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LATIN AMERICA |
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Greenpeace Faults Spanish Companies for
Harmful Impact on Latin America
Madrid – Greenpeace has released a report
denouncing “the arrogant attitude” and
illegal practices of Spanish multinationals
operating in Latin America and called on
officials in Madrid to hold them accountable
and ensure they work “at least with the same
standards as in Spain.”
Greenpeace issued the request after
analyzing the economic, social and
environmental impact of the largest Spanish
companies operating in Latin America.
The report – titled “The New Conquistadors:
Spanish Multinationals in Latin America” and
presented Thursday by the head of Greenpeace
Campaigns in Spain, Mabel Gonzalez – states
that despite “the impeccable image that
Spanish multinationals project in our
country,” the reality is “very different
when they operate in South America.”
Eighty-five percent of the world’s 79,000
multinationals have their headquarters in
the United States, the European Union or
Japan, compared with just 15 percent in
developing countries, the document notes.
Spanish companies are well represented among
these giants, with 11 included in the
Fortune Magazine’s Global 500, its annual
ranking of the world’s largest corporations.
But the behavior of these companies when
they take their operations to Latin America
has come under fire by Greenpeace, which in
the report accuses them of destroying the
environment and showing blatant disregard
for human and labor rights.
One of the Spanish companies responsible for
the most flagrant abuses is energy company
Repsol YPF, the environmental watchdog said.
In Ecuador, the company’s operations in the
Yasuni National Park have resulted in oil
spills that have contaminated rivers in that
environmentally sensitive area, while Repsol
also has a 25 percent stake in the OCP
pipeline, which covers more than 500
kilometers (310 miles) of that country’s
Amazon jungle and Andes mountains.
Oil spills caused by ruptures in the
pipeline have affected 11 protected areas
and more than 70 local organizations have
called for the expulsion of Repsol from the
Amazon, saying their negligence has caused
the equivalent of 14,000 barrels of crude to
be spilled in that region this year.
The case of electric utilities such as
Endesa, Union Fenosa and Iberdrola is also
of grave concern, according to Greenpeace,
which says they are responsible for much of
the environmental destruction in the
Americas despite the “green and sustainable
image” they carefully cultivate in Spain.
Union Fenosa and Iberdrola, for example,
head a project to build five coal-fired
power plants in Guatemala, “even though this
technology is one of the most polluting and
least efficient on the planet,” Gonzalez
said.
Endesa is planning to build five large
hydroelectric dams in Chile’s Patagonia
region, which would involve flooding
thousands of hectares of completely
unspoiled wilderness and lead to the
extinction of many species and the damming
up of rivers in a region that – outside of
the polar regions – is the world’s
third-largest freshwater reserve.
The report also cites Spanish tourism
companies for the destruction they have
caused to the environment and the coastlines
of Mexico and the Caribbean in particular,
saying they are exporting “a model of mass
tourism that has failed in Spain and is of
little benefit to the local population,”
Gonzalez added.
Greenpeace, which will be sending the report
to the Spanish Foreign Ministry and
Parliament, is calling on Prime Minister
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s government to
act forcefully in demanding that these
multinational companies act with
transparency and holding them accountable
for their activities abroad. EFE |
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