"Chilean volcano hurts Argentine economy; Vacation season curtailed by ash" July 22, 2011|By Alexander Wilson and Federico Quilodran, Associated Press
SANTIAGO, Chile - The 100 million tons of pyroclastic ash and rock spewed by an Andean volcano has meant hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for communities more accustomed to profiting from the dramatic mountain landscape.
The Cordon Caulle volcano in Chile opened a new gash along a ridge just across the border and upwind from Argentina. For six weeks now, it has been belching ash into the sky, grounding flights across the lower third of South America for most of the winter tourist season. Lodges and restaurants have been ghostly at resorts normally filled with skiers. Airport runways, Andean slopes, and sheep and cattle ranches are coated in thick, abrasive volcanic material....
Related: Chilean Chirps
So quiet you almost can't hear them.
Since the eruption began June 4, the volcano has released energy equal to 70 atomic bombs, or 2 percent of the world’s electricity capacity, during the first week alone, calculated scientists at Argentina’s National University of Rio Negro. The ash has blown around the Southern Hemisphere several times, grounding jets as far away as Australia and New Zealand.
Airline industry losses could total $50 million, said Helane Becker, an airlines analyst with Dahlman Rose & Company. Carriers with many routes in Argentina, such as state-owned Aerolineas Argentina and Chile-based LAN Air Lines, will suffer most, but US and European carriers also have been affected, she said.
And up go the fares and fees again!
Aerolineas is still flying a vastly reduced schedule, with 30 flights canceled and more than a dozen postponed yesterday alone because of the ash cloud, which can severely damage jets in flight....
Argentine agriculture also has suffered....
Geologists say the eruption has diminished from its peak in June, when the plume rose 6 miles and stretched across the continent. Chile has allowed about 3,500 evacuees, most of them small farmers living below the volcano, to return home.
But a NASA satellite photo this week showed the volcano still spewing ash nearly 2 miles high in a column that stretched for 50 miles over Argentina, adding to the gritty layers of snow and ash.
Experts have estimated that in Villa La Angostura alone, 5 million cubic meters of volcanic sand must be removed, Fioranelli said. That’s roughly equivalent to covering the entire island of Manhattan in 2 inches of the grit. Hundreds of people who started with snow shovels now use heavy equipment to dump the mess into nearby quarries.
Chile’s National Geology and Mines Service remained on “red alert’’ yesterday, saying the eruption isn’t finished yet. There is still a chance of more outbursts, and small earthquakes from underground volcanic activity still rattle the area. Lava and toxic gases still spew from the crater, creating a nightly light show extending about 1,600 feet above the volcano.
Ever notice the coverage of the historic Chilean quake faded quick?
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has declared an regional economic emergency, doubling assistance to poor families and postponing tax payments for restaurants, hotels, and other tourism businesses that do not lay off workers.
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More hot gas coming from Chile:
"Allende committed suicide, autopsy finds" July 20, 2011|Associated Press
SANTIAGO, Chile - A scientific autopsy has confirmed that President Salvador Allende of Chile committed suicide during the 1973 coup that toppled his socialist government, court officials announced yesterday.
British ballistics expert David Prayer said Allende died of two shots fired from an assault rifle that was held between his legs and under his chin and was set to fire automatically.
The bullets killed him instantly.
The forensics team’s conclusion is unanimous, Spanish expert Francisco Etxeberria said: “We have absolutely no doubt’’ that Allende committed suicide.
So what? All got your lies straight?
Prayer said there were two bullets fired and two casings recovered, and that there is no evidence a second person was involved in Allende’s death. That ruled out theories that Allende, the first socialist in the Americas to come to power at the ballot box, was killed by the military as troops stormed the presidential palace during the coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.
Those must be "conspiracy" theories.
Allende had said he wouldn’t be taken alive even as Pinochet ordered an all-out attack on La Moneda.
Claims who?
The palace was bombed by fighter jets and the air thick with tear gas and smoke as the building went up in flames. Allende had ordered his allies to surrender, but he stayed behind.
And not himself?
The deposed president’s body was exhumed in May for its first authoritative autopsy as Chile’s independent judiciary began a criminal investigation into the death of Allende and hundreds of other victims of the Pinochet dictatorship.
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So ONCE AGAIN we get ANOTHER GOVERNMENT COVER-UP, 'eh?
FLASHBACK:
"Report backs doubt on Allende suicide" by Associated Press / June 1, 2011
SANTIAGO, Chile — Chile’s state television channel has reported that long-secret documents support the theory that President Salvador Allende may have been assassinated and did not commit suicide during the 1973 coup....
We don't need 40-year-old government documents to tell us that.
We all knew and know that is what happened!
Chile’s military announced during the Sept. 11, 1973, coup that the socialist president had killed himself with an AK-47 given to him by Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Allende was buried in a closed casket in a secretive nighttime ceremony with only his widow present....
Two forensics specialists who analyzed the more complete set of documents told TVN they believe more than ever that Allende was shot first through the face with a small-caliber weapon, and that an AK-47 blast smashed the top of his skull after he was already dead....
How do you do a suicide like that with a AK-47?
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Related: Another 9/11 Anniversary
Yeah, it was 9/11 before there was a 9/11.
And worth only a printed photograph:
"STUDENTS PROTEST IN CHILE -- A student was arrested by riot police yesterday in Santiago, where thousands of students marched, some clashing with police, to push for tuition-free education. About 15,000 people participated in protests that blocked traffic in the downtown area, the government estimated. Some staged choreographed dances, while police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse others who were seen throwing rocks at antiriot vehicles (Boston Globe July 15 2011)."
