It would be the biggest public works project of Argentina’s “Kirchnerista” era—the 2003-07 presidency of Néstor Kirchner and the rule since then of Cristina Kirchner, his widow. And its location, fittingly, would be Santa Cruz, the remote, Patagonian province where Néstor Kirchner was born and became governor. The project is a pair of large dams 65 kilometers (40 miles) apart on the Santa Cruz River. Organizers expect it to flood 47,000 hectares (116,000 acres) and, once in operation, boost Argentina’s electric generating capacity by 1,740 megawatts, or more than 5%. Plans call for construction to be carried out by a Chinese-Argentine consortium, with work starting in January 2015 and continuing for five and a half years. It is to be financed by three... [Log in to read more]