History of Chile him to Spain. Thereafter, Pinochet returned to Chile in March 2000. Upon descending the plane on his wheelchair, he stood up and saluted the cheering crowd of supporters, including an army band playing his favorite military march tunes, which was awaiting him at the airport in Santiago. President Ricardo Lagos later commented that the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him. The "Concertación" coalition has continued to dominate Chilean politics for last two decades. In January 2006 Chileans elected their first woman president, Michelle Bachelet, of the Socialist Party. She was sworn
Indians in Chile for economic reasons. Today, about 1,500 Indians live in Chile, mostly in Santiago. The first immigrants from India (mostly of Sindhi descent) arrived to Magallanes (present-day Punta Arenas) in 1904 and worked as traders. Their descendants moved to different parts of the country, though mostly to Santiago. Descendants of Sindhi migrants to Chile also live on the northern coast (i.e. Arica, Iquique and Antofagasta). A second large wave of Indian immigration occurred in the 1980s. These are the people who set up the Indian Association of Santiago. There are 90 families which amount to 400 people in Santiago alone. Nationally,