Chile - Nature sell-out. News that never makes it to the North.

The recent weeks have seen a wave of protest against government decisions, certainly the biggest since the end of General Pinochet's dictatorship in 1990. The protest galvanized around the approbition of a huge hydroelectric powerplant project in Patagonia (Southern Chile). The project is known as HidroAysén. Most independent studies find this project way too oversized for Chile, the environmental impact to be too grave to justify the project. The approbition process itsself has been criticized as a farce. There were no independent analysis and discussion of preconditions. There was no democratic process at all. One activist here, even spoke of a coup d'état (golpe de estado).