Los Chilenos

Chileans remember the violence of the dictatorship all too well. Social reform imposed with brute physical force. Another type of violence resulted from the radical neoliberal economic reforms implemented by Pinochet: poverty, destitution, inequality and injustice. Only strict military rule was to deter the rise of crime. To this day Chile has not completely recovered or recuperated social equality. And so crime rates have risen alongside democracy.

Around the world, Chile is seen as the most democratic, stable, and economically developed country in Latin America. This all depends on the definition of democracy that is applied. An electoral democracy it certainly is, but social justice and equality are still lacking for many. Voices of dissent and protest are all too often repressed by the military police. Macroeconomic development benefits those that have resources and access to the formal market and education. Meanwhile, those that do not enjoy these opportunities are punished in their efforts to survive, as the informal market and petty theft are still reprimanded strictly by the police force. Again and again, no matter how you look at it, the ´little guy´ always gets the short end of the stick. The big guys are given the go ahead as if there is no tomorrow. But there is, and it is for our children and our children’s children that we must plan ahead. Currently, a theft so large it is almost impossible to fathom is occurring in the capitalist democracy that is Chile.

The drive for sovereignty and the growth of the GDP take shape in the form of powerful multinational entrepreneurs and investors who extract natural resources at such a high rate and at an enormous cost of the local peoples and their environment. These foreigners do not seem to have the same love and pride for Chile that Chileans share. The love for the land, with all its natural beauty, and for the kind, warmhearted and generous people. Chileans are proud of their history, the leaders of the past, and of their artistic icons, such as Victor Jara and Violetta Parra. It is a love and pride of Chile that I have come to share with them.

Natural resource-based industrialization has nothing to do with love, peace, equality, justice or democracy, which is something that people generally strive to achieve in their lives. No, it is simply the rape of Chile, leaving a token of GDP growth behind for the father el gobierno, who turns a blind eye.

For More information, see:

http://www.patagoniasinrepresas.cl/

http://www.pellaifanewen.blogspot.com/

http://pellaifanewen.blogspot.com/2007/12/comunidades-de-carrirrie-convocan.html

http://www.termasvergara.cl/todos-contra-las-represas/

http://www.mapuexpress.net/?act=news&id=2096

http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press1111.htm

http://www.mapuche.nl/english/natives_rights120507.html

http://www.ecoterritorios.blogspot.com/