Chile Forum

Yea, they published warnings in news papers in Southern Chile that they where going to be cracking down on it earlier this year at least around Aysen. Reasons to read the news paper, even if you do not read Spanish very well.

yea, the problem with a lot of the tour operators in those areas are that they basically are burning Chile for their tax money and income. They sell tours outside the country, the money goes in to their accounts outside the country, then they work in Chile for a few months only spending local expenses. Technically they are both violating the immigration laws and tax laws of Chile.

A lot of the rafting companies are really bad about it. They bring in everything lock, stock, and barrel including their guides without permits.

It is fairly easy to get residency and a work permit in Chile, especially in the southern regions where the immigration lines are short.

We make sure our clients that are operating tourism businesses including fly fishing guides are legalized. This situation smells of some gringos that either did not listen to their lawyer, did not have a lawyer before they where arrested, or their lawyer did not know how to deal with the issues involving foreigners.

We just had a look at the full story on this.

These guys where just begging to get busted.

They had been working here for like 10 years, operating a full luxury lodge, running advertising, and everything else.

What they where doing was having a Chilean friend issue a work contract every year to them, applying for the work permits, and then canceling the procedure at the end of the year. These guys are lucky that all they did was deport them, because they violated a lot of laws.

Yea, they where advertising on their site how they work with the local people, yadda, yadda.

We are getting ready to run a series of articles on allsouthernchile.com about responsible tourism and how it is not always what you think in Chile and what to look out for in selecting a tourism agency. It will deal with both foreign run agencies and local.

All that, and Chile was still polite and only deported them. In the States they would have put them in a super max prison for 20-30 years for tax evasion, then deported them the day they where released.

A lot of this has to do with locals in the Patagonia being tired of the tourism businesses that are taking, and not giving back to the community. There are also some competitors that do have their ducks in a row looking for an easy way to squeeze the marginally legal out of the market. We have seen it with some of the guides and rafting companies checking up on permits and such for other companies.

Na, Chileans take people on a personal level, especially out in the campo. Friends are friends, and it is not important where they come from. The guys like this that had it coming, will still get theirs; but, the rest of the foreigners will still be kicking back with an asado or bottle of wine with their Chilean friends.

Chileans at all levels also understand that for the most part the foreigners are good influence that pump a lot of money and jobs in to places that the Chilean government is not able to reach.

There are a lot of foreigners and foreign organizations doing a lot of good in Chile. In Futa for example, there is an environmental investment group that bought up a piece of land for conservation. They are now paying for an extra full time English teacher at the Futa school, that also goes out to the more remote rural schools in the area once a week. All the kids speaking English will insure that Futa is a serious international tourist destination for generations to come.

Aguas libres is a local non-profit organization of foreigners and locals, including members from several foreign rafting companies, local Chilean businesses, people from the campo, and others fighting the dam project and now the mine project.

We are not a fully gringo operation, but we take pro bono clients from the campo all the time. Helping people in the campo clear a title, purchase a property, settle a legal dispute with a neighbor. Our clients also regularly pay us to represent their friends from the campo. For example, a caretaker that needs help applying for a government subsidy or fixing a tax problem. In fact, those are the only Chilean clients that we have ever accepted. We even helped Futa lobby Banco Estado for their first ATM, because we knew it was the single most important thing that could be done to help the local economy. Tourist had no way to get money, and where forced leave Futa early or buy less. The economy this year in Futa is booming and that easy liquidity of cash circulating I am sure is a major reason.

It is also simply good for our business, beyond being the right thing to do. In our line of work, community good will is priceless. Any tourism businesses that also does not see that, was not a very good business to start with anyway. Again, friends are everything in Chile and Chileans overall are a very friendly people.