Authorities in Chile are investigating an attack that took place at Cermaq Chile’s Coipué salmon farm in the Araucanía region, during which the company’s administrative office was completely burned to the ground.
Since Cermaq itself is being investigated in this crime, the company is refraining from making statements, a spokesperson from Cermaq Chile told SeafoodSource when contacted for further information.
During the early hours of Monday, 4 May, an unidentified group of people entered the facilities of Cermaq Chile with an incendiary device and set fire to the installations, Héctor Bravo, deputy commissioner of the investigative police (PDI), told Radio Cooperativa.
According to local press reports, the damage was material and no workers were harmed. Those workers on site during the attack reported that at least 10 gunshots had been fired at them, but no one was hit. Three firefighting units rushed to the scene to fight the fire but were unable to stop the advance of the flames at the office.
The group that perpetrated the attack reportedly left some pamphlets on Cermaq premises, protesting against the construction of the Freire-Villarrica four-laned highway. The illustration on the pamphlet was designed similar to the symbol for the Mapuche indigenous people, and press has reported that the group has also asked for the release of indigenous prisoners, which they consider political prisoners, and an end to logging activity in the Araucanía region.
That specific region in the south of Chile is known for its forestry and logging activity. A total 360,000 hectares – of the region’s total 1.3 million hectares of forest – are developed for logging, with the plantation mostly of pine and eucalyptus trees. Roughly 40 percent of the region's forested area is held by large companies, with the remaining 60 percent being in the hands of small- and medium-sized producers.
Forestry is the region’s main economic driver, with the production and sale of pulp, wood boards, and planks, and the construction of prefabricated buildings both for the domestic and export markets, accounting for a sizeable chunk of the regional economy.
At the same time, about one-quarter of the population in the Araucanía region is considered Mapuche (versus 4 percent on a national level). Logging activity has been criticized by several Mapuche and environmentalist groups, with critics seeing the sector infringing on native, slow-growth species to favor faster-growing, non-native pine and eucalyptus trees. The region itself is named after the Araucaria tree, which is considered sacred to the Mapuche people and can grow for 2,000 years or more.
Radical groups in the region have often carried out attacks similar to that at the Cermaq facility, but targeting logging companies and the trucks that transport these materials.
Photo courtesy of Cermaq
