Salmon at risk while the region argues
As if a part of the plan, when workers went on strike for the second time on Monday and their employer Aguas Claras reacted by calling for a legal lockout, shortly thereafter small “guerillas” went after the farm sites, somehow taking control of four of the company’s farm sites located in the most remote regions. According to what the company informed in a press communication, the paralysis of these farm sites puts at risk an investment of US$ 16 million and the lives of seven million fish. “We have asked for help on behalf of the government to dislodge these people. The fish have gone various days without food, which is not too grave if this problem is resolved by the end of this week,” states Agustín Ugalde, general manager of Aguas Claras. In response to the salmon industry’s plea for government intervention, Francisco Vidal, spokesperson of the State remarks, “The Government does not mediate. It establishes the law and complies with the law.” The government is insisting that the salmon industry and its workers must work out the problem that they themselves have created.
At the same time the workers have sought support from the Church, which neither has dared yet to take a stance on the conflict. Meanwhile the fish, are getting hungry and wondering where everbody went.
