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APEC Tourism ministers summit in Punta Arenas;
Santa Cruz cracks on rustling; Last Ona descendent dies at 91.

APEC Tourism ministers summit in Punta Arenas

The Executive Secretariat responsible for the organization of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, APEC, Tourism ministers meeting scheduled for next October made a hundred bookings in the main hotels of Punta Arenas. The reservations are for the official delegations and do not include private tourism organizations or members of the press who are expected to be present at the summit between October 12 and 15. "Reservations have been notified to the different hotels and we're only pending any special requirements that might be needed", said Exequiel Vera, Magallanes representative of APEC's Executive Secretariat. Hotel Cabo de Hornos will be receiving delegations from Australia, Canada, Chile, South Korea, New Zealand, Thailand and representative from the World Tourism Organization. Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, United States and Indonesia delegates will be staying at the Jose Nogueira hotel and in Finnis Terrae delegates from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico. Taiwan-Taipei is booked in Isla Rey Jorge Hotel and Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia and Vietnam in the Tierra del Fuego hotel. The Executive Secretariat of the host country, (Chile) responsible for agenda and events will have its operations centre in Los Navegantes.

Santa Cruz cracks on rustling

Officials from Santa Cruz province government in Argentine Patagonia and local farmers are jointly organizing a campaign to combat livestock rustling which is threatening a burgeoning sheep industry. The coordinated program involves ten farmers associations under FIAS, provincial authorities and representatives from SENASA, Argentina's livestock sanitary department. "Rustling began with individual actions ("ant" thieving) but now is highly organized to the extent that in Rio Gallegos (capital of Santa Cruz) anywhere between 30 and 40% of mutton and beef sold locally is uncertified, mostly from stolen livestock or farmers selling directly with no sanitary controls", said Enrique Ibañez FIAS vice-president. "We want the rule of the law, appropriate livestock control training for law enforcement officers which we believe will help with the traceability of the meat reaching local butcheries and improve sanitary conditions", added Mr. Ibañez. Santa Cruz officials and farmers are confident the current rustling situation after years of neglect can be reversed with random controls given the limited number of roads and tracks in the province as well as the sparse population in the camp. Actually Santa Cruz province which in 1970 had 7,5 million livestock, mostly sheep, saw the number drop to less than two million following the collapse of international wool prices in 1989. Furthermore in the early nineties when a lukewarm recovery was in process the Hudson volcano eruption that covered the fields with dust and the 1995 blizzard abruptly ended hopes for sheep farming and 440 estancias were abandoned by farmers according to the Rio Gallegos Rural Association Mr. Ibañez says that currently Santa Cruz has an expanding flock of 2,6 million and 500 estancias in full production.

Last Ona descendent dies at 91

The last direct descendent of an Ona mother and Spanish father died last weekend in Ushuaia where she lived for the last forty years making a living out of artisan wood sculpturing, reports the local press. Christian named Enriqueta Gastilumendi she was the outstanding figure in Ushuaia "Casa de la Cultura" (Culture House) where she reproduced local flora and fauna in century old "lenga", a typical Tierra del Fuego wood. Much of her work has been incorporated to the End of the World Museum in Ushuaia and many other pieces were sold to foreign tourists. "I learnt to carve wood by myself, it's a gift from God and the Virgin, it was not my idea, it came to me from heaven, from my mind or wherever", she is quoted in one of her last interviews with the local press. She was also known as "India Varela", which did not please her. Not because of "Indian", but rather "Varela", the farmhand her mother forced her to marry as a child and with whom they had nine children and a very traumatic existence until his death in 1959. Named in 1993 "Illustrious citizen of Ushuaia" she was born July 15, 1913 in the Viamonte estancia in the north of Tierra del Fuego. She was the eldest of five children from the marriage of Spanish born Ramon Gastilumendi, who died in 1918, and selkman Indian baptized as Maria Felisa Cusanchi who died in 1949, having only learnt but a few words in Spanish.