New celebrities join the #SalvemosLaHiguera campaign to prevent the approval of Dominga mining project - Oceana

New celebrities join the #SalvemosLaHiguera campaign to prevent the approval of Dominga mining project

Press Release Date: March 3, 2017

Location: Santiago, Chile

Contact:

Anna Baxter | email: abaxter@oceana.org
Anna Baxter

Santiago, Chile — A newly released video shows artists such as Fernando Larraín, Javiera Contador and Manuel García, joined by residents of La Higuera, calling out to protect the environment and oppose the construction of port mining project Dominga.  This video is an addition to the one that was successfully launched last Tuesday, which by now has been shared over 23,000 times on social networks.

“It’s a mega project that involves a massive exploitation that could destroy what’s there,” warns Javiera Contador, while Fernando Larraín calls out to protect Humboldt penguins. Josué Ramos, a fisherman of La Higuera complains that “so called progress does not measure the damage done to communities” and Alicia Palacios is afraid that tourism will disappear once Dominga is built.

The Andes Iron project has been questioned by entities such as Conaf and environmental organizations, which reported infractions in the project’s proceedings. In addition, Oceana revealed illegal actions performed by the Environmental Assessment Service (SEA in Spanish) of Coquimbo, yet this Service endorsed the approval of Dominga.

“We are concerned by the non-compliance of environmental laws. We informed the SEA on the infractions that have been committed throughout the environmental assessment process of project Dominga, but none of this has been taken into account. We expect the Environmental Assessment Commission to recognize the serious mistakes and oversights made by the SEA and to reject project Dominga,” stated Liesbeth van der Meer, Executive Director of Oceana in Chile.

The #SalvemosLaHiguera campaign will continue today with a candlelight vigil hosted by a number of community organizations of La Higuera and will begin at 8:00 pm at the La Serena Plaza de Armas, the city’s main square.