In Chile, the Economy's Struggles Go Well Beyond Politics

Conservative governments are making a comeback across Latin America after more than a decade of leftist dominance in the region. Chile could be the next in line for this transition. For the past two years, falling copper prices have slowed the country's economic growth to a crawl, drawing many voters away from the ruling center-left coalition. Though Chile's presidential election is still months away, polls show that Sebastian Pinera, who previously served as president from 2010-2014 under the center-right Coalition for Change, has an early lead. (Alejandro Guillier, who is running for the center-left Radical Party, is in second place with 17 percent of likely voters behind him, compared with Pinera's 25 percent.) But no matter which candidate wins, Chile's economy will face an obstacle far greater and more enduring than the current commodities slump: geography....