All the "ascensores" in Valparaiso may well be funiculars, but one, Ascensor Polanco, is a real elevator.
Besides, if the hills are steep, it is normal to view them as elevator-like than funicular-like.
Finally, I am sure Chileans know the difference between an "ascensor" and a "funicular". If they choose to call these hoisting machines "ascensores", why not use "elevators" in a translation and keep the flavour.
Example:
Nothing else distinguishes Valparaíso so much as its hillside ascensores or elevators, once 33 in number but now down to 14 or so. [...] In fact, only Ascensor Polanco is an elevator in the strictest sense of the word — the rest are funiculars. They date from the late 19th century; [...]
[...] Ascensor Polanco - The only true elevator of them all, at the southeast end of town and reached by a 140-meter tunnel from Calle Simpson, Ascensor Polanco...
http://www.moon.com/destinations/chile/chilean-heartland/val...
Also, if you look at this picture of Ascensor Lecheros, it really looks like the cabin of an elevator:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/296062.jpg
Thus, the disagrees to some answers are not wholl
The translation workplace 
