CHILE, one of the strangest shaped countries in the world, is a long strip of territory sandwich between the Pacific Ocean and the highest peaks of the  Andes mountain range. This ribbon of lands is never more than 110 miles wide. Most of the population lives in the fertile central zone. To the north dry hills, the Atacama Desert, and mineral deposit which gave the country it’s main export-Copper. It is here, at giant workings like Chuquicamata (the largest open- cast mine in the world) that the copper is mined.

Towards the South are wild forests, mountains, lakes, and glaciers. The Andes fall into the sea  produces the scatter of Island leading to the Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn. This is a country of breathtaking scenery, light, and color. The sea and mountain is present anywhere and this imagery has influenced the country’s great poets- like Pablo Neruda- and its artists and writers. Less romantically, Chile’s geography has made transport all- important –because of the shape of the country a strike by truck drivers can (and has) brought the economy to a standstill.

The truck drivers played their part in the toppling the Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende in 1973. Allende, who has been described as the first Marxist to be voted into power, died during the US supported military coup that year. But he remains a powerful symbol in the country’s prolonged political struggle. Nowadays even the truck drivers have turned against Allende’s opponent and successors, general Augusto Pinochet, after 14 years of dictatorial rule. Like many one - time supporters, they have been alienated by the economic recession accentuated by the foreign debt crisis. Since 1983 there has been prolonged upsurge of popular protest demanding he return of democracy. Pinochet is an extreme anti communist, whose style of rule could be compared to the Franco dictatorship in Spain. Nevertheless he has innate political cunning, which he has help him keep hold of the reins of power.

Chile is today one of the most polarised societies in a continent known for its social inequalities. The elite lives a life of conspicuous consumption while as much as one-third of the labor force is unemployed. The mood in the shanty town is angry: during the protest barricades go up and stones are hurled at the police. But General Pinochet’s shadowy secret police still make people ‘disappear.’

Early 1986 saw the departure of dictators like Baby Doc of Hawaii and Marcos of Philippines. Maybe it won’t be long before Pinochet goes to.