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Brazil & Southern Cone - June 2006 (ISSN 1741-4431)

CHILE: Government stops Codelco funding armed forces

On 8 June the defence minister, Vivianne Blanlot, announced the government's plans to scrap a Pinochet-era law that obliges Codelco, the state owned mining company, to hand over 10% of its sales to the military. After a shaky start to her mandate, coupled with widespread discontent over the government's failure to spend much of the country's record windfall copper profits, and the recent accidental death of dozens of conscripts, President Michelle Bachelet wishes to redress a law that is redolent of the country's militaristic past.

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