Guaitecas is

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an commune located in

Guaitecas Archipelago The Guaitecas Archipelago is a sparsely populated archipelago in the Aisén region of Chile. The archipelago is made up of eight main islands and numerous smaller ones. The eight largest islands are from northwest to southeast: Gran Guaiteca, Asc ...

which are part of

Aysén Province Aysén Province () is one of four provinces of the Chilean region of Aysen (XI). Its capital is Puerto Aysén. Demographics The province had a 2002 population of 23,498 according to the census by the National Statistics Institute. Of these, 1 ...

and

Region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

. The administrative centre is Melinka, the only port and town in the wider

Chonos Archipelago The Chonos Archipelago is a series of low, mountainous, elongated islands with deep bays, traces of a submerged Chilean Coast Range. Most of the islands are forested with little or no human settlement. The deep Moraleda Channel separates the isl ...

Demographics

According to the 2002

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of the National Statistics Institute, Guaitecas spans an area of and has 1,539 inhabitants (913 men and 626 women). Of these, 1,411 (91.7%) lived in

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

s and 128 (8.3%) in

rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

s. The population grew by 20% (256 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses. Much of the population of Guaitecas is of Chilote-

Huilliche The Huilliche (), Huiliche or Huilliche-Mapuche are the southern partiality of the Mapuche macroethnic group in Chile and Argentina. Located in the Zona Sur, they inhabit both Futahuillimapu ("great land of the south") and, as the Cunco or Ve ...

background.

Administration

As a commune, Guaitecas is a third-level

administrative division of Chile The administrative division or territorial organization of Chile exemplifies characteristics of a unitary state. State administration is functionally and geographically decentralized, as appropriate for each authority in accordance with the law ...

administered by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

, headed by an

alcalde ''Alcalde'' (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and Administration (government), administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor (position), corregidor, the presiding officer o ...

(Mayor) who is directly elected every four years. In December 2018 Cristián Alvarado Oyarzo ( RN) who was then the mayor was preventively detained as part of an investigation where he was accused of a

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

against the state () for at least 340 million

pesos The peso is the monetary unit of several Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, as well as the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries of the Americas, the symbol commonly known a ...

. This led to his deposition as mayor and his replacement by municipal councillor Marcos Silva Miranda ( PPD), who afterwards won the 2021 municipal elections, being ratified as mayor. In December 2021 Cristián Alvarado was condemned to 10 years of prison and two of his collaborators to seven years of prison each. Within the

electoral divisions of Chile This article covers the electoral division of Chile, which involves two distinct systems: # Chamber of Deputies of Chile, Chamber of Deputies and Senate of Chile, Senate: Chile is divided into electoral districts and senatorial constituencies for ...

, Guaitecas is represented in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

by René Alinco Bustos (Ind-PPD), Miguel Ángel Calisto Águila (PDC) and Aracely Leuquén Uribe (RN), as part of the 27th electoral district, which includes the entire Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region. The commune is represented in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

by Ximena Órdenes (PPD) and David Sandoval (UDI), as part of the 14th senatorial constituency, identical to the 27th district.

References

External links

*
Municipality of Guaitecas
{{Communes in Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region Communes of Chile Aysén Region