against Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government in Chile in September 1973. Empirically based on interviews held with Chilean politicians and journalists in autumn 1972 and a content analysis of changes in key newspapers’ political coverage between 1970 and 1973, lessons and warnings for communication roles in present-day liberal democracies are drawn from two features of this case: (1) intense political and media polarisation, and (2) challenges to and confusion over conventional journalistic norms. The possibilities and difficulties of overcoming the resulting problems are canvassed in the article’s conclusion.

Prawna sytuacja ludności Rapa Nui w świetle regionalnych norm prawa międzynarodowego

Celem artykułu było zaprezentowanie sytuacji ludności Rapa Nui (Wyspy Wielkanocnej) oraz dokonanie jej prawnej analizy w świetle regionalnych norm prawa międzynarodowego. Rapa Nui została zaanektowana przez Chile w 1888 r. Od tego czasu obserwuje się łamanie praw ludności autochtonicznej zamieszkującej Wyspę. Sytuacja prawna mieszkańców Wyspy Wielkanocnej jest trudna ze względu na nierespektowanie przez chilijski rząd m.in. prawa do samostanowienia czy prawa do ochrony środowiska naturalnego. Założeniem badawczym było omówienie sytuacji faktycznej, w jakiej znajdują się autochtoni, oraz skonfrontowanie jej z sytuacją prawną, która daje sposobność do polepszenia trudnej pozycji Rapa Nui. Istnieje szereg norm prawa regionalnego Ameryki, wraz z serią wyroków Międzyamerykańskiego Trybunału Praw Człowieka, które mogą pomóc w faktycznym odzyskaniu swobód przez miejscową ludność, a także doprowadzić do poprawy ich sytuacji materialnej. Zastosowana metoda badawcza to metoda analizy prawnej, polegająca na analizie treści obowiązujących regulacji prawnych, umów prawa wewnętrznego, regionalnego sądownictwa oraz międzynarodowych porozumień regulujących sytuację mniejszości autochtonicznych, a także wewnętrznych danych urzędowych. Wyniki wskazują na konkretne możliwości prawne dla ludności Rapa Nui, która ma podstawy egzekwować swoje prawa w zakresie uniwersalnych swobód obywatelskich, respektowania ich konstytucyjnych praw społecznych i ekonomicznych wraz z prawem do życia w czystym środowisku naturalnym.

Readability and types of questions in Chilean EFL high school textbooks

This article evaluates the mandatory English as a foreign language textbooks provided by the government in Chile in terms of readability and types of questions. Three readability formulas are used to analyze the texts: Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch‐Kincaid Grade Level, and Coh‐Metrix L2 reading index (RDL2). To evaluate the cognitive demands that comprehension questions place on students, Day and Park’s (2005) taxonomy of questions is used. The findings of this study reveal that the readability of the texts used in textbooks for 10th and 12th graders is similar, but the texts used in the textbook for 11th graders are more difficult to read. Regarding the types of questions, literal comprehension questions are more used in 12th‐grade texts than in those for 10th and 11th grades. Consequently, there does not seem to be a progression either in readability or in cognitive demand across these grades.

Advanced determination of the spatial gradient of human health risk and ecological risk from exposure to As, Cu, Pb, and Zn in soils near the Ventanas Industrial Complex (Puchuncaví, Chile)

The townships of Puchuncaví and Quintero, on the coast of central Chile, have soils contaminated by atmospheric deposition of sulfur dioxide and trace elements from the nearby Ventanas Industrial Complex. The purpose of this study was to evaluate potential human health and ecological risks, by determining the spatial distribution of soil total concentrations arsenic (As), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) in these townships. Total concentrations of these elements were determined in 245 topsoil samples, used to generate continuous distribution maps. The background concentrations of Cu, As, Pb, and Zn in the studied soils were 100, 16, 35, and 122 mg kg−1, respectively. The concentrations of Cu, As, and Pb were positively correlated with each other, suggesting that their source is the Ventanas copper smelter. On the other hand, correlations for Zn were weaker than for other trace elements, suggesting low impact of the Ventanas copper smelter on spatial distribution of Zn. Indeed, only 6% of the study area exhibited Zn concentrations above the background level. In contrast, 77, 32 and 35% of the study area presented Cu, As, and Pb concentrations, respectively, above the background level. The carcinogenic risk due to exposure to As was above the threshold value of 10−04 in the population of young children (1–5 years old) on 27% of the study area. These risk values are classified as unacceptable, which require specific intervention by the Chilean government. Based on the estimated concentrations of exchangeable Cu, 10, 15, and 75% of the study area exhibited high, medium, and low phytotoxicity risk, respectively.

Creencias de padres haitianos: Rol de la escuela en la inclusión social de sus hijos/as

Desde el último año, el gobierno de Chile ha encabezado un proceso de modificación en la política educacional entre Chile y Haití. Esto último es una condición interviniente de inclusión social para los mismos haitianos que llegan al país.En este contexto, se realizó una investigación que describe y analiza las creencias de padres haitianos de la comuna de Quilicura, respecto del rol de la escuela en los procesos de inclusión social de sus hijos e hijas. Los principales resultados dan cuenta de una diversidad cultural que existe hoy en la escuela, en donde las creencias de los padres haitianos no son consideradas. Además de prevalecer en la escuela el enfoque de integración social más que el de inclusión social, lo cual hace que niños y niñas coarten su proceso de inclusión social efectiva en el establecimiento, ya que no tienen el apoyo ni las herramientas para desarrollarlo correctamente.

Immigration and human capital: consequences of a nineteenth century settlement policy

I study a settlement policy implemented by the Chilean government between 1882 and 1904 to analyze the relationship between European immigration and the human capital of natives. Using historical censuses, I show that this policy was successful in recruiting skilled Europeans, who located in different parts of the country. Using a panel data of provinces observed between 1860 and 1920, I find a strong, positive, and robust correlation between recruited Europeans and the human capital of natives. This finding is not driven by changes in the provision of public goods or regional shocks. However, the arrival of Europeans is associated with an increase local economic output 50 years after the policy was terminated. These changes in the local economy, together with narrative historical evidence, suggest that a modernization of economic activities is a potential explanation for the increase in the human capital of natives.

Chile

The Chilean government has announced its commitment to achieving its fiscal target and containing expenditure growth. The fiscal target aims to reduce the structural balance by 0.2 percent of GDP for each year of the four-year Presidential term from 2018–21. To achieve this target, the government announced a four-year consolidation plan to gradually reduce expenditure each year by approximately US$1.1 billion to realize a total of US$4.4 billion in savings over the period.1 The government has achieved its 2018 structural balance target. To help meet its goals in the coming years, and to find fiscal space for the President’s program, the government is adopting a new tool, spending reviews (SRs).

Marine Coastal Resources as an Engine of Development for the Lafkenche and Williche Populations of Southern Chile

Lafkenche and Williche, the Mapuche coastal population in Chile, used coastal marine areas and resources for centuries. The Spanish colonization and the subsequent establishment of the Republic of Chile curtailed these access rights and traditional uses. In 2008, the government of Chile introduced the “Lafkenche Law” establishing exclusive access rights for traditional indigenous use of coastal marine areas and resources, but the law has not led to effective self-determination or the development of the ethnic Mapuche populations. Interviews with indigenous community leaders in October 2014 confirmed their dissatisfaction with this law. This article discusses whether the experience of other nations, such as the innovative Community Development Quota Program in Alaska in the United States, which allocates a portion of certain species in the Bering Sea to coastal communities, can help overcome marine resources access barriers affecting the Mapuche people.

Willingness of rural communities to reforest with native tree species in central Chile

Economic development of rural people is not always feasible along with concomitant forest restoration, especially when meager reforestation incentives are oriented to poor rural people who probably are not willing to plant native species in their small plots of land. Forest restoration incentives have been created by the Chilean government to engage poor rural people in reforestation using native tree species to recover degraded lands. Our objective was to compare the willingness of people from rural communities to plant native species if they had to bear the costs or if the government did, and we related the answers to environmental and socioeconomic variables. Of the 217 respondents 53.9% were interested in planting native trees if subsidies became available. Interest decreased if the respondents had to pay for the cost, but only slightly. The willingness to reforest was significantly greater at lower distance from the community to the nearest native forest for those with lower income level, and was higher when there was use of nontimber forest products or wood by the respondents. However, in spite of the positive disposition to plant native trees, only 23% of the respondents were interested in planting on their own land, which is a requirement to receive the economic incentives. Most respondents were willing to plant in open sites and on degraded hillsides that surround their communities. We conclude that despite monetary incentives, benefits cannot reach most rural inhabitants because of their lack of interest in reforesting their own land.

How Pension Rules Affect Work and Contribution Patterns: A Behavioral Model of the Chilean Privatized Pension System

Chile has been at the forefront of pension reform, having switched in 1980 from a pay-as-you-go system to a fully funded privatized accounts system. The Chilean system served as a model for reform in many other Latin American countries and has also been considered by U.S. policy makers as a possible prototype for social security reform. Some of the criticisms of the Chilean system are low coverage rates and contributions rates among certain segments of the population. In 2006, the Chilean government proposed some reforms aimed at increasing coverage and contribution rates and expanding the safety net provided by the system to poor households. This study evaluates how changes in pension system rules affect working behavior and pension contribution patterns using data from a new Chilean household survey administered in 2002 and 2004 linked with administrative data from the pension regulatory agency. It develops and estimates a dynamic model of decision-making about working in the covered or uncovered sectors of the economy and studies implications for pension accumulations. The estimated model is used to simulate behavior under different pension system rules, such as a change in the number of years of contributions required for the minimum pension or a change in pension plan fees.

NECESSITY OF INTERVENTION POLICIES FOR TAILINGS IDENTIFIED IN THE ANTOFAGASTA REGION, CHILE

The aim of this work was to establish the intervention requirements of 30 tailings deposits located in the region of Antofagasta, Chile, identified in the National Tailings Survey carried out by the National Service of Geology and Mining of the Chilean government in 2017. For the evaluation, the data of 49 geochemical characterizations of the samples registered as of October 2017 were considered. The methodology used for evaluation was based on the Dutch Soil Regulation Circular, from which two ways of assessment were developed. The first approach uses a simple graphic method that depends only on the concentration of the elements in the solid phase of tailings and the percentage of clay in the soil. The second approach considers that the information related to the clay percentage is not available, therefore, this work defines the concepts of threshold factor and adjusted threshold factor. Using the proposed method, this work presents the analysis carried out on the elements of environmental significance related to mining activity in Chile: Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn, Pb, As, Cd and Hg. The methodology allows delimiting areas of foreseeable risks for people and/or environment, resulting in three criteria for each element: 1) requires intervention, 2) requires conditional intervention, 3) does not require intervention. These results are summarized by means of a final score that determines the level of priority assigned to each sample. The analysis of results indicates that Hg intervention is not required, there being only one case requiring conditional intervention. Regarding Cu and Zn, 100 % of the measurements indicated at least the requirement of a conditional intervention. Within the region, the commune of Sierra Gorda contains 67 % of the tailings whose intervention must be prioritized according to the score obtained (greater than four out of a possible maximum of eight). On the other hand, the two tailings of greater tonnage (the sites of Talabre and Laguna Seca) do not present a requirement for priority intervention at the moment.

Chilean Arpilleras: Writing a Visual Culture

This paper highlights a recent inquiry into the contemporary visual culture of the Chilean arpillera from a cross-global perspective. This art form derived from political, social, and economic conditions of the times yet contemporary manifestations do not address these origins. Arpilleras, historically created in the home and sewn by hand, are constructions in which bits of discarded cloth and burlap were used to compose pictorial narratives. The art form arose in Chile during a period of intense political oppression. This manifestation of women’s fiber art has and continues to serve as both seditious and reconstructive forms of visual culture. While the government of Chile has undergone tremendous change since early arpilleras were created in response to atrocities committed by the Pinochet regime in the 1970s and 80s, the original intention and audience of the arpillera has changed as well. As an American traveling to Chile, I was excited to have an opportunity to see these works of art in person. Yet I discovered that the once powerful form of political resistance is no longer created to tell personal stories of oppression or acknowledge the lives of those disappeared and murdered. Rather, contemporary arpilleras (excluding those in museums) display playful images of rural Chilean life and idyllic landscapes. Arpilleras, once a subversive way to communicate to humanitarian organizations outside Chile, are now a bright, colorful commodity packed into suitcases and proudly shared as souvenirs. This robust part of Chilean tourism-sold as wall-hangings and cards, are manufactured by machine in workshops staffed with a predominantly male workforce. In this paper I seek to tease out the ways in which these changes potentially alter the value and impact of arpilleras within visual culture by asking how do these contemporary manifestations reflect the Chilean cultural identity yet ignore it as well?

Reivindicaciones marítimas bolivianas durante la Guerra del Pacífico

The article examines the negotiations promoted by the governments of Chile and Bolivia to guarantee the country maritime access during the Pacific War, and the role played by Peru in these negotiations. According to the analysis, the Chilean position, although not precisely a determined one on the subject, was initially favorable to guarantee territorial grants. This changed after the Bolivian withdrawal of its military forces in 1880. This lack of determination of the Chilean authorities, which was due to the interest of privileging dominance over the nitrate regions, was interpreted by the Bolivian authorities as a clear will to negotiate their domination over the provinces of Tacna and Arica, transforming thus the country into an effective border between the two belligerent nations. The role of Bolivia in the conflict lost all relevance after the battle of Tacna, which conditioned its territorial aspirations. With a polarized political class and with a willful perseverance in maintaining its alliance with Peru, the country was unable to reconcile its geostrategic interests with a diplomatic definition that guaranteed a maritime position (or a possible negotiation to obtain it), and whose consequence was the Chilean refusal to make peace on the basis of territorial grants.

SIMA Austral: An operational information system for managing the Chilean aquaculture industry with international application

ABSTRACTThe Integrated Management System for the Aquaculture (SIMA in Spanish) is a comprehensive interoperable information and modelling platform that has been developed to provide the Chilean Aquaculture industry and government agencies with access to improved environmental intelligence allowing them to make better informed strategic and operational decisions. SIMA is built upon an integrated system of biophysical production data, catchment and coastal-marine models, visualisation, reporting and risk-based decision support tools. This communication briefly describes the SIMA architecture and components and provides examples of applications of how it can be used to inform policy and management decisions, and discusses challenges and key learnings and considers future developments and applications.

Housewives at the end of the world. Chilean women living in Antarctica, 1984–1986

ABSTRACT Over time, Antarctica has been mainly inhabited and dominated by men. It is only in recent decades that the number of women in the icy continent increased, also gaining influence on the future of the region. Most of these women have been scientists and explorers who have joined research programmes in their own countries. By contrast, in the mid-1980s the Chilean Government deployed an audacious settlement project that included the engagement of women, albeit not as scientists but rather as wives and mothers. The main purpose of this article is to analyse the experience of these first Chilean women who lived in Antarctica from 1984 to 1986. These women, independent and professional, had to face a strict traditional social organisation dominated by men, and adapt – not without resistance – to the role of traditional housewives. This happened precisely as the majority of women linked to Antarctica were gaining ground taking on more prominent roles, particularly in the area of science. This research is mainly based on press articles of that time and oral testimonies collected by the author through interviews conducted from 2016 to 2018.

"Nuovi" sguardi alla disabilità e "vecchie" pratiche: un processo a due velocità. Dall'inserimento all'inclusione in ambito universitario

The Chilean Government has been taking legal action since 2010 by the law of 20.422 that establishes the Norms about Equal Opportunities and Inclusion for Disabled Persons. Despite above mentioned anti-discriminatory legislation framework and progress, several factor hamper the inclusion at university. Democratisation of HE has helped to ensure a growing trend of increasing enrolment of students with disability in Chile, although it is still not significant enough in terms of potential numbers.Starting from this scenario, the paper aims to provide an overview of the principal steps carried out during the MUSE Project in Latin American in order to highlight the progresses and the challenges of a process in act which has the objective of improve access, ensure retention conditions and develop rich learning opportunities for HEIs' Disabled Students.

Rezago, sector forestal y trampas territoriales. La provincia de Arauco

El rezago es una condición vinculada al fenómeno del desarrollo, siendo una nueva nomenclatura bajo la cual se presenta la distinción entre desarrollo y subdesarrollo. En este caso, se analiza el Programa de Gestión Territorial para Zonas Rezagadas (2014-2018) impulsado por el Gobierno de Chile. Los resultados de la investigación constatan la existencia de una trampa territorial que constriñe el desarrollo de la Provincia de Arauco, la que se encuentra constituida por factores como la condición periférica de la Provincia, el centralismo, las características de la expansión forestal, la implementación de políticas públicas poco eficientes y la escasa diseminación del valor generado por la gran empresa forestal. Se concluye que, tanto el predominio de la actividad forestal como las cualidades de la política pública para enfrentar el rezago son factores influyentes en la permanencia de la provincia de Arauco en una condición desfavorable con respecto a la realidad regional y nacional.

Soil and indoor dust as environmental media of human exposure to As, Cd, Cu, and Pb near a copper smelter in central Chile

In the present study, we assessed the non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic human health risk due to exposure to trace elements in soil and indoor dust in Puchuncaví valley. We also determined the associations between trace element concentration in hair/toenails and the estimated chronic daily intake of trace elements in soil and indoor dust. We found statistically significant association between the trace element concentration in hair/toenails and the estimated chronic daily intake of soil and indoor dust. Indoor dust was more important than soil in terms of human exposure to trace elements in Puchuncaví, due to the high concentration of trace elements on this environmental media and long periods of time that the population spends at their households. With regards to non-carcinogenic risk, we found that there was no health risk associated to soil and indoor dust exposure in the Puchuncaví valley, because none of the hazard quotient values surpassed 1.0. However, carcinogenic risk due to arsenic exposure was above the threshold value of 1.0E-04 in the population of young children (from 1 to 5 years old) in all studied areas, including the control, and in the population of children (from 6 to <18 years old) in the exposed area. Such risk values are classified as unacceptable (US EPA, 2001), requiring some target intervention from the Chilean government.

Escuela y Formación ciudadana: Concepciones de ciudadanía, formación ciudadana y del rol de la escuela

El artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación de carácter cualitativa, financiada por el Gobierno de Chile y la Universidad del Bío-Bío. El objetivo ha sido estudiar las concepciones y representaciones que sobre la Ciudadanía poseen diversos actores de colegios municipales ubicados en dos regiones del sur del país.&#x0D; El material empírico que ha servido de base para la investigación han sido 9 grupos de discusión realizados en un taller, en el marco de una investigación acción. El procesamiento y ulterior análisis de la información se realizó mediante reducción categorial con la asistencia del software ATLAS.ti 7.&#x0D; Las preguntas iniciales que guiaron la discusión estuvieron dirigidas a indagar las concepciones que los diferentes actores de los establecimientos poseían sobre lo que es un ciudadano, la formación para la ciudadanía y el rol que asignan a la Escuela en su formación. &#x0D; Los resultados indican que a pesar de los cambios en el currículum y de las últimas políticas públicas introducidas, entre las que destaca la promulgación de una Ley especial, persiste la dimensión de un ciudadano ligado a derechos y deberes y un sentido marcadamente nacional. Destacándose la vinculación que los/as informantes realizan con el respeto a los derechos humanos.&#x0D; &#x0D; This papers presents the results of a qualitative research, funded by the Government of Chile and the Universidad del Bío-Bío. The objective has been to study the conceptions and representations that about the Citizenship have diverse actors of municipal schools located in two regions of the south of the country.&#x0D; The empirical material that has served as the basis for the research has been 9 discussion groups held in a workshop, in the framework of an action research. The processing and further analysis of the information was done by categorical reduction with the assistance of the software ATLAS.ti 7.&#x0D; The initial questions that guided the discussion were aimed at investigating the conceptions that the different actors of the establishments had about what a citizen is, the training for citizenship and the role assigned to the School in its formation.&#x0D; The results indicate that in spite of the changes in the curriculum and the latest public policies introduced, among which the promulgation of a special Law stands out, the dimension of a citizen linked to rights and duties and a markedly national sense persists. Highlighting the link that the informants make with respect to human rights.

Severe mental illness and substance use disorders in prisoners in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence studies

SummaryBackgroundAlthough more than two thirds of the world's incarcerated individuals are based in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), the burden of psychiatric disorders in this population is not known. This review provides estimates for the prevalence of severe mental illness and substance use disorders in incarcerated individuals in LMICs.MethodsFor this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched 17 electronic databases to identify prevalence studies of psychiatric disorders in prison populations in LMICs, published between January, 1987, and May, 2018. We included representative studies from general prison samples, providing information about four major psychiatric diagnoses: psychosis, major depression, alcohol use disorders, and drug use disorders. We pooled data from studies using random-effects meta-analyses and assessed the sources of heterogeneity by meta-regression. We extracted general population estimates from the Global Burden of Diseases 2016 database to calculate comparative prevalence ratios. This study is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42015020905.FindingsWe identified 23 publications reporting prevalence estimates of severe mental illness and substance use disorders for 14 527 prisoners from 13 LMICs. In this population, the estimated pooled 1 year prevalence rates for psychosis were 6·2% (95% CI 4·0–8·6), 16·0% (11·7–20·8) for major depression, 3·8% (1·2–7·6) for alcohol use disorders, and 5·1% (2·9–7·8) for drug use disorders. We noted increased prevalence at prison intake and geographic variations for substance use disorders. For alcohol use disorders, prevalence was higher in the southeast Asian region than in the eastern Mediterranean region; and drug use disorders were more prevalent in the eastern Mediterranean region than in Europe. Prevalence ratios indicated substantially higher rates of severe mental illness and substance use disorders among prisoners than in the general population (the prevalence of non-affective psychosis was on average 16 times higher, major depression and illicit drug use disorder prevalence were both six times higher, and prevalence of alcohol use disorders was double that of the general population).InterpretationThe prevalence of major psychiatric disorders is high in prisoners in LMIC compared with general populations. As these findings are likely to reflect unmet needs, the development of scalable interventions should be a public health priority in resource-poor settings.FundingCONICYT of the Chilean government and the Wellcome Trust.