Santiago, May 30 (IANS/EFE) More than 15,000 people took to the streets of Santiago to protest the HidroAysen project, which calls for building five dams in Chile’s Patagonia region.
The demonstrators gathered Saturday in the Plaza Italia, the capital’s epicenter, and then marched along the Alameda, the city’s main artery, until they reached the La Moneda presidential palace.
The marchers carried signs bearing statements supporting the protection of Patagonia and opposing the HidroAysen project, which is being pushed by Endesa Chile, a unit of Spain’s Endesa and Chile’s Colbun.
Also attending the protest were student associations and groups of Mapuche Indians, who called for the release of four indigenous prisoners who have been on a hunger strike for more than two months.
The leaders of Accion Ecologica, one of the entities that organised the demonstration, estimated that some 100,000 people participated in the march, although the police tallied the crowd at only about 20,000 people.
Protests have been staged regularly all over the country since May 9 after a commission of government officials approved the HidroAysen environmental impact study.
The megaproject, conceived in 2006, will require an investment of $3.2 billion and the flooding of 4,010 hectares in an area of great environmental worth in Patagonia, and it is designed to generate an average of 18,430 GW per hour.
