[sustran] Re: Santiago communities launch international campaign

[ITDP]

Good work!  If the project gets to the next stage, these private highway
companies will try to get financing from banks.  If any International financial
institutions like the IFC or InterAmerican Development BAnk, or any
International banks, like Chase or Citicorp, become involved, then we might be
able to help.  They will be sensitive to the very bad publicity we can
generate and also they will be nervious that the project will be tied up in the
courts by protesters.   We helped stop IFC financing of the Corredor Sur
Highway in Panama, and though financing is back on line, it is unlikely that
IFC would like to become embroiled in another similar ecological disaster.

I believe we mentioned your struggle in our new issue of Sustainable Transport
on p. 21.  You can download a copy from our website I believe.

Best of luck
Walter Hook


Lake Sagaris wrote:

> 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



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