Chile’s Legacy of Pinochet, Poets & More: Five Things to Know Ahead of 2025 Presidential Race

Asianet News English

As Chile prepares for its presidential election on November 16, 2025, understanding the country’s complex history, economy, and society is vital. This video breaks down five key facets shaping Chile today. The lasting shadow of Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship and its impact on modern politics. A recent surge in immigration, with controversial social and political consequences. Chile’s dominance in global copper and lithium production amid persistent inequality. Its unique geography, stretching from the driest desert to glacier-filled Patagonia. A rich literary heritage, including Nobel laureates Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, shaping Chile’s cultural identity. Watch   #ChileElection2025 #PinochetLegacy #GabrielBoric #ChilePolitics #ImmigrationChile #CopperMining #NobelPoetsChile #LatinAmericaPolitics #World     🔊 LIKE ➡ SHARE ➡ SUBSCRIBE  Download the Asianet News App now!  Available on Android & iOS  👉 Android:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vserv.asianet&hl=en_IN   👉 iOS:  https://apps.apple.com/in/app/asianet-news-official/id1093450032   For More Updates:  Follow us on our What's app Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va5Bq3yKwqSLSQTxam0r  English: https://newsable.asianetnews.com/  Hindi: https://hindi.asianetnews.com/  Malayalam: https://www.asianetnews.com/  Kannada: https://kannada.asianetnews.com/  Tamil: https://tamil.asianetnews.com/  Telugu: https://telugu.asianetnews.com/  Bengali: https://bangla.asianetnews.com/  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsianetNewsa...  Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AsianetNewsEN  Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ann.newsable/  ➡ If you like our video, give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel to get the daily dosage of news, entertainment, sports and more.

Transcript

00:00A brutal dictatorship, a booming mining industry and a recent immigration surge are among the

00:08five things to know about Chile before Sunday's presidential election, which will choose the

00:14successor to leftist president Gabriel Boric. Postwar Chile was irrevocably changed by the

00:27U.S.-backed overthrow of the first democratically elected socialist president in Latin America,

00:34Salvador Allende. The coup led by General Augusto Pinochet was one of the most dramatic of the Cold

00:41War, with fighter jets bombing the presidential palace on September 11, 1973, in what Pinochet

00:48justified as an operation to prevent Chile from becoming communist. Allende committed suicide in

00:56the presidential palace. There followed 17 years of dictatorship marked by arrests, torture,

01:02bodies thrown from airplanes, and children of dissidents whisked away for illegal adoption.

01:08Rejected in a 1988 referendum, Pinochet finally gave up power in 1990, but remained in command of the

01:16military for another eight years. He died in 2006 without ever having been brought to justice for

01:23the crimes committed by his regime, which left more than 3,200 people dead or missing. The Pinochet-era

01:31constitution is still in force, despite two failed attempts in recent years, one by the left,

01:37the other by the right, to write a new charter.

01:40Chile is a key destination for refugees and migrants fleeing humanitarian, political and economic crises

01:55in other Latin American countries, primarily Venezuela. Some 337,000 undocumented immigrants live

02:04in Chile, according to official estimates. Illegal migration is a central issue in the election campaign,

02:11with a majority of Chileans linking a rise in crime to the migration wave foreign nationals represented

02:17approximately 8.8% of Chile's population in 2024, the second-highest proportion of foreign residents

02:26in a Latin American country after Costa Rica, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

02:34The country of nearly 20 million inhabitants is the world's leading producer of copper,

02:46accounting for a quarter of global supply, and the second-largest producer of lithium.

02:51Chile's poverty rates are the lowest in the region, according to the World Bank. But inequality remains high.

02:58The rise to power of former student leader Boric in 2021 signalled a rejection of the fervent pro-business

03:06economic model that had prevailed since the dictatorship four years later. However, Chileans

03:12are transfixed by crime and have put social issues on the back burner.

03:16Chile is famously long and thin. It stretches 4,300 kilometers from north to south from the Atacama

03:31Desert, the world's driest, to the glaciers of Patagonia. But averages only about 170 kilometers

03:38across, three tectonic plates converge on its territory, making it one of the most seismically

03:45active countries in the world.

03:53Years of dictatorship, the harsh life in its rugged south, and Chile's social struggles

03:59have inspired generations of authors, particularly poets. Poets Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda

04:07were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945 and 1971, respectively.

04:14Chile also produced one of the best-selling authors in the Spanish language, Isabel Allende.

04:20Chip and James, if you like.

04:24You too.

04:26If you are a person who wants to be produced, you are already in Canada.

04:30You can do everything I do.

04:31I think that's all of you.

04:32You can't do everything, but you're not too well.

04:34We are the only people.

04:36You cannot do everything.

04:36I think this is an important role that we make most of you.

04:38I like the fact that we are trusting.

04:40We are the only people on behalf of Canada as much as much as a way to the country.

04:44We will see there, and I'll see the people who are growing up with Canada.

04:47This is an important role that we want to women.

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