Urban Livability On The Path To First World Status For Chile

"The Mapocho River once carried away the bodies of opponents to former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. These days, it's just a sluice of raw sewage cutting through the heart of Santiago.

Now, Chile's drive to become Latin America's first developed country is spurring the cleanup of the Mapocho, a $312 million project that is part of a plan to turn Santiago into a world-class city serving as a regional hub for foreign companies.

Chile, the world's biggest copper producer, is seeking to lessen its dependence on mining and diversify its economy away from commodity-driven boom-and-bust cycles as record prices for the metal put the country's public finances on their strongest footing ever.

''The government wants Santiago to be the financial capital of Latin America because that means trade, jobs and overcoming poverty,'' Juan Eduardo Saldivia, undersecretary of public works, said in an interview. ''One policy, among many, is to make Santiago more pleasant, more livable.'' "