The new bill that would allow the exploitation of vast oilfields will be, ecologists are certain, the nail in Argentina’s coffin. “We are facing the pinnacle of extractivism, the final adjustment of the screw so that Argentina is no longer a sovereign country over its territory,” says lawyer Enrique Viale.
The law being debated by Argentina’s national congress is designed to attract billions of dollars of investment into the oil and gas industry. Viale is president of the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers, one of 50 civil society organisations opposing the bill.
