Regions of Chile

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Chile
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Chile is divided into 15 regions^[1] (in Spanish, regiones; singular región), each of which is headed by an intendant (intendente), appointed by the president.

The regions have formally both a name and a Roman numeral (e.g. IV, fourth), with the numbers being assigned in sequence from north to south. In general, the Roman numeral is used rather than the name. The only exception is the region where the national capital is situated, which is called the Santiago Metropolitan Region (Región Metropolitana de Santiago, or RM).

Regions are divided into provinces, each headed by a governor (gobernador), appointed by the president. There are 51 (53 pending[1]) provinces, in total.

Provinces are further divided into comunas, which are frequently mistakenly referred to as municipalities, no doubt because, in all but one case, a single municipality is responsible for a single comuna. According to the Chilean constitution, municipalities, each with its own mayor (alcalde), and councilors, known as concejales. elected by the municipality's inhabitants are responsible to administrate one or more comunas. There are 346 comunas administrated by 345 municipalities. The single comuna which is grouped with another is the comuna of Antarctica, which is combined with the comuna of Puerto Williams

1 History of the regional structure
2 List of regions
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History of the regional structure

The current administrative divisions of Chile were created in 1974 by the Pinochet military dictatorship. Previously, Chile was divided into 25 provinces, which were further divided into departments, and then into municipalities. The new territorial organization was implemented in phases with some initial "pilot regions" beginning to operate in 1974, extending the process on January 1, 1976 to the rest of the country. The Santiago Metropolitan Region began to operate in April 1980.

In 2003, President Ricardo Lagos sent a bill to Congress so that lawmakers could discuss the administrative division of the country, now under democracy. In 2005, reforms to the Constitution eliminated the 13-region limit, and allowed for more regions to be created.

On December 19, 2006 the Congress passed a bill approving the creation of two new regions: one in the north of the country called XV Arica-Parinacota Region, encompassing the provinces of Arica and Parinacota which are currently part of the Tarapacá Region; and another in the south, formed by the province of Valdivia, formerly part of the Los Lagos Region, called XIV Los Ríos Region (The Rivers Region).[2]

[edit] List of regions

Key	Name	Spanish full	Capital
I	Tarapacá	Región de Tarapacá	Iquique
II	Antofagasta	Región de Antofagasta	Antofagasta
III	Atacama	Región de Atacama	Copiapo
IV	Coquimbo	Región de Coquimbo	La Serena
V	Valparaíso	Región de Valparaíso	Valparaiso
VI	O'Higgins	Región del Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins	Rancagua
VII	Maule	Región del Maule	Talca
VIII	Bío-Bío	Región del Bío-Bío	Concepción
IX	Araucanía	Región de la Araucanía	Temuco
X	Los Lagos	Región de Los Lagos	Puerto Montt
XI	Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo¹	Región de Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo	Coyhaique
XII	Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena	Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena	Punta Arenas
RM	Santiago Metropolitan Region	Región Metropolitana de Santiago	Santiago

Also spelled Aisén.

In 2006, the Chilean congress created two new regions, one in the north, around the city of Arica, called Región XV de Arica y Parinacota (Arica-Parinacota Region), and one in the south centered around Valdivia, named Región XIV de los Ríos (Los Ríos Region), expected to be functional by mid. 2007