Chile Country

At the bottom tip of South America lies the longest and the narrowest country: Chile. It is isolated from the rest of the world by the South Pole, the driest desert (Atacama), the biggest ocean (Pacific) and one of the highest mountain regions in the world (Los Andes).

This country is probably most known because of EasterIsland?.

Las Comidas (the food)

There are plenty of typical dishes, like:

Cazuela! I thought it was exclusively Chilean, but most countries around us have something similar. Then I met this Scottish guy who told me they had a very similar dish. I asked him how was it called: Cazool (KAH-ZUL - or something that sounds like that).

What does it consist of? A soup made of cow beef or chicken beef boiled on water, with a full potato per dish, some carrot, some green beans (not really beans, but porotos verdes), some pumpkin, some rice or some noodles.

Humita (smashed corn wrapped in the same corn leaves and boiled in water, also needs a little basil)
Empanada (probably you have tasted this at your local Mexican restaurant, well, Chilean empanadas are a lot less tasty, simply because our food has almost no flavor, and only one olive per empanada, that's important)
Pastel de Choclo (Corn Pie stuffed with chicken and cow meat. Almost the same stuffing as the empanada)
Porotos con Mazamorra (Bean soup avec smashed corn and pumpkin)
Mariscal (all mussels boiled in one big pottery dish)
Locos Mayo (mussels boiled in water and eaten with a lot of mayonnaise, not good for cholesterol :-))
Palta reina (Avocado stuffed with smashed fish)
Pantrucas (thin wantan with no meat whatsoever floating on a soup, this has no flavor at all)
Machas a la parmesana (Mussels with melted cheese)
Filete a lo pobre (tenderloin with french fries, eggs and onion).

Well all of those are unimpressive. The real impressive food is in the very south of Chile. There you can eat Curanto, which I've never tasted because I've never been in the south long enough. Curanto is made of sea food, cow and a lot of meat from different animals, cooked over red hot stones put inside a hole 1 meter deep, then you put the meat, then leaves, then vegetables, then more leaves, then soil, then more leaves. I've never done it, so some details may be wrong.

The most common food in Chile is hot sandwiches: Barros Luco (named after a Chilean president who happened to like it, just beef and cheese), Chacarero (beef, tomato, and green vegetables), Italiano (Hot dog + tomato + moyonese), Completo (Hotdog + tomato + avocado), Lomo Completo (pig beef + tomato + avocado), Churrasco Tomate Palta Mayo (cow beef + tomato + avocado + mayonese).

Mm! This sounds so good!'

One or two things we non-chileans know about Chile

1. Not much!

2. Chile con carne does not come from Chile!

3. In the South of the country the waters are so turbulent that when a boat has to cross the channel, an expert pilot comes on board and pilots the boat.

4. One of the saddest images of the century: Salvador Allende, a doctor, was elected president in 1970 with only 33% of the votes. Yes the other 3 candidates received even less. On the early morning of September 11th 1973, the Chilean President was wearing a helmet fighting the army in La Moneda (the Chilean white house) and using a rifle donated by the Cuban president FidelCastro?. Allende never had a single chance against thousands of soldiers shooting against the Presidential Palace and he committed suicide using the rifle, after his family left La Moneda. He didn't surrender because he thought he would be killed, and the new government acknowledged later that they would have done so. This man was a socialist and had been elected legally by only 33% of his countrymen. He represented hope for millions of Chileans and poverty for millions more: Fixed price policy simply does not work. We know that now, but in the past it was expected to make the economy work. See ArgentinaCountry for an example on how bad monetary policy can ruin a country.

Yet Americans helped the infamous General Pinochet to plot against Allende. Some would rather say forced. See IrakCountry? for an example of what could had happened instead. General Schneider was killed because he opposed doing a plot against the president, then Pinochet was promoted and then he betrayed his own president. Allende was aware of the plot, so 2 days before the coup he asked Pinochet if he was making a plot. That's exactly like Jesus asking Judas if he was going to betray him, we know the end of the story. Pinochet denied everything, but on September 11th he said by military radio Kill the bastard. Some think Allende heard that on the military radio and therefore he was unwilling to leave the palace.

American intervention was forced by Allende, because Allende had a very strong speech against Americans, and he had support from communist Russia, therefore retaliation from the US was expected, at least they would be interested on removing Allende from office. HatePolicy? is BadPolicy?. See VenezuelaCountry?. The US invested millions of American dollars on destabilizing the economy, thinking that that would end the government prematurely, but it only made the Allende's speeches more strong. Also Russia was not willing to start a war, so its support was mediocre, most people in Chile thought Russia was not a very good model to follow anyway. After September 11th, Pinochet had 3 thousands of Allende's supporters killed in the most brutal conditions, most bodies have not been recovered and therefore they are supposed to be either killed or kidnapped.

This was one of the most outrageous political situations of the twentieth century. At least in SouthAmerica?, because most communist countries did even worse.

To this day, lots of Chileans hate the US and the role it played to destabilize Allende's regime that was nevertheless a legitimate legally elected regime. Can't blame them. The US should respect other countries' sovereignty and their inalienable rights to put in place the political system they choose. I think all countries should follow that policy, not just the US. Allende made too many mistakes and he even told Pinochet he was going to poll the people to see if he should stay on office or leave, given that he was only elected by 33% of his countrymen, but Pinochet told him to wait a few days... Allende never had the chance to poll the people after that serious mistake and Pinochet had a very good excuse to end Allende's government and rule for 17 years.

Now another socialist is running the country, he is called Ricardo Lagos and he was a minister of Allende. So far, he has signed a commercial treaty with the US and with the EU and the country is doing so much better than with Allende. OpenPolicy? is GoodPolicy?.

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