 Protests in Punta Arenas, Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region | |
| Date | January 2011 |
|---|---|
| Location |  Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region, Chile |
| Also known as | El Segundo Puntarenazo (the Second Puntarenazo) [1] |
The 2011 Magallanes protests were a series of protests provoked by the rising of natural gas prices in the Chilean region of Magallanes, in January 2011. The conflict ended on January 18, when Laurence Golborne and the Citizens Assembly of Magallanes reached an agreement.
On December 29, 2010, the directory of Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP, National Petroleum Company) faced with high deficits due to subsidies provided to XII Region (Magallanes and Antártica Chilena) gas customers, proposed to increase the price of the natural gas by 16.8% in the region, located in the southern extreme of Chile, where everything requires gas heating because of the extreme climate. [2] The apparent increase in the price was actually the result of a reduction of the heavily subsidised pricing for natural gas for users in this region. ENAP provides subsidies of approximately 80 percent of the delivered cost of gas in this region. As a result, users receive extremely low-cost natural gas, while residential users of natural gas in the Santiago region pay extremely high prices for the same commodity.
Empresa Nacional del Petróleo's decision, supported by the President Sebastián Piñera, the Energy Minister Ricardo Raineri, and the Mining Minister Laurence Golborne, [3] prompted a series of protests in that region during the following weeks, including mass mobilisations, [4] and a stoppage in the region's most important cities, such as Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales. [5]
![Stylized version of the Magallanes y la Antartica Chilena Region flag, saying "No to the increase of gas [prices] in Magallanes." No al alza del gas en Magallanes.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/No_al_alza_del_gas_en_Magallanes.jpg/330px-No_al_alza_del_gas_en_Magallanes.jpg)
On January 11, the Asamblea Ciudadana de Magallanes (Magallanes Citizens' Assembly) convoked an indefinite strike from that midnight. [6] Two women, Claudia Castillo Campos, 19, and Melisa Silva Ruiz, 23, [7] were killed by a truck during the protests in Punta Arenas that night. [8] The driver of the truck was trying to run through the illegal barricades that were being operated by the persons who were injured. The events took place late at night and involved the serious injury of an unsupervised small child. The parents, who could have been charged with endangering the child, received no legal sanctions. On the same day, more than thirty-one persons were arrested, some while trying to loot, burn, or otherwise destroy public property. Punta Arenas judges ordered the nearly immediate release of almost all those who were caught by the police. [8] After the first manifestations, Carabineros de Chile requested a contingent of Special Forces to control the strike. [9]
During the January 12, the strike continued in the main towns of the Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region, extending itself to the main border crossings with Argentina. More than two thousand cars remained isolated while trying to cross from the province of Tierra del Fuego to the province of Santa Cruz through Chilean territory. Another 1,500 tourists were left without movement in Torres del Paine National Park after routes to Puerto Natales and El Calafate were cut. [10] Actions by the protesters halted buses of people attempting to flee from Chile, leaving them at barricaded locations outside the cities, unable to move except by walking. This "forced march" situation adversely affected many elderly tourists, including those with disabilities, resulting in human rights complaints and well as violations of Chilean national law providing for free passage within the country. The Chilean national police, the Carabineros, refused to act on behalf of the foreign visitors by enforcing the national law, instead leaving these people without access to food or water, stranded without transportation outside the cities. Many elderly and handicapped people were thus forced to walk for up to 20 km. Before the regional protests and rebellion against the law were over, thousands of people had to be evacuated. Some chose to walk from Puerto Natales to the frontier with Argentina, where they were received as refugees, and given assistance to onward travel and other accommodation. Eventually the US Embassy quietly arranged for a cooperative effort involving the Chilean Air Force. Squadron Commander Vegas was credited with a successful airlift of several thousand visitors, with most being delivered to the Punta Arenas airport for onward transportation so that those people could flee from southern Chile. LAN airlines was able to evacuate many of these affected people with flights to Santiago.
Although it worked normally, cuts in the route to President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo International Airport forced the suspension of Sky Airline and LAN Airlines flights. [10] [11]
Prior to the conclusion of the protests, the Interior Ministry invoked the Law of Internal Security of the State, with the intent to begin judicial determination of those responsible for the damages inflicted during the disturbances. The value of the damages varies, but was estimated in the Prensa Austral as being economic damage of approximately US$14 million, with additional damages to the infrastructure of Punta Arenas. The law of Internal Security of the State also provides for the use of the Chilean armed forces in restoring civil order, and the invocation of this law may have played a part in bringing the Asambla Ciudadana de Magallanes to the bargaining table. On January 14, the Minister Secretary General of Government Ena von Baer announced changes in Sebastián Piñera's Government cabinet, including the resignment of Ricardo Raineri as Energy Minister. Laurence Golborne became Mining and Energy Minister, on January 16. [12]
On January 18, an agreement between the Government of Chile and the Magallanes Citizens' Assembly was signed. The government proposed to increase the price of gas by 3%, far less than its originally planned increase of almost 17%. [13] Industries will also be benefited by the agreement. Also, the government proposed to give 17,000 subsidies to the poorest families in the region, which will not be affected by the 3% increase.
Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, with an area of 48,100 km2 (18,572 sq mi), and a group of many islands, including Cape Horn and Diego Ramírez Islands. Tierra del Fuego is divided between Chile and Argentina, with the latter controlling the eastern half of the main island and the former the western half plus the islands south of Beagle Channel. The southernmost extent of the archipelago is at about latitude 55°S.
The Magallanes Region, officially the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region, is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. It is the southernmost, largest, and second least populated region of Chile. It comprises four provinces: Última Esperanza, Magallanes, Tierra del Fuego, and Antártica Chilena.
Southernmost settlements are cities, towns, weather stations or permanent military bases which are farther south than latitude 45°S. They are closely related to the Southern Ocean or either the Roaring Forties or Furious Fifties. Antarctic bases are excluded due to not having a permanent population.
Puerto Williams is the city, port and naval base on Navarino Island in Chile. It faces the Beagle Channel. It is capital of the Chilean Antarctic Province, one of four provinces in the Magellan and Chilean Antarctica Region, and administers the communes of Chilean Antarctic Territory and Cabo de Hornos. It has a population of 2,874, including both naval personnel and civilians. Puerto Williams claims the title of world's southernmost city. The settlement was founded in 1953, and was first named Puerto Luisa. The town was later named after John Williams Wilson, a British man who founded Fuerte Bulnes, the first settlement in the Strait of Magellan since 1587. It has served primarily as a naval base for Chile. The Chilean Navy runs the Guardiamarina Zañartu Airport and hospital, as well as nearby meteorological stations. Since the late 20th century, the number of navy personnel has decreased in Puerto Williams and the civilian population has increased. In that period, tourism and support of scientific research have contributed to an increase in economic activity.
Porvenir is the capital of both the homonymous commune and the Chilean Province of Tierra del Fuego of the Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region. It is one of Chile's southernmost towns, and has 4,734 inhabitants, including several thousand soldiers. It is the largest settlement in the Chilean half of the island of Tierra del Fuego.
Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique is a Chilean billionaire businessman, who has been President of Chile since 2018. He previously served as president from 2010 to 2014.
Punta Arenas is the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antartica Chilena. The city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it was changed back to "Punta Arenas". It is the largest city south of the 46th parallel south, and at the same time the most populous southernmost city in Chile and in the Americas, and due to its location, the coldest coastal city with more than 100,000 inhabitants in Latin America. It is also one of the most populous sites so far south in the world.
British Chileans are Chilean residents with fully or partial antecedents from the British Isles. The British have been very important in the formation of the Chilean nation. They include Chileans of English, Scottish, Ulster Scots, Irish and Welsh ancestry. The numbers of Scottish and Welsh are higher in Patagonia, in Aysén and Magallanes regions. The highest percentage of British Chileans is found in Punta Arenas, followed by Santiago, Valparaiso, Concepcion, Viña del Mar and Antofagasta.
Chile represents one of the largest undeveloped geothermal areas of the world. Despite Chile's good economic performance in the late 1980s and 1990s, geothermal energy did not develop, and Chile has been surpassed by other Latin American countries such as El Salvador and Costa Rica in terms of geothermal development and technology. Currently, Chile has only one geothermal power plant.
Ricardo Jorge Raineri Bernain is an economist, academic, researcher, consultant, and politician. On February 9, 2010, Chile's current President Sebastián Piñera nominated him to the Ministry of Energy.
The 2011–2013 Chilean protests – known as the Chilean Winter or the Chilean Education Conflict – were a series of student-led protests across Chile, demanding a new framework for education in the country, including more direct state participation in secondary education and an end to the existence of profit in higher education. Currently in Chile, only 45% of high school students study in traditional public schools and most universities are also private. No new public universities have been built since the end of the Chilean transition to democracy in 1990, even though the number of university students has swelled.
The 2010 Pichilemu earthquake, also known as the Libertador O'Higgins earthquake, was a 6.9 MW intraplate earthquake that struck Chile's O'Higgins Region on 11 March 2010. The earthquake was centred 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) northwest of the city of Pichilemu.
Mateo Martinić Beroš is a Chilean historian, politician and lawyer. He has primarily dealt with the history of Magallanes Region. He entered the University of Chile in 1953 studying briefly pedagogy before moving on to study law and then continued his law studies in the Catholic University of Chile. He finally became a lawyer in 1983. From 1964 to 1970 he served as intendant of Magallanes Region.
The corvette Magallanes was ordered by the Chilean government after the disastrous consequences of the War against Spain in 1864-1866 and the rising border conflict with the neighboring countries at the end of the 1870s.
The following lists events that happened during 2008 in Chile.
Gabriel Boric Font is a politician, currently serving as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, representing District 60 of Punta Arenas, and former Chilean student leader. In the 2013 parliamentarian elections he ran as an independent candidate and was elected deputy for District 60 of the Region of Magallanes and the Chilean Antarctic.
Sara Braun was a Chilean businesswoman born in Latvia, who became one of the principal employers in Patagonia. After emigrating with her family from the Russian Empire to escape persecution because of their Jewish heritage, the family toured Europe and then looked for work in Argentina and Paraguay, before moving to Magallanes, now known as Punta Arenas, in 1874.
The 2019–2020 Chilean protests, known in Chile as The Social Outbreak, are a series of massive demonstrations and severe riots originated in Santiago and spread to all regions of Chile, with a greater impact in the main cities, such as Greater Valparaíso, Greater Concepción, Arica, Iquique, Antofagasta, La Serena, Rancagua, Chillán, Valdivia, Osorno, Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas, developed mainly between October 2019 and February 2020.
The 2019–2020 Chilean protests are characterised by widespread eye injuries, including many globe ruptures, among protesters as result of Chilean riot police's use of "rubber" bullets and tear gas grenades. Data from the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) shows that the use of "rubber" bullets and pellets by security forces has left at least 1863 injured, including 268 with eye problems. According to the Chilean Ophthalmology Society, this is the highest number of injuries of this type registered during protests or in conflict zones in the world. In late November, security forces announced the suspension of the use of "rubber" pellets as a crowd control method in the protests. The INDH updated figures at the end of January 2020 reporting that 427 persons had received eye injuries at the hands of the police. Almost 90% of the injured are men. As of early January 2020 the age of injured goes from 14 to 59 years, and averages 28 years.
Mario Alberto Rozas Córdova is a Chilean Carabineros officer, who was general director of that institution from December 22, 2018 to November 19, 2020.