Fifty environmental activists protested Barrick Gold’s controversial Pascua Lama gold mine on Tuesday, May 8th. The event went “unnoticed” by Chile’s mainline media – La Tercera and El Mercurio – but was reported in La Nacion, the state-owned daily. The demonstration coincided with Barrick’s shareholders meeting in Toronto, Canada, and with Barrick’s 25th anniversary as a company officially traded on the Toronto stock market. The Santiago demonstrators celebrated the company’s anniversary with a birthday cake of their own, and large bags of ice to represent the glaciers that will allegedly be destroyed by the project. Several of the demonstrators also dressed in black plastic bags to give homage to the 15 individuals related to the project who have died since it first was proposed almost 20 years ago.
Fourteen of those killed were Chilean, while one was a Canadian pilot who died in a helicopter crash on Feb. 8. The activists spray painted the sidewalk in front of Barrick’s office at 222 Ricardo Lyon with the names of the dead workers. Police did not intervene until the protesters began spray painting the company’s floors.
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Christian Peña, "Chilean protesters unhappy with Barrick Gold Pascua Lama Project," Upside Down World, May 12, 2008.
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