Chile is one of the last countries in the world that has not
legalized divorce. A law permits marital separation under certain
conditions, but it does not terminate the conjugal bond. Despite the
Catholic hierarchy's opposition to the legalization of divorce, at least
half of all Chileans apparently favor enacting such a law. In the 1990 CEP-Adimark survey, 55.6 percent of those
interviewed were in favor of legal divorce.
The differences of opinion on divorce among various categories of the
population are noteworthy. Support for its legalization is slightly
stronger among men than among women. It is much stronger among young
adults than among the middle-aged, while only a minority of older people
support it. High-income respondents constitute the group most in favor,
whereas lower-income respondents largely disapprove (70.1 percent to
15.5 percent); a small majority of those with middle and lower incomes
support legalization. A slight majority of self-identified Catholics are
in favor, but among practicing Catholics a majority reject the notion. A
small majority of those who said they are Protestant reject
legalization. This rejection is stronger among weekly churchgoers.
Curiously, Protestants (mainly Pentecostals, who tend to have very
traditional opinions) are closer to the positions of the Catholic
hierarchy than are Catholic respondents.
Although Chile does not have a divorce law, a surrogate and
well-institutionalized means of severing conjugal bonds is the annulment
of civil marriages. Civil marriage ceremonies are the only legally valid
ones, and couples who have church weddings must also marry at the civil
registry. The annulment is usually done with the assistance of attorneys
who argue that there has been some procedural error in the civil
marriage process. It often involves obtaining witnesses who would attest
to facts, whether true or false, that vitiate the original proceedings,
such as asserting that the couple does not reside where they said they
did when they were married. This is enough to make a case for
invalidating the action of the civil registrar who performs the ceremony
and draws up the papers. To a large extent, Chile's lack of a proper
divorce law can be attributed to the ability of separated couples to
annul their marriage following these procedures. As a result, the
political pressure to enact a divorce law is diffused. In 1991, the
latest year for which there were published figures, there were 5,852
marriage annulments (and 91,732 marriages) in the country; the number of
annulments showed a steady increase over seven years from a level of
3,987 in 1984. The actual number of separations of married couples is
much higher, especially among those who lack the means to hire the
necessary annulment lawyers. New bonds are often established outside of
wedlock.
Data as of March 1994
Sources:
Entry from: "Chile: A Country Study" published by the Federal
Research Division of the Library of Congress.
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