Word: chiles
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...Chilean government of Marxist President Salvador Allende Gossens last year seized its El Teniente mine, near Santiago. In a move of significance to all multinationals operating in mineral-rich but money-poor countries, the company is trying to throw up what amounts to an international legal blockade of Chile's copper shipments...
Specifically, Kennecott is trying either to seize legally all copper exports from El Teniente, once they reach foreign ports, or attach the payments that foreign customers make to Chile's state-owned copper company. The opening skirmish in this paper blockade was fought about a month ago, when the company got a Paris court to issue an injunction against payment by two French firms for a $1,400,000 shipment of copper headed from El Teniente to Le Havre aboard a West German freighter. Kennecott claimed that the copper is in effect stolen property...
...Chile already has protested, claiming that the French courts lack jurisdiction. Kennecott argues that its property was in effect confiscated and that it has a right to recover its losses, which it figures at about $180 million. The company obviously hopes either to collect enough from foreign buyers of Chilean copper to make up that sum, or to force Chile into negotiating compensation for Kennecott's 49% interest in El Teniente, the world's largest underground copper mine. Win or lose, Kennecott has gained a tactical edge: Chile will have to justify its expropriation before relatively impartial French...
...foreign firms to develop their resources. Later this month mining ministers of Peru, Zambia and Zaire (formerly the Belgian Congo) will meet in Santiago to discuss with Chilean officials how best to counter Kennecott's thrust. The court battle could hardly have come at a worse time for Chile, which gets about 70% of its foreign currency from copper sales. The country is already boiling with political and social unrest, and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Obviously, Kennecott's offensive is likely to hurt future copper sales to customers unwilling to risk legal hassles and possibly costly...
Allende replied to the wave of strikes by extending the "state of emergency"-a measure short of martial law -to 21 of Chile's 25 provinces. One thousand trucks were confiscated and five union leaders arrested. Zealous carabineros dispersed strollers on city streets with tear gas or with powerful water cannons that Chileans called guanacos (after a camel-like animal that spits when it is angered...