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MPRESS/Police hosed down some demonstrators outside a building in Coyhaique where, after 3 years study, an environmental commission approved the building of 5 dams...on 2 rivers...in the wilds of Patagonia.
A police officer and at least one other person were injured and 22 were arrested in the melee.
(TO SEE 1:08 ENGLISH VIDEO Of Protest)
http://jp.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=209286553
The new dams will flood nearly 6,000 hectares of land and require building a 1,900 kilometer/1,000 mile transmission line thru the wilderness to Santiago...at a cost of $7 bn usd.
Hydro electric construction has been pushed by President Pinera
(pictured) to supply new energy to the nation's important mining industry.
“We have to get that energy somewhere, independent of what the project is, because energy today is twice as expensive as in other Latin American countries,”said spokeswoman.“We want to be a developed country and to do that we need energy, especially cheap energy for the poor.”
Though 61% of Chileans oppose the dams, the nation has no oil or gas resources and must import 97% of energy other than hydro-electric power.
