Chile

Monday

Nigel Jones

Chile turns rightward

From our US edition

Chile has joined the right-wing trend sweeping Latin America by electing the ultra-conservative candidate Jose Antonio Kast as its first rightist president since the demise of Pinochet's military dictatorship in 1990. Kast, 59, leader of the Republican party, trounced Jeannette Jara, a communist party member, and the candidate of Chile’s current ruling left-wing coalition, winning almost 58 percent of the vote in Sunday’s poll. Jara, a former Labor minister, conceded victory to Kast, saying “Democracy has spoken loud and clear” and wishing her opponent success “for the good of Chile.

Kast Chile

Wednesday

Philippe Sands

Philippe Sands: 38 Londres Street – On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia

58 min listen

Sam Leith’s guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is the lawyer and writer Philippe Sands, whose new book 38 Londres Street describes the legal and diplomatic tussle over the potential extradition of the former Chilean dictator General Pinochet. Philippe tells Sam why the case was such an important one in legal history, and presents new evidence suggesting that the General’s release to Chile on health grounds may have been part of a behind-the-scenes stitch-up between the UK and Chilean governments. He sets out some of that evidence and pushes back on our reviewer Jonathan Sumption’s scepticism about the case. Here’s an old case, but not yet a cold case. Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Patrick Gibbons.

Monday

Sean Thomas

Why did Spain leave behind such terrible food?

From our US edition

I can still remember it: probably the worst seafood dinner of my life. A slice of fish that was simultaneously cold, hot, dry, crumbly and rubbery, surrounded by overcooked vegetables and accompanied by a mysterious whiff of cigarette smoke. It was so repellent that even though I was famished, I summoned the waiter, returned the dish and retired to my room, there to endure a dinner of Pringles from the minibar. What made it worse was that I was in a celebrated fishing port. All I had to do was look out the window and I could see trawlers bringing in some of the world’s finest fish from some of the planet’s richest seas. It was dismaying, saddening, deflating and left me starving. What it was not, however, was surprising.

Spanish

Thursday

Bruce Anderson

Chilean wine is hard to beat

We were assembled to taste Chilean wines assisted by magnificent Scottish food, courtesy of the Scottish embassy in London, otherwise known as Boisdale. But there was a problem of etiquette. As we were dealing with Chilean matters, I thought that we should propose a toast to a great Chilean and a staunch ally of this country, General Pinochet, who saved his own nation from becoming another Cuba or a mess like the current Venezuela. The left will never forgive Pinochet or Kissinger for frustrating Marxist ruin My neighbour expressed doubt. Surely the general committed atrocities? I conceded that the overthrow of Allende was not bloodless.

Tuesday

Ross Clark

Why is vaccinated Chile locking down again?

Get ahead with vaccination and you can open up your country sooner. It seems logical, but it is not quite how things are working in Britain, where in spite of this week’s relaxation our lockdown restrictions remain among the toughest in the world. This applies even less in Chile. On 29 March, 6.53 million of the country’s 19 million population had received a first dose of vaccine (either Pfizer or the Chinese Sinovac) and 3.37 million had received a second dose. In combined doses per million people, Chile is a little ahead of Britain. Yet large parts of the country have been placed back into a lockdown even more severe than Britain’s over the past three months.