Aysen's people and their struggle by Angela Lara

 Since February 14 Aysen, located in the deep south of Chile -1010 miles from the capital Santiago- has experienced a people’s uprising against central Chilean government demanding better life conditions. This region has the highest living cost above the whole country, regarding that in Chile the minimum monthly wage is not more than USD300. In Aysen one liter of fuel or a kilo of tomatoes can reach between $2 and $3. In addition to this, the city has to struggle with a very extreme cold weather during the whole year, especially in Winter, mostly rainy and windy, temperatures can easily lower to 20° F. At the same time, this city is highly isolated from the great urban areas, sometimes its villagers need to cross the Argentinean border to get public health care. Public Hospital does not have specialists in many areas, such as gynecologists, pediatrists, cardiologists. In the end, citizens are also demanding more region autonomy to control their economy. For example, many fishing and salmon industries are located in this area, however, their profits are not kept in the city. Big industrials take them out from the region, leaving a huge environmental disaster (regardless the huge hydroelectric dam project called Hydroaysen which attempts to provide electricity to other cities in the north without benefiting the city itself). For these reasons, villagers started to demonstrate by closing roads, occupying bridges and promoting general strikes to protest against the situation they have been suffering for many decades.

 
Along with the demands, people have required the visit of the Ministers of Transport, Health, Economy, etc. Even though some of these ministers have visited the town, there has hardly been any agreement. In general, the government and the cabinet have not heard what people really want. The Minister of Economy, Pablo Longueira, for example, has referred to this citizen movement as a political one and being managed from opposite political parties in Santiago. Unfortunately, the main government response to people’s demonstrations is to send, via helicopters, more special police force to the city to repress demonstrating villagers.

 
This repression has just increased people’s rage. Apart from throwing tear gas and water to disperse demonstrators and re open roads, this morning, the Public Workers Union (ANEF, using the Chilean acronym), which took over the city police station, has reported the use of metal bullets against demonstrators. Teofilo Hales, an Aysen villager, lost his eye due to one these bullets shots. None of these situations have been reported in official mass media. They have not informed about real people’s demands and have only emphasized the violence “promoted by demonstrators”. Thanks to alternative media and social networks, people from the rest of the country have been familiarized with the real situation in Aysen. In many Chilean regions, people are participating in different demonstrations in support of their countrymen there in Aysen. These nationwide actions have become a movement called “tu problema is mi problema (your problem is my problem). Actually, I wrote this post to raise awareness worldwide on what is happening in that very isolated part of Chile.

 colaboración de Angela Lara  @angelakatherine