SANTIAGO ( Associated Press) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made the second leg of a tour of South America on Sunday when he arrived in Santiago, where he toured the Memorial Museum with President Gabriel Boric and later met with him at the Palacio de la Moneda.
The European country’s president will hold meetings with various Chilean officials, with an agenda that also includes exchanges with the country’s businessmen. Talks between Scholz and Borik are expected to cover a variety of topics, including the war in Ukraine, climate change and the development of new renewable energy projects that could see Chile become a world leader in the production of green hydrogen.
It is also expected that both talk about human rights. This would include the situation in Colonia Dignidad, a settlement of German settlers where all kinds of atrocities and human rights violations took place during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1990), with neither reparations programs nor adequate compensation. Nor by the Chilean state nor by the German state.
Scholz came to Chile from Argentina, where he met with President Alberto Fernandez and discussed the issues already mentioned. He also talked about trade agreements between Mercosur and the European Union, which have been stalled for years and are expected to be streamlined in the coming months.
The German President will leave for Brazil on Monday to meet President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the final leg of his tour of South America.
Germany, the EU’s biggest economy, is seeking to reassert its influence and ties with Latin America at a complex geopolitical moment in Europe given the rise of Asian giant China in the region.
