(en) anarkismo.net: Train to the south: another earthquake in
Chile by Solidaridad (ca) [machine translation]
Embezzlement to the State Railway Company (EFE) forced the closure of many stations and
left hundreds of communities living in poverty and oblivion. The sad legacy of the
government of Lagos became the rallying cry of a people who are tired of waiting: Yumbel
want to be recodado not only for its saint. ---- Juanita Sanchez (70) knows that today is
a different day for the people. The quiet routine leading daily, interrupted only by the
passage of a freight train or greeting a neighbor, turns into a hectic pace with the
arrival of thousands of pilgrims. Today is "20 Men", the second commemoration takes place
in the year on behalf of San Sebastián. ---- To Yumbel, the Holy has become a sort of
"salvation". With the festival, hundreds of people set up their cooking places and
positions that make up a large Persian on the strip. Francisca Jiménez (42) and María
González (38) manage to bring different products from Santiago to enable them to "save the
pot" for some months.
Being young in Yumbel is even harder. Lack of resources and programs to promote training
and employment, add to the difficulties for those living far from the center or in rural
areas. And the commune is divided into two completely different poles: on "Yumbel People"
are the main services, municipality, schools, terminals and library, while "Yumbel
Station" time seems to have stopped since the day I stopped function as stop passenger train.
Walter Moreno (21) knows enough of this story, "election candidates appear on offering
help, and then disappear," says that there are no local policies, which facilitates many
young people choose to alcohol and drugs. Verónica Yáñez (60) adds that there is also a
record that allows to know the annual number of suicides, but it is a "silent rumor",
every so often comes a sad news about the departure of some young people.
And do not tell me to go traveling so poor
During the nineties the passenger train was the primary means of transportation for those
traveling south of Chile. The green machine known as "the train of the poor", leaving at
10am Central Station. Once the whistle sounded, hundreds of passengers crowded to climb
through windows and doors to achieve a seat.
Veronica says: "The road was long and no ticket booking, but people were very supportive.
A Yumbel we delayed us almost eight hours unless the machine was in corduroy, but not
bored because we talked, shared a bread, some eggs or chicken, no matter, we were all
happy because we were going south. "
The arrival of the train was an event for Yumbel. People came out to await his coming and
if any delay occurred, no missing family arrived with a thermos to offer I warm tea or a
roof if it was cold. The station was a meeting place in the videos the kids played while
their parents talked, or shared with railroad workers.
The landscape today is very different. The abandonment of the station, plus the 2010
earthquake left an infrastructure in hazardous conditions: ured walls, broken glass and
low light, that periodically hosts the occasional solo stops to watch fast paced train
load or "distracting the mind".
Embezzlement to the State Railway Company (EFE)
The Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado was created in the late nineteenth century and
represented a fundamental contribution to the decentralization of the territory, and a
stimulus for the development of productive activities in the country.
Until the fifties was the main means of transport, but due to lack of state investment
policy for its maintenance, the crisis began to intensify in the seventies and finally
burst into dictatorship. The Concertación governments once in power, enacted a new Law on
EFE that allowed the creation of seven subsidiaries under the figure of a corporation.
Years later, the administration of Lagos finally bury the public company. In 2005, former
President cut the ribbon of what would be the historic plan of railway passenger transport
in Chile, to join Santiago and Puerto Montt. However, none of that happened. Trains and
stations were empty, and two years later the debt of the State Railway Company (EFE)
totaled billions of dollars.
Luis Asenjo, Chairman of EFE, was charged as the main cause of bankruptcy. According to
the irregularities detected by the Comptroller, authorized more than 35 irregular
contracts, and allowed the purchase of four trains to the Spanish Renfe, which stopped
working after a short time- and not to a Chinese company that offered at a price low.
A people awake: "We believe in building people power"
José Ángel Hogas (30) and Walter Moreno (21) are directed to the Sentinel Radio to invite
people to join a great activity that are preparing for some time: "Yumbel station always
alive".
The aim is to encourage the organization to restore the railway station, declare assets
and enable the passage of the passenger train. The dream is ambitious, but achieved could
improve connectivity with cities and surrounding villages, provide employment and allow
fairer trade.
José Ángel Hogas says: "We believe in building people power generating resources through
self-management and community meeting. We firmly believe that it was time to operate
outside of institutions. "
For young people it is urgent to overcome welfarism and kick off for a meeting between
villagers and enhance collaborative work that allows them to meet and discuss their own
problems. That is why during the day participating writers, musicians and artists of the
people.
Faced with the risk that the initiative be co-opted by future candidates in municipal
lessons, José Ángel Hogas says: "We want to come politicians or future ... We are children
of the Station, born and raised on the platform, and therefore no accept cheap and
baseless populism. "
The work starts Yumbel be an example to hundreds of communities that remain isolated and
expect sleep to restore service station. It is incomprehensible that a country that seeks
to join the OECD and outward shown "developing" does not have a policy to permanently
restore a transport system that is characterized as economically and ecologically.
But it is not only the passenger. The Chilean railway system currently only carrying 10%
of the total load to be mobilized in the country, far from exhibiting developed countries
like the US and Australia, where the penetration of the train on the movement of goods
exceeds the 40% figure. In Mexico and Brazil, meanwhile, reaches 25%.
What the authorities have not been able to meet, young people from a village in the
Bío-Bío start lifting with humility and conviction. Yumbel not want to be remembered only
twice a year by his Holy, wants to become the beginning of a struggle that will give the
whistle to announce the departure of the first train to Puerto Montt. Train south.
Related Link:
http://www.periodico-solidaridad.cl/2015/03/20/tren-al-sur-el-otro-terremoto-de-chile/
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/28024
