The earthquake, of magnitude 8,8 on the Richter scale, that hit Chile on February 26th, is one of the five most violent earthquakes ever registered. It has caused several tsunamis. “Our history is full of natural disasters, which put to the test our tenacity and our solidarity. One more time: Cheer up, Chile!” has declared president Michelle Bachelet.

Chileans voted this Sunday, January 17, 2010 for the second round of the presidential election. Sebastian Pinera, right-wing candidate, was elected to succeed to the Socialist Michelle Bachelet. The one who is called the "locomotive" is a former official of the World Bank and Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean ( ECLAC), and was senator from 1990 to 1998. The 60 year-old multimillionaire is a symbol of success. The right voters are in the streets to express their joy.

At the end of the Shining Path’s guerrilla and of the economical and political chaos, Peru is becoming the most stable country of the area. Nevertheless, territorial disparities and social exclusions are still strong. Nowadays, Peru has to face new problems born of its recent history. The privatization of companies has brought massive workers’ strikes, depriving Lima of Mantaro’s valley’s agricultural productions. The Mantaro’s valley being one of the most important agricultural regions. The remote regions of Andes Cordillera, with jungles and high mountains, are totally secluded from the rest of the country. Different Amerindian’s communities which live there are not able to take a...

Rodeo is the second most popular sport in Chile, after football. The Huasos playing it are, with the Argentinean Gauchos, the last real cowboys of South America. Chilean Rodeo has been considered a national sport since 1962. People practice it from one generation to the next to keep the cattle breeding’s traditions going on. But it’s an elitist and expensive sport: a good horse can cost more than 40 000 euros. Huasos cowboys arrive the day before in the village of Retiro, 400 km south of Santiago, to settle and let their horses have a night of rest. Rodeo starts with horses entering the Medialuna. It stops when the team of two horse-riders manage to control the cow in a precise area...

A Sunday afternoon in the business centre, it’s the sad memory of the frantic Monday which is coming. In the same way, those pictures have the nostalgia of the future. Future of the ones who watch them without ever being present. Future of the one that, with being here, left the shadow of his hanging life, the same one that makes the memory of objects his, like they were bodies. In Rodrigo Gomez Rovira’s picture series on Valparaiso, it’s this big body that the city is which spreads its imagination from the empty streets, to the crowded homes. When the interiors in the presence of no one are whispering their insisting existence, where the pores are resisting to the dust and the...

Chilean photographer Rodrigo Gomez Rovira went to Peru, Paraguay and Nicaragua, to meet the local representatives of fair trade, small farmers and cooperative managers.

Sympathizers of the former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet waiting at the door of the military hospital where the dictator has been hospitalized after a heart attack.

Thousands of people gathered across the capital to wave flags and express their joy after the news of former dictator Augusto Pinochet's death broke.

Chile, Bolivia, Peru Tripartite market at the border of the 3 countries. Every sunday, merchants from the 3 nationalities exchange their products. They are all from the Quechua community. Thanks to this market, people from the Altiplano have access to fruit and vegetables that don't grow at such a high altitude (4500 m) and to manufactured goods.

In 2006, the Republic of Chile knew an historical presidential election. Michelle Bachelet was the first woman to access the supreme function. She has organized a government characterized by a man – woman parity. After the terror inspired in the entire country by the authoritarian regime of general Pinochet, this election was a victory for the Chilean people, for the entire South America, and for the whole world.

Also known as love motels, hotels for couples, apartments, these motels all have the same use : to make it possible for married, unmarried, adulterous couples, people accompanied by a prostitute, or alone, ménage à trois or more to satisfy their sexual needs, in all discretion. Open 24 hours a day, these hotels represent a parenthesis during the day or the night, for a minimum of 3 hours and a maximum of one night. It can cost between 7 and 100 euros, a bit expensive but that’s the price to pay for tranquility and a more or less extravagant setting, that often look like a matrimonial bedroom. In Chili, love motels are an institution like the “completo” (a Chilean hot dog) says Soledad...