Country Snapshot

Population: 15,665,216 (July 2003 est.) Size, comparable to U.S.: slightly smaller than twice the size of Montana Per Capita GDP, not adjusted for PPP (year): $4,200 (2001) Income, wealthiest 10% / poorest 10%: 57.5/1.1 (1998) Population earning less than $2 a day: 8.7% Ranking, Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index: 20 out of 133 Defense Expenditure as a percentage of GDP: 2.9% (2001) Size of armed forces: 87,000 (2001-2002) U.S. military personnel present: 28 (2003)

In August 1997, the Clinton Administration lifted a twenty-year-old moratorium (officially called a “presumption of denial”) on sales of high-technology weapons, such as attack jets, to Latin America. Most observers assumed at the time that with the ban lifted, an agreement to sell Chile up to twenty-four F-16 or similar jets through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program was imminent. Indeed, Chile had requested price and availability data on fighter aircraft a few months earlier, in March 1997.

No sale has been forthcoming, however, as a sagging economy has kept Chile from deciding which model and nationality of aircraft to buy. The Chilean military funds much of its weapons procurement with a fixed ten-percent share in the profits of CODELCO, the state-owned copper company; this funding source dried up in 1997-98 after Asia’s economic turmoil reduced global demand for copper, causing prices to plummet. Chilean officials have announced that any high-tech purchasing decision must await “a more favorable economic environment” in Chile.¹

While Chile may eventually choose to purchase another country’s fighter jets, such as France’s Mirage or Sweden’s Gripen, the State Department’s 2000 Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations is sanguine about Washington’s prospects. This document projects a nearly 7,000 percent increase in Foreign Military Sales deliveries to Chile from 1998 to 2000, a two-year jump from $2.1 million to $147 million.²

U.S. officials have taken an active role in encouraging Chile to purchase U.S.-manufactured aircraft. “I have spoken to the Chileans in the past about my belief that U.S. equipment, obviously, is superior,” Defense Secretary William Cohen said during a May 1998 trip to Chile. Cohen added that Chilean purchases of U.S. weapons “would help solidify our long-term relations with Chile as we continue exchange programs with our military-to-military contacts.”³

 

Other arms transfers

The United States also grants weapons to Chile through the Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program. In 1998, for instance, EDA for Chile consisted of two TH-57A “Sea Ranger” utility helicopters and fourteen O2-A observation aircraft.⁴ The 2000 Congressional Presentation was more concise, indicating that EDA will be used "to promote inter-operability and modernization of equipment."⁵

 

Counternarcotics

A South America regional account of the INC program contributed $68,875 in 1998 to police and other law enforcement bodies.^{" ">7}" ">U.S.-Chilean counternarcotics cooperation is growing closer, however, as the perceived transshipment threat increases. The INCSR reports that a “counternarcotics framework agreement” allowing greater cooperation was to be signed in 1999, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) plans to open a Resident Office in the northern city of Iquique.⁸

 

Other training

Chile is one of three Latin American countries (Argentina and Uruguay are the others) whose militaries will receive assistance from the Enhanced International Peacekeeping Capabilities (EIPC) initiative. The EIPC, a new project which will pay for training and non-lethal equipment for duties related to international peacekeeping missions, will be funded through a $5 million Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grant, to be shared by eight countries worldwide.¹¹ To date, Chile has participated in international peacekeeping operations in Bosnia, Iraq, and the Ecuador-Peru border.¹²

Chile is one of the top contributors to the student body of the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). With 165 Chileans taking the eight-day Cadet Combined Arms Course, Chile accounted for over 20 percent of all SOA students in 1998. This course was not given to any students from other countries that year.¹³

Chile participates frequently in the U.S. Southern Command’s regular multilateral military exercises, including Cabanas, Fuerzas Aliadas Humanitarian, and Fuerzas Unidas Peacekeeping. In October 1998, Chile hosted “Fuerzas Aliadas Chile,” a three-day multilateral seminar that focused on battle staff procedures, peacekeeping operations and disaster relief operations.¹⁴ Chile was the last country with which the United States carried out large-scale bilateral exercises, which the Southern Command phased out by 1998.

U.S. and Chilean naval units practiced anti-submarine, anti-air and anti-surface warfare training during the September 9-27 “Chile phase” of UNITAS 99, a yearly exercise in which a U.S. Navy task group circumnavigates the South American continent. The Marine UNITAS detachment and the Navy’s SEAL Team Four also carried out field exercises and an amphibious landing in the northern Chilean town of Puerto Aldea.¹⁵

Chile is an occasional destination for U.S. Special Forces participating in the Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) program. Recent JCETs have involved Chilean Special Forces and Carabineros, and have focused on such skills as light infantry tactics and close-quarters battle techniques.¹⁶

 

Military-to-military contacts

A Marine Corps press release notes that the U.S. Marines granted the Commandant of Chile’s Marine Corps, Rear Adm. Edgardo Acevedo González, with the Legion of Merit for “exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service” at a Washington ceremony on July 20, 1998. The citation praised González for “his efforts to strengthen the relationships between the Navy and the Marine Corps of both the United States and Chile,” recognizing his “strong support of the platoon exchange program and his continued assignment of Chilean Marines to numerous billets at United States Marine Corps Posts in the U.S.”¹⁸

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Sources:

¹" ">United States, Department of Defense, “Secretary of Defense Trip to Colombia,” Background briefing by “Senior Defense Official,” November 25, 1998 <http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov1998/x11301998_x1125col.html>.

^{" ">2}" "> United States, Department of State, Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000 (Washington: March 1999): 1251-2.

³" ">Douglas J. Gillert, “Cohen Announces Gulf Pullback, Latin American Objectives,” American Forces Press Service, May 25, 1998 <http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May1998/n05281998_9805283.html>.

⁴ Excess Defense Articles Electronic Bulletin Board, United States Department of Defense, Washington, September 1997 <" ">telnet://134.152.212.131>." ">

" ">United States, Department of State, Department of Defense, Foreign Military Assistance Act Report To Congress, Fiscal Year 1996 (Washington: September 1997).

^{" ">5}" "> United States, Department of State, Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000 (Washington: March 1999): 864.

^{" ">6}" ">" ">U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998, (Washington: Department of State: February 1999): <" ">http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/1998_narc_report/samer98_part2.html>.

⁷" ">Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998.

⁸" ">Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998.

" ">United States, Department of State, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000, (Washington: Department of State: March 1999): 864.

^{" ">9}" ">" ">United States, Department of State, Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 1999 (Washington: March 1998): 412.

^{" ">10}" ">" ">United States, Department of Defense, Department of State, Foreign Military Training and DoD Engagement Activities of Interest in Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999: A Report to Congress (Washington: March 1999).

^{" ">11}" ">" ">Department of State, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 20001118-9.

^{" ">12}" "> Department of State, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000 865.

^{" ">13}" "> United States, Department of Defense, Department of State, Foreign Military Training and DoD Engagement Activities of Interest in Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999: A Report to Congress (Washington: March 1999).

^{" ">14}" "> United States, Department of Defense, U.S. Southern Command, "Fuerzas Aliadas Chile 99," Slideshow document, March 24, 1998.

^{" ">15}" ">Lt. Jeff Gordon, “" ">UNITAS ships complete Chilean Phase, transit Straits of Magellan,” Navy News Service 46/99, October 6, 1999 <" ">http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/news/navnews/Navnews.txt>.

^{" ">16}" ">United States, Defense Department, "Report on Training of Special Operations Forces for the Period Ending September 30, 1998," Washington, April 1, 1999." ">

" ">United States, Defense Department, State Department, "Foreign Military Training and DoD Engagement Activities of Interest In Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999: A Report To Congress," Washington, March 1999: 13-4.

^{" ">17}" ">" ">United States, Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), “U.S.-Chile Defense Consultative Commission,” News Release no. 161-99, April 12, 1999 <http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr1999/b04121999_bt161-99.html>.

¹⁸ “Chilean CMC Counterpart Receives Legion of Merit,” Marine Corps News July 28, 1998 <" ">http://www.usmc.mil/news98.nsf/78474d8d567cc4648525657d0064a54a/72b29e8fe42496aa8525664f003fd3db?OpenDocument>.