Chile

SANTIAGO, Dec 25 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — The indigenous Mapuche tribe violent groups in southern Chile, involved in arson and destruction attacks, have warned that as long as forestry and construction companies keep ”devastating our resources, and the jails of southern Chile continue full of Mapuche patriots incarcerated, weichan (armed resistance) will not cease to be it under (president) Piñera or (elected president) Boric”.

SANTIAGO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Left-leaning candidate Gabriel Boric won the Chilean presidential election on Sunday, after his rival -- right-wing candidate Jose Antonio Kast -- conceded, making him the youngest elected president in Chile's history.

"I congratulated him on his great triumph. From today, he is the elected president of Chile and deserves all our respect and constructive collaboration," Kast wrote on Twitter.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Former leftist student leader Gabriel Boric will be under quick pressure from his youthful supporters to fulfill his promises to remake Chile after the millennial politician scored a historic victory in the country’s presidential runoff election.

Boric spent months traversing up and down Chile vowing to bring a youth-led form of inclusive government to attack nagging poverty and inequality that he said are the unacceptable underbelly of a free market model imposed decades ago by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chileans were electing their next president Sunday following a polarizing campaign between a free-market firebrand likened to Donald Trump and a millennial former student protest leader who promises to attack nagging inequality in Latin America’s most advanced economy.

SANTIAGO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Chilean voters are split on what they want from the future ahead of a landmark presidential election on Sunday between polarized candidates - one offering social change and the other pledging to get tough on law and order.

The election will see ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast and leftist Gabriel Boric go head-to-head after closing their campaigns this week, where they looked to win over middle-ground voters who could make the difference in a tight race.

COLCHANE, Chile (AP) — A merciless sun seared the migrants as they walked through one of the driest places in the world, trying to illegally cross the border from Bolivia into Chile fearing it might soon be closed.

It has become common in recent months to see migrants trudging across the Atacama Desert but the flow appears to have increased in recent days ahead of Chile’s presidential runoff Sunday. The migrants fear that if far-right candidate José Antonio Kast wins he will close the border as he promised during his campaign.

SANTIAGO, Dec 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A total solar eclipse plunged Antarctica from summer into darkness early Saturday in a rare astronomical spectacle witnessed by a handful of scientists and thrill-seekers — and countless penguins.

“The visibility was excellent,” said Raul Cordero of the University of Santiago de Chile (USACH), who was on site to witness “totality” at 0746 GMT, with the “ring of fire” phase lasting just over 40 seconds.

SANTIAGO, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Chilean leftist candidate Gabriel Boric was leading conservative Jose Antonio Kast in the latest polls released on Sunday ahead of the second round of the presidential election on Dec. 19.

The polarized run-off vote will set the political tone in the Andean country for the years ahead, with the two candidates pushing wildly different visions for the future of the world's top copper-producing nation.

SANTIAGO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - After two years of dramatic street protests and the election of a left-wing body to re-write the nation's constitution, Chileans surprised analysts, markets and even themselves on Sunday night by favoring a right-wing presidential candidate and delivering significant gains to conservatives in Congress.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chileans will vote for a new president Sunday following a polarizing campaign in which the leading candidates vowed to chart starkly different paths for the region’s most economically advanced country staggered by a recent wave of social unrest.

Pre-election polls point to a large number of undecided voters but consistently have favored two of the seven candidates running: former student protest leader Gabriel Boric and his ideological opposite, José Antonio Kast, who has a history of defending Chile’s military dictatorship.