Prompted in part by the devastating 1939 Chillán earthquake , the Popular Front government of Pedro Aguirre Cerda created the Production Development Corporation ( Corporación de Fomento de la Producción , CORFO ) to encourage with subsidies and direct investments an ambitious program of import substitution industrialization . Consequently , as in other Latin American countries , protectionism became an entrenched aspect of the Chilean economy
1939 Chillán earthquake
1939 Chillán earthquake
Great Depression