President Ricardo Lagos signed a bill to make divorce legal in the capital of Santiago, making Chile one of the last countries in the Western Hemisphere to make divorce legal. The measure was debated over 9 years, as a result of Chile's overwhelmingly Catholic population: 87 percent of polled Chileans identified themselves as being Catholic. Couples can obtain a divorce after being separated for one year under the new law, and a Judge can declare a divorce immediate if it can be proven there have been a violation to the sanctity of the marriage: infidelity, domestic violence, and homosexuality. To the Catholic objections, President Lagos said "We cannot impose the positions of one sector of our society on all Chileans."