In Chile, Explaining Massive Protests Entails Remembering the Past

Let's start with the numbers. On May 28, an estimated twenty thousand people flooded into downtown Santiago and marched on the presidential palace to protest the HidroAysén project, a plan to build a series of hydroelectric dams on two of Chilean Patagonia's most iconic rivers. The peaceful protest was a welcome relief to organizers after a fortythousand- person march in Santiago a week earlier led to fifty-three arrests and outbreaks of violence. The images of demonstrators launching Molotov cocktails and destroying private property had been broadcast alongside footage of riot police confronting marchers. Since May, protesters and police have clashed in at least twenty-seven cities. At this writing in early summer, there are few signs that the nationwide movement is waning, as protests continue to attract thousands of Chileans to the streets. Meanwhile, the administration of President Sebastián Piñera has voiced support for the estimated $10 billion project, a private venture headed by two private-sector partners, a European conglomerate and a Chilean electricity giant. Though HidroAysén was temporarily stalled by a Court of Appeals ruling, the Chilean Supreme Court recently found in favor of HidroAysén, and the project continues to move forward. Perhaps the most telling and relevant statistics of all: 74 percent of Chilean citizens oppose HidroAysén, yet 72 percent believe that the project will be completed anyway, according to a May 2011 survey.