Burning-tire blockades blowing hefty clouds of smoke jammed Route 160 between San Pedro de la Paz and Coronel in the Bío Bío Region on Monday morning, causing delays that drew attention to the gripes of fishermen whose benefits payments have been delayed for over a month.
The group who set the fires Tripuntales Artesanales Cerco was successful in summoning a response from Fish and Aquaculture Subsecretary Pablo Galilea with their ardor. Radio Bio Bío reported that Galilea planned to call Chile’s presidential palace, La Moneda, on Monday to secure a definite plan for the payments, intended to curb the effects of a shortage of fish.
Region officials blame bureaucratic inefficiency for the delayed payments, but these answers came too late to stop Monday’s protests.
We have decided to begin mobilizations because of the indolence of the repressive state of Chile and its lack of respect for its contract with artisanal fishermen, the group said via Facebook.
Nelson Estrada, vice president of the National Council for the Defense of Artisanal Fishing (Condepp), said that his organization does not support actions which can harm citizens, though the motivations for the blockades are the same ones bringing many fishermen’s groups together: a failure of the government to pay benefits that were promised.
They did not pay the benefits for the fishing crisis, Estrada told The Santiago Times. Now July is starting, and they still haven’t paid us anything.
The Santiago Times