With its small fishing port and its colorful boats, the bay of Chancay, in the center of the Peruvian coast, still looks like a vacation spot. It is hard to imagine that it is destined to become a nerve center of international maritime trade linking the Pacific, Asia and Oceania. However, under the action of drills, trucks and cranes working day and night, the bay has already begun to change.
This megaproject of 3.6 billion dollars (3.3 billion euros) is 60% implemented by the Chinese state giant Cosco Shipping Ports. Ultimately, the structure should have fifteen quays capable of receiving the largest container ships in the world, a breakwater and a three-lane tunnel, 2.8 kilometers long, connected to the Pan-American highway that crosses America, from North to South… Eventually, Chancay could thus supplant the Peruvian port of Callao, but also those of Valparaiso and San Antonio in Chile, and become the largest logistics hub on the Pacific coast of South America.
In the meantime, Cosco Shipping is blowing up the hills with dynamite. At the head of the Association for the Defense of Housing and the Environment of Chancay, Miriam Arce receives people in her house. Dust covers everything: armchairs, furniture, bedding… Cracks crack the walls. Under the impact of a detonation, the dishes wobble. “This is what we experience every day. The explosion took place barely fifty meters from here”, she fumes. On May 16, the works caused a subsidence of land, damaging eighteen homes and provoking demonstrations against the project.
Strategic gateway
“This enormous work will have environmental, social, human and economic impactsworries, in turn, Alejandro Chirinos, director of CooperAccion, an environmental protection NGO. Imagine “Triple-E” container ships [les plus grands du monde, de 400 mètres de long], which run on the dirtiest fuel oil, landing in this place devoted to artisanal fishing and tourism: the bay will be partly destroyed! »
The Chinese shipowner ensures that “mitigation measures have been taken and compensation planned for the inhabitants who would be affected” by the project. It also promises 1,500 direct jobs, to which will be added 7,500 indirect, when the port is operational.
The anger of local residents did not take the form of confrontations between indigenous communities and Chinese mining companies on the Andean peaks. Divided between hopes of fortune and fears of upheaval in their way of life, the inhabitants observe with circumspection the Chinese economic presence which extends in their country. And whose megaport of Chancay suggests that it will strengthen in the future.
You have 86.66% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
2023-06-30 15:30:08
#Latin #America #China #imposes #backyard #United #States
