Chileans mark World Water Day by protesting President Kast’s rollback of environmental rules

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Thousands of people marched on Sunday in Santiago and other cities in Chile to mark World Water Day following the withdrawal of dozens of environmental decrees by arch-conservative President José Antonio Kast.

The decrees rolled back by Kast’s administration had been signed during the government of left-wing former Chilean leader Gabriel Boric, whom Kast replaced as president earlier this month.

The demonstration, called by several environmental organizations under the slogan “Don’t ‘Kast-igate’ Nature,” drew thousands more participants in 15 cities across the country.

Cristóbal Rodríguez, national spokesperson for the Movement for the Defense and Access to Water, Land and the Environment — one of the organizers — said that in Chile there are still 1.4 million people without access to drinking water.

The new president “represents a setback that reflects his Pinochet-era roots and is commodifying nature to levels never seen before,” Rodríguez said.

The new Chilean president ordered the halt of 43 environmental protection regulations one day after taking office. These measures protected species such as Darwin’s frog and the Humboldt penguin, created national parks and outlined decontamination plans, such as for Lake Villarrica, among other things. They also regulated emissions from thermoelectric plants.

“We want to generate the best possible public policy around full employment, always respecting the environment,” Kast told the press after the decision.

Rodríguez said that the new administration “uses nature as a battleground to favor the interests of big capital” and that the removal of the “43 decrees shows an environmental chainsaw approach.”

Both in his government plan and during campaign statements, Kast acknowledged the existence of climate change, but said that he is in favor of economic deregulation and prioritizing technical criteria over what he calls “environmental ideologies.”

Kast’s rise marks Chile’s most right-wing turn since 1990, when the country restored democracy after 17 years of brutal military rule under Gen. Augusto Pinochet — a leader that Kast campaigned for in his youth.

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