International
Chile sinks controversial mining project over environmental concerns
January 19 | By AFP | Paulina Abramovich |
Chile’s government on Wednesday torpedoed a controversial billion-dollar mining project due to be built near a nature reserve that is home to a rare species of penguin.
Environmentalists had criticized the proposed open-pit mine and port project in the north of Chile close to the National Humboldt Penguin Reserve due to its potential ecological impact on a unique area known for its natural diversity.
The $2.5 billion project was unanimously rejected by left-wing President Gabriel Boric’s cabinet.
“We are confident that a robust, traceable, evidence-based (decision) has been adopted here,” said Maisa Rojas, the environment minister.
The project aimed at extracting millions of tons of iron ore and thousands of tons of copper in an impoverished area of northern Chile around 450 kilometers (280 miles) from Santiago, the capital.
But the area comprises a nature reserve encompassing three islands that are home to 80 percent of the world’s Humboldt penguins, which are an endangered species, as well as whales, sea lions and the world’s smallest otter species.
‘Unique ecological value’
Chilean company Andes Iron, which also wanted to build a treatment and deposits plant, a water desalination plant and a port for loading minerals, said it would appeal the decision.
“The port is in a place that has an absolutely unique ecological value,” said Rojas.
When taking office in March 2022, Boric’s government had expressed its rejection of the port’s construction.
“The Dominga project doesn’t just comply, but exceeds all standards and is aligned with principles established by the government for sustainable industrial and mining projects,” Andes Iron said in a statement.
That was disputed by Matias Asun, the director of Greenpeace Chile.
“It’s a project that not only does not meet the norms required for approval, but was also pushed by the main groups associated with corruption in our country,” said Asun.
Right-wing opposition senator Matias Walker branded the decision as political.
Activists, though, applauded the decision.
“I’m defending my home, the place where I live, which is pristine,” Maud Ferres, an activist who opposed the project and had traveled to Santiago to hear the decision, told AFP.
However, Alexis Sanchez, spokesman for a community association in La Higuera, where the mine would have been, said the project would have provided economic opportunities for the village of 3,700 people.
“This is project we want to achieve our development to stop being one of the poorest communes in the country,” Sanchez told AFP.
Had it been approved, the Dominga project would have involved the extraction of 12 million tonnes (tons) of iron ore a year along with 150,000 tonnes of copper, over a 22-year period, making it the biggest such venture in Chile.
Andes Iron promised to create 10,000 direct jobs and 25,000 indirect ones during the construction phase of the project.
Once operational, the company said the mine would have created 1,500 direct jobs and 4,000 indirect ones.
Pandora Papers scandal
Andes Iron’s Dominga mine project has had a controversial history in Chile.
It first underwent an environmental impact evaluation a decade ago before it was rejected in 2017 by the socialist government of then-president Michelle Bachelet.
But under her conservative successor Sebastian Pinera, the supreme court ordered a new evaluation.
The controversy then turned into a scandal in 2021 when leaked documents known as the Pandora Papers implicated Pinera — then serving his second nonconsecutive term as president — in a seemingly shady deal surrounding the Dominga project.
Dominga was sold through a company owned by Pinera’s children to a businessman close friend of his for $152 million.
The leaked papers said a large part of the operation was carried out in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven.
Despite the embarrassing revelations, the Senate voted against impeaching Pinera — it failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to do so — thus sparing him a potential jail sentence of up to five years.
International
Pope Francis meets former Gaza hostages
Pope Francis met on Thursday at the Vatican with 16 Israelis who had been held hostage in Gaza for months by the Islamist group Hamas, according to the official Vatican news website.
The group consisted of ten women, four men, and two children, as reported by the same source. Several of the former hostages showed the Argentine pontiff banners or photos of their loved ones who remain in captivity.
Francis had previously met with the families of hostages in April this year and November 2023, but this was the first time he had met with individuals who had personally endured captivity.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the pope has repeatedly called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages, while also condemning the suffering of the Palestinian population.
The war erupted on October 7, 2023, when Islamist militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages who died in captivity.
Of the kidnapped, 97 are still being held in Gaza, but the Israeli military estimates that 34 of them have died.
The military offensive launched by Israel in response has killed at least 43,736 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed territory.
International
Israeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on residential buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its surroundings on Thursday, resulting in at least 15 deaths and 16 injuries, according to Syria’s Ministry of Defense and state television.
The ministry stated that around 3:20 p.m. local time (12:20 GMT), the Israeli military launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting several residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood in western Damascus and the Qudsaya suburb to the northwest of the capital.
The airstrikes “resulted in the death of 15 people and injuries to 16 others, including women and children,” based on initial estimates, in addition to significant damage to private property and civilian buildings, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, state television reported Israeli airstrikes on three buildings in Mazzeh and another on a building in an educational complex located in a residential area of Qudsaya.
Following the strikes, loud explosions were heard throughout the city, and thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted locations. Ambulances and emergency services rushed to the scene to attend to the victims.
International
Drug trafficker dies after boat collision with Guardia Civil Vessel in Sanlúca
Three people were on the boat that collided with a Guardia Civil vessel around midnight at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near the Andalusian city of Cádiz, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard reported.
Two officers sustained “contusions,” the spokesperson explained.
The drug traffickers managed to bring the boat to shore, where one of them was “abandoned” severely injured. The other two fled.
The Civil Guard officers attempted to resuscitate the victim before transporting him to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, but he ultimately died early in the morning.
The other two suspects took advantage of the officers’ absence while they were taking the victim and returned to set their boat on fire.
The collision occurred very close to the site of another accident on September 1, where a drug trafficker died following a Guardia Civil pursuit.
The suspects’ boat traveled “400 meters” before crashing head-on and “at full speed” into the riverbank, where a hundred bundles of hashish were found.
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