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The following lists events that happened during 2006 in Chile.
Chile officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Chile had a population of 17.5 million as of the latest census in 2017 and has a territorial area of 756,102 square kilometers (291,933 sq mi), sharing borders with Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. The country also controls several Pacific islands, including Juan Fernández, Isla Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island, and claims about 1,250,000 square kilometers (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica as the Chilean Antarctic Territory. The capital and largest city of Chile is Santiago, and the national language is Spanish.
The economy of Chile operates as a market economy and is classified as a high-income economy by the World Bank. It is recognized as one of the most prosperous countries in South America, leading the region in areas such as competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, economic freedom, and low levels of perceived corruption. Despite its prosperity, Chile experiences significant economic inequality, as reflected by its Gini index, though this is close to the regional average. Among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, Chile has a robust social security system, with social welfare expenditures amounting to approximately 19.6% of GDP.
A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any program, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income.
Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until his death in 1973. As a socialist committed to democracy, he has been described as the first Marxist to be elected president in a liberal democracy in Latin America.
The Government Pension Fund of Norway is the sovereign wealth fund collective owned by the government of Norway. It consists of two entirely separate sovereign wealth funds: the Government Pension Fund Global and the Government Pension Fund Norway.
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December 2013 with over 62% of the vote, having previously received 54% in 2006, making her the first President of Chile to be re-elected since 1932. After her second term, she served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022. Earlier in her career, she was appointed as the first executive director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique was a Chilean businessman and politician who served as President of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic politician and diplomat, he studied business administration at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and economics at Harvard University. At the time of his death, he had an estimated net worth of US$2.7 billion, according to Forbes, making him the third richest person in Chile and the 1177th richest person in the world.
Education in Chile is divided in preschool, primary school, secondary school, and technical or higher education (university).The levels of education in Chile are:
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean military officer who was the dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader of the military junta, which in 1974 declared him President of the Republic and thus the dictator of Chile; in 1980, a referendum approved a new constitution confirming him in the office, after which he served as de jure president from 1981 to 1990. His time in office remains the longest of any Chilean ruler.
The 2011–2013 Chilean protests – known as the Chilean Winter or the Chilean Education Conflict – were a series of student-led protests across Chile, demanding a new framework for education in the country, including more direct state participation in secondary education and an end to the existence of profit in higher education. Currently in Chile, only 45% of high school students study in traditional public schools and most universities are also private. No new public universities have been built since the end of the Chilean transition to democracy in 1990, even though the number of university students has increased.
Camila Antonia Amaranta Vallejo Dowling is a Chilean communist politician and former student leader. A member of the Communist Party of Chile, she has been serving as the Minister General Secretariat of Government since 11 March 2022. Previously, Vallejo worked as a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, representing District 26 of La Florida, Santiago.
Karol Aída Cariola Oliva is a Chilean politician, and former president of the Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Concepción for 2010. She was elected General Secretary of the Juventudes Comunistas de Chile, abbr. JJ.CC., at the organizations XIII Congress held in October 2011. Cariola is the second woman to hold this post in the Communist Youth of Chile after the late communist leader Gladys Marin (1941–2005).
Franco Aldo Parisi Fernández is a Chilean business engineer and economist. He received recognition for doing radio and television programs about economy along with his brother Antonino Parisi, and has been nicknamed "the economist of the people". In 2012 he launched his independent candidacy for president for the 2013 elections in Chile. Parisi ideologically identifies himself as a social liberal. In November 2021 he reached the third place of votes in the first round of the presidential elections, behind José Antonio Kast and Gabriel Boric.
Kenneth Giorgio Jackson Drago is a Chilean politician and engineer who was Chile's Minister of Social Development from 6 September 2022 until 11 August 2023. He previously held the position of Ministry General Secretariat of the Presidency between March and September 2022. He is the founder and first congressman of the Democratic Revolution political party, achieving the highest personal vote in the 2017 elections to the lower chamber. He was one of the leaders of the student protests of 2011 and collaborated in the creation of the Chilean Broad Front and the presidential candidacy of Beatriz Sánchez.
Gabriel Boric Font is a Chilean politician who has been President of Chile since 2022. He previously served two four-year terms as a deputy in the Chamber of Deputies.
Mario Marcel Cullell is a Chilean economist who has been serving as Chile Minister of Finance since 11 March 2022. He previously served as Governor of the Central Bank of Chile. He was named Governor in December 2016 and member of the Bank's Board from October 2015. He has been a close collaborator to the governments of the centre-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy (1990–2010), and for six years held the position of Budget Director, where he played a key role in the design of the structural surplus rule.
A series of massive demonstrations and severe riots, known in Chile as the Estallido Social, originated in Santiago and took place in all regions of Chile, with a greater impact in the regional capitals. The protests mainly occurred between October 2019 and March 2020, in response to a raise in the Santiago Metro's subway fare, a probity crisis, cost of living, university graduate unemployment, privatisation, and inequality prevalent in the country.
The 2019–2020 Chilean protests are characterised by widespread eye injuries, including many globe ruptures, among protesters as result of Chilean riot police's use of rubber bullets and tear gas grenades. Data from the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) shows that the use of rubber bullets and pellets by security forces has left at least 1,863 injured, including 268 with eye problems. According to the Chilean Ophthalmology Society, this is the highest number of injuries of this type registered during protests or in conflict zones in the world. In late November, security forces announced the suspension of the use of rubber pellets as a crowd control method in the protests. The INDH updated figures at the end of January 2020 reporting that 427 persons had received eye injuries at the hands of the police. Almost 90% of the injured are men. As of early January 2020 the age of injured goes from 14 to 59 years, and averages 28 years.
There are around 2,800,000 people with a disability in Chile. For the most part, citizens of Chile largely have a positive view of people with disabilities, though there is still discrimination in employment and other areas based on misconceptions about disability. The country largely uses a social model of disability in its approach to inclusive policies and laws regarding people with disability. Chile ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability in 2008 and has passed several laws which are intended to provide rights and inclusion for people with disabilities. In 2010, Chile created the National Disability Service in order to coordinate policies regarding people with disabilities. Accessibility in Santiago is generally very good and the national parks of Chile also work to provide accessibility in natural areas owned by the state.
Inflation in Chile has been a significant issue for the economy since the start of the 20th century. During the 2020s Chile again surfaced as an economic problem during the second presidency of Sebastián Piñera and has remained such. Current inflation has been attributed to a series of private pension fund withdrawals allowed by the Congress of Chile in response to the economic hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile. Besides this, food prices are held by the Food and Agriculture Organization to have increased as consequence of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.