Santiago’s El Centro District Swings Again!

Daytime Business hub offers varied wining, dining and dancing by night

Just the facts

Getting there
As from September 3, 2008, Lan Chile departs for Santiago every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from Terminal 3 at
Pearson International Airport. There is a stop at New York in one of the brand new Boeing 767s that South America´s premier airline recently acquired as part of a US$100 million renewal plan.
El Centro is a $17 (U.S. ) cab ride from Santiago’s airport. (Ask the driver for Plaza de Armas but first buy a transfer voucher at one of the authorised cab company stands ). From there you can access the major sites either by foot or El Metro (subway ).
EL CENTRO: Start at the Plaza de Armas square from where you are four blocks away from Santa Lucia Hill (700 metre high lookout point) and three blocks from the historic La Moneda Palace. Also at the square is the subway station of the same name for fast access to other areas.


LODGING:
Sheraton San Cristobal. Av.Santa Maria 1742, $284-$300-$330. 56-02-2335000. www.sheraton.cl
Hotel Ciudad de Vitoria, Monjitas 527 at corner of Mosqueto,56-02-6333150, $69,$79. www.ciudaddevitoria.cl/home-in.htm. (All prices in US$).
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Santiago gets very hot and dry during the summer months (December, January and February) so caps, tee shirts and shorts are useful. Nights are cooler so wear a light jacket and trousers. US dollars are accepted as payment for hotel stays, guided tours, to buy souvenirs such as Bluestone jewellery and for meals at some restaurants (tips at 10%).





It’s a sure bet that this season many Americans,Canadians and Europeans will enjoy a few days here at the start or end of their cruise ship adventure around the Cape Horn. In stark contrast to the Cape’s Antarctic waters it will be hot and dry in El Centro amidst its eclectic mix of Spanish colonial, Neo-Classic European and contemporary American architecture. During the day the suit and ties worn by many locals evidences the city’s daytime business character that at night is substituted by intense cultural and social interaction. A must is a visit to the Pre Columbus Art Museum located on the corner of Compañía and Bandera, only a block away from the Plaza de Armas.
Initially the private collection of a member of the local aristocracy, on display are thousands of gold and silver artefacts as well as pottery and textile pieces made by the Incas and previous civilisations. As you exit the Museum take a left turn along the gallery and stop at the El Rapido restaurant and try the empanadas. These are hot pies whose two most popular varieties include mincemeat and sliced onion or just melted cheese, that can be accompanied by a variety of wine brands.
Three blocks down from El Rapido is probably Santiago’s most famous landmark, the La Moneda Presidential Palace. Most foreign visitors recall the black and white images of four decades ago when the building was engulfed by flames after an aerial bombardment. The gloomy days of Mr. Pinochet´s brutal police state are past and at present it’s lively Madame Bachelet that runs the show. If you get to the Palace’s Moneda street entrance by 10:00 a.m you’ll be just in time to see the Carabineros police corps carry out its disciplined change of guard ceremony.


Don’t get alarmed to hear a loud explosion on weekdays, it’s not a bomb but a Spanish colonial tradition that has lingered.

To mark midday a cannon is fired from the nearby Santa Lucia Hill, its summit being another good option to visit.


With no entrance fee and a 700 metre high lookout to its view is certainly worth the climb. Near the back exit of the hill (corner of Santa Lucia and Victoria Subercaseaux) a new culinary and intellectual enclave has emerged around the Bellas Artes Museum (national art museum).


Street cafes, bookstores and restaurants abound with the surrounding vegetation of the Parque Forestal. Only ten minutes away (less than five by subway, get on at Bellas Artes station and off at Baquedano) is Bellavista, Santiago’s premier nightlife district.
“That’s the Venezia restaurant, it’s open all night, just like all the other bars and discotheques around here. See those at the end of the block? They are for gays and lesbians,” an enthusiastic waiter explains. If during the day the district´ s many restaurants such as the Venezia (a favourite with Nobel winning poet Pablo Neruda whose house-museum is only few blocks away www.fundacionneruda.org/home_chascona.html) are full of customers, it’s the nightlife that has made Bellavista famous. Countless discotheques cater to public of different ages and spending power but with similar practices. All arrive there after midnight and its only between 1 a.m to 2 a.m that the party is in full swing, fuelled by a wide assortment of legal and illegal stimulants. Among the legal substances is Pisco, Chile´s national spirit, similar in alcohol content and colour to vodka but made from grapes. A few glasses of either the Piscola (mixed with Coca Cola) or the Pisco Sour (with lemon juice) will have you soaring in a few minutes. What time does the partying end at Bellavista? It doesn’t. At semi-clandestine establishments known as After-Hours the dancing and drinking continues from 5 a.m. until noon or sometimes later. It is not easy to get into an After-Hour, usually a secret password is needed at the door, but you can inquire with our friend the waiter, he is sure to know!
But there is more to Santiago than just wining and dining, since its outskirts of offers spectacular natural attractions. Inquire at your hotel about the guided tours either by car or van that will take you for winetasting at the Concha y Toro vineyard ($30), rafting at the Maipo River Valley ($40),or to the Mountain Ski resorts($40) for 3000 metre vistas where condors glide for hours .( All prices per person and in US dollars).

Chile Police Chief Dies in Helicopter Crash

General Jose Bernales (1949-2008)

General Jose Bernales was on official visit to Panama

A Bell UH-1N helicopter crashed on May 29 at 2.00 p.m. local time in downtown Panama City, the capital of that Central American country. On board was a delegation of the Chilean military police (Carabineros) that included its director Gral. Jose Bernales (59), Lieut.Coronel Oscar Tapia, Lieut.Coronel Ricardo Orozco, Captain Mauricio Fuenzalida and Commander Maria De Felix of the Panama police. The helicopter crashed against a shopping mall called “Banana Price” and until now 12 people have been confirmed dead including Teresa Bianchini, wife of General Bernales. According to eyewitnesses of the accident the pilot of the helicopter fell onto the roof of the store and declared that “one of the motors had failed”. Another survivor was Sargeant Jose Munoz of the Carabineros and it seems that he may have been the man that bystanders said had jumped off the helicopter seconds before it hit the Banana Price building. TVN, Panama´s state television network reported that only a few days ago an advertisement had appeared on the Panamanian government website announcing the need to buy spare parts for a UH-1N helicopter. A few hours after the crash, the President of Panama, Martin Torrijos phoned his Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet to inform her of the death of the four police officers. Bachelet decreed three days of national mourning and appointed General Eduardo Gordon as the new Director of Carabineros. The father of President Torrijos, General Omar Torrijos was responsible for signing the Torrijos-Carter Accord whereby the United States returned control of the Panama Canal to the local government was also killed in a suspicious helicopter crash in 1981. It is expected that the remains of all the Chilean citizens that were killed in the crash will return by airplane in the evening of May 30. General Bernales joined the force in 1970 and had been appointed Director in 2005. Many Chilean citizens acknowledge that Bernales was able to improve the reputation of the Carabineros police force that was seriously affected during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet that lasted from 1973 to 1989. In 2006 General Bernales fired the head of the anti-riot squad after the officers under his command had brutally beaten up several press reporters and photographers during a street protest in downtown Santiago.
The Carabineros (riflemen in Spanish) police corps was formed in 1927 and its initial mission was to patrol the 4,000 kilometers of border that Chile shares with Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. At present it force is of approximately 30,000 and its activities include patrolling in urban areas, investigating traffic accidents and maintaining order during public events such as football matches and cultural events.
You may listen to the anthem of Carabineros at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MACj3lgouXY

Chilean Founder of IC-USTA Dies as Murder Suspect

Gerardo Rocha presided of a worldwide network of 33 universities

Gerardo Rocha (55), founder of the International Council of Universities of Saint Thomas Aquinas (IC-USTA) died on May 5, 2008 at the Indisa Clinic in Santiago, Chile. Rocha had been interned at this clinic in coma since February 21 of this year after an incident that occurred at the seaside resort of El Quisco, located 120 kilometers to the west of Santiago. According to the Chilean police, that day Rocha and two associates identified as Cesar Osores (a 33-year-old former police officer expelled from the force after killing an innocent civilian) and Marcelo Morales (39) broke into the home of Jaime Oliva in El Quisco. The three men began to beat up the 79 year old auctioneer and torture him with a tazer (an electronic device that sends 50,000 volt electroshocks into the body) after which Oliva passed out. Thinking that Oliva was dead, Rocha and Osores dragged the unconscious man to a room on the second floor and poured gasoline over his body. According to Morales, that was in the first floor, it was Gerardo Rocha that ignited the fuel causing a massive explosion. According to Morales, Rocha came running down the stairs with his body covered in flames and said, “I didn’t know that gasoline was so volatile”. Morales and Osores took Rocha in a car to a nearby hospital while the fire destroyed Jaime Oliva’s wooden holiday home. Forensic experts later declared that Oliva died from inhalation of carbon monoxide and that no traces of bullets were found in his body. Days later the police arrested Osores, Morales and Dante Yutronic, owner of a well-known store known as “La Casa del Espia” (the House of the Spy), that sells surveillance and self defense equipment. Yutronic is also a private investigator that Rocha had hired for US$100,000 to tail and investigate the life of Jaime Oliva, whom Rocha believed to be having an affair with his current wife, Veronica Espinoza. It seems that what finally triggered Rocha´s criminal impulse was a video given to him by Yutronic where a woman similar to Espinoza is seen entering Oliva´s house. Later the police proved that it was another woman that had gone to see Oliva at El Quisco. At present Yutronic is still in detention accused of selling Rocha the tazer and other weapons as well as the illegal surveillance carried out on Jaime Oliva and his family.
Why did the multimillionaire founder of a chain of 33 Universities with 500,000 students located in places as varied as Australia, Japan, Morocco and Mozambique and also a member of Mensa, (an organization formed in 1946 at Oxford University that only accepts individuals with high IQs) get involved in such a murder? According to the Chilean police, Gerardo Rocha already had a long history of psychopathic behavior. As a child, Rocha declared to his family that he had frequent conversations with the Virgin Mary and that he was destined to continue with the work of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Another trait of Rocha´s personality appeared at the age of 19 when he married his first wife Carla Haardt, whom he met while studying medicine at the Roman Catholic University, Chile´s most exclusive. According to Haardt, Rocha had constant fits of jealous anger and imagined that she was having an affair with another man.
In 1980, Rocha was charged in court after beating up a man that had given Carla Haardt a handbag as a present. Rocha was also physically abusive with Haardt and burnt the handbag in front of her. Rocha then tried to improve his relationship with his wife by seeking advice from a priest that belonged to the fundamentalist Roman Catholic “Opus Dei” organization that is extremely powerful in Chile.
Meanwhile, due to his influential contacts within the Pinochet regime, Gerardo Rocha´s educational project begins to prosper and in 1988 he is allowed to create the “Universidad Santo Tomas (UST)”. In the 1990s, Rocha takes a step further and creates the IC-USTA whose latest member country is China that allowed the University to set up a campus in November of 2007. Apart from the negative publicity created by the Rocha incident, the Universidad Santo Tomas (UST) is not in a very good legal situation in Chile since Dante Yutronic has also been accused of spying on the professors and employees of the university. The academic board and administrative employees union have filed a legal action against the UST for “illegal tapping of telephone conversations and undercover surveillance of UST employees”. Gerado Rocha´s personal fortune has been inherited by his daughter Karla Rocha that must face a compensation claim filed by the Oliva family for a total of US$5 million.

Chile TV Joins Media War Against Hugo Chavez

Chilean journalists repeat version given by Pro-US news agencies

No one can deny that throughout its history, the printed press in Chile has been controlled by the right wing oligarchy, and recent events prove that this situation also affects all television stations.

For those not familiar with it, as follows is a brief description of how the Chilean television system is organized at present. A considerable percentage of the population has access to international cable television, but the majority must still choose between “open” TV stations, that in general show programs dubbed in Mexico such as “America’s Next Top Model”, a large variety of oriental martial arts films or reality shows.

The most important are Channel 13 (UCTV) run by the Roman Catholic Church’s university, Channel 9 (Megavision) owned by Ricardo Claro, one of Chile´s wealthiest businessmen, Channel 11 (Chilevision) (also owned by another local tycoon and former presidential candidate Sebastian Piñera. Channel 4 (La Red) is linked to another of the country’s main “economic groups”, (the Matte family) and finally there is Channel 7 (Television Nacional), the state owned channel that in theory should be plural and give the opinion of all sectors of Chilean society left, right and center. It was surprising to see during how similar the coverage given by TVN of the recent release of prisoners made by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was to the other TV stations that clearly have a pro U.S and right wing opinion, and whose main enemy at present is Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela.

On Christmas day 2007, all the before mentioned stations gave extensive coverage of how FARC had failed to deliver Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez to a delegation of Venezuelan government officials, Red Cross volunteers and well known figures such as film director Oliver Stone. The original plan was that FARC would hand over the two women in a jungle area near the border between both countries, but the rebels issued a statement explaining that due to constant patrolling by the Colombian Army, the operation would have to be postponed until a later date. However Chilean news commentators rarely mentioned this statement and gave the “CNN” version: FARC had lied to Hugo Chavez and were never going to release any of the prisoners. On January 10,2008, TVN and all the other TV stations gave very brief coverage when Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez were finally released by FARC. President Hugo Chavez announced at approximately 3 p.m. local time that the two women were ready to board a helicopter that would take them from the border area to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. At the 6 p.m. edition of its daily newscast, La Red gave a brief five minute segment to inform that the “hostages had been rescued” but did not mention how or by whom.

At the 9 p.m. edition of “24 horas”, TVN´s news program, a young reporter named Jose Antonio Neme (probably a relative of Antonio Neme, a well-known journalist at Channel 13 during General Pinochet´s 17 year dictatorship), spent nearly 20 minutes analyzing the situation in Venezuela. With a photo of President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia in the background, Neme hardly mentioned that it was in fact Hugo Chavez that had convinced FARC to release the two women. Neme declared that among the many prisoners held by FARC are some “American diplomats”. There are indeed three U.S citizens that FARC has recognized to be holding as prisoners: Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes. The U.S government has described the three men as “civilian contractors”, but most probably their real occupation is that of “military advisers”, as they were known during the Reagan era.

The three men were in a Colombian Army helicopter that was shot down by FARC rebels in February 2003 as they flew over a jungle area. In an interview given in 2006, one of the leaders of FARC, Raul Reyes, declared that the three Americans “are spies that were trying to find out the locations of our bases, so it is very difficult that they will go free in the near future.”

Megavision has a Colombian news commentator called Libardo Buitrago that is obviously not sympathetic to Chavez or FARC, while at Chilevision (Channel 11), Monica Sanhueza described FARC as “definitely a terrorist organization”. FARC has been battling the Colombian army many years before Monica was even born, so how can she be so “definitely” sure that FARC is a terrorist organization? At Channel 13 (UCTV), the main international news commentator is Constanza Santa Maria, a graduate of Chile´s most right wing and posh university, and has continued voicing this channel’s traditional anti-left wing opinion, identical to that it had in the seventies, when it played a crucial role in destabilizing the government of Salvador Allende. In those days UCTV´s main commentator was a priest called Raul Hasbun, that is now making comments against FARC at “Megavision”. With regards to Constanza, she described how Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez had suffered “terrible hardships and constant torture” during their five years as prisoners of FARC. Maybe Constanza did not see the moment the two women were handed over to the Venezuelan authorities, both were in perfect condition. While a prisoner, Rojas even gave birth to a baby in a FARC base, unlike the many pregnant left wing militants in Argentina, Chile Uruguay and Paraguay, whose babies were snatched from them before being murdered by U.S trained soldiers and thrown into the sea from planes and helicopters. Most of these children were given in adoption to the same people that had murdered their mothers, and until today the relatives are searching for them.

Chile Organizes World´s Biggest Fireworks Display

Chile Has World’s Biggest Fireworks Display
Valparaiso hosts spectacular New Year’s celebration

For the past five years ago the city council of Valparaiso, Chile´s main sea port, has organized a fireworks display that is now reputed to be the best of its kind in the world. To mark the start of 2008 a total of 28 tons of fireworks and 23,500 rockets (30% more than last year) were fired from rafts in the sea and from 17 points along the hilltops surrounding the Bay of Valparaiso and the adjacent resort city of Viña del Mar. A total of one million tourists arrived at the bay area mostly from the capital city of Santiago, located 130 kilometers to the east to see the fireworks show . Many people decided to camp near the coastline in order to get the best view of the show that lasted for nearly half an hour and left everybody in ecstasy.


One of the best places from which to see the fireworks is the top of Cerro Artilleria (Artillery Hill in Spanish) that can be reached by a lift or by a rather difficult 15 minute walk up the streets. Close to midnight the street leading up to Artillery Hill was full of people wearing colorful party hats, drinking champagne and shooting off “party poppers” into the air. One of the most famous neighbors at

Artillery Hill is Lidia Jara that runs a shop where she sells drinks and food to the many tourists that arrive there throughout the year. Lidia complained that little has changed in Chile after Pinochet and declared that she was tired of the current government officials that “are only interested in getting rich by stealing state funds”. In the 80s Lidia was arrested and beaten up by Pinochet´s security agents but now she says she will not collaborate with the ruling “Concertacion” coalition in the next elections. “Forget about it, I won’t help them get votes. They have done nothing to help the poor, nothing has changed in Chile after Pinochet,” said Lidia.
At the end of the spectacular display, most of the people walked down the hill towards Valparaiso´s main square, Plaza Sotomayor, where a musical show had been organized. According to some tourists from Germany, France and Brazil that were at the square, Valparaiso´s fireworks display is definitely the most spectacular in the world.


However, what until then had been a peaceful celebration turned sour as drunk youths fought against each other and littered the square with bottles of alcoholic drinks. The police were hard pressed to control the nearly 50,000 people that danced to the music at Plaza Sotomayor since many persons denounced that they had been attacked or robbed by drunkards. The Chilean police announced that from the long weekend that began on December 29 until January 1, 39 persons had been killed in 855 car crashes or traffic incidents, and the victims were mostly drunk pedestrians that that were run over by cars as they crossed the street. While the New Year´s celebration in Valparaiso was a complete success, the situation was completely opposite in Santiago. At approximately 9 p.m on January 31, a blackout left 15 districts without electricity, spoiling the celebration for hundreds of thousands of citizens. In one neighborhood, a drunk man volunteered to climb up lamp post to try and restore energy but was killed immediately by the electric current.
According to Chilectra, the national electricity company that is now controlled by Spanish investors, the blackout was caused by vandals that threw chains against the power lines in order to cause chaos or also by the firing of “party poppers” that can shoot sheets of aluminum paper for nearly thirty meters . Also many violent incidents were reported by citizens in Santiago, such as an eight year old boy that was killed by a stray bullet during a shootout between rival gangs, or the case of an 18 year old college student that was wounded by another stray bullet that hit the window of the house. In another incident, two men were killed and another seriously wounded during a knife fight in Santiago’s southern suburbs.

Viña del Mar (The Garden City): Located to the north of Valparaiso, this city was founded in 1870, and its name means “Vineyard by the Sea” and the land where the city is now located was donated by Francisco Vergara. Today Viña del Mar is Chile´s main tourist center, especially during the summer season that is just beginning.

Monument to an unbeatable record

A monument to an unbeatable record:

Recently a monument was erected in Viña del Mar to commemorate an incredible record that was set on February 5, 1949. On that day, Captain Alberto Larraguibel of the Chilean Army, mounting a horse named “Huaso” jumped an obstacle at a height of 2.47 meters (7.41 feet) to set a world record for horse jumping that has never been beaten since then. The statue is a life size replica of Larraguibel and Huaso, and is flanked by a Titan that depicts strength and courage and also by a female figure that represents victory. Huaso´s original name was “Faithful”, and his owner planned a successful career at the racecourse for the young stallion.


However, Faithful didn’t make the grade in horseracing and so was donated to the Chilean army, that discovered that the horse had a talent for jumping obstacles. After a year of training, Captain Larraguibel decided that Huaso (as he had been renamed) was ready to better the mark set a few months earlier by an Italian rider. Near the same spot where the monument stands today, Larraguibel and Huaso broke the record at their third attempt, and entered the history books for ever. See the original film footage from 1949 as Huaso jumps over the obstacle.

see the video for yourself at :