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LatinNews Daily - 17 October 2018

In brief: Chile

* More than 3,000 workers from Chile’s state-owned oil company Empresa Nacional de Petróleo (Enap) have occupied two oil refineries amid an ongoing controversy over industrial pollution. Operations at Concón and Quintero refineries, located some 130km northwest of Santiago in Valparaíso Region, were suspended for a few hours, preventing the unloading of oil tankers and the pumping of fuel to Chile’s capital. For decades the area, which boasts a large industrial park, has suffered from pollution due to industrial operations, leading to it becoming known as the ‘Chile’s Chernobyl’, and the government has blamed Enap for a series of outbreaks of air pollution that have taken place in the last few weeks. Nolberto Díaz, the president of the Federacion de Sindicatos de Enap trade union, promised more industrial action in response to what he believes is a campaign to damage the image of the state-owned company in order to push through privatisation plans. The local police recently searched Enap offices at the Quintero refinery in connection with the latest pollution incident, but Díaz maintains that the incident was caused by chemicals that are not used at the refinery. Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera previously revealed plans to privatise state-owned companies in order to finance a national reconstruction programme but ruled out the sale of Enap and the copper mining firm, Codelco.

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