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RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
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TAGS: ECON KMDR KPAO PGOV PREL SNAR EFIN CI
SUBJECT: Santiago Oct. 7 Media Report
Lead Story
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1. Congress passed a draft bill that creates a new
corporative government for Chile's state-owned copper company
Codelco. This is "the most significant" change the company has
undergone since its creation in 1976 (Conservative, independent La
Tercera, 10/7).
U.S. Related News
------------------------
2. FBI experts are giving a class on thumbprint identification
techniques for Carabineros police and Public Ministry officials in
the city of Iquique. Carabineros Captain Claudio Pavez said, "This
has been a cultural exchange of their knowledge with our experience
in the field, striking a balance and a unique pattern for the
identification of individuals." The workshop is sponsored by the
Under Secretary of Carabineros Police and the U.S. Embassy
(Regional dailies La Estrella de Iquique and Diario 21, 10/6),
3. "The Washington Post" wrote that Ximena Hartsock's
confirmation hearing as D.C.'s parks and recreation director had
been "an embarrassment" to the city. "The council members seemed
more concerned with Hartsock's ethnic background and immigration
status than with her education and work background," says the
article. Reportedly, "the worst" council member was Marion Barry,
who said the city needed "someone who understands our culture."
Barry said that the park department serves a community of "'black
and brown" people who "have a different culture and a different
subculture." Barry also questioned Hartsock's immigration status,
because she was born in Chile and has legal permanent residence,
but is not a U.S. citizen. Hartsock has a doctorate in leadership
and education and policy studies from George Washington University
(Conservative, influential El Mercurio, 10/7).
4. Cisco Senior Vice President Howard Charney visited a
vocational school in a low-income area of Penalolen to assess the
progress of Cisco's Networking Academy. The program is aimed at
teaching how to create and maintain networks on the Internet in
accordance to international standards. Mayor Claudio Orrego said,
"We want our students to be able to compete as equals with other
students in the world" (Government-owned La Nacion, 10/7).
5. NASA expert Maria Catalina said the space agency wants to
create a lunar habitat in Chile's Atacama Desert to prepare
astronauts. Catalina will tour the country to speak on the array
of projects that NASA has undertaken in Chile's north, where
conditions are similar to those on the Moon and Mars. In 2004,
NASA experts spent weeks in the Atacama Desert studying the
subsistence of primitive live forms (Regional influential El Sur,
10/5)
Salitre Exercise
--------------------
6. Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez and Peruvian
Ambassador Carlos Pareja will meet today amid the tense bilateral
scenario triggered by Peru's accusation of an arms race and
criticism over the "Salitre" military exercise (El Mercurio, 10/7).
Corporate government
----------------------------
7. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate passed a draft bill
that creates a new corporative government for Chile's state-owned
copper company Codelco. The new bill incorporates best practices
from corporate governments in other parts of the world and
suggestions made by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development. For example, Codelco will now be under the
supervision of the Superintendence of Values and Stocks. It will
have nine directors: three named by the President of the country,
one elected by the company's union, another by its supervisors, and
four independents chosen from a list approved by the Higher Public
Direction Council (El Mercurio, 10/7).
OAS
------
8. Chile's effort to gather support for Jose Miguel Insulza's
reelection as Secretary General to the OAS is starting to yield
results. Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez said yesterday that the
Dominican Republic had committed its vote and that Canada had
"verbally" expressed its support for Insulza (La Tercera, 10/7).
Indigenous Affairs
-----------------------
9. The Executive Office sent to Congress a draft bill that
creates the Ministry for Indigenous Affairs and the Council for
Indigenous Peoples. The spokesperson of the Mapuche organization
"Consejo de Todas las Tierras," Aucan Huilcaman, filed a suit with
the Santiago Appeals Court against President Bachelet. Huilcaman
says the government did not consult with indigenous organizations
before sending the bill in question to Congress as required by the
International Labor Organization 169 Accord. The ILO says that any
legal initiative binding to the indigenous community must be
reviewed by its representatives. Government spokesperson Carolina
Toha said that the government had consulted regarding the council,
but would consult again regarding the ministry. She said that the
latter was included in the bill in an effort to have a more
"comprehensive reform" (Financial Diario Financiero, 10/7).
SIMONS