Like its predecessor, this study is an attempt to examine objectively and concisely the dominant historical, social, environmental, economic, governmental, political, and national security aspects of contemporary Chile. Sources of information included books, journals, other periodicals and monographs, official reports of governments and international organizations, and numerous interviews by the authors with Chilean government officials. Chapter bibliographies appear at the end of the book; brief comments on sources recommended for further reading appear at the end of each chapter. To the extent possible, placenames follow the system adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names. Measurements are given in the metric system; a conversion table is provided to assist readers unfamiliar with metric measurements (see table 1, Appendix). A glossary is also included.
Spanish surnames generally are composed of both the father's and mother's family names, in that order, although there are numerous variations. In the instance of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, for example, Frei is his patronymic and Ruiz-Tagle is his mother's maiden name. In informal use, the matronymic is often dropped, a practice that usually has been followed in this book, except in cases where the individual could easily be confused with a relative or someone with the same patronymic. For example, Frei Montalva's son Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, is the current president.
The body of the text reflects information available as of March 31, 1994. Certain other portions of the text, however, have been updated. The Introduction discusses significant events that have occurred since the completion of research, the Country Profile includes updated information as available, and the Bibliography lists recently published sources thought to be particularly helpful to the reader.
Data as of March 1994