Leonardo Valenzuela Pérez, PhD

Authoritarian regimes are often seen to be hostile toward the environment, albeit there is a growing body of literature suggesting a more nuanced image when it comes to authoritarian governments and the environment. However, several aspects of human-nature relationship need further clarification in non-democratic systems, both on the political left and right. In this article we aim to address that challenge by analysing Cold War economic and environmental goals and responses of the right-wing… Show more

Authoritarian regimes are often seen to be hostile toward the environment, albeit there is a growing body of literature suggesting a more nuanced image when it comes to authoritarian governments and the environment. However, several aspects of human-nature relationship need further clarification in non-democratic systems, both on the political left and right. In this article we aim to address that challenge by analysing Cold War economic and environmental goals and responses of the right-wing military junta in Chile under Pinochet and the Hungarian state-socialist, USSR-satellite regime under Kádár. By analysing two radically different political and economic approaches to economic catchup, while mitigating environmental costs on the way, this study aims to understand better the ecological motivations in authoritarian regimes operating diverse political and economic agendas. Show less

The “Chilean miracle”—that’s how neoliberal ideologues saluted the political–economic reforms set up by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990). However, the substance of that statement has faded almost three decades after Chile’s return to democracy and these days no slogan can whitewash the dark side of that miracle, with its legacy of political violence, inequality, and ecological destruction. This chapter examines the trajectories of air pollution regulation implemented by… Show more

The “Chilean miracle”—that’s how neoliberal ideologues saluted the political–economic reforms set up by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990). However, the substance of that statement has faded almost three decades after Chile’s return to democracy and these days no slogan can whitewash the dark side of that miracle, with its legacy of political violence, inequality, and ecological destruction. This chapter examines the trajectories of air pollution regulation implemented by Pinochet’s administration, focusing on the case of the Ventanas copper-processing complex at Quintero Bay in Chile’s Central Coast. During the seventeen years of the regime, the residents of Quintero Bay waited for a technological fix to the chronic air pollution that had been affecting them since the opening of the copper processing facilities in 1964. While the community waited, the issue became tangled up with scientific, diplomatic, and legal controversies precluding any definitive resolution. The chapter argues that in opposition to more traditional monolithic and well-ordered narratives of ideological consistency and political reform during Pinochet’s dictatorship, an environmental historical perspective offers a messier portrait of the period, emphasizing the ideological stubbornness aimed at crafting nature and technology in accordance with the economic orthodoxies held by the regime. Show less

In September 1964, when Las Ventanas copper smelter was opened in Quintero Bay it was welcomed as a key piece in the Chilean development strategy. Just over fifty years later, Quintero Bay hosts the largest industrial complex in Chile and has become the site of a chronic environmental disaster, with recurrent pollution crises and industrial accidents that pose massive risks to its human and nonhuman residents. Through historical and ethnographic analysis, involving the use of archival… Show more

In September 1964, when Las Ventanas copper smelter was opened in Quintero Bay it was welcomed as a key piece in the Chilean development strategy. Just over fifty years later, Quintero Bay hosts the largest industrial complex in Chile and has become the site of a chronic environmental disaster, with recurrent pollution crises and industrial accidents that pose massive risks to its human and nonhuman residents. Through historical and ethnographic analysis, involving the use of archival documents, government proceedings, media publications, interviews and participant observation, this thesis investigates Quintero Bay’s process of copper-led industrialisation and its transformation into a sacrifice zone. The thesis explores some of the Chilean government’s environmental regulatory responses, the everyday life of Quintero Bay residents and the emergence of practices of political contestation. The thesis argues that the expectations placed on copper in terms of development, the characteristics and pressures of international copper trade and the adoption of neoclassical calculation regimes have contributed to the emergence and autonomisation of copper’s existential needs. That autonomisation has led to the adoption of a logic of sacrifice that privileges the existential needs of copper over the protection of Quintero Bay’s population and environment. The spatial consequences of that regime has been the production and expansion of a sacrifice zone in Quintero Bay. This study contributes to the understanding of the extended dynamics involved in the production sacrifice zones as spaces of the Anthropocene, illuminating some of the processes of stabilisation, protection and contestation taking place within these spatial formations. Show less