Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998
Source: EL DIARIO
President James D. Wolfensohn apologized this weekend for the
bank's alleged participation in the Ralco hydroelectric project in
outhern Chile, which will displace as many as 96 indigenous
Mapuche families from their homes on the upper Bio Bio River.
Wolfensohn was visiting Chile for the Summit of the Americas.
Ralco is power company Endesa's much larger follow-up to
the Pangue dam, which the International Finance Corporation
(IFC), the credit arm of the World Bank, helped fund. The National
Environmental Commission (Conama) has approved the US$463
million, 581 MW hydroelectric power station, but the National
Indigenous Development Association (Conadi), the government
agency charged with defending the interests of native Chileans,
must approve it before it can go forward.
World Bank officials praised Chile for pioneering economic
structural reforms in the region and for its dynamic social
development strategy. Head economist Guillermo Perry said Chile
is the region's most successful case of development in the last 12
years, due to its sustained growth rate and reduction in poverty.
Nonetheless, the bank expressed some reservations about Chile's
environmental progress.
Wolfensohn said Ralco "was not one of the high points in the
bank's experience."
Endesa responded Monday that Wolfensohn's comments
were regrettable, and furthermore inaccurate - the IFC funded
only Pangue, not Ralco. The company said it fulfilled all the IFC's
social and environmental conditions for Pangue, and that Ralco is
within Chilean norms.
Wolfensohn also said Sunday that the World Bank has
changed its focus on Latin America to pay greater attention to the
poor and disadvantaged, given that inequalities persist despite the
region's economic progress. He expressed particular concern about
the rich-poor gap, and called for more multilateral cooperation to
confront it. He said the bank has also made more funds available
for education, a leading agenda item at the summit. Last week,
before the summit, Chilean Foreign Relations Minister Jose Miguel
Insulza said the bank would provide some US$20 billion to Latin
America for education.Chile Information Project