We took action in the streets of Valparaíso, a territory dominated by the Chilean state. The objective of this performance intervention is to inform, conspire, and mobilize against the devastating megaproject IIRSA, the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America. This initiative is a treaty signed by twelve South American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Financial Fund of the River Plate Basin (FONPLATA), and the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) in Brasilia in 2000. This agreement reconfigures the Latin American map. Integration and Development Axes are defined as: “multinational strips of territory where natural spaces, human settlements, productive zones, and trade flows are concentrated.” These axes will finance infrastructure projects to boost communication and the transport of raw materials from extraction centers to export points; therefore, IIRSA includes: road networks, tunnels, ports, airports, customs services, energy production and distribution systems, urban development, among others.

Thus, the continent becomes a territory supplying raw materials for global technological development and the capitalist accumulation of that minority that holds economic power and governs destinies for its own benefit. The implementation of IIRSA brings with it the destruction of the territory, both through infrastructure development and the increased extraction of existing raw materials. It destroys the habitat and rhythms of life of communities, the animal and plant kingdoms, by altering waterways, introducing pollutants, displacing populations in “rural” areas, and acting as a gentrifying agent in urban areas.

For this reason, initiatives opposing IIRSA and its devastating model are emerging across the territory. The call is to become informed and organize in defense of the land and against projects throughout the Continent.