Says candidate Frei’s failure to listen to local citizens will cost him votes

Dep. René Alinco, the recently re-elected national deputy from the southern Chile district of Aysen, said this week that regional support for the center-left Concertación presidential candidate Eduardo Frei is flagging because the Concertación has insisted on supporting the HidroAysen dam project in far southern Chile, notwithstanding strong citizen opposition.

 

“All the irregularities that have characterized HidroAysen’s approval process reflect poorly on the government and seriously impact Frei’s possibilities in this region,” said Alinco.

The most blatant irregularity, said Alinco, was Regional Governor Selim Carrasco’s decision early last year to override regional agencies and citizen groups and push the HidroAysen project forward.

 

Citing 40 cases of injury from jellyfish stings, the city of Osorno will temporarily shut down beaches

Beaches near the city of Osorno in southern Chile have closed due to swarms of jellyfish populating the shores.   At least 40 people have reported being stung by the tiny jellyfish.   According to health reports, the stings produce a painful skin inflammation.

 

A fire that broke out in Concepción’s Vega Monumental market (Region VIII) early Monday morning burned down over 700 stores and wiped out the properties of 400 storeowners. An estimated 1500 people were left jobless.

More than 300 fire fighters showed up at the scene around 7.30 a.m. Monday and evacuated neighboring buildings that were in danger of the spreading blaze. The flames completely destroyed 15,000 square meters of the total 17,000 square meter area of the market.

 

An historic monoplane - a relic of Sir Douglas Mawson’s 1911-14 expedition to the Antarctic - was found New Year’s Day in the Antarctica after a three-year search. The search was successful thanks to freakish luck: an unusually low tide and reduced ice cover.

The aircraft was built just eight years after the Wright brothers' first flight and was produced by the Vickers factory in Britain. Australia then took it to the polar region as part of Sir Mawson’s geological and exploration venture.

A Brazilian tourist was seriously injured by a snow and mud slide while ascending the Villarica volcano in southern Chile’s Region IX this weekend.

Guillermo Rosas Gomez (26) and a group of 28 other tourists were surprised by a 100-meter-wide avalanche that began at the top of the 2,800-meter high volcano and extended down the volcano’s side to the La Capilla area.