Giulio Tarantino's Tancredi and Sensi
www.altreconomia.it
October 4, 2010 Green Power is the "arm" of the Italian company for the operations Latin America. Builds dams enemy of the environment, and the like Benetton
"The energy that you hear," reads the slogan of Enel, the largest Italian electricity company and one of the largest in the world, with over 60 million customers. But in Guatemala in the department of El Quiche, Ixil Maya heart of the territories on the border with Mexico, the Italian energy production seems to have lost hearing.
The dirt road that climbs steeply up the mountain, marking the pine forest disappear, swallowed by clouds. Depressions and ponds require the jeep slow pace. Children playing in the mud greeted with curiosity, but their parents gaze upon the strangers passing through heavy air: they have scored glances, thirty six years in which retrace the Civil War, with over one million internally displaced persons, forced disappearances and 15 thousand 200 thousand deaths. Of these, 83% are indigenous Maya Ixil. Baltazar Rodriguez de la Cruz, secretary of Cocode, the Community Development Board of the Ixil community of San Felipe, wait sitting under a porch. "Enel has deceived us, having just mentioned begins to wave his head. In 2008, the mayor of San Juan Cotzal, a major city of the department, announces that it has received the consent of local indigenous communities for the construction of hydroelectric power by Enel Palo Viejo. Shortly before, during a meeting with community leaders, the mayor presented an infrastructure project, but did not specify that the document be signed authorizing the construction of the plant. "They got our signature by deception," says Baltazar, noting that in the communities of El Quiche Ixil few people speak and read the Castilian. A few miles from San Felipe San Miguel Uspantan there. In 2009, Mayor Victor Figueroa reported Enel for not informing the local population and did not require the necessary permits for the project in Palo Viejo: "It is up to us to give licenses to build the pylons carrying the 'energy-Figueroa says. " How is it possible that 50% of the 169 communities in the area has no access electricity, while Enel is passed over their heads high voltage cables? "asks incredulously. One answer comes: the energy around here do not listen, and despite the protests of local communities, the construction of hydroelectric Palo Viejo began last year and should be completed in 2011. To coordinate the work is Enel Green Power, the company for renewable energy group Enel was born in 2008. The plant, which will have a total capacity of 84 megawatts and will use the water flow of the river Cotzal and three of its tributaries, will cost about 185 million euro. An important investment for which you moved too Simest, the financial assistance for promotion of Italian enterprises abroad controlled by the Italian government, which has already allocated funding to facilitate the activities of Enel in Guatemala. "It gives us great satisfaction to contribute to the development of Enel Green Power in the area," said the CEO of Simest, Massimo D'Aiuto. Local people, however, is not the same opinion. When the trucks and bulldozers of Solel Boneh, the Israeli company in which Enel has given the opening of access roads to the area, crossed for the first time in San Felipe, the indigenous people organized protests against the Italian company . Following the death of two young Ixil, hit by a truck of Solel Boneh, the protest escalated and the natives for several days blocked the main arteries of communication. Later, the leaders of the protest were threatened with death, as reported in a 2009 report by the NGOs and the Guatemalan Conavigua Mojomayas. As was the case in the case of the Chixoy Dam, the largest hydroelectric project in the country, the population of Cotzal fears that delicate balance is destroyed with the "mother land" that their ancestors were able to preserve for thousands of years. The construction of a dam or a power station involves an inevitable deterioration of the ecosystem, biodiversity loss but, above all, the flooding of cultivated land, often the only source of income. To this was added the cultural and historical value of the territories in which the project was initiated, since the places considered sacred by indigenous Ixil.
The draft Palo Viejo is not the first Italian company that for 31 per cent more in public capital realized in Guatemala. Enel is in the country for 10 years, and has so far invested about $ 350 million for the construction and operation of four hydroelectric plants with a total capacity of 74 megawatts. In 2008 he obtained the approval of three projects, all in the Ixil area. To these adds the electrical interconnection of Central America, Siepac, funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and Spain, and he sees between the partners also Endesa, the English energy giant controlled 92 per cent by Enel. Siepac's goal is to ferry energy to the United States, feeding the integration project mesamericano, better known as Plan Puebla-Panamá, which sees in the assembly plants, in large villages and in the exploitation of the unique biodiversity form of development possible.
Enel's investment "in" the country is easily explained in economic terms: Guatemala is the the country with the highest hydroelectric potential of Central America, with over 10 thousand megawatts, and aspires to become the largest exporter of energy to other countries in the region. The current center-left government of Alvaro Colom, has also initiated a policy aimed at reducing electricity costs, in order to attract foreign capital. Strategy that perhaps has not come to terms with other factors, such as narco-trafficking, corruption and insecurity, which discourage foreign investment. This is shown by the document drawn up to address the Guatemala Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE), the government agency whose task is to facilitate trade relations of Italy with foreign countries. With over 5 thousand murders in 2009, 200 tons of cocaine transiting the country and an imminent risk of recession, "it is too easy-reads the paper-sight to the tragic consequences of the continuing inability of the state to impose a security policy effective on the future destiny of the country. "
But Enel did not mind and continue to invest their capital, and those of the Italians, in social and environmental impacts from projects that are unlikely to generate the hoped for development. Meanwhile, Maya Ixil people are hoping that the energy beginning to listen.
Five dams Chilean
against the project "Hydro Aysen" will host the Bishop
tuning, the sub-holding to 79.08% controlled by the Benetton Group Ltd. Edition, would be interested in buy 30% of Enel Green Power. I wonder if the news reached the inhabitants of Patagonia and the Chilean Mapuche indigenous communities who oppose the project "Hidro Aysen" Endesa-Enel, the construction of five large dams to generate electricity in one of the most intact of the planet. Benetton them already know them: the family of Treviso is already present in the Earth Fire, causing enormous conflict-where-in recent years has bought 10% of the land for the production of raw materials.
Enel Green Power is likely the market will probably be in September and the confirmation of the interest has come in recent weeks by Gilberto Benetton, on the sidelines of the annual Autogrill. The agreement with Benetton would undoubtedly facilitate the realization of the program of dams in Patagonia, a business inherited with the purchase of Spain's Endesa, and challenged already present in Latin America. A project as attractive as complicated: the protest of the population increases dramatically in Chile, and among the rebels dams is also the bishop of Aysén, one of the provinces in the area that would be affected. Bishop Luis Infanti de la Mora flew from Patagonia in Rome to address the annual meeting of shareholders of Enel. "Our silence on this project-thundered the monsignor, who was born in Udine, but in Chile for 35 years, while Enel CEO Fulvio Conti reminded him that the time had expired, his speech would be a sign of complicity with a 'injustice. An injustice that we believe a new form of colonization. " Bishop Infanti spoke with the involvement of the Cultural Foundation and ethical responsibility of the Campaign for the reform of the Bank world, under the initiatives of shareholders critical of Eni and Enel. "Said Juan Pablo Orrego-HidroAysen, activist and intellectual Chilean president and coordinator of the NGO campaign Ecosystem" Patagonia sin Represas " (no dams) - is a system of five dams that would fragment and degrade forever the basin of the rivers Baker and Pascua in the heart of Patagonia. The production of electricity would be associated with a transmission line 1,500 miles long, 60-70 meters tall with 6 thousand pylons that cross the 51% of the Chilean territory, damaging 48 protected areas (see The five projects that will devastate the planet, by CRBM on www.altreconomia.it, ed.) -Adds-not to mention the risk of earthquakes and volcanoes that make this project too risky from an economic standpoint. " The rights to use water for such purposes as practically free in Chile are also legacies of dictatorship. "In Patagonia, 96% of these rights were given away from the dictatorship of Pinochet first to the State, then and now inherited Endesa by Enel," said Bishop Infanti. "In Chile, the properties of water and its distribution are in private, we wonder if Enel, which owns a monopoly of the water here, would be allowed to implement projects in Italy or Europe like this." Chile, as Guatemala, a country that is central to the economic strategy of Enel Latin America. The Italian company is present in 11 countries in Latin America since it acquired 92% of Endesa, the largest English electricity company bought in rounds of debt in 2009, and through investments in Enel Latin America, a subsidiary of Enel Green Power. Enel Latin America already operates plants for 667 MW in the continent. Today the group has become the first private energy giant in Latin America, and not only in energy production: already serves 12.4 million customers (20% of its total) and produces on-site more than 15% of EBITDA , which in 2009 increased by 7% despite the crisis. That of Endesa, which already has 15 thousand MW plant, was an operation to be financed by 9.6 billion to an intervention, for € 8 billion, 12 banks including Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit. The purchase increased the already high debt to Enel, which is today, with 51 billion €, the utility most indebted in Europe. By 2014, Enel has to return 5.5 billion, and could be downgraded to Standard & Poor's. To put this in the market even distribution networks and transport gas and electricity to Endesa in Spain, which should reach about 1.5 billion euro. But this does not suffice to reduce debt to 45 billion euro by the end of the year, and then are coveted SWFs of the Gulf and the Far East who are already interested, such as Benetton, shares of Enel Green Power. The company that deals with "renewable" part is put on the market just as the energy giant announced it would invest € 18 billion in nuclear power, to build four power plants from 2014. A search of the University of Greenwich, commissioned by Greenpeace, found that the nuclear operator may actually bring an additional debt of 30 billion euro. Faced with this business, you understand why Patagonia is not the preservation of is on the agenda by the parties in Viale Regina Margherita.
www.altreconomia.it
October 4, 2010 Green Power is the "arm" of the Italian company for the operations Latin America. Builds dams enemy of the environment, and the like Benetton
"The energy that you hear," reads the slogan of Enel, the largest Italian electricity company and one of the largest in the world, with over 60 million customers. But in Guatemala in the department of El Quiche, Ixil Maya heart of the territories on the border with Mexico, the Italian energy production seems to have lost hearing. The dirt road that climbs steeply up the mountain, marking the pine forest disappear, swallowed by clouds. Depressions and ponds require the jeep slow pace. Children playing in the mud greeted with curiosity, but their parents gaze upon the strangers passing through heavy air: they have scored glances, thirty six years in which retrace the Civil War, with over one million internally displaced persons, forced disappearances and 15 thousand 200 thousand deaths. Of these, 83% are indigenous Maya Ixil. Baltazar Rodriguez de la Cruz, secretary of Cocode, the Community Development Board of the Ixil community of San Felipe, wait sitting under a porch. "Enel has deceived us, having just mentioned begins to wave his head. In 2008, the mayor of San Juan Cotzal, a major city of the department, announces that it has received the consent of local indigenous communities for the construction of hydroelectric power by Enel Palo Viejo. Shortly before, during a meeting with community leaders, the mayor presented an infrastructure project, but did not specify that the document be signed authorizing the construction of the plant. "They got our signature by deception," says Baltazar, noting that in the communities of El Quiche Ixil few people speak and read the Castilian. A few miles from San Felipe San Miguel Uspantan there. In 2009, Mayor Victor Figueroa reported Enel for not informing the local population and did not require the necessary permits for the project in Palo Viejo: "It is up to us to give licenses to build the pylons carrying the 'energy-Figueroa says. " How is it possible that 50% of the 169 communities in the area has no access electricity, while Enel is passed over their heads high voltage cables? "asks incredulously. One answer comes: the energy around here do not listen, and despite the protests of local communities, the construction of hydroelectric Palo Viejo began last year and should be completed in 2011. To coordinate the work is Enel Green Power, the company for renewable energy group Enel was born in 2008. The plant, which will have a total capacity of 84 megawatts and will use the water flow of the river Cotzal and three of its tributaries, will cost about 185 million euro. An important investment for which you moved too Simest, the financial assistance for promotion of Italian enterprises abroad controlled by the Italian government, which has already allocated funding to facilitate the activities of Enel in Guatemala. "It gives us great satisfaction to contribute to the development of Enel Green Power in the area," said the CEO of Simest, Massimo D'Aiuto. Local people, however, is not the same opinion. When the trucks and bulldozers of Solel Boneh, the Israeli company in which Enel has given the opening of access roads to the area, crossed for the first time in San Felipe, the indigenous people organized protests against the Italian company . Following the death of two young Ixil, hit by a truck of Solel Boneh, the protest escalated and the natives for several days blocked the main arteries of communication. Later, the leaders of the protest were threatened with death, as reported in a 2009 report by the NGOs and the Guatemalan Conavigua Mojomayas. As was the case in the case of the Chixoy Dam, the largest hydroelectric project in the country, the population of Cotzal fears that delicate balance is destroyed with the "mother land" that their ancestors were able to preserve for thousands of years. The construction of a dam or a power station involves an inevitable deterioration of the ecosystem, biodiversity loss but, above all, the flooding of cultivated land, often the only source of income. To this was added the cultural and historical value of the territories in which the project was initiated, since the places considered sacred by indigenous Ixil.
The draft Palo Viejo is not the first Italian company that for 31 per cent more in public capital realized in Guatemala. Enel is in the country for 10 years, and has so far invested about $ 350 million for the construction and operation of four hydroelectric plants with a total capacity of 74 megawatts. In 2008 he obtained the approval of three projects, all in the Ixil area. To these adds the electrical interconnection of Central America, Siepac, funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and Spain, and he sees between the partners also Endesa, the English energy giant controlled 92 per cent by Enel. Siepac's goal is to ferry energy to the United States, feeding the integration project mesamericano, better known as Plan Puebla-Panamá, which sees in the assembly plants, in large villages and in the exploitation of the unique biodiversity form of development possible.
Enel's investment "in" the country is easily explained in economic terms: Guatemala is the the country with the highest hydroelectric potential of Central America, with over 10 thousand megawatts, and aspires to become the largest exporter of energy to other countries in the region. The current center-left government of Alvaro Colom, has also initiated a policy aimed at reducing electricity costs, in order to attract foreign capital. Strategy that perhaps has not come to terms with other factors, such as narco-trafficking, corruption and insecurity, which discourage foreign investment. This is shown by the document drawn up to address the Guatemala Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE), the government agency whose task is to facilitate trade relations of Italy with foreign countries. With over 5 thousand murders in 2009, 200 tons of cocaine transiting the country and an imminent risk of recession, "it is too easy-reads the paper-sight to the tragic consequences of the continuing inability of the state to impose a security policy effective on the future destiny of the country. "
But Enel did not mind and continue to invest their capital, and those of the Italians, in social and environmental impacts from projects that are unlikely to generate the hoped for development. Meanwhile, Maya Ixil people are hoping that the energy beginning to listen.
Five dams Chilean
against the project "Hydro Aysen" will host the Bishop
tuning, the sub-holding to 79.08% controlled by the Benetton Group Ltd. Edition, would be interested in buy 30% of Enel Green Power. I wonder if the news reached the inhabitants of Patagonia and the Chilean Mapuche indigenous communities who oppose the project "Hidro Aysen" Endesa-Enel, the construction of five large dams to generate electricity in one of the most intact of the planet. Benetton them already know them: the family of Treviso is already present in the Earth Fire, causing enormous conflict-where-in recent years has bought 10% of the land for the production of raw materials.
Enel Green Power is likely the market will probably be in September and the confirmation of the interest has come in recent weeks by Gilberto Benetton, on the sidelines of the annual Autogrill. The agreement with Benetton would undoubtedly facilitate the realization of the program of dams in Patagonia, a business inherited with the purchase of Spain's Endesa, and challenged already present in Latin America. A project as attractive as complicated: the protest of the population increases dramatically in Chile, and among the rebels dams is also the bishop of Aysén, one of the provinces in the area that would be affected. Bishop Luis Infanti de la Mora flew from Patagonia in Rome to address the annual meeting of shareholders of Enel. "Our silence on this project-thundered the monsignor, who was born in Udine, but in Chile for 35 years, while Enel CEO Fulvio Conti reminded him that the time had expired, his speech would be a sign of complicity with a 'injustice. An injustice that we believe a new form of colonization. " Bishop Infanti spoke with the involvement of the Cultural Foundation and ethical responsibility of the Campaign for the reform of the Bank world, under the initiatives of shareholders critical of Eni and Enel. "Said Juan Pablo Orrego-HidroAysen, activist and intellectual Chilean president and coordinator of the NGO campaign Ecosystem" Patagonia sin Represas " (no dams) - is a system of five dams that would fragment and degrade forever the basin of the rivers Baker and Pascua in the heart of Patagonia. The production of electricity would be associated with a transmission line 1,500 miles long, 60-70 meters tall with 6 thousand pylons that cross the 51% of the Chilean territory, damaging 48 protected areas (see The five projects that will devastate the planet, by CRBM on www.altreconomia.it, ed.) -Adds-not to mention the risk of earthquakes and volcanoes that make this project too risky from an economic standpoint. " The rights to use water for such purposes as practically free in Chile are also legacies of dictatorship. "In Patagonia, 96% of these rights were given away from the dictatorship of Pinochet first to the State, then and now inherited Endesa by Enel," said Bishop Infanti. "In Chile, the properties of water and its distribution are in private, we wonder if Enel, which owns a monopoly of the water here, would be allowed to implement projects in Italy or Europe like this." Chile, as Guatemala, a country that is central to the economic strategy of Enel Latin America. The Italian company is present in 11 countries in Latin America since it acquired 92% of Endesa, the largest English electricity company bought in rounds of debt in 2009, and through investments in Enel Latin America, a subsidiary of Enel Green Power. Enel Latin America already operates plants for 667 MW in the continent. Today the group has become the first private energy giant in Latin America, and not only in energy production: already serves 12.4 million customers (20% of its total) and produces on-site more than 15% of EBITDA , which in 2009 increased by 7% despite the crisis. That of Endesa, which already has 15 thousand MW plant, was an operation to be financed by 9.6 billion to an intervention, for € 8 billion, 12 banks including Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit. The purchase increased the already high debt to Enel, which is today, with 51 billion €, the utility most indebted in Europe. By 2014, Enel has to return 5.5 billion, and could be downgraded to Standard & Poor's. To put this in the market even distribution networks and transport gas and electricity to Endesa in Spain, which should reach about 1.5 billion euro. But this does not suffice to reduce debt to 45 billion euro by the end of the year, and then are coveted SWFs of the Gulf and the Far East who are already interested, such as Benetton, shares of Enel Green Power. The company that deals with "renewable" part is put on the market just as the energy giant announced it would invest € 18 billion in nuclear power, to build four power plants from 2014. A search of the University of Greenwich, commissioned by Greenpeace, found that the nuclear operator may actually bring an additional debt of 30 billion euro. Faced with this business, you understand why Patagonia is not the preservation of is on the agenda by the parties in Viale Regina Margherita.
0 comments:
Post a Comment