Chilean government policy to privatize lithium rejected

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Thousands of Chileans joined this Thursday, January 20, the so-called Great March in Defense of Lithium, with demonstrations in the capital Santiago, Antofagasta, and Atacama to reject the government’s policy of Sebastián Piñera to privatize this natural resource. Carabineros repressed the demonstrators with water cannons in the Chilean capital.

Workers’ unions and social groups called for the march, whose purpose included criticizing the recent government maneuver to award lithium exploitation concessions to two foreign companies, which a court later suspended.

In small acts along the route, participants recalled that the Chilean government announced the result of the bidding process without waiting for its debate in Congress.

The demonstrators in the Chilean capital left Plaza Dignidad to reach the Palacio de la Moneda, the seat of the Executive. However, in La Alameda, at the height of the Universidad de Chile, they clashed with agents of the Carabineros Corps who tried to disperse them using water launchers.

During the protest, it was also stated that the lithium bidding process promoted by the outgoing government leaves the hands tied to the government of the incoming president, Gabriel Boric.

In addition, it was denounced that the decision of Piñera’s Executive was hasty and was taken without taking into account the popular feeling of industrializing lithium not from private interests but from public projects that help to exploit the resource in a sovereign way in the interest of Chileans, not of minorities.

After the announcement of the tender, opposition deputies filed a complaint before the Chilean Comptroller General’s Office to request that the decision be annulled and investigated. Hours later, the Judiciary announced that the Court of Appeals of Copiapó ordered the suspension of the bidding process.

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