The Pehuenches are fighting the government and Chilean energy company Endesa to protect the Bio-Bio River from development. The river is sacred to the Pehuenches, but has also been promoted as an instrument for energy generation and economic growth through the construction of a giant hydroelectric facility. The dam needed for this facility would flood much of the Pehuenches’ ancestral land. After six years of fighting, 84 families have been persuaded by Endesa to exchange their property for other land, but seven families still refuse to leave and fear the police will remove them by force. The $600 million, 570-megawatt Ralco dam will flood 9,000 acres of rain forest along 42 miles of river valley, destroy many rare plant and animal species, eradicate what some have called one of the world’s best white-water rafting spots, and completely uproot the Pehuenche culture that has deep economic and ancestral ties to the river.
