Greenpeace challenges approval of Puerto Exterior de San Antonio port project in Chile

Greenpeace filed a formal claim with Chile's Committee of Ministers to review the environmental approval granted on 9 June by the Regional Environmental Evaluation Commission (COEVA) for the Puerto Exterior de San Antonio port project. The organization argues that the approval ignored numerous citizen observations submitted during the impact assessment, endangering the Maipo River basin and communities in the Valparaíso and Metropolitan regions.

The port operator, Empresa Portuaria San Antonio (EPSA), has also appealed to the Committee, seeking to reduce the environmental requirements imposed by the authority. Greenpeace says the project's 2020 environmental study was incomplete and that the approval failed to address key impacts, posing a risk to the fragile ecosystem from the glaciers to the river’s mouth. Roxana Núñez, Greenpeace’s lawyer, said the claim seeks a review of an approval that “did not adequately consider citizen observations” and continues to threaten the Maipo basin.