Open letter about SN Power / Trayenko projects in Chile

From:
http://www.alterinfos.org/spip.php?article2573
http://www.mapuexpress.net/?act=publications&id=1475&PHPSESSID=09dff2a413f021dc7e93d7795fcbdbdf

Here is a translation of a letter written in response to an article in one of Chile's major newspapers, La Segunda.

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With this letter I would like to open a dialogue about the article on page 18 of La Segunda on July 28, 2008: "Hydropower Plants. Opinion of the Mapuche community will be key in Norwegian SN Power's decision".

The article quotes executives from SN Power and Trayenko, saying that there is little opposition to the projects proposed for the municipalities of Panguipulli and Futrono in Southern Chile. The journalist wrote exclusively in the discourse of the company, and he did not bother to interview anyone in the area concerned to know whether what they are saying is true. This article does not reflect the reality of the area concerned. The gentlemen Huseby and Marchese are wrong when they say that there is "little opposition" to the projects that they want to develop in the area. There is a majority opposition, especially in the Mapuche communities, which has been developing for over a year, and every day more people join the movement. It is the dream of the executives that everyone agrees with their projects, in order to comply with the terms of "social responsibility" of SN Power in Norway, and in order to receive approval for environmental and social impact studies.

Unfortunately, the truth is that intervention in the area by the executives is far from being "responsible" or ethical. If the journalist who wrote this article had gone to the area, and went to speak with the local people, rural Mapuche and non-Mapuche who have always lived there, he would have written another story. The story is that there is a majority opposition, people are organizing more each day, with support from the municipality, entrepreneurs, institutions and local organizations. They realize that the rumours created by the company, such as in the article which states that there is no opposition, are a strategic way of the company of manipulating public opinion so that the plants are built.

The fact is that local people who are against the project have neither the resources nor access, nor political power in order to demonstrate their struggle in the traditional media, or by other conventional methods.

It is certainly not a lack of opposition or resistance. The issue is very strong in the area, as is the intervention by the company in trying to convince people of their projects, which is already causing irreparable damage to the historical social networks in the area for the long-term. But at the same time alliances are also being created between people of all classes, ethnicities, locations, professions, institutions and organizations that exist in the area, to try to defeat this multinational and powerful firm. They are humble rural people, but most are very clear that they do not want the projects SN Power / Trayenko is proposing for their territory and that there is no dialogue or "citizen participation" in a transparent and democratic manner.

It is important for the development of democracy in Chile that this part of the story is not kept out of the means of communications. Take a role of serious journalistic responsibility to send a reporter to the area to ask people whether they agree with the projects or if they are against, and why. If a newspaper like La Segunda does not take this responsibility, it is not abiding by the basic ethics of journalism, nor is it promoting the democratic right of freedom of expression, because it seems that journalists working for La Segunda only can write in support of the powerful companies and the government's energy policy. And that would mean that the press in Chile, and its journalists, become instruments of manipulation by the interests of big business to carry out its mega projects without taking into account public participation.

Each journalist who wished to learn about the other side of the story, has only to do a search on the internet to find enough articles in local news and specialist sites showing that there is a vast majority of people in the area, in Coñaripe, Liquiñe , Carririñe, Maqueo and elsewhere, that are expressing their disagreement with the projects and the intervention by the company, in various democratic and pacific ways.

It would be very unfortunate if the traditional press do not ackowledge that part of the story and continue to contribute to silencing the voices of resistance from the Chilean citizens who are performing their democratic rights.