Chile

Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 18 December 2019

Policy

The Republic of Chile signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 10 September 2001, becoming a State Party on 1 March 2002. Chile has not adopted comprehensive national legislation, but it has stated on several occasions that legislation to implement the Mine Ban Treaty is being prepared. In May 2009, Chile stated that its existing laws sufficiently cover the various issues required for implementation, citing the Arms Control Act No. 17.798, which addresses all weapons and explosives, including landmines. Chile nonetheless reiterated its intent to adopt specific legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty. The draft legislation in preparation by various ministries would also serve to implement aspects of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Amended Protocol II and Protocol V, as well as the conventions on the rights of persons with disabilities and on cluster munitions.[1]

Chile regularly attends meetings of the treaty, including the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014, and more recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it provided statements on victim assistance, Article 5 mine clearance, and a general statement.[2]

Chile has served on the Committee on Cooperative Compliance (2015), the Committee on Article 5 Implementation (2017), and the Committee on Victim Assistance (2018), and served as President of the Fifteenth Meeting of States Parties in Santiago in November–December 2016.

Chile is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Chile is also party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and retention

Chile is a former producer, exporter, importer, and user of antipersonnel mines. Both the army’s Fabricaciones Militares (FAMAE) and a private company named Industrias Cardoen manufactured landmines.[3] Chile has reported producing at least six different types of antipersonnel mines: the MAPP 78-F2 and MAPT 78-F2 mines, both made by FAMAE in 1981; the MOD I (manufactured 1979), II (1980), IEC-11, and M-178 mines, all made by Cardoen. Chile also reported manufactured the M-19 antivehicle mine and the Claymore-type directional fragmentation mine, and Cardoen manufactured the U/I fragmentation mine, according to one source, but none are listed in the Article 7 reports.[4]

Chile has stated that production and export stopped in 1985.[5]

Chile finished destroying its stockpile of 300,039 antipersonnel mines in August 2003.[6] According to its most recent Article 7 report for calendar year 2018, Chile retains 1,192 mines for training its military in humanitarian disarmament.[7]

Use

Chile used mines in the 1970s and 1980s along its borders with Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru.



[1] Statement of Chile, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 25 May 2009.

[2] Statement of Chile, Mine Ban Treaty Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 27 November 2018; and statement of Chile, Mine Ban Treaty Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 26 November 2018.

[3] Jane’s Mines and Mine Clearance, online update, 19 November 1999.

[4] United States Department of Defense, ORDATA online, accessed 27 May 2004.

[5] Response to LM Questionnaire by the Foreign Ministry of Chile, through its Ambassador to Uruguay, Amb. Augusto Bermudez Arancibia, 2 February 1999.

[6] Chile initially reported destruction of a stockpile of 299,219 antipersonnel mines. See Landmine Monitor Report 2004, pp. 300–302. However, Chile’s Article 7 reports submitted since 2005 each cited destruction of 300,039 mines from 4 December 1999 to 25 August 2003. See, for example, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form B, 30 April 2009.

[7] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form D, February 2019.