2021 in Chile

Events

Summarize

Perspective

4 January - The University Transition Test that replaced the PSU is carried out, with fewer questions and with a strict health protocol due to the pandemic.
7 January – Former GOPE sergeant Carlos Alarcón is found guilty of the murder of Camilo Catrillanca.^[1] A few days later he is sentenced to 16 years in prison.^[2]
30 January – A fire at San Borja Arriarán hospital in Santiago required 20 companies of firefighters to control, but the patients were all safely evacuated to nearby hospitals.^[3]
5 February – Hundreds protest and municipal buildings are set on fire in Panguipulli after police kill a street performer.^[4]
10 February – The government announces it will deport 2,000 undocumented immigrants, mostly from Venezuela. The town of Colchane, Tamarugal Province, has expanded from a population of 300 to 1,700 since 1 February.^[5]
11 February – Mónica Zalaquett, Minister of Women and Gender Equity, condemns comments by councilor Iván Roca (Independent Democratic Union) of Lota, Biobío Region, excusing his 33-year-old son′s rape of a 12-year-old girl because the girl had ″the body of a woman″.^[6]
15 February – COVID-19: 779,541 total cases since the outbreak of the pandemic, 19,624 deaths, 2,147,272 doses of vaccine administered^[7]
4 March – Tsunami alert following earthquakes near the Kermadec Islands, New Zealand^[8]

10-11 April – Scheduled date for the 2021 Chilean Constitutional Convention election. President Piñera proposed holding the election in May to allow greater vaccination.^[9]
21 November – Scheduled date for the 2021 Chilean general election, to elect the President and National Congress. In the 2021 elections 27 members of the Senate (out of a total of maximum 50) will be elected, replacing 20 outgoing senators.^[10]

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Deaths

3 January – Manola Robles, journalist (b. 1948).^[11]
20 January - Mario Gutiérrez, musician, member of Los Ángeles Negros (b. 1949)^[12]
22 January - Juan Guzmán Tapia, judge (Augusto Pinochet's arrest and trial), (b. 1939).^[13]
27 January – Ignacio Tejeda, 17, tennis player; cancer.^[14]
31 January - Oliver Welden, award-winning poet (born 1946)^[15]
7 February – Mario Osbén, 69, footballer (Colo-Colo, Cobreloa, national team); heart attack.^[16]
10 March – Tomás Vidiella, 83, film director and actor; COVID-19.^[17]
13 March – Uruguay Graffigna, 73, Uruguayan-Chilean footballer (San Luis de Quillota, Los Angeles Aztecs, PEC Zwolle); complications from COVID-19 and Alzheimer's disease.^[18]
19 March – Cristián Cuturrufo, 48, jazz trumpeter; COVID-19.^[19]
27 March – Eugenio Mimica Barassi, 71, writer (born 1949).^[20]
8 April – Elsa Bolívar, 91, painter.^[21]
14 April – Tati Penna, 61, singer, journalist and television personality; cancer.^[22]
22 April – Armando Jofré, 44, artist and puppet maker (31 Minutos); COVID-19.^[23]
6 May – Humberto Maturana, 92, philosopher and biologist (born 1928).^[24]
25 July – Fernando Karadima, 90, catholic priest accused of sexual abuse (born 1930).^[25]
25 September – Patricio Manns, 84, singer (born 1973)^[26]
3 October – Jorge Medina, 94, cardinal (born 1926).^[27]
5 October – Reinaldo Solari, 96, businessman (born 1925).^[28]

Incumbents