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Copiapo
Copiapo is the capital of the Atacama Region and of the Province of Copiapo, in Chile. It was founded on December 8, 1744 by the governor Jose Antonio Manso de Velasco.
Copiapo is located at , near the port city and coastal resort of Caldera, Chile. The population of Copiapo was 9,128 in 1903, 11,617 in 1907 and, as of 2002, there are 129,091 inhabitants. Copiapo lies about 800 km north of Santiago by the Copiapo 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).
Copiapo is in a rich silver and copper mining district. It possesses a bronze statue of Juan Godoy, discoverer of the Chanarcillo silver mines in the XIX Century.
The Copiapo-Caldera railway line, built in 1850, was the second one in South America. The original wooden railway station is now a National Monument.
History
The town was christened San Francisco de la Selva de Copiapo or Saint Francis of the Jungle of Copiapo, 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 Copiapo valley have been dated at ten thousand years BP.
Economy
Copiapo has a diversified and potential economy, but Mining is by far the most important economic activity.,
The Copiapo 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.
Copiapo has mainly light industry, and some medium industry such as INACESA plant and Paipote Cooper Refinery.
Commerce: Copiapo has a growing activity in this economic area.
It lies mostly on old and new PYMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises). Downtown Copiapo activity is a mirrow of the new progress Copiapo is taking part of. Some native enterprices have growth rapidly in the last decade as to Albasini and Don Alvaro 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 in Copiapo 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 Copiapo are the Mineralogic Museum, Plaza de Armas, Regional Museum of the Matta Family, and the Wooden Railway Station.
Education
Copiapo provides education from kindergarten to high school.
Liceo Catolico Atacama, Scuola Italiana d'Copiapo, San Lorenzo School, , and Escuela Tecnico-Professional are the fountain of most of the highest PSU scores of the city, .
Other important schools are: Liceo Mercedes Fritis McKenney, A-4 High School, Liceo de Musica de Copiapo, Colegio El Chanar, Colegio Almenar, Colegio Cervantino, Liceo El Palomar, and Liceo Comercial.
Copiapo also provides college education;
The Universidad de Atacama 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, Copiapo has been a subject of new college establishment such as the Universidad del Mar (2004) and the Universidad Santo Tomas (2007), both privates, along with INACAP, a national-covering technical institute.
Politics
After the return to democracy (1990), there have been four mayoral elections held in Copiapo:
In 1992, Monica 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 Copiapo) and 1995.
Despite all these expenditures, the City-Hall ended-up with no debt for 1996.
In 1996, Calcutta ran for the re-election for the PRSD, but was defeated by the socialist candidate Marcos Lopez (city-councilor (1992-1996)) by a narrow margin of 146 votes.
The ruling of Lopez 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. Lopez 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, Lopez won the election with an overwhelming 50.07% of the votes against 31.52% of his rival.
Lopez'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 Lopez got to continue his term by defeating the rightist candidate Rene Aedo (RN) with 50.01% over 40.82% of the votes.
Copiapo UFO sighting
Copiapo was said to be the site of an unidentified flying object sighting in 1864. According to researcher Chris Aubeck, 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."
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Copiapo
