[sustran] Santiago communities launch international campaign

[Lake Sagaris]

Que VIVA la Ciudad: NO a la Costanera Norte
"Living City" Launches International Campaign for a Sustainable Santiago

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (International news release): September 27th, 1999 --
Please forward this to anyone you think might be interested. A detailed
report on the companies involved and the financial guarantees offered by
the Chilean government is available on request.

CITIZENS' COALITION "LIVING CITY" TAKES CAMPAIGN AGAINST 
URBAN HIGHWAY PROJECT HOME TO INVESTORS

For the first time in Chilean history, a coalition of community
organizations opposed to a major urban highway project has launched an
international campaign directed at companies interested in the project (to
be offered as a concession), potential investors and public opinion in the
companies' countries of origin.

The project is the controversial "Costanera Norte" or "East-West System",
sponsored by the Chilean Public Works Ministry, a 33 km highway that would
cut the capital city of Santiago in half, devastating some of its most
historical and culturally significant  neighborhoods, including the central
market area and the "Barrio Bellavista", considered the Chilean equivalent
of New York's Greenwich Village, Toronto's Yorkville or London's Soho. It
would also chop chunks off San Cristobal Hill and the Parque Forestal,
urban parks that are much in demand given Santiago's chronic shortage of
greenspace. The Public Works Ministry declared the tender open on June
27th, with offers being received on October 29th, and a decision scheduled
for the end of November, just two weeks before presidential elections.

To sweeten the deal after companies declined participation in a previous
tender at the end of 1998, the Chilean Government is now offering well over
US$80 million in subsidies to try and get the flagship project off the
rocks, where it has ended up, in the face of widespread opposition from
community groups, transport engineers, health care workers,
environmentalists and urban planners, who have united to criticize the
project's devastating impact on Santiago's already extremely polluted air
and overcrowded roads. 

The freeway would basically serve Santiago's well-heeled upper-class
neighborhoods, allowing drivers to reach the city center, the airport or
connections to their homes on the beach at speeds of 80-100 km/hour. Only
one out of every five daily commutes is made in a car, but cars contribute
50-80% of Santiago's worst pollutants, ozone, carbon monoxide and volatile
hydrocarbons.

Transport engineers have been among its most vocal critics, saying the
project is so badly flawed there's no way it could be improved enough to
make it worthwhile. They also argue they're are much cheaper options for
eliminating congestion in the areas covered by the freeway. 

"We're talking about a very bad project: bad because its very concept
(urban freeway) is obsolete. Bad, because it doesn't solve the problem it
sets out to solve (reduce travel time for drivers from the city's
east-end), but rather another (their access to the Panamerican highway)
that could be resolved at one-fifth the cost. And bad, because it won't
provide real social benefits and it's unlikely to provide investors with
profits either," said Juan de Dios Ortúzar, one of Chile's most
distinguished transportation engineers, and a professor at the Catholic
University. 

Nonetheless, the government has committed itself to pay for users who DON'T
use the highway (by guaranteeing 85% use) and those who refuse to pay tolls
and resulting fines, a complete violation of the philosophy behind urban
concessions, according to Nelson Avila, a congressmember. "The whole point
of concessions is to have the private sector finance major infrastructure.
But in the end it is the State that will finance the Costanera Norte and
that is completely aberrant," said Patricio Lanfranco, spokesperson for the
Bellavista Community Association and Living City.

Greenpeace and Codeff, the Committee to Defend Chile's Flora and Fauna,
which represents the global network of Friends of the Earth in Chile, have
both committed their support to the international campaign. This will
initially focus on France, Spain and Italy, the main countries of origin
for companies interested in the project.

Among the companies are the world giants, Egis Bouygues and Suez
Lyonnais-owned GTM, both companies whose top executives have faced serious
charges at home in France for what Le Monde called "a pre-agreed system for
embezzling public funds", involving the formation of a cartel to divy up
contracts for building schools in the Ile-de-France region near Paris,
payment of bribes to important political parties, and other charges
investigated by the French courts. According to the French media, Bouygue
has been fined repeatedly for its participation in cartels. 

Impregilo, of Italy, which has teamed up with the Chilean firm Fe Grande,
has also faced charges in the past, for mistreatment of workers (Owen
Falls, Kampala August 1999), not meeting contractual obligations
(Washington, August 1999), and bribery (Highlands Water Project, Lesotho).
Meanwhile, the two large Spanish firms, Cintra and Sacyr, already actively
building several highway concessions in Chile have indicated they are more
interested in the project now that guarantees have increased and the amount
of private investment required has dropped, according to the Chilean
financial daily Estrategia (13-VIII-99).

With the aid of like-minded citizens' groups around the world, "Living
City" (Ciudad Viva),  the 25-member coalition, opposing the project, plans
to take its case straight to investors and consumers if necessary, to
prevent the destruction of local economies based on small-scale commerce
(open air markets, street fairs, restaurant, tourism, recreation, galleries
and theatres), along with residential areas in the physical and artistic
heart of the city.

"We will fight this project until it disappears," Lanfranco, spokersperson
for the coalition of community groups representing some 50,000 people,
said. "We'll fight the tender, fight the expropriations, fight the
construction plans and, if necessary, we'll continue fighting until it is
dismantled, as occurred with the Embarcadero highway in San Francisco, or
other similar projects elsewhere in the world."
The Costanera Norte was the brainchild of Ricardo Lagos, currently running
for presidency of Chile. Living City challenged all presidential candidates
to take a clear stand against the project and in favor of a sustainable
Santiago.

For more information, please contact: 
Rosa Moreno, Greenpeace Chile, Tel: 562/343 7788, Fax 204 0162, email:
climate at greenpeace.cl
Rodrigo Mellado, Codeff/Friends of the Earth, Tel: 562/251 0262, Fax: 251
8433, email: info at codeff.mic.cl
Patricio Lanfranco (English), Living City, Tel: 562/777 7673, Fax: 732
3079, email: lanfrancopato at hotmail.com
Céline Désramés (Français), Ciudad Viva, email: comptoir at netline.cl
VISIT OUR WEB PAGE: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Andes/1583/
Email: ciudadviva at lake.mic.cl

The companies interested in the Costanera Norte (according to Public Works
Ministry and Chilean media) are:

1. CINTRA, via Ecovías (Spain)
Iñigo Meirás, Director de Autopistas en España y Latinoamérica
Andrés Bello 2711, Piso 18, Santiago CHILE Tel: 335 2984, Fax: 335 2984

2. EGIS BOUYGUES (France, partner of Besalco)
Martin Bouygues (chairman), Bouygues SA, 1 Avenue Eugene Freyssinet
78061 Saint-Quentin-Yvelines, France
Tel: (33-1) 306-02311, Fax: (33-1) 306-04861  www.bouygues.fr
Philipe Montelimard
Gerente General, Internacional Autopistas Chileanas
Cruz del Sur 133, Of. 302., Santiago CHILE  Tel: 246 1363, Fax: 246 1242

3. BESALCO (Chile, with Egis-Bouygues)
Víctor Bezanilla Saavedra, VP Ejecutivo
Ebro 2705, Santiago CHILE  Tel: 334 4000, Fax: 334 4031 (gerencia general)
www.besalco.cl

4. FE GRANDE (Chile, partner of Impregilo)
Miguel Calvo, Presidente
Avda Las Parcelas 7950, Peñalolén, Santiago CHILE  Tel: 270 1200, Fax: 279
2011

5. SACYR (Spain)
Enrique Calcagni, Gerente General
San Sebastián 2750, of. 301, Santiago CHILE  
Rutas del Pacífico
Maurico Gatica, Gerente General
Avda Vitacura 2771, Ofic. 1101 Santiago CHILE  Tel: 236 5560, Fax: 236 5561

6. IMPREGILO (Italy, partner of Fe Grande)
Franco Carraro, Chairman
Franco Vischi, General Manager and Vice Chariman  
Via G. Griziotti, 4,  20154 Milano, Tel. +39 02 48004

7. GTM (France, currently partner of Tribasa, Mexico and Chile)
Jean-M Ramos, Representante de Groupe GTM en Chile,
Obra Pangue, Casilla 1241, Los Angeles 

Pierre Leon-Dufour, Director General Adjunto
61, avenue Jules- Quentin, 92000, Nanterre, Francia

8. MENDEZ JUNIOR (Brazil)
José Jorge de Araujo, Gerente General
Apoquindo 3001 p5, p. 7, Santiago CHILE Tel: 234 1846, Fax: 335 0808 

9. OBRASCÓN HUARTE Y LAIN (Spain)

10. TODINI (Italy)
06034 Foligno (PG) - 14, vc. S. Bartolomeo
tel: 0742352303

11. BELFI (Chile)
Enrique Elgueta, Gerente General
Puerta del Sol 55, Piso 3 Santiago CHILE  Tel: 207 0341/0434  Fax: 207 0450