Chile was mentioned in this Web site the past. The context and the reason was gross manipulation of the government, at least on the face of it. This led to great anger and it is worth pointing out that Brasil followed suit in some sense. The lesson that was learned can be explained rather well by this old Bill Gates quote:

"There won’t be anything we won’t say to people to try and convince them that our way is the way to go."

--Bill Gates (Microsoft's CEO at the time)

And here comes the news.

Despite the 217 comments tabled by Chile in September, the Microsoft puppets are well active in the Committee and will vote this Tuesday to turn the vote of the country from an abstention to a Yes. You can expect more of those things happening until the end of March.

Word on the street is that, as expected, Microsoft is corrupting countries that previously voted "No" on OOXML. Microsoft, as usual, calls it "lobbying", not "corruption", just as it renames bribery "marketing help" and astroturfing it calls "evangelism". Mind the fact that there are Microsoft insiders at play. We have already seen this in Colombia, for examples, as well as several other nations in South America.

Here is an older item which describes in English what happened in Chile several months ago.

Just today, a secret agreement between MS and the Chilean Government came to light. In it, every citizen was sold as a potential user of a Windows Live Spaces model where every SSN is linked to, overbypassing any privacy term and cashing Bill some bucks. It wouldn't be so awful to all if that agreement wasn't approve and the reao yet (Spanish follows).

What's curious about this deal, which also makes the country a prisoner of Redmond, are the events that predate it, namely:

Chilean Mapuches in language row with Microsoft

Mapuche Indians in Chile are trying to take global software giant Microsoft to court in a legal battle which raises the question of whether anyone can ever "own" the language they speak.

This came after other interesting developments such as this one (article now expired):

The Chilean government's high school Internet access network Enlaces plans to install Linux Relevant Products/Services from Sybase ASE Linux Express Edition ? FREE operating systems in 600 schools, after a trial project with Edulinux in 25 establishments, local newspaper El Mercurio reported.

Also consider this one:

ElMostrador.cl: Chilean Public Pension System (INP) Switches to Linux

The institution will save more than 67,000 USD per year in license fees.

Two of every three Chileans either pay or get paid by this state-owned institution, which has 63 offices and ten corporate buildings all over the country, using more than 1500 computers.

Neighboring countries can tell some similar stories. Here, for example, is the story of Colombia:

The government and Microsoft also two signed agreements Monday stressing Uribe's strong commitment to Microsoft products at a time other countries in the region are promoting the non-proprietary Linux operating system.

Mind the interesting use of the term "non-proprietary". It adds to Linux a negative connotation and it's not a conventional slant. It is also rather evident that the charity plays a role, just as we occasionally point out. The article is actually about Gates going on a 'philanthropy' trip and the contracts that were signed (committing the country to stay with Windows and not to defect to Linux) are only mentioned as a by-the-way.

The history of Microsoft misconduct in the area is probably quite long, but one needn't look further than just a few months ago in Ecuador

Ecuador Tax Agency Closes Microsoft Branch Offices For 7 Days

[...]

"We have twice requested balances, payment reports and complete tax information, but the company hasn't given it to us, so in accordance with our laws we have proceeded with the closure," the SRI official in charge of the proceeding said.

Given what was found in recent months, including the eye-popping incident/occupation in Colombia (Microsoft merely voting for itself all across the table), it would just be natural to assume dirty tricks are at hand. ⬆

Related articles:

• Dysfunctional ISO - Courtesy of Microsoft



• Corrupt countries were more likely to support the OOXML document format



• Microsoft accused of more OOXML standards fiddling