Chile Government - 1986

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Official name: Republic of Chile

Type: republic

Capita/· Santiago

Political subdivisions: 12 regions plus one metropolitan district, 41 provincial subdivisions

Legal system: based on Code 1857 derived from Spanish law and subsequent

National holiday Independence Day, 18 September

Branches: four-man Military Junta, which exercises constituent and legislative powers and has delegated executive powers to President; the President has announced a plan for transition from military to civilian rule pursuant to Constitution; state of siege lifted June 1985; National Congress (Senate, House of Representatives) dissolved; civilian judiciary remains

Government leaders; Gen. Augusto PINOCHET Ugarte, President (since September 1973); Adm. Jose Toribio MFR1NO Castro (since September 1973), Air Force Gen. Fernando MATTHF1 Aubel (since July 1978), Army Lt. Gen. Julio CANESSA Roberts (since December 1985), Gen. Rodolfo STANGE Oelkers (since August 1985), Junta members

Suffrage: none

Elections- prohibited by decree, all electoral registers were destroyed in 1974

Political parties and leaders: all political parties are officially recessed or outlawed but have been allowed to function on a very limited basis since 1982; National Party (PN), Patricio Philips; Independent Democratic Union (UDI), Sergio Fernandez; National Unity Movement (MUN), Andres Allamand; Movement of National Action (MAN), Federico Willoughby; Radical Party (PR), Enrique Silva Cimma; Social Democratic Party (PSD), Luis Bossay; Christian Democratic Party (PDC), Gabriel Valdes; Republican Right, Hugo Zepeda; Socialist Party, Ramon Silva Ulloa and Julio Stuardo (the PR, PSD, PDC, Republican Right, and some elements of the Socialist Party form the Democratic Alliance [AD]); Movement of Unitary Popular Action (MAPU); Movement of Unitary Popular Action—Workers/ Peasants (M APU-OC), Blas Tomic and Oscar Garreton Purcell; Christian Left (IC), Luis Maira; Communist Party of Chile (PCCh), Luis Corvalan Lepe (in exile); Socialist Party—Almeyda faction (PSCh/Alm), Clodomiro Almeyda (in exile); Socialist Party—Altamirano faction (PSCh/Alt), Carlos Altamirano (in exile); Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), Andres Pascal Allende (in exile); the MIR, PSCh/Alm, and PCCh form the leftist Popular Democratic Movement (MDP)

Voting strength: (1970 presidential election) 36.6% Popular Unity coalition, 35.3% conservative independent, 28.1% Christian Democrat; (1973 congressional election) 56% Democratic Confederation (PDC and PN), 44% Popular Unity coalition

Communists: 120,000 when PCCh was legal in 1973; active militants now estimated at about 20,000-50,000

Other political or pressure groups, revitalized university student federations at all major universities dominated by political groups; labor—National Workers Command (CNT) includes trade unionists from the country’s five largest labor confederations; Roman Catholic Church

Membero/. CIPEC, ECOSOC, FAO, G-77, GATT, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, 1DB—Inter-American Development Bank IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT,¹ INTERPOL, 1PU, ITU, LA1A, OAS, PAHO, SELA, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WSG, WTO

NOTE: The information regarding Chile on this page is re-published from the 1986 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Chile 1986 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Chile 1986 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.