MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Greenpeace claims CFK is ‘ill-advised’ regarding Malvinas environmental claims

Eugenia Testa praises CFK for her environmental concern and asks about the Famatina open pit gold mining project rejects by local residents

The Argentine chapter of Greenpeace suggested President Cristina Fernandez, CFK, is ‘ill-advised’ when she claimed on Wednesday no environmental group has criticized what is “going on in Malvinas” in direct reference to oil exploration and fisheries in the Falklands.

“We felt obliged to reply to the statements for several reasons, first of all because there has been a statement from the national government, and particularly from the President, in support of conservation of the environment which is so absent in most policy considerations, and also recall that Greenpeace has long reported, beginning 1998, the ecological dangers of oil exploration as well as the illegal and over fishing in Malvinas” said Eugenia Testa, political director of the NGO.

“I love to see whales defended because they are beautiful, but also defend squid and the other species that are being plundered in our Malvinas”, said President Cristina Fernandez on resuming office after ending her medical leave on Wednesday.

Claiming sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands also “means the defence of our natural resources because they are plundering our oil and our fisheries”, insisted the Argentine president.      

Testa recalled that since 1998 Greenpeace has been exposing the dangers of the expansion of oil companies into deep water exploration of fossil resources offshore Malvinas, and fisheries depredation since 2009, “so it seems strange the President didn’t’ have someone to advise her with the speech, because there are reiterated registered reports and claims on the issues, and demanding action from the government”.

Greenpeace Argentina also referred to the “worrisome silence from the Argentine government referred to the Famatina mine project”, where a Canadian company has a contract for an open pit gold mining project which “besides an environmental conflict is a serious social conflict”.

“We therefore would like the national government to announce a mediation effort in the conflict given the environmental impact that could arise from the mining project” pointed out Testa. 

Since early January citizens groups from Famatina and other small villages in the province of La Rioja are camping along the path leading to the Famatina Hill thus impeding the passage of vehicles from the Osisko Mining Corporation.

“NO to open pit mining and protect our most valuable asset, water” read the banners, flags, T shirts and graffiti scribbled on rocks.

Famatina residents with support from ecologists argue that the project authorized by Governor Luis Beder Herrera will contaminate the environment and leave the town without drinking water. The provincial and national governments deny such possibilities.

“We are supporting the demands from the Famatina residents. The national and provincial governments must listen to residents and freeze the project because it is going to definitively alter their environment. To continue ignoring the conflict won’t make it disappear. It would be most important that the national government intercedes before provincial authorities because so far residents and peaceful protestors have only received provocations and continuous police harassment”, concluded Testa.