Mining Alliance (Chile) (Napoleon's World)

The Mining Alliance (Span: Alianza Minera), popularly known as Los Mineros, was an alliance of various mining labor unions in Chile in the 20th century, in particular amongst unions working for the behemoth Northern Chile Mining Corporation. Founded in 1919, the Alliance became first a bulwark for the increasingly leftist Liberal Party and later birthed the Communist Party, amongst whom it found a natural base, especially in the largely male populations in the northern Atacama regions. The Alliance was a crucial leg of the Communist Party which took over Chile following the 1964 Presidential election and the ensuing Communist Revolution after the abortive 1965 coup to remove Salvador Allende from power. Labor unions were outlawed under Communist rule and after the 1990 restoration of democracy the Alliance was not resurrected, replaced instead with the Union of Miners in Chile (UMC), which is regulated by the government under Chilean law.