Chile Forum

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The costs of the January strike in southern Patagonia are rolling in. Data from the Prensa Austral:

Central government indicated that the economic cost of the rebellion/strike/disturbance could reach USD14,000,000

Unsurprisingly, the economic sector hardest hit was tourism, with losses estimated at USD6,000,000, along with a devastating blow to the image of the region.

The principal areas of economic loss after tourism were commerce and transportation, which, according to the Prensa Austral, will be able to recover only a portion of those losses.

The same edition of the Prensa Austral showed the "victory" parade in Puerto Natales and quoted the local priest, Carlos Ampuero, who said that the revolt was "a clear demonstration that when the people organise, they can get what they want."

Yup, what they want, and what they deserve....

I am still updating the history of the recent events in the XII region, with reports from the people who lived it, both locals and travelers. A good history needs to be written. There is also an extensive photo record. I update the CNN iReport occasionally with new details http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-542654

One detail I didn't have earlier is that the guy who ran the blockade and killed the two protesters was a civilian employee of the Chilean Navy. You can imagine what the local anti-military mob has made of that observation. The carabineros already had one confrontation with a lynch mob as the accused was being transported, and had to draw their guns. Look for possibility of more rioting over the issue.

I am also looking into the background and platform of the organisation that assembled the mob and the rebellion. Their demands include getting foreign industry and investment out of the Magallanes region, eliminating the salmon fishery business, and freezing heating gas prices for the next ten years, no matter what happens to energy prices. And even as ENAP says the region is quickly running out of natural gas reserves, the Asamblea objects to the mining and use of local coal, which could used to provide an alternative to using dwindling natural gas to fire the electrical plants.

Punta Arenas used to be thought of as a decent place as Chilean cities go. Now we have scratched the surface and found another city altogether, one with a mob mentality and an F in economics.

In the following image, the people of Punta Arenas revealed their true degree of culture and civilisation with the banner (early days of the rebellion)

"Piraña you shat on us" (Piraña means piranha, name used by locals to refer to President Piñera).

Just wanted to say I was in a group of 25 or so US travelers staying at the Hosteria del Paine. We entered the park just before the strike began, and were among those "trapped" at the park for an additional 3 days. We heard that there were 120 US citizens trapped in the region.

After several days of traveling around the park in our bus, our tour guide felt it safer for us to remain on the hotel property, not crossing the extremely narrow "black bridge" in the hotel vans to reach our bus on the other side. That was because the owner of the hotel had a connection with the president and was not totally on the side of the strikers. I don't really understand this (wouldn't her hotel business be hurt?), but that's politics for you.

The hotel did provide some food and free camping to the campers before they all left through the 2 daily hour-long windows of opportunity. We stayed, not being sure we could get any further than Puerto Natales if we did get out - as we later learned would have been the case. In addition, we heard that some of the hotel vans had been confiscated by the strikers. Fortunately our overall tour was longer - most of us were not due to leave Santiago until the 19th - so the only real disruption to our trip was that we were not able to visit the lake district near Puerto Varas. The hotel or our tour company covered all our extra hikes, horseback rides, and hotel expenses.

We left the Hosteria on Monday the 17th, exiting the park through the Castillo gate to avoid Rte 9. Our bus driver has a connection with the strikers and so was able to get us through the one barrier we encountered north of Puerto Natales, to our great relief! Most of the people stranded in Puerto Natales had been evacuated by then and our stay was ueventful,except for noting all the closed businesses with signs in their windows supporting the strikers. I wondered how the few that were open managed to be so without reprisals, but I didn't ask.

We were anticipating tension at blockades between the town and the Punta Arenas airport on Tuesday, and were quite relieved to hear that morning that the strike had ended. We drove to the airport with no trouble at all.

<I also let Thom know that Sky Airlines is an alternative to LAN down here. >
Doesn't make a difference. We were fed the same cr@p by Sky. We just got out at Pto Montt instead of continuing to Pta arenas straight into the troubles as they suggested us to. Lost the rest of our tickets, as well as our PAID reservations in Pta Arenas, Natales and TdP. Lost a bunch of money there but at least we didn't get stuck for 6 days in Pto. Natales like some people we met in our hotel in Pto Varas. We decided to go to Argentina. Although we loved Santiago and ate the best dinner of our vacation in pto Varas I'm not sure Chile will see ever us again.

Thanks, pushirubiano and AnneInMotion, for those contributions with your observations. Every little bit of detail helps to form a better picture of just what happened here, and also along the way with the tour groups and airlines feeding more people down here even after the rebellion had gotten underway. If you have more observations to add, please edit your postings.

Best regards and thanks,

/px