Artisanal fishermen today are to hold a national complaint to demand the annulment of the Fisheries Act, also known as Longueira Act.
The protest organizers explain that “the initiative echoes a national agreement of artisanal fishermen in the country, calling President Bachelet and Congress to cancel the Fisheries Act, as a rule stemming from corruption.”
According to the union, this “has become apparent with the formalization and investigations carried out by the courts against companies of the large fishing industry, executives and parliamentarians”.
In addition, the artisanal sector argues that this act has given fishing industrialists fishing quotas for 20 years that are renewable in perpetuity, “without a fair payment to the State of Chile, to the detriment of artisanal fishermen and the sustainability of fisheries resources (which are overexploited and collapsed)”.
In various regions of the country, such as Araucaria, Bio Bio and Coquimbo, demonstrations have been organized as part of the measure nationwide.
The president of the National Federation of Fishermen of Chile (FENASPAR Chile), Hernan Cortes, who will head the fishermen’s demonstration in Coronel, demanded that parliamentarians from Bio Bio Region “must speak out clearly and strongly against Longueira Act.”
“This is the result of fatigue after being governed by a legal body conceived under bribery, which is today the emblem of corruption and the power of entrepreneurs from ASIPES on the parliamentarians of our country,” stated the leader.
FIS.com, 2016