International
Chilean television advertising slots close ahead of the plebiscite

December 15 |
On Thursday ended in Chile the period conceived to display electoral propaganda regarding the constitutional proposal that will be submitted to plebiscite next Sunday, December 17, when Chileans will decide the future of the text drafted by the Constitutional Council.
On December 17, voters will receive a ballot with the following question: Are you for or against the text of the New Constitution? Two options will then appear, in favor of the proposal or against it, for voters to choose the one they prefer.
If the constitutional project is not accepted, the Law of Laws that came into force in 1980, conceived under the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), will remain in force.
In October 2022, a plebiscite was held on the proposed Magna Carta prepared by the Constitutional Convention, at which time the “Rejection” option won.
The process is organized by the Electoral Service of Chile (Servel). According to a pre-electoral report made public by the entity, the electoral roll is made up of 15,262,012 people at national level and 127,546 residents abroad.
The agency also detailed that 676,028 foreigners residing in Chile (with at least five years of residence, 18 years of age and without crimes) registered to participate.
On Saturday, December 16, the polling stations will be constituted and their spokespersons will be trained. The following day, the polling stations will open from 08H00 to 18H00 local time. These may be constituted with at least three members and, if they are to remain open beyond 18H00, they will do so until there are no voters left in line who wish to vote.
Voters only need their identity card to vote. This document must be valid, although ID cards that have expired after January 1, 2020 will be accepted. Voters with any type of disability will be able to access the assisted voting option.
According to the current law, voting is mandatory for those who are registered in the electoral roll and reside in Chile. For those who vote from abroad, it is voluntary.
Chileans who are more than 200 km away from their electoral domicile, are absent from the country or suffer from an illness are excluded from the obligation to vote. Those who are far from their electoral district must -among other requirements- go to the nearest Carabineros Police Station, obtain a certificate and then submit it to a judge when summoned.
Any other impediment for not voting can also be certified, but the seriousness of this cause will be certified by a judge according to the evidence presented by the citizen.
Those who do not vote may be fined from 0.5 to 3 monthly tax units (UTM), that is, from 32,108 pesos to 192,648 pesos (US$36-215).
Chile applies a dry law period. This will start on December 17 at 05H00 and will last until 20H00 local time (two hours after the electoral closing time).
In addition, those commercial establishments that are not attended by their owners will be closed, since election days are declared holidays for workers in this sector. Those who work providing essential services and do not have time off, will receive a two-hour leave to vote.
International
China shows at the UN its “condemnation” of Israel for the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty”

The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, showed the “condemnation” of his country against the “violation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran” after the air attack launched by Israel against multiple targets in that country, the official newspaper Diario del Pueblo reports this Saturday.
That media echoes Fu’s speech to the UN Security Council on Friday, in which he demanded that Israel “immediately stop all its military actions.”
“China (…) opposes the expansion of conflicts, and is deeply concerned about the serious consequences that may arise from Israel’s actions. The intensification of regional tensions does not interest any of the parties involved,” said the Chinese emissary.
Beijing called on Tel Aviv and Tehran to “resolve their disputes through political and diplomatic means, and maintain peace and stability at the regional level jointly.”
In Fu’s view, the Israeli attack will have a “negative impact” on the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program: “China has always been committed to the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and consultations, and opposes the use of force, illegal unilateral sanctions and armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.”
This Friday, China had already expressed its willingness to “play a constructive role” to curb the escalation of tensions and facilitate conciliation, in line with its traditional position of active neutrality in the region’s conflicts.
The Israeli attack, which according to Tehran caused dozens of deaths, including senior military commanders and at least six nuclear scientists, targeted key facilities such as the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Numerous civilian casualties were also reported.
Israel justified the offensive by claiming that the Iranian regime is secretly developing a program to manufacture nuclear weapons.
For his part, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” and assured that the attack would reveal the “evil nature” of Israel.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about the bombing, at a time when Iran and the US The United States is holding talks about the Iranian nuclear program.
International
Donald Trump’s government pauses its program of indiscriminate raides against migrants

The government of US President Donald Trump has decided to pause its campaign of discretionary roundings against migrants in certain areas due to its apparent concern about the growing unpopularity of these methods, according to The New York Times newspaper on Friday.
According to an email to which the newspaper has had access and the confirmation of US officials, the Executive has ordered the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to pause the beatings that affect the agricultural industry and the hospitality industry.
The spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement that “the president’s instructions” will be obeyed and the portfolio will also continue to “work to get the worst illegal foreign criminals out of the streets of the United States.”
The decision points out that this campaign of discretionary arrests to try to deport large-scale immigrants is harming industries and electoral constituencies whose support Trump wants to retain for next year’s legislative elections.
The new instructions were transmitted to ICE in an email sent last Thursday asking that “all investigations/law enforcement operations be suspended in work centers in the agricultural sector (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and hotels.”
These new guidelines come in turn after more than a week of intense protests in Los Angeles against this immigration policy and that Trump himself admitted that the raids seem to be affecting the agricultural sector, which in states like California, where beatings have intensified, depend almost exclusively on immigrant labor.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has implemented an aggressive policy of hard hand against immigration and as a sample of his Cabinet officials recently held a meeting with the ICE leadership to order them to carry out 3,000 arrests a day, a mandate that seems to be behind the intensification of the raids.
International
Trump says he knew “everything” about the attack on Iran and assures that the dialogue remains open

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “known everything” about the Israeli attack on Iran and that the dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program “is not dead.”
“We knew everything and I tried to avoid Iran all this humiliation and death. I tried hard to avoid it because I would have loved to see an agreement,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.
The US president insisted on what he wrote today about the attack on social networks, where he said he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Tehran to reach an agreement.
“We knew practically everything. We knew enough to give Iran 60 days to reach an agreement and today it is already 61 days,” he explained in the interview, in which he said he did not know what the current situation of the Iranian nuclear program is after the attack launched by Israel, which also ended the lives of key military leaders of the Persian country.
Regarding the dialogue between the US and Iran about the nuclear program of the ayatollahs, Trump assured that “he is not dead”, that “an agreement is still possible” and also recalled that on Sunday a sixth round of dialogue is scheduled in Muscat (Oman) that they consider is now in the air.
“We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday,” he said.
The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks on the Iranian nuclear program since April, with Washington demanding that Tehran discard its capabilities both to manufacture an atomic bomb and to enrich uranium, something that the ayatollahs considered unacceptable.
Both Israel and Trump himself had warned of possible preventive attacks on the Persian country due to this refusal by Iran.
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