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dam-l RALCO DAM SPURS PROTESTS IN SANTIAGO
>October 13, 1997
>SOURCE: EL MERCURIO
>SOURCE: LA EPOCA
> -- RALCO DAM SPURS PROTESTS IN SANTIAGO. Chile's native
>people remembered their martyrs and protested the Ralco
>hydroelectric plant on Sunday's anniversary of the arrival of
>Europeans on the American continent.
> While Santiago Mayor Jaime Ravinet headed festivities
>celebrating the city's Spanish roots, Mapuches held the "huinca"
>(white man) invader" responsible for "505 years of suffering. "
> On top of Cerro Huelen, more commonly known as Santa Lucia,
>Mapuche leaders called for unity with their Pehuenche cousins
>against the Ralco project.
> Jose Nain, a representative of the Mapuche organization
>Consejo de Todas las Tierras, said, "For 505 years our rights have
>been violated, our land expropriated and our culture invaded... We
>express our concern to the Chilean State for the continuing suffering
>that Ralco will mean for our people."
> On Saturday several indigenous groups and ecologists gathered
>in front of La Moneda presidential palace to protest President
>Eduardo Frei's refusal to meet with the group to discuss Endesa's
>Ralco plant.
> "We regret that you refuse to receive us and hear of our
>suffering, on such an important day for us all," said Agustin Correa, a
>member of a Pehuenche delegation that had traveled from the Upper
>Bio Bio region that would be flooded by the Ralco project.
> Prior to delivering a letter detailing the groups' opposition to
>Ralco, Correa declared that October 12 should not be a day for
>celebration, but rather an occasion to recall the history of indigenous
>peoples and their influence on Chile's identity.
> Nicolasa Quintreman, a member of one of the 101 families
>who would be forced to relocate from the Upper Bio Bio region, said,
>"I am not afraid. I will not move from my land and my roots. Not
>even gold will induce me to move. The offers they have made only
>guarantee deeper poverty."
Chile Information Project
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