Unemployed people occupy petrol terminal in demand of work.
Por translation: mark - Tuesday, Aug. 03, 2004 at 7:02 PM

Tuesday 3 of August 2004 | Caleta Olivia, Santa Cruz Despite threats the demonstrators are willing “to keep on to the end”. For more than a week, more than a hundred unemployed folk along with their families have occupied the company Terminales Marítimas Patagónicas (Termap) in Caleta Olivia, Santa Cruz. On Monday 26th they occupied the terminal demanding 115 jobs. Up to now there has been no reply, since the company refuses to talk. The demonstrators declare themselves willing to keep going “to the end” to reach their objective, which is nothing more than to work in an area where petrols workers have amasses great profits. The occupants have denounced provocations by “security” forces, as much from the gendarmería (armed forces) as from the police. Last Saturday at night two women taking part in the protest - one of them pregnant -, were struck and injured by police when they tried to reenter the plant through one of the entrances, after having gone to their houses to bathe. Termap belongs -among others petrol companies- to Pan American Energy Holdings Ltd and to Repsol YPF, the same that are dealing in gas in Bolivia.

The presence of the state

The state made its presence known with gendarmería, police, firefighters and an ambulance from the Hospital Zonal. They were under instruction to await an order “to act”, but they began repression anyway by means of provocations. The governer of Santa Cruz, Sergio Acevedo commented that his administration “will do everything possible” to prevent "situations of force or violence", but admitted that the provincial government will take a small role in the conflict. No declarations have been made as yet with regard to the provocations of the security forces. The unemployed folk accuse the armed forces of provoking them verbally, as well as having an excessive presence of vehicles, demonstrating their anxiety through repression. It barely needs to be said what would be the effect of a detonation in a petrol terminal.

Police provocation

Last Saturday according to declarations made by demonstrator spokespeople to the local press, around 8pm a patrol approached and the police made it known that they would employ a vehicle to prevent people coming in and out and thereby cut of their communication with the outside. “An older lady and a pregnant woman who were approaching the place and trying to enter, were knocked down by the police and attacked them, pulling their hair and injuring one in the arm, the face and the neck and throwing the other flat on the ground and dragging her at which point we reacted, fought with the police and rescued the women”, a spokesperson reported to a newspaper.
Unemployed who fight for their right to work

The occupants reiterated their conviction to resist to the end, despite repression, with direct action. "We want work", "We will leave here dead", "We are prepared to resist", they have declared to the TV cameras clearly willing to take the action all the way for a way out of their situation which obliges them fight or die. The occupation is being supported from outside by demonstrators of Adosac –the education union of Santa Cruz-, and piquetero organizations, who have set up a camp. For families who do not have a fixed income to pass the harsh patagonian winter the supposed drops in unemployment indices and in poverty claimed by the national government mean little. The winter is still just as cold and fire just as necessary. In Caleta Olivia the high unemployment caused by privatizations of the former YPF and Gas del Estado still remains.

Business demands repression

In the meantime, the enormous oil tankers «Cabo Tamar» and «Ingeniero Silveira», wait two miles of the coast for the end of the occupation of Termap to proceed unloading crude oil. Spokespeople of the operators stated that they are close to paralyzing production in the deposits. They stated that Termap "has suspended its operations and not a single member of its personnel have been able to remain in the installations. All operating systems and security were interrupted due to threats from the occupants". Even so they have refused to negotiate, and are instead denouncing the occupation before the Judge of Penal Instruction of Caleta Olivia, Marcelo Bailaque, "requesting the aid of authorities to re-establish the operations and security of this crude oil shipment and storage plant. Their internet sited states that "we await the intervention of the Powers of the State for the final and total restitution of the Installations", or in other words that the forces evict the demonstrators. A clear call for repression against the unemployed.

What are the Terminales Marítimas Patagónicas?

Termap in responsible for the reception and storage of crude oil and for the mooring and unmooring of petrol tankers. According to their internet site they receive from producers in the San Jorge Gulf Basin an average volume of 1,250,000 m3 of raw petrol. This volume of petroleum constitutes approximately 33,4% of the country’s production. Cynically they declare that part of the “values” of the company are “to protect the environment and the community”. They have operated since 1994, the time of wild privatizations. Besides the terminal at Caleta Olivia in the province of Santa Cruz, they also have another terminal in Caleta Córdova, in Chubut. The main shareholders of Termap are Pan American Energy Holdings Ltd, Repsol YPF, Sociedad Internationcal Petroleum S.A, among other "illustrious" companies such as Shell-Capsa, Vintage Oil, Total Austral and Dapetrol.
Pan American Energy is a business of exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons which British Petroleum (60%) and Argentina Bridas Corp. (40%) take part in. The company produces, in total, 48,5 million barrels annualy of petrol equivalent and is the second producer of hydrocarbons in Argentina and one of the largest in the Southern Cone. Repsol YPF we already know about. To the monstrous profits forged from exploitation and massive unemployment of entire peoples as in Cutral Co and Mosconi, is added the recent business in Bolivia, which Pan American Energy is also involved in.

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