Chile Forum

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/357571/DUNA%20L ... Unete.html

I would consider myself a conservationist, but certainly not an environmentalist, or God forbid, a German-style Green. Yet I think it would a shame to see the beautiful dunes in Con Con further eroded by yet another high-rise, especially one put there by some pituco with the pituto to ram it through and make a quick buck. More information is welcome, I am posting the link sent by a family member. It may or may not reflect all of the pertinent facts, more are welcome if you've got them.

John Hyre, with a Kermitish hue for this one day

JHyre wrote:
John Hyre, with a Kermitish hue for this one day

only ONE day...?
you should relax more...
smell the lily pads...?

GJ,

Nice pic. Actually, I am a froggy in a different sort of Chilean context. Carolina tells me that when I look at, umm, certain prominent female body parts, that I have "Ojos de Sapo", which strikes me as a pretty Chilean expression. Of course, being Latina, she doesn't mind very much. After all, men are simple creatures, easily distracted, and meant to be ruled over by more wily Latinas.

John Hyre, no tan verde, pero con ojos grandes a veces.

JHyre wrote: no tan verde,

Bueno, hay sapos verdes, y hay viejos verdes.

This bullshit goes back to the early 90's:

- http://blogs.cooperativa.cl/opinion/med ... de-concon/
- http://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=9348

Reconsa just confirmed that former Interior and Defense minister Edmundo Pérez Yoma (DC) is one of their shareholders, and it's rumored Eduardo Frei is too. Draw your own conclusions about what's been going on. Reconsa started putting a fence around the dune yesterday but people promptly took it apart (as seen on TV!). It's still going to end up being fenced I bet. This clusterfuck is now national news but I'm afraid that when the sand settles this will end up in hecho consumado a la chilena. Lo que pasa es que es puro negocio no máh. What a disgrace...

State of Concon in 2011:

- Water that's been unsafe to drink for weeks courtesy of Esval: check
- Air that's been more than once unsafe to breathe courtesy of ENAP: check
- Dunes that are each year more encroached because of the collusion of hapless local authorities and private interests: check
- Beaches in the same old sorry state and dozens of streets and sideways still unpaved courtesy of worse than useless mayor Valdovinos: check

Concon has a lot of potential but first we have to stop digging. Next year's municipal elections cannot come soon enough.

I drove by the dunes a couple hours ago and they've restarted building the fence. Several TV cameras and a few cops were watching.

Can document hound Patagoniax track down when this land was sold to Reconsa?

Meanwhile, a scary picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/efrei/3702258578/

Pic is sickening. The smarmy expressions are often on the faces of the corrupt who do as they please without accountability.
Good investigative reporting, John and Otravers.

otravers wrote: Reconsa just confirmed that former Interior and Defense minister Edmundo Pérez Yoma (DC) is one of their shareholders, and it's rumored Eduardo Frei is too.

Reñaca Concón S.A. (Reconsa) appears to have ties to senator Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, former "Concertación" (socialist) president of Chile, though the precise nature of that relationship hasn't been publicly confirmed. The principal 50 hectare bloc was evidently passed to a holding company for Reconsa in 1979, and that company has borne the investment costs of the property since that time. The 1979 date would be consistent with the recent statement by a Reconsa spokesperson, "debieran darnos las gracias por permitir que estos 30 años estuvieran a disposición (las dunas) de la gente..."

The national government now has the opportunity to expropriate the area or a portion of it, if it can be shown that to do so is in the public interest, and in such a case Reconsa's holding company would have to be compensated with public monies for the present value of the property.

Several sources name Carlos Figueroa as another involved former minister:
- http://blogs.elmercurio.com/columnasyca ... -dunas.asp
- http://dunasconcon.blogspot.com/2005_09_18_archive.html

I haven't found anything really substantive on Frei himself.

Private property must be respected. It's the basis of a free society.
But these dunes shouldn't be private. They should have been bought at a fair market price and been made protected public lands long ago.
Local residents and government saw this coming long ago.
And they did nothing about it.
And now...Too little (whinning), too late (connected businessmen makeout).
This like the average Chilean waiting to renew their vehicle circulation until the last day.
And Central Chile looses another natural attraction.
Typical lack of vision mixed with cronyism.

seawolf180 wrote:Private property must be respected. It's the basis of a free society.

Historically, Chileans and their governments have taken a different view: if it is politically expedient, private property is to be redistributed, and often for less than meaningful compensation. In exchange for votes, of course. Witness the Frei administration 1964-1970 (Frei's election was supported by millions of dollars by the CIA) and of course the Allende government (1970-1973). It was not until 1973 that the contemporary notions of private property and meaningful compensation for expropriation were adopted at a constitutional level. It is worthwhile mentioning that the politics of the current student leaders are seeking to abolish much in the way of contemporary standards of private property.

As alluded to earlier, local communities are often interested in conversion of nearby private lands to public use and this is perceived as a "paga Moya" deal because national (and not local) monies are involved. If local communities had to pay to expropriate such private holdings, the enthusiasm might be a little lower.

Short of outright expropriation, the national and even local governments have other options to prevent development, often without adequate compensation for owners. You will also observe that the Con Con community has obtained a court order to prevent the fencing of the dunes and for the time being, any development of the area. The dunes area was declared a "nature sanctuary" in 1993 but in 2006 the protected area was reduced from 55 to 21.8 hectares. It remains to be seen what the next steps will be, and whether or not the owners receive meaningful compensation for the conversion of their private property to public use.

Fact is, the dunes were protected in 1993 but a big chunk was reverted to private use the next year in a pretty unusual reversal. I've been watching this for a while. The core issues are 1) the huge conflicts of interest at play, and 2) the lack of transparency on how these deals have unfolded. Remember how the Concertacion was howling about Pinera's shareholdings. Well, kettle, meet pot. (Now where it gets all twisted is when you look at who's been Reconsa's lawyer for years...) Anyway, this has influence peddling written all over it:

- http://blogs.cooperativa.cl/opinion/med ... de-concon/
- http://www.biobiochile.cl/2011/12/29/to ... ales.shtml

The blending of public and private in the area dates back to the Vergaras and Borgonos but these families arguably created Vina/Concon. Fast forward to the last 20 years, Reconsa has made money hand over fist with Bosques de Montemar et al, but it's not enough, they need to fuck up the coast and dunes like speculators did in Europe decades ago. I'm all for the profit motive but it doesn't absolve you from behaving with a modicum of moral conscience.

Of course this is all chickenshit in comparison to the families being literally poisoned in the whole Quintero/Ventanas industrial wasteland. Chile needs a crash course on negative externalities.