Chile, Latin America: Week in Review

Chile: Blackouts Force Energy Minister To Call For New Investments In Network

September 27, 2011 By Staff

Today in Latin America

Top Story — Chile’s energy minister called for strong new investments in the country’s energy network after widespread blackout hit the Southern Cone nation for the third day in a row. Failures in the transmission grid are suspected to have caused the blackouts. On Saturday more than half of the country’s 17 million people were plunged into darkness due to a blackout, which was followed Sunday by a blackout around Chile’s port city of Valparaíso. On Monday, much of northern Chile also lost power. Energy Minister Rodrigo Álvarez said that the companies responsible for the power outages would be fined, but much of the country’s power grid is not connected. Updating this is now seen as a major priority of President Sebastián Piñera’s administration.

Read More From The Washington Post.

Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch

  • Though he couldn’t make it to the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez rallied his supporters in New York by phone from Cuba on Friday. Read the report from Roque Planas and Juan Víctor Fajardo.
  • Check out our continuing coverage this week of the United Nations General Assembly.
  • Mexican President Felipe Calderón called on the U.S. government to reduce weapon sales to Mexico and domestic demand for illegal drugs, in a talk before business leaders at the Waldorf-Astoria on Monday. Mari Hayman has more.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Caribbean

Central America

Andes

Southern Cone

Image: Hector Garcia @ Flickr.

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