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dam-l GOVERNMENT NAMES NEW CONADI DIRECTOR
CHIP News for September 21, 1998
>SOURCE: EL MERCURIO
>SOURCE: LA TERCERA
-- GOVERNMENT NAMES NEW CONADI DIRECTOR. President
>Frei Thursday named Socialist Party (PS) lawyer Rodrigo Gonzalez as
>the new director of the National Indigenous Development Board
>(Conadi). Gonzalez formerly worked as a legal advisor to the
>Secretary General to the Presidency, and was named a national
>advisor to Conadi on July 31. The government named Gonzalez to
>replace Domingo Namuncura, who was fired by Frei on August 5 for
>showing his opposition to approving the land barter contracts signed
>between Pehuenche families and the Endesa electric company for the
>construction of the Ralco hydroelectric project in southern Region
>VIII.
> Ralco supposedly cannot be constructed without the approval
>of Conadi, because it will mean the flooding of 600 hectares of sacred
>Pehuenche lands and the relocation of 91 Pehuenche families.
>Endesa has signed land barter contracts with 83 of the 91 affected
>families, but the contracts must be ratified by Conadi.
> The Mapuche Director of the land council Consejo de Todas las
>Tierras Aucan Huilcaman said Gonzalez' appointment is dangerous for
>indigenous rights in Chile because it could lead to Ralco's approval.
>The fact that Gonzalez was named on the eve of Independence Day
>shows that it was a premeditated government decision to hide the
>appointment for as long as possible. Directors of the Mapuche
>organization Meli Wixan Mapu flew the national flag at half mast on
>Saturday in protest of the appointment, and called on the Conadi
>national advisors to resign. A group of Mapuche had asked the
>government not to make any Conadi appointments, because of fears
>of what would happen with Ralco.
> Region VIII Governor Martin Zilic said Gonzalez' appointment
>will open new dialogue with the Pehuenche. He said the fact that
>Gonzalez is not of indigenous descent does not matter, since the
>Conadi director's job is to work with indigenous populations to give
>them better living conditions. PS Deputy Alejandro Navarro
>disagreed, saying the naming of someone not of indigenous descent is
>an insult to the country's indigenous populations. He said the PS
>stands opposed to the Ralco project, and the decision on the land
>barter contracts could complicate relations between the PS and
>indigenous peoples.
> In related news, an organization called Mapuche International
>Link (MIL), located in Bristol, England, denounced the Chilean
>government before the United Nations and the European Parliament
>for "transgressing the human rights of indigenous populations." The
>basis of this denouncement is that Chile has broken the Indigenous
>Law and has impeded indigenous populations from a "normal
>development."
Chile Information Project
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