In recent years, and after several major reequipment programs, the Chilean Army has become one of the most technologically advanced and professional armies in the Americas.

Chile is today one of South America's most stable and prosperous nations. It leads Latin American nations in rankings of human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, state of peace, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption.

Chile has the highest degree of economic freedom in South America (ranking 7th worldwide), owing to its independent and efficient judicial system and prudent public finance management. In May 2010 Chile became the first South American country to join the OECD.

In 2006, Chile became the country with the highest nominal GDP per capita in Latin America.

Sound economic policies, maintained consistently since the 1980s, have contributed to steady economic growth in Chile and have more than halved poverty rates.

The unemployment rate was 6.4% in April 2013. There are reported labour shortages in agriculture, mining, and construction. The percentage of Chileans with per capita household incomes below the poverty line—defined as twice the cost of satisfying a person's minimal nutritional needs—fell from 45.1 percent in 1987 to 11.5 percent in 2009, according to government surveys.

The privatized national pension system (AFP) has encouraged domestic investment and contributed to an estimated total domestic savings rate of approximately 21 percent of GDP.

In the 1980s the government launched market-oriented reforms with Hernán Büchi as Minister of Finance. Chile moved toward a free market economy that saw an increase in domestic and foreign private investment, although the copper industry and other important mineral resources were not opened for competition.

ABC countries, or ABC Powers, is a term sometimes used to describe the South American countries of Argentina, Brazil and Chile, which are seen as three of the most powerful and wealthy countries in South America.

Britanska fregata tip 22:

Almirante Williams

Britanska fregata tip 23:

Almirante Cochrane
Almirante Lynch
Almirante Condell

Juan Williams Rebolledo (1825 in Curacaví, Melipilla Province – June 24, 1910 in Santiago), was a Chilean rear admiral who was the organizer and commander-in-chief of the Chilean navy in 1879 at the beginning of the War of the Pacific.

Williams was the son of John Williams Wilson, an English-Chilean navy officer, and Micaela Rebolledo, born in Chile. From a seafaring family in Bristol, England, his father had immigrated to Chile at the age of 27 to serve in its recently formed navy under the command of Lord Cochrane. He reached the rank of commander.

Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Marquess of Maranhão, GCB, ODM (14 December 1775 – 31 October 1860), styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was a British naval flag officer of the Royal Navy and radical politician.

Thomas Cochrane was born at Annsfield, near Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, the son of Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald and Anna Gilchrist. She was the daughter of Captain James Gilchrist and Ann Roberton, the daughter of Major John Roberton, 16th Laird of Earnock.

He was dismissed from the Royal Navy in 1814, following a conviction for fraud on the Stock Exchange. He helped organise and lead the rebel navies of Chile, Brazil and Greece during their respective wars of independence through the 1820s. While in charge of the Chilean Navy, Cochrane also contributed to Peruvian Independence through the Freedom Expedition of Perú.

His life and exploits inspired the naval fiction of 19th- and 20th-century novelists, particularly the figures of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O'Brian's protagonist Jack Aubrey.

Patricio Javier de los Dolores Lynch y Solo de Zaldívar (Valparaíso 18 December 1825 – 13 May 1886) was a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and a Rear Admiral in the Chilean navy, and one of the principal figures of the later stages of the War of the Pacific. He has been nicknamed the "Last Viceroy of Peru" and the Chinese slave-labourers he liberated from the Peruvian haciendas, called him the "Red Prince" because of his red-hair.

Lynch was born in the port of Valparaíso, Chile, the son of Estanislao Lynch y Roo, a wealthy merchant resident in Chile, and of Carmen Solo de Zaldívar y Rivera. His father, a former Colonel in the Army of the Andes, had settled in Chile from Argentina and was a grandson of Patrick Lynch, an emigrant from Galway, Ireland to Buenos Aires in the 1740s. His connection to Patrick Lynch makes him a distant relative of Che Guevara.

Carlos Arnaldo Condell De La Haza (August 14, 1843 in Valparaíso – November 24, 1887 in Quilpué) was a prominent Chilean naval officer and hero of the Battle of Punta Gruesa during the start of the War of the Pacific.

Carlos Condell was born August 14, 1843 in Valparaíso, Chile. His father was the Scottish merchant marine Federico Condell, and his mother was the Peruvian aristocrat Lady Manuela De la Haza.

Čile je uvijek bio malo ispred ostalih

Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme (1778–1842) was a Chilean independence leader who, together with José de San Martín, freed Chile from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence. Although he was the second Supreme Director of Chile (1817–1823), he is considered one of Chile's founding fathers, as he was the first holder of this title to head a fully independent Chilean state. O'Higgins was of Spanish and Irish ancestry.

Bernardo O'Higgins, a member of the O'Higgins Family, was born in the Chilean city of Chillán in 1778, the illegitimate son of Ambrosio O'Higgins, 1st Marquis of Osorno, a Spanish officer born in County Sligo, Ireland, who became governor of Chile and later viceroy of Peru. His mother was Isabel Riquelme, a prominent local; the daughter of Don Simón Riquelme y Goycolea, a member of the Chillán Cabildo, or council.

Ambrosio Bernardo O'Higgins, 1st Marquis of Osorno (c. 1720 – March 19, 1801) born Ambrose Bernard O'Higgins (Ambrós Bearnárd Ó hUiginn, in Irish), was a member of the O'Higgins family and an Irish-born Spanish colonial administrator. He served the Spanish Empire as captain general (i.e., military governor) of Chile (1788–1796) and viceroy of Peru (1796–1801). Chilean independence leader Bernardo O'Higgins was his illegitimate son.

A member of the O'Higgins family, Ambrose was born at his family's ancestral seat in Ballynary, County Sligo, Ireland; the son of Charles O'Higgins and his wife (and kinswoman) Margaret O'Higgins, who having lost their lands in Sligo migrated and became tenant farmers at Clondoogan near Summerhill in County Meath ca. 1721.

O'Higgins (Irish: Ó hUigin) is an Irish noble family descended from Shean (Seán) Duff O'Higgins (fl. 1600 C.E.), Gaelic Baron of Ballynary, who was married to a daughter of the royal family of O'Conor at Ballintuber Castle in Connacht. Shean Duff O'Higgins himself claimed descent from King Niall of Tara (d. 450 C.E.). The family enjoyed the patronage of several chiefly families including O'Conor Don, MacDermott, O'Doherty, O'Gara, and MacDonagh.

O'Higgins are counted among the Gaelic nobility as a sept of the royal house of O'Neill. Members of this family were further ennobled in 1724 by James III (pretender to the throne of England and Ireland) during his in exile in France, and again in 1795 and 1796 by Charles IV of Spain.

After the fall of the Gaelic Order in the 17th century various branches of the O'Higgins family suffered for their loyalty to the Irish way of life and were evicted from their estates at Dooghorne, Monteige and Ballynary in Sligo and at Kilbeg in Westmeath by forces loyal to Oliver Cromwell. The Barons of Ballynary in Sligo migrated to Summerhill in County Meath where in 1721 a relative had become the Roman Catholic Parish Priest. Other members of the family fled to Spain and France where they entered the service of Catholic monarchs sympathetic to their plight.

In 1751 Ambrose O'Higgins left Summerhill in Co. Meath for Cadiz in Spain from where he went to Peru and Chile. In 1788 he became Governor General of Chile. He was ennobled by King Carlos IV of Spain initially in 1795 as 1st Barón de Ballinar and again in 1796 when he was raised to Marqués de Osorno. His son Bernardo O'Higgins became the first Head of State of Chile in 1818.

Antonio Andrónico Luksic Abaroa (Croatian: Androniko Lukšić) (November 5, 1926 – August 18, 2005) was a Chilean businessman of Croatian origin. Through his lifetime, he found the Luksic Group becoming the richest person in Chile, the fourth in Latin America, and the 132nd in the World, with a net worth in 2005 of US$4.2 billion according to Forbes magazine.

The Luksic Group has interests in the mining, financial, industrial and the beverages sectors. Major holdings include, or have included, Banco de Chile, Compañia de Cervecerias Unidas (CCU), and Antofagasta plc, a UK-listed copper mining company. In Croatia he was involved in the tourist industry.

On September 2002, the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio published an interview with Andrónico Luksic titled "Don Andrónico cuenta su historia" (Don Andrónico shares his story). In this interview he explains how, after a life of hard work, he had decided to retire and "dedicate himself to what he liked the most: his family, his beloved Croatia and social assistance".

Luksic was born in Antofagasta, to a Bolivian mother, Elena Abaroa (great-grandchild of Bolivian War of the Pacific hero Eduardo Abaroa), and a Croatian immigrant father, Policarpo, who had arrived in Chile from the Adriatic island of Brač in 1910 and had made a living in the nitrate industry.

Luksic married Ena Craig and they had two sons: Andrónico (born April 16, 1954) and Guillermo (born January 14, 1956). Luksic was widowed when Ena died in 1959. He married Iris Fontbona in 1961, when she was 18 years old. They had two daughters: Paola (born 1961-1962) and Gabriela (born 1962-1963), and one son: Jean-Paul (born May 31, 1964.)

Luksic died of cancer on August 18, 2005. As of 2011, Iris Fontbona and her family had a net worth of US$19.2 billion.

As of October 2012 the Bloomberg Billionaires Index lists Iris Fontbona is listed as the 33rd richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of 19.7 billion.

Lukšići su do danas podigli biznis koji je prema američkom izdanju časopisa Forbes vrijedan 17,4 milijarde dolara, što ih je dovelo na 35. mjesto Forbesove liste globalnih milijardera. Put Lukšića prema bogatstvu počeo je tako što je Andronico Lukšić, sin hrvatskog emigranta Policapara Lukšića koji se u Čile s Brača odselio 1910. godine, tijekom 80-ih kupovao rudnike bakra u pustinji Atacama i neprofitabilne željezničke pruge. Sreća mu se osmjehnula kad je rudnik bakra prodavao Japancima i dobio za njega pola milijuna dolara umjesto istog iznosa čileanskih pesosa, koliko je tražio. U Hrvatsku se Lukšići vraćaju početkom 1990-ih godina na poziv dr. Tuđmana.

Počeli su s pivom, kupivši Karlovačku pivovaru, koju su platili stotinjak milijuna njemačkih maraka. Rodoljubni iskorak pokazao se profitabilnim biznisom jer su pivovaru deseak godina kasnije prodali Heinekenu.

Danas Lukšići s kompanijama Plava Laguna iz Poreča i Jadranski luksuzni hoteli iz Dubrovnika u Hrvatskoj sa 23.852 kreveta u 18 hotela, 4 turistička naselja i 4 kampa drže 9,8 posto svih turističkih kapaciteta i treći su na listi turističkih kompanija po tom kriteriju, iza Valamara i Maistre.

Stari je Androniko uspostavio najveće poslovno carstvo u povijesti Čilea. Drmao je rudnicima, željeznicom, turizmom, ugostiteljstvom, bankama i telekomunikacijom. Redovito je gostovao na Forbesovoj ljestvici najbogatijih ljudi svijeta. Imao je osebujan društveni život i još osebujnije životne stavove. Mirno je, recimo, pričao kako je brutalni diktator Pinochet najzaslužniji za procvat čileanske ekonomije.

- S ljudskim pravima bilo je strašno, ali je prosperitet došao s Pinochetom - rekao mi je Androniko prije nekoliko godina, kad sam bila kod njega na ranču, u samom srcu velikog poslovnog carstva. - Bio je diktator - nastavi Androniko - ali je bio uvjeren da je jedina solucija slobodna ekonomija i to je bilo uspješno.

U proljeće 2000. godine, kad smo bili u Čileu na poziv Andronika, njegova je korporacija težila oko tri milijarde dolara. Danas je riječ o 19,2 milijarde - šest i pol puta više. Lukšićeva korporacija zapošljava 16 tisuća ljudi po svijetu. Lani je imala 4,7 milijardi dolara prometa, što je 40 posto godišnjeg izvoza Hrvatske, a dionice kompanije u godinu su dana porasle nevjerovatnih 70 posto.

A od prije nekoliko dana, moćna Lukšić grupacija, točnije, ambiciozni sinovi pokojnog Andronika, preuzela je luksuzne hotele Gorana Štroka. Nagađa se kako se radi o cifri od 120 milijuna eura. U njihovom su vlasništvu sada dubrovački hotel Excelsior, porečka Plava laguna, hotel Odisej na Mljetu, skupocjena Villa Šeherezada, Dubrovnik Palace... Ukupno 22 tisuća smještajnih jedinica. Lukšići ovime postaju apsolutni vladari jadranskog, a posebno dubrovačkog hotelskog luksuza.

Još tada, dok sam bila na njihovom čileanskom ranču, bilo je jasno kako Lukšići imaju ozbiljnih ambicija na hrvatskoj obali. - Ne možete zamisliti koliko mi je važno što ste novinari iz Hrvatske jer sam sa svojom krvlju - vidno sjetan govorio nam je Androniko Lukšić dok smo šetali njegovanim perivojem i ispijali tradicionalni čileanski aperitiv pisco sour. Hrvatska, ustvari, i nije domovina Andronika Lukšića, nego njegova oca koji je u Čile stigao s Brača 1910. godine, oženio se s Bolivijkom i 1926. dobio sina Andronika. Živjeli su tada u Antofagasti, lučkom i rudarskom gradu na sjeveru Čilea, po kojemu je jedan dio Lukšićeve korporacije i dobio ime. Za života Andronika Lukšića, koji je umro u kolovozu 2005. od raka, Antofagasta holding imao je u svom sastavu rudnike, željeznicu, banke i telekomunikacije, no danas se bavi samo rudarstvom, a ostali su poslovi prebačeni u drugu Lukšićevu kompaniju, Quinenco.

Augusto Pinochet’s grandson to launch new rightwing party in Chile

Political ambitions of Pinochet Molina clear as he presses allies to form a new movement, Republican Order My Country


Supporters of Augusto Pinochet hold portraits of him in Santiago, Chile, in 2006, before his death. Photograph: Aliosha Marquez/AP

The grandson of Augusto Pinochet is organising followers of the former dictator to launch a political party in Chile.

“Republican Order My Country” [Orden Republicano Mi Patria] is the name of the political movement. It condemns gay marriage yet supports legalised marijuana and reforms to the Pinochet-era constitution.

Though the pro-Pinochet forces have been organised for at least six years as a movement known as “For My Country”, after the arrest of a top Pinochet aide last week, Augusto Pinochet Molina, grandson of the dictator, stepped up formation of what supporters described as a centre-right political party.

While the proposed party acknowledges that the military abused citizens, they never speak of a dictatorship but of a “military government” followed by “a witch hunt” and a “vendetta” that jailed dozens of officers for the murder and disappearance of some 3,200 Chileans during the 17 years of Pinochet’s rule.

Pinochet Molina this week also sent out hundreds of invitations to the 99th birthday party of the dictator to be celebrated on 25 November. The location remains secret but among the invited guests is Cristian Labbé, a former Pinochet bodyguard charged last week with being part of a conspiracy to kidnap and murder 13 political prisoners.

A former captain in the Chilean army, Pinochet Molina was kicked out of the military after an impromptu speech he made at his grandfather’s 2006 funeral in Santiago, in which he applauded his grandfather’s campaign to “defeat Marxism” in Chile. A one time candidate for congress, Pinochet Molina is now positioning himself to run for office again.

“Augusto wanted to invite him because it is known that Labbé is a grand admirer of his grandfather, so for that very reason it would be an honour,” said Paolo Zarate, general secretary of For My Country in an interview.

Pinochet Molina’s decision to launch a political party is the latest salvo in a battle to lay claim to the now-deceased dictator’s legacy. For nearly a quarter of a century, the rightwing UDI party has held a lock on what Chilean pollsters call “the military family”, a conservative and influential bloc of voters. But moves to shut down a country club-style prison for imprisoned military officers and ongoing efforts to jail human rights violators has led to claims that even the pro-Pinochet UDI party has abandoned their former hero.

When Labbé was detained last week, a parade of rightwing politicians including senators went to honour their former colleague, though they sought to describe the visit as purely “humane” and not political.

“It is a party destined to be minority and most of all fascist,” said Chilean senator Alejandro Navarro in an interview with CNN.

Zvat će se helicopter party

Eto, kad razjuriš ljevičarsku komunističku bagru neizbježan ishod je stabilna, bogata i uređena država.

Radomiro Tomic Romero (7 May 1914 – 3 January 1992) was a Chilean politician of Croatian origin. He was one of the most prominent leaders of that country's Christian Democratic Party.

Born in Antofagasta, Tomic received his law degree from the Universidad Católica de Chile (UC), where he first became involved in political activity, in the Social Christian Party. One of the co-founders in 1938 of the Falange Nacional (later the Christian Democrat Party of Chile or PDC), he became president of the party 1946–1947 and 1952–1953. He was married to Olaya Errázuriz Echenique, and together they had 9 children.

Among other activities Tomic was director of the newspaper El Tarapacá of Iquique (1937–1941) and later of the Editorial del Pacífico.

Tomic served as deputy for Arica, Pisagua and Iquique (1941–1949). When senator and poet Pablo Neruda was banned by the Ley de Defensa Permanente de la Democracia (Law for the Permanent Defense of Democracy)—which banned the Communist Party of Chile and removed numerous voters from the rolls)—Tomić won the vacated seat in a by-election. He served as senator for Tarapacá and Antofagasta (1950–1953), and then for Aconcagua and Valparaíso (1961–1965). In 1965 he resigned his senatorial seat to become Chile's ambassador to the United States (4 March 1965 – April 1968).

As leader of the progressive wing of the Christian Democrats, he was the party's presidential candidate in the 1970 election in which Salvador Allende won a plurality and, with Tomic's support, was ratified by parliament as president. Allende died three years later in the Chilean coup of 1973, which put an end to democracy in Chile for over 15 years.

As a parliamentarian and politician Tomic was a defender of Chilean sovereignty over the country's copper deposits and in the nationalization of that industry. In 1997, CODELCO named a Radomiro Tomić mine in his honor.

Tomic died in 1992 in Santiago.

Važno je znati da je pri odabiru Allendea za predsjednika veliku imao jedan naše gore list (3% čileanske populacije su Hrvati). Radi se o Radomiru Tomiću. Nakon prvog kruga glasovanja na čilenakim izborima svoje glasove je pridodao Allendeu i tako ga učinio predsjednikom.

Španjolski medij: Hrvati su došli u Čile i osvojili najviše sfere moći

HRVATI koji su u 19. stoljeću počeli odlaziti u Čile u potrazi za zlatom nisu ga uspjeli pronaći, ali su osvojili najviše sfere moći u toj južnoameričkoj zemlji, piše španjolska novinska agencija EFE. Novoizabrani predsjednik države Gabriel Borić, utjecajni milijarder Andrónico Lukšić, deseci parlamentarnih zastupnika ili dobitnika nacionalnih umjetničkih nagrada imaju važne pozicije u zemlji s nešto više od 19 milijuna stanovnika.

Hrvati nisu ni najveća ni prva zajednica koja je kročila na udaljeno čileansko tlo, ali otkako su se nastanili u gradovima Punta Arenasu, na krajnjem jugu, te u Antofagasti na sjeveru zemlje, ostavili su dubok trag u nacionalnoj povijesti. Hrvati čine 2.4 posto populacije, odnosno oko 400.000 ljudi, službeni je podatak.

https://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/spa ... i_ostalo_d

Ako zna netko, koji je ovako najbolji grad u Čileu gdje su fine plaže, klima slična našoj i nema puno kriminala?

Punta Arenas se čini hladna, ne može se tu kupati, a Antofagasta opet prevruća.