'Shock Doctrine' in Action: Vital Freshwater Resources Under Attack by Privatization Capitalists

By Scott Thill, AlterNet
Posted on June 19, 2012, Printed on July 1, 2012

Set in South America's breathtaking Andes landscape, the visually sweeping new documentary Patagonia Rising bills itself as a frontier story of water and power. But both its frontier and its story nevertheless belong to anyone on the planet that needs water to live.

We are countless compared to the infinitesimal contingency who live to profit off of water. For the purposes of Patagonia Rising, screening now in New York and beyond, that includes the privatization capitalists of HidroAysen, which is planning to build five hydroelectric power plants (marketspeak for dams) to choke off Chile's glacially fed Baker and Pascua rivers, two of the planet's purest. Signed by President Sebastien Pinera, the first billionaire to be sworn into the Chilean presidency, but stalled thanks to vigorous protests, HidroAysen would effectively hand over almost all of Chile's energy market to a duopoly run by Spain's Endesa and Italy's Enel. And they're not exactly hiding their distaste for environmental impact of five dams cornering the prize jewel of Patagonia's freshwater business.

"This exploits the best use of water," a HidroAysen executive argues in Patagonia Rising. "That's sustainability."