Eleuterio Antío Rivera, the longko, or chief, of the Mapuche community Pedro Ancalef, flashes a quick smile when asked about his community’s precedent-setting win in Chile’s Supreme Court this January. The high court ruled that Aguas Araucanía, a regional water company privatized in 2004, violated environmental laws by failing to conduct an environmental-impact study (EIS) and a public hearing before starting to build a sewage plant in the Araucanía Region. It ordered the company to stop work on the 80,000-gallon (302,000-liter) -per-day plant, which is adjacent to Mapuche land, until it has an approved impact statement. And it concluded that the project, still in its early stages, might threaten the Mapuches’ health and right to live in a clean environment... [Log in to read more]