Patagon Unbound

Marcelo Castillo, an environmental lawyer in Santiago, represents the Council for the Defense of Patagonia (CDP), a coalition of Chilean and international organizations campaigning to stop the HidroAysen project, an ambitous plan to build five large-scale dams in southern Aysen and send the power to Santiago via an enormous electric transmission stretching nearly 2,500 kilometers. At the end of June, HidroAysen is due to file a second addendum to its environmental impact study at the request of regional environmental authorities. The second half of this year, then, will be a critical time for determining the fate of this project. 

Recently, I received a letter from Humberto Merino, the editor of Enfoque, a regional magazine based in Puerto Montt, in which he angrily tells me at one point that because he was born and raised in Chile that he has more rights than me to write about Patagonia. “I believe, Mr. Langman, that I have more rights than you to write about my country.”

 

Patagonia engenders strong emotions. For Merino, it appears to be jealous possessiveness toward foreigners. For me, after my first trip down the length of the Carretera Austral in March 2001, like so many others from around the world the region’s immense natural beauty provoked inspiring awe.  My strong admiration for this region eventually led me to write several articles, start on a book and found this magazine.

 

The earthquake that struck Chile one week ago devastated several cities and towns, particularly in the country’s central Bio Bio and Maule regions.  One of the most powerful quakes the world has ever seen, the tremors were felt to varying degrees over a great distance, from Villa La Angostura, Argentina, to Puerto Varas to Santiago. Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed or severely damaged. Older homes and buildings, or structures poorly built, were the most likely to fall. Roads and bridges outside of Temuco, for example, were twisted up and split apart. But those who live on the coast in the Bio Bio and Maule regions suffered by far the worst damage, pounded by both the earthquake and a tsunami.