Copiapó

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Copiapó Copayapu
Mall Plaza Real
Location of Copiapó commune in Atacama Region
Copiapó Location in Chile
Coordinates: 27°21′59″S 70°19′59″W / -27.36639, -70.33306
Country	Chile
Region	Atacama
Province	Copiapó
Founded	December 8, 1744
Government
- Type	Socialist
- Mayor	Marcos López Rivera
Area
- Total	16,681.3 km² (6,440.7 sq mi)
Elevation	391 m (1,283 ft)
Population (2002)
- Total	129,091
- Density	7.74/km² (20/sq mi)
Time zone	Chilean (UTC-4)
- Summer (DST)	Chilean Daylight (UTC-3)
postal code
Area code(s)	country + city = (56) (52)
Website: http://www.copiapo.cl

Copiapó is the capital of the Atacama Region and of the Province of Copiapó, in Chile. It was founded on December 8, 1744 by the governor José Antonio Manso de Velasco.

Copiapó is located at 27°21′59″S, 70°19′59″W, near the port city and coastal resort of Caldera, Chile. The population of Copiapó was 9,128 in 1903, 11,617 in 1907 and, as of 2002, there are 129,091 inhabitants. Copiapó lies about 800 km north of Santiago by the Copiapó River, in the valley of the same name. In recent years the river has dried up due to mining and agricultural activity in the region. The town is surrounded by the Atacama Desert and receives little rain (12 mm/year).

Copiapó is in a rich silver and copper mining district. It possesses a bronze statue of Juan Godoy, discoverer of the Chañarcillo silver mines in the XIX Century.

The Copiapó-Caldera railway line, built in 1850, was the second one in South America. The original wooden railway station is now a National Monument.

Contents 1 History 2 Economy 3 Education 4 Politics 5 Copiapó UFO sighting 6 References

[edit] History

The town was christened San Francisco de la Selva de Copiapó or Saint Francis of the Jungle of Copiapó, due to its lush vegetation. Previous to Spanish occupation, the area was inhabited by the Diaguita people under the rule of the Inca Empire. The earliest archaeological remains of human activity in the Copiapó valley have been dated at ten thousand years BP.

[edit] Economy

Copiapó has a diversified and potential economy, but Mining is by far the most important economic activity.^[1],

The Copiapó Basin hides rich copper minerals, exploited by some important companies such as "Minera Candelaria", which extracts copper near Tierra Amarilla (neighboring commune), generating an important activity regarding transportation, light industry, and services. "Little mining" is another important activity that represents over 30% of the production. The cooper obtained by "pirquineros" (miners) goes to the Cooper Refinery of Paipote.

Agriculture is the second activity of importance in the primary-production sector. Most of it focuses on grape production, with olives, tomatoes, avocados and some citrus fruits also being important.

Industry: Copiapó has mainly light industry, and some medium industry such as INACESA plant and Paipote Cooper Refinery.

Commerce: Copiapó has a growing activity in this economic area. It lies mostly on old and new PYMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises). Downtown Copiapó activity is a mirrow of the new progress Copiapó is taking part of. Some native enterprices have growth rapidly in the last decade as to Albasini and Don Álvaro chain-stores. Free-market policies along with a higher demand and better economic expectatives have forced the arrival of big national enterprises such as the supermarkets DECA (1999), JUMBO (2005), and LIDER (2006).

Tourism: Tourism in Copiapó has not been thoroughly developed. Its capacity is lower mainly due to a lack of private investment, a large bureaucracy, and poor information for investors.

Attractions of Copiapó are the Mineralogic Museum, Plaza de Armas, Regional Museum of the Matta Family, and the Wooden Railway Station.

[edit] Education

Copiapó provides education from kindergarten to high school.

Liceo Católico Atacama, Scuola Italiana d'Copiapó, San Lorenzo School^[2], , and Escuela Técnico-Professional are the fountain of most of the highest PSU scores of the city^[3], .

Other important schools are: Liceo Mercedes Fritis McKenney, A-4 High School, Liceo de Música de Copiapó, Colegio El Chañar, Colegio Almenar, Colegio Cervantino, Liceo El Palomar, and Liceo Comercial.

Copiapó also provides college education; The Universidad de Atacama ^[4] was founded in 1857, and has mainly especialized in Mining Engineering. Other careers imparted are Law, Education, and Geology. It is also a member of the "Council of Rectors" thus considered as a Traditional University.

During the last five years, Copiapó has been a subject of new college establishment such as the Universidad del Mar (2004) and the Universidad Santo Tomás (2007), both privates, along with INACAP, a national-covering technical institute.

[edit] Politics

After the return to democracy (1990), there have been four mayoral elections held in Copiapó:

In 1992^[5], Mónica Calcutta (PPD) won the election against 24 candidates. Her ruling was characterized for a great public expenditure on green-areas, parks, and street paving, as well as on public infrastructure of great importance such as the new building of the city-hall (1994), the Estadio Techado (1996), and the Technological School (1996). During her ruling, Calcutta made several public activities to encourage people to a major participation. One of these activities was the "Train of History" carried out in 1994 (for the 250 years of Copiapó) and 1995.

Despite all these expenditures, the City-Hall ended-up with no debt for 1996.

In 1996^[6], Calcutta ran for the re-election for the PRSD, but was defeated by the socialist candidate Marcos López (city-councilor (1992–1996)) by a narrow margin of 146 votes. The ruling of López differed substansially from the former one. His first three years as mayor did not see any important public expenditures in visible things. They just came out the year before the following election.

The 2000 election had a very confrontational propaganda. López and Calcutta ran for the re-election once again together with 10 other candidates. In spite of the surveys that gave a virtual tie between them, López won the election with an overwhelming 50.07% of the votes against 31.52% of his rival.^[7]

López's second term-in-office was characterized for high public expenditures, part of it from the Central Government in order to improve Chilean infrastructure toward the 200 years of Independence. These expenditures conveyed in the redisigning of the Central Square, the Matta Avenue and the City-Chamber.

In 2004, Marcos López got to continue his term by defeating the rightist candidate René Aedo (RN) with 50.01% over 40.82% of the votes.^[8]

[edit] Copiapó UFO sighting

Copiapó was said to be the site of an unidentified flying object sighting in 1864. According to researcher Chris Aubeck^[9], the story first appeared in print in the March 18, 1868 issue of the newspaper El Constituyente, which was itself cited in the journal The Zoologist then in Lo!, a 1931 book by American investigator Charles Fort. Fort's account was the basis of a later account in Anatomy of a Phenomenon (1965) by ufologist Jacques Vallee.

Aubeck reports that the original newspaper article described the object as "an enormous bird."

[edit] References