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dam-l INDIGENOUS HOLD CEREMONY TO REJECT RALCO DAM
CHIP News for September 2, 1998
>SOURCE: EL MERCURIO
>SOURCE: LA TERCERA
-- INDIGENOUS HOLD CEREMONY TO REJECT RALCO DAM.
>Different indigenous groups from Regions VIII through X joined
>with the eight Pehuenche families Tuesday rejecting Endesa's
>proposed Ralco hydroelectric project and began a Nguillatun, a
>traditional indigenous ceremony, to reiterate their rejection of the
>dam. The ceremony centers around the pehuen, or araucaria, the
>Pehuenche's sacred tree, whose nut is their staple food. It
>involved dancing and continuous, chanted requests that the dam
>not be constructed.
> Antolin Curria, the leader of these eight families, and Jose
>Nain, the spokesperson for the land council Consejo de Todas las
>Tierras, said that Endesa must remove all machinery from the
>construction site before the Pehuenche will participate in any
>further dialogue about the controversial project. The families say
>funding should be made available to implement an Indigenous
>Development Area in the upper Bio Bio, and not for the dam's
>development.
> Endesa's US$500 million project is controversial because the
>dam's reservoir would flood 600 hectares of sacred Pehuenche
>lands. Environmentalists have rejected the project, saying it will
>irreversibly change the Bio Bio River's ecosystem. Ralco
>proponents, however, say Ralco is necessary to meet Chile's
>growing energy needs.
Chile Information Project
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Aleta Brown
Campaign Associate
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703 USA
Phone: 1.510.848.1155
Fax: 1.510.848.1008
email: aleta@irn.org
http://www.irn.org