| SPECIAL
REPORTS: CHILE |
|
|
|
No
Poor Wanted in Eco-Community
Gustavo
González
SANTIAGO, (Tierramérica) -
Residents of the exclusive Peñalolén
Ecological Community, in the Andean
foothills of the Chilean capital's
outskirts, are refusing to accept the
relocation of poor families to nearby
areas.
Their rejection seems to indicate the
emergence of a new class -- the
”eco-elite” -- but is that really
the case?
The Housing Ministry reached an
agreement in early June with the
leaders of the squatter settlement
known as ”Toma de Peñalolén” to
relocate more than 1,500 families from
the 22-hectare area where they have
lived since 1999 to new homes in the
foothills.
The plan is to settle the families
from the Toma in at least four areas
and to tear down their encampment of
precariously built shacks of wood,
cardboard and metal sheeting.
In the Chilean capital, home to nearly
six million people, the municipality
of Peñalolén, founded during the
dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet
(1973-1990), has been constantly
expanding towards the Andes Mountains.
In the planned new settlements, the
”pobladores”, as impoverished
urban residents are referred to in
Chile, will receive government
subsidies to help finance the
construction of sturdy, permanent
homes.
But when it was announced that one of
the four relocation sites, to be home
to 250 families, is next to the Peñalolén
Ecological Community, many of the
latter's residents reacted with
resentment.
In the mid-1990s, a group of people --
including some well-known artists and
intellectuals -- decided to flee the
pollution of Santiago and bought land
in the Andean foothills with the plan
of living in greater harmony with
nature.
In an environment of unpaved streets
and abundant native vegetation, the
community has set up a waste recycling
system and produces food in
self-sustaining gardens that are
irrigated with water from the nearby
Macul arroyo.
Living in rather unconventional homes
in this eco-community are 25 to 50
people per hectare. Houses vary widely
in architectural style, and include
large constructions using modern
applications of traditional adobe (mud
and straw) techniques and even a
converted railway car.
The settlement of families from the
Toma would mean a density of 300
people per hectare and would violate
the 1999 regulation that limits the
population to no more than 50 per
hectare, says Valericio Contreras,
president of the eco-community.
He denies that the property owners
protesting the resettlement are acting
in a discriminatory way.
”On five previous occasions we
rejected the construction of luxury
condominiums because, just as in this
case, they would destroy the
environment and a lifestyle that are
unique in this country,” he said.
”People have the right to fight for
their dignity, and this is a matter of
decent housing,” says actor Héctor
Noguera, a resident of the
eco-community, though he has not
spoken out against the resettlement
project.
”I hope they don't give them houses
that fall down with the first rains.
It would be great if they could live
in the same ecological way as the
people of this community do. If only
the children could have parks and the
families have space to live,”
Noguera said in comments to Tierramérica.
Several actors who had taken a
negative stance against the relocation
of the Toma families have decided
against making any further public
statements due to the controversy
created by their initial rejection of
the measure. The matter is to be
decided in August.
María Emilia Tijoux, sociologist at
the University of Arts and Social
Sciences (ARCIS), said the
eco-community's opposition
”expresses discrimination created
around the stigma of delinquency.
Poverty is being confused with
delinquency, and delinquency with drug
addiction, and it is all put in the
same package.”
The first choice of the Toma de Peñalolén
residents would be to build houses on
the same sites where they live now,
Alexis Parada, president of the Voice
of the Homeless Commission, told
Tierramérica.
”But what is most important is to
find a housing solution,” she said.
* Originally published July 26 by
Latin American newspapers that are
part of the Tierramérica network.
Tierramérica is a specialised news
service produced by IPS with the
backing of the United Nations
Development Programme and the United
Nations Environment Programme:
www.tierramerica.net
Email
this page to a Friend
|
|
|
|
|
