A fragile territory with coveted resources
"Patagonia is condemned to be one of the purest spaces on the planet. When the original qualities of the air will be only a memory in the rest of the world, in Patagonia they will be a reality of every day and that gives him a value easy to calculate" affirms Luis Sepulveda in his book News from the South. For if this isolated region still seems to escape in part from a world that is rumbling, it also seems to be on borrowed time, so much so that the abundance of its natural wealth attracts national and foreign companies. With global energy demand on the rise, the region has emerged as a market of primary importance. For several decades, northern Patagonia has been riddled with gas and oil wells. Along the way, Argentina has become the top producer of natural gas in Latin America, with production of 37.1 km3 in 2017. In Chile, fishing is a flourishing activity: the country holds the5th place in the world with 5 million tons annually. It is the second largest salmon producer in the world after Norway: foreign sales of salmon jumped 33% between 2012 and 2021, representing nearly 650,000 tons and over $5 billion in 2021. The approximately 2,400 aquaculture centers actually produce more than 90% of the national production. However, the exploitation of fish-bearing waters by industries generates unprecedented pollution and small fishermen, unable to compete with industrial fishing, do not even feed on shellfish anymore: toxic algae poison the fauna and flora while salmon create great havoc as far as the North Pacific. Its natural wealth diverted by various economic policies have almost done it harm: during the 2001 crisis, the Argentine government even studied the possibility of giving Patagonia to the United States in exchange for the cancellation of the huge debt contracted with the International Monetary Fund (!)The ecological problem
Massive pollution, exploitation of the soil and ecological disasters, the landscapes of Patagonia have been disfigured by the largest companies in the world that have come to settle in the region in recent decades. Between hydroelectric dam projects, cut down national parks and mining extractions, all the big companies of the sector are present in this immense territory: Total, YPF, Tecpetrol, Chevron, Exxon... And in spite of the intervention of different associations and NGOs, denouncing a disregard of the environmental rules and of the rights of the indigenous people, the oil industry operates without any control. Thus, in the huge exploitation of the shale gas deposit of Vaca Muerta, in the province of Neuquén, Greenpeace has already alerted on the dysfunctions of this platform opened in 2010 on Mapuche territory. The government has already received two warnings from the UN, but unfortunately the environmental decrees are being changed to benefit the companies. In March 2019, despite the plans for a national park system in Patagonia, authorizations for mining concessions were issued in Chilean Patagonia, particularly regarding the Los Domos mining project, comprising 19 drilling platforms and 12 mining concessions. The consequence? The mining project cut 5,000 hectares from the proposed national park. Finally, in July 2019, a major incident occurred at the site of one of the country's major mining groups, Pacific Steels Company. The Chilean Navy was mobilized after 40,000 liters of diesel were spilled into the sea off Guarello Island, known for its pure waters and marine ecosystem. The reaction of the authorities was immediate and the damage was limited: 1/3 of the soiled water was recovered during a large cleaning operation.
Patagonia is no longer for sale!
It is in this context that two opposing visions of the use of natural resources clash: that of exploitation and that of conservation of natural areas. The latter receive only a minimal share of the Chilean and Argentinean budgets, which struggle to guarantee their management and development. As a result of the many government indifference to the serious environmental and social impacts, several private initiatives have embarked on colossal projects to ensure the protection of these wild spaces. Targeting the tourism economy, the creation of private parks took shape during the decades 2000 and 2010: in Chile, three national parks were created in 2017 following the donation of more than 400,000 hectares of land by the Tompkins Foundation. In Argentina, despite pressure from mining companies, a law passed in 2010 promises to preserve from all human activity the pre-glacial areas that currently account for 10% of the world's glacial freshwater reserves.
The long struggle of the Mapuche
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, their territory covered 100,000 square kilometers: today they live on 5% of their original territory. Persecuted under the Pinochet regime in Chile and progressively expelled from all their lands, the Mapuche are now organizing themselves to regain the use and ownership of their territories. One of their "small victories": since 1994, the Argentinean constitution recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples, including the right to bilingualism and to representative bodies. In Chile, a 2014 decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights emphasizes that criminal prosecutions invoking anti-terrorist laws against indigenous communities protecting their ancestral lands are now illegal. In recent years, various events of extreme violence have led to the deaths of many Mapuche people who were demanding the return of their lands that had become skin deep. However, the government of Michelle Bachelet, with the help of the Church, has been working to return as much land as possible (66,000 hectares in all) and in 2016 organized a special commission dedicated to the Mapuche issue. This concluded with a request for forgiveness to the Mapuche for the horrors committed in past centuries
On the Argentine side, an event set the country on fire and deeply divided it in 2017, when a young environmental activist named Santiago Maldonado disappeared while participating in a demonstration by the Mapuche community against the Benetton company, owner of 900,000 hectares of land, some of which is claimed by the Mapuche. Although the government claimed that the military police were not responsible for the disappearance, Santiago's body was found lifeless in a river. This macabre discovery heightened the anger of activists and supporters of Cristina Kirchner - President Macri's number one opponent - who compared the disappearance to the methods of the military dictatorship
In Chile, the anti-terrorism law grants special powers to the forces of order, which exercise permanent control over the people and systematic repression. Closely watched by the Chilean state, the Mapuche have become suspicious and do not hesitate to act clandestinely. Thus, Mapuche minority groups, having set fire to logging companies and religious buildings (43 incendiary attacks took place in 2017 in Araucania), have found themselves behind bars. In 2018 and 2019, Mapuche resistance is becoming more radical: sabotage actions linked to territorial claims continue against private companies. The consequences are not in vain: gradually, the region no longer receives foreign capital. Faced with the drop in investment, President Pinera said he wanted to "restore order in the face of these terrorist acts". However, this is not the opinion of the UN Commission on Human Rights, which condemned Chile in 2013 for the unjustified use of this term in the Mapuche conflict and recognized the legitimacy of the Mapuche social protest. Thus, muscular interventions by the police in isolated communities are multiplying. Little understood by the Chilean nation, the situation seems to be at a standstill: the more the authorities reinforce their police and judicial repression, the more the Mapuche leaders become radicalized.
Political and social issues
Unstable since the arrival of the conquistadors, the political and social climate in both Chile and Argentina has become electric during 2019. In two extremely unequal countries, where significant economic growth has failed to restore social equality, neo-liberalism seems to be the common thread in all these tensions. However, it is important to look at the unique situations in each of these two countries. Presented as having one of the most enviable economies in the American continent, Chile faced a social explosion as vivid as it was unexpected after the announcement of the increase in the metro ticket on October 18, 2019. The announcement of too much that pushed citizens to gather in the streets to demonstrate and challenge the reforms implemented by President Pinera. Although politically and economically stable (a growth of 3.5% of GDP in 2019), Chile is one of those countries where wealth is in the hands of a particularly wealthy minority: 1% of the richest in the country own a little more than a quarter of the national GDP where 1/4 of Chileans live below the poverty line. And even if poverty has decreased over the last 30 years, the gap is not closing fast enough as Chile is the most unequal country in the OECD in terms of income, with a minimum wage of only 370 euros. This poor distribution of wealth, the result of an ultraliberal policy that dates back to the dictatorship, has awakened the anger of Chileans, who are determined to demand social justice. Paralyzed by numerous strikes and massive demonstrations that brought together up to one million people in the capital, the country was facing an unprecedented social movement, galvanized by the return of the armed forces to the streets: a first since the Pinochet dictatorship. After announcing a state of emergency and awkwardly claiming that the country was "at war," President Pinera came to the negotiating table to propose new measures to calm the discontent. Despite the president's concessions, the country coordinated a general strike on November 12, 2019. In Santiago, in particular, violence and clashes were extreme between the forces of order and the people, frustrated for decades by austerity. After an initial brutal reaction from the government (reinstating the curfew for the first time since 1987 and the army in the street); President Pinera is gradually opening up to a series of gradual responses. The announcement of the renunciation of a number of reforms and economic measures, as well as the cabinet reshuffle, was followed by the announcement of a 20% increase in the minimum pension. Beyond the concessions adopted in the urgency of the social movement, the real challenge for the government seems to be that of social reform, so much hoped for and expected by the Chilean population. It should be remembered that the country's shortcomings stem in part from the current Constitution, which dates from the dictatorship. Health, education, pensions, the environment, the rights of indigenous nations, access to water... the debates on the privatization system are stormy. It seems that the real democratic and social transition can only take place once a new constitution has been voted on and put in place to break once and for all with the neo-liberal authoritarian model inherited from Pinochet. One year after the popular uprising, on October 25, 2020, tens of thousands of Chileans celebrated in the streets of the capital the result of the referendum on the new constitution approved by almost 79 per cent of the vote. On May 15 and 16, 2021, Chileans were again called to the polls to designate the 155 citizens responsible for drafting the new constitution. This historic vote gave the country an institution that is representative of society (with 17 seats reserved for indigenous nations and a gender parity mechanism). At the end of 2022, the parties were still negotiating the contours of a new Constituent Assembly after the rejection by referendum of a first draft text submitted in September 2022. It remains to be seen whether the constituent power will live up to the hopes of the 2019 social movement and the desires of the citizens. For its part, a real economic and political pendulum, Argentina does not seem to be able to get out of the crisis it has been going through for almost twenty years. On December 10, 2019, neo-liberal President Mauricio Macri gave way to Alberto Fernandez, the new center-left president who won 47% of the vote. In recession for more than a year with inflation at more than 37%, Argentina is witnessing the return of Peronism. Created in the 1940s around the figure of Juan Perón, Peronism embodies the desire for social justice in a country that is becoming increasingly unequal. Faced with a catastrophic economic situation and a social policy in perdition, the objectives of this new president are significant. Indeed, in 2018, the IMF granted the largest loan in its history with 57 billion dollars. In early 2022, after the approval of an agreement on the renegotiation of Argentina's $44 billion debt, the IMF recognized the unsustainability of the loan granted in 2018. Argentina's eternal debt crisis seems to continue alongside economic difficulties that continue to mount: in an attempt to contain inflation, which reached over 100% in 2022 (nearly 7% price increases per month), the government launched a measure in November 2022 called "fair prices." This new initiative consists of freezing the prices of 1,700 essential products for 120 days.
