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Photo Essay: Chile’s Wildfires:
Another Pinochet Legacy

Orin Langelle  |  Langelle Photography

Orin Langelle is the co-founder of GJEP, a photojournalist, and the Director of Langelle Photography.

In January and February 2017, 5,274 wildfires raged in Chile, burning more than half a million hectares, destroying over 1,000 buildings, and killing eleven people. The fires started in monoculture timber plantations. The fire was, at that time, the worst in the country’s history. Photo by Orin Langelle
Chile has been experiencing year after year of catastrophic wildfires. The fires are certainly exacerbated by climate change-induced droughts and heatwaves, but the vast expanses of highly flammable industrial pine and eucalyptus plantations that grow on land stolen from Mapuche and rural communities during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet have fueled the fires and led to their ferocity.
In 1974 President Augusto Pinochet enacted Forest Decree Law 701. This law subsidized the development of monocultures plantations of pine and eucalyptus for the paper and wood industries. Since then, many timber corporations have used the law to purchase land to expand these plantations, destroying the once abundant native forests.
Investigations into the 2017 fires uncovered that the pine plantations were infested by a borer wasp. The insect burrowed into the trees, damaging them and causing their commercial value to decrease. The logging industry did not have an insurance policy against insect infestations, but it did have insurance against fires. Many in the communities believe the fires were intentionally set by the timber companies to claim the insurance.
People who lost their homes and crops did not have fire insurance and could not recover those losses.
Red bed frame stands alone in the outline of what was a home.
Chile has approximately 2.2 million hectares of flammable tree plantations that fuel the out-of-control wildfires and firestorms
Prior to a Mapuche Water Ceremony, Ronny Leiva, “Red de Defensa de los Territorios Araucanía”, at the Rio Cautín. When the fires started, the industry and others tried to blame Mapuche indigenous groups. But evidence showed that the focus of the fire was not near the Mapuche territories (Wallmapu).
After the Water Ceremony, Mapuche Emilio Painemal speaks. The Rio Cautín behind Painemal is flowing, but further downstream the fast-growing timber plantations monopolize fresh water. This has caused a serious water shortage in rural Mapuche communities, and some communities have no water at all except what is brought in by truck.
Deeper in Wallmapu Mapuche Roberto Antimil stands on logging slash pointing to pine plantations on the next ridge and the clearcuts below in the valley. These plantations are adjacent to Mapuche communities and grow on former Mapuche lands.
A plantation clearcut in the valley below
Arauco pulp plant in the Nueva Aldea sector in the town of Ranquil is fed by the monoculture plantations. It is the second largest Arauco plant in the country. The global demand for pulp is projected to increase by 30 million tonnes per year, with Brazil and Chile poised to meet much of this new demand. Arauco has received permission to build the largest pulp mill in the world in the Brazil state of Mato Grosso Do Sul. Developing plantations to feed this mill will lead to widespread destruction of native cerrado forests.
Protesters march on the IUFRO Tree Biotechnology Conference in Concepción, Chile. The protest was denouncing the efforts by researchers and industry to manufacture genetically engineered trees for use in monoculture timber plantations. The use of GE trees in these already destructive plantations would exacerbate their impacts and add potentially devastating and unpredictable new ones.
Leoardo Guajardo's house was saved from the fire, but all the crops and fruit trees were lost | Orin Langelle
Investigations into the 2017 fires uncovered that the pine plantations were infested by a borer wasp. The insect burrowed into the trees, damaging them and causing their commercial value to decrease. The logging industry did not have an insurance policy against insect infestations, but it did have insurance against fires. Many in the communities believe the fires were intentionally set by the timber companies to claim the insurance.

When wildfires broke out in Chile this February, I began a redux of my previously published photo essay in an Argentinian publication about Chile’s 2017 wildfires – then the worst in the country’s history. In the years since, more severe wildfires have scarred the landscape, with this year’s fires now the deadliest on record.

From the Photographer’s Statement in my 2017 photo essay:

An international delegation from the Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees arrived in Santiago, Chile, in March 2017, to document the social and environmental impacts of the forestry industry in the country, as well as its links with recent forest fires, which were the worst in Chile’s history. 

The fires began in January 2017. It is estimated that eleven people died, 1,500 homes were destroyed, thousands of people displaced, and over 500,000 hectares decimated. 

The Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (“Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictas Ambientales – OLCA”) sponsored the delegation. Another sponsor of the delegation was Global Justice Ecology Project.

I accompanied the delegation as a photojournalist and participant. 

The historical context of what happened in past decades continues to affect Chile today. The legacy of neoliberalism in the Americas is very long and tragic. September 11 is a notorious anniversary, always to remain as a date etched in the minds of Chileans. In 1973, this was the day that General Augusto Pinochet took power in Chile in a coup supported by the CIA and the United States government.  Salvador Allende, the socialist President of the Unidad Popular, who had been democratically elected, was killed, marking the end of civilian government.

U.S. support was crucial to the coup, and also to the consolidation of power afterwards. With the influence of the “Chicago Boys” of the U.S., neoliberal proponents of the free market, the dictatorship implemented economic liberalization, including monetary stabilization, the elimination of protective tariffs for local industries, a ban on unions, and the privatization of the social security and hundreds of national companies.

From the beginning of the new military dictatorship, very severe measures were applied.

During the time that Pinochet reigned, investigations have confirmed between 1,200 and 3,200 people were murdered, more than 80,000 people forcibly interned, and up to 30,000 people tortured. 

Sometimes democracy must be bathed in blood – Augusto Pinochet

The establishment of Forest Decree Law 701 in 1974, while General Augusto Pinochet reigned, subsidized the expansion of tree monocultures. This began the great expansion of monoculture plantations of pine and eucalyptus for the paper and wood factories. Since then, many corporations have purchased land, destroying the once abundant native forests.

The history of Chilean forests is painful for Mapuche communities. The invasion of Mapuche ancestral lands (Wallmapu) in modern times began with the approval of Forest Ordinance 701 (Decree Law 701) in 1974. Many indigenous inhabitants were evicted and marginalized. During the Pinochet regime, the 10 million hectare land allocated to the Mapuche was reduced to only 350,000 hectares, roughly 3% of their original territory.

Since the fall of the dictatorship, one government administration was changed for another; Some Mapuche lands have been seized, and some have been returned, creating a “dispersed mosaic” of indigenous lands, which were once part of the “Mapuche Nation.”

In January and February 2017, 5,274 wildfires raged in Chile, burning more than half a million hectares, destroying over 1,000 buildings, and killing eleven people. The fires started in monoculture timber plantations. The fire was, at that time, the worst in the country’s history. Photo by Orin Langelle
Chile has been experiencing year after year of catastrophic wildfires. The fires are certainly exacerbated by climate change-induced droughts and heatwaves, but the vast expanses of highly flammable industrial pine and eucalyptus plantations that grow on land stolen from Mapuche and rural communities during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet have fueled the fires and led to their ferocity.
In 1974 President Augusto Pinochet enacted Forest Decree Law 701. This law subsidized the development of monocultures plantations of pine and eucalyptus for the paper and wood industries. Since then, many timber corporations have used the law to purchase land to expand these plantations, destroying the once abundant native forests.
Leoardo Guajardo's house was saved from the fire, but all the crops and fruit trees were lost | Orin Langelle
Investigations into the 2017 fires uncovered that the pine plantations were infested by a borer wasp. The insect burrowed into the trees, damaging them and causing their commercial value to decrease. The logging industry did not have an insurance policy against insect infestations, but it did have insurance against fires. Many in the communities believe the fires were intentionally set by the timber companies to claim the insurance.
People who lost their homes and crops did not have fire insurance and could not recover those losses.
Red bed frame stands alone in the outline of what was a home.
Chile has approximately 2.2 million hectares of flammable tree plantations that fuel the out-of-control wildfires and firestorms
Prior to a Mapuche Water Ceremony, Ronny Leiva, “Red de Defensa de los Territorios Araucanía”, at the Rio Cautín. When the fires started, the industry and others tried to blame Mapuche indigenous groups. But evidence showed that the focus of the fire was not near the Mapuche territories (Wallmapu).
After the Water Ceremony, Mapuche Emilio Painemal speaks. The Rio Cautín behind Painemal is flowing, but further downstream the fast-growing timber plantations monopolize fresh water. This has caused a serious water shortage in rural Mapuche communities, and some communities have no water at all except what is brought in by truck.
Deeper in Wallmapu Mapuche Roberto Antimil stands on logging slash pointing to pine plantations on the next ridge and the clearcuts below in the valley. These plantations are adjacent to Mapuche communities and grow on former Mapuche lands.
A plantation clearcut in the valley below
Arauco pulp plant in the Nueva Aldea sector in the town of Ranquil is fed by the monoculture plantations. It is the second largest Arauco plant in the country. The global demand for pulp is projected to increase by 30 million tonnes per year, with Brazil and Chile poised to meet much of this new demand. Arauco has received permission to build the largest pulp mill in the world in the Brazil state of Mato Grosso Do Sul. Developing plantations to feed this mill will lead to widespread destruction of native cerrado forests.
Protesters march on the IUFRO Tree Biotechnology Conference in Concepción, Chile. The protest was denouncing the efforts by researchers and industry to manufacture genetically engineered trees for use in monoculture timber plantations. The use of GE trees in these already destructive plantations would exacerbate their impacts and add potentially devastating and unpredictable new ones.