On July 27, 2007, the magazine Qué Pasa reported on the social and economic lives of Chile's wealthiest individuals.

 

The magazine covered Anacleto Angelini's dispute with Roberto Izquierdo, Sergio Sarquis, and Jaime Santa Cruz over fishing quotas and analyzed Sarkozy's political project with an article by Hernán Larraín Matte. Qué Pasa also reported on the takeover of Citigroup by Banco de Chile, led by Andrónico Luksic. They revealed that Francisco Javier Errázuriz, the "chicken man," was "more than Unimarc." The magazine delved into the life of Tamara, described as "the strong woman" of the Kaufmann family.

 

The following week, the magazine addressed a topic that had returned to the headlines: "The public and private complaints of business leaders," accompanied by a full-page image of Eliodoro Matte. Among those upset were Gonzalo García, the executive secretary of CMPC; Alfonso Swett, the director of Forus; Jorge Matte, who was mourning the loss of Carnes Ñuble and Inchalam; and Nicolás Abumohor, who is associated with SN Holding, the owners of Parque Arauco, Puerto Velero, and Balthus.

 

In that parade of the elite, it was difficult for small, regional organizations to find space in its pages. It was the time of Bachelet 1, and in Aysén, mobilization against HidroAysén was slowly growing. The project would undergo environmental evaluation a year later.

 

Qué Pasa was founded during the Popular Unity government to oppose the administration of Salvador Allende. In fact, its founder, Gonzalo Vial Correa, later became Pinochet's minister of education. In its articles, communities and organizations not part of the business establishment appear only as colorful anecdotes—or as a thorn in the side of Chile's elite.

 

In the July 17, 2007, edition, a brief note under the headline "Businessmen and NGOs" alluded to the fury of its parishioners. "Amid the heated environmental debate, sectors of the business community are annoyed that the government is granting resources to NGOs that constantly question the private sector." For example, they cite the $4,546,000 that the office of the General Secretariat granted in 2006 to CODESA in Aysén. CODESA is an organization that opposes the HidroAysén power plants. The mini-chronicle reported that they also pointed to the $5 million given that same year to the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts, which has organized campaigns against Celco, salmon farms, and mining companies.

 

Between 2005 and 2006, CODESA, the Corporación Privada para el Desarrollo de Aysén (Private Corporation for the Development of Aysén), used public funds to implement the project "For Chile and Aysén, Let's Learn About Energy," which aimed to educate citizens about the energy challenges facing the country and the region. The aim was to ensure that public policy on the issue was not guided by the state and business leaders. And that was disturbing. It was the first, and I believe the only, time that CODESA appeared in Qué Pasa.

 

Eighteen years have passed, and many things have changed. HidroAysén is no longer among the energy alternatives, having been replaced by the idea of covering the Atacama Desert with solar panels, building hydroelectric plants throughout the foothills (many in Aysén), and deploying wind farms across the country. Added to this is the push for so-called green hydrogen, which is merely an improved version of the above since it relies on the extensive and disruptive implementation of NCRE.  The love for swarm-like solutions has not changed much.

 

Nor has the business community's annoyance with civil society.

 

In mid-May, El Mercurio published a supplement titled “Chronicle for the Future,” taking aim at a number of NGOs that allegedly focus exclusively on "stopping or paralyzing projects." The main ones mentioned were Oceana, Modatima, AIDA, NGO FIMA, Terram, Greenpeace, Olca, Chile Sustentable, and the Citizen Observatory. Among the smaller, more local organizations, CODESA was mentioned.

 

The publication's emphasis was clear. The underlying theme of those involved in environmental organizations is "to stop the development that big business wants for Chile and its people." This development sparked the 2012 Aysén Movement protests and the 2019 national uprising. According to Cecilia Morel, it is development that gives big businesses privileges they are not willing to give up.

 

What Qué Pasa and El Mercurio did not say is that civil society organizations play a role in environmental protection by assisting the state in safeguarding the environment and the communities that depend on it.

 

Floods caused by the undermining of water basins, sinking of houses built on wetlands, collapsing buildings on dunes, forest fires in pine and eucalyptus monocultures, avalanches caused by the collapse of tailings, water deficits due to commodification, and plagues caused by introduced species are not the work of the Holy Spirit. They are caused by ecosystem interventions that do not take nature into account.