Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlchile



Chile <![CDATA[Chile is affected by antipersonnel and antivehicle mines and, to a very limited extent, by unexploded ordnance (UXO). As of 25 March 2008, there were 198 minefields covering a total area of 26km2 and containing 107,398 mines. This includes 15 minefields cleared prior to Chile becoming a party to the Mine Ban Treaty but which were not cleared to humanitarian standards. Those at greatest risk are said to be immigrants entering the country at illegal crossings along the Peruvian border.

The mines were all laid on Chile’s borders with Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru during the Pinochet regime in the 1970s, when Chile’s relations with its neighbors were strained. The Chilean military claims to have accurate records of the placement of the vast majority of its minefields, which include the number of mines in each minefield. As such, public reports of unrecorded minefields are rare. However, in 2008, a Chilean NGO reported the presence of a minefield in Mayoco near Santiago. The military visited the site and verified that there were mines present. The minefield has been fenced and marked and included in the registry.

Contaminated areas are difficult to access and mostly unpopulated. Some minefields in the north are located as high as 5,000m above sea level. Seventeen minefields have been identified on five islands in Region XII (Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic), including Hornos Island, on the edge of the Beagle Channel near the entrance to Drake Passage, which leads to Antarctica. The climatic conditions on these islands are severe all year round and limit mine clearance to only a few weeks a year. Hornos Island, which has one minefield, is uninhabited. However, it was visited by 6,000 tourists in 2007 and an internet-based travel journal noted that a tourist on his way to Antarctica in early 2007 expressed shock at encountering a minefield while hiking on the island.

In 2007, one new mine casualty was recorded: a 20-year-old Peruvian killed by an antipersonnel mine while crossing a mined area to re-enter Peru from Arica (Region XV) in northern Chile to avoid paying a fine for his expired residency permit. In 2006, a young Peruvian man was injured by an antipersonnel mine while trying to enter Chile. No casualties were reported in 2008 through to March. ]]> <![CDATA[]]>