The approval in full pandemic by the Valparaiso Environmental Assessment Commission of a mining project in Putaendo has this community of the Valparaiso Region on a war footing.
Last weekend, the commune was already the scene of demonstrations of the detractors of the project that includes prospecting of the Compañía Minera Vizcachitas Holding, owned by Canada’s Andes Copper. The demonstrations were dissolved by Carabineros and military, which prompted the presentation of an office by the deputy Diego Ibáñez (Social Convergence) to the mayor of Valparaíso, Jorge Martínez and the governor of San Felipe, Claudio Rodríguez, to speak out in the face of the facts.
And all indications are that citizen pressure will not give way. “What is coming are more mobilizations, I can tell you that because you are hearing that the community is facing this crisis, because there is the health crisis and they want to bring us another, while we already have a drought that affects the local economy. People are not going to stay in their homes, they are not going to stay passively, people are going to go out and claim,” says El Mostrador Darío Cuevas, president of the Cultural Corporation of Putaendo.
The situation is tense and everything points towards regional government. “We are besieged by carabinieri and military, while mayor Jorge Martínez agrees to the vagaries of the mining company Los Andes Copper, believing that this will cause the people of Putaendo to be mute and frightened, but creates the opposite effect. today rises stronger in the face of the pandemic and shouts harder, not the great miner, not the theft of the waters, not this manipulative government! accuses the execution of Putaendo Resiste, Veronica.
“We want it to be known that Puteando is a quiet, mining-free town that protects your well-being. We don’t want a pollutant and drought health crisis,” says Cuevas.
With black flags
In Putaendo, there is outrage, as they consider that the project was approved virtually between roosters and midnight, regardless of their arguments. “They approved everything without any question. We felt that the reports, such as that of DGA, which clearly indicate that the aspects to be dealt with are part of the flow of the Rio Rocín, were a serious argument. In addition, the interested party, in this case the miner, does not have water rights in this basin”, they mention from the local municipality.
The community of Putaendo even sent more than 2,000 letters to the Intendency to demand its participation in decision-making. However, the Valparaiso Environmental Assessment Commission met without considering his opinion, Mr Ibáñez accuses, for whom the project is inadmissible, taking into account that “this is an area of water scarcity, which has already been hit by the projects that pollute water today”.
Since Putaendo Resiste they have called on the neighbors to place black flags in their homes to express their discontent with the project. “What pleases us is that more and more groups are mobilized and the more we are, the better. We will continue to make caravans and tour the commune, and the call to the neighbors is that they do not put their arms down because this can still be stopped”, the management of this organization, Patricia Fuentes, says.
“Chilean legislation is super permissive for these projects to come in and here it has been noticed that they have given the green light to everything. This mine has been working for more than 10 years and made more than 70 probes in illegality,” he says.
The aim of this movement is to cried out the Canadian capital project. “We’re going to be the first commune to stop a mining project before it starts, so a big call to unity and we’re still working, because this isn’t over yet and it’s just getting started,” the management says.
The community is calling for an appeal of protection filed with the Court of Appeals of Valparaiso “to re-examine the issue of citizen participation that was denied. We know this isn’t for the project or for the probes, but it does give us a little time and delays it,” he explains.
Cross-sectional support
On the other hand, and in a cross-cutting support, the municipalities of Aconcagua solidified with Putaendo and their intention to slow the advance of mining in the commune, who also called as “unwelcome” the approval of prefeasibility probes in Las Texas, when the area lives times of pandemic and drought.
The refusal to the mining probe was supported by all the ediles of the Aconcagua Valley: Nelson Venegas, Of Calle Larga; Patricio Freire, de San Felipe; Manuel Rivera Martínez, de Los Andes; Edgardo González, by Llay Llay; René Mardones de San Esteban; Claudio Zurita de Santa Maria; Pedro Caballería, de Rinconada de Los Andes; Luis Pradenas, from Panquehue and the surrogate mayor of Putaendo, Fabián Muñoz Díaz.
As for the office presented by the parliamentarian Diego Ibáñez, the mayor of the Valparaiso Region and the provincial governor have not referred to the subject. However, from Social Convergence (CS) they argue that the authorities have 30 working days to speak out.
