Featured Film

With the turn-of-the-century commodity boom in Latin America, agribusinesses sought inexpensive land in Argentina for the production of soybeans. This search for cheaper land has resulted in deforestation and the destruction of ecosystems. The Argentine pampas are globally recognized as an endless expanse of lush, fertile land that is naturally ideal for cattle grazing and agriculture. Alejandro Fernández Mouján’s short film Sólo se escucha el viento (Only the Wind Is Heard, 2004) calls attention to the exploitation of a different region, El Impenetrable Chaqueño, until recently the most extensive rain forest in South America after the Amazon.

Sólo se escucha el viento betrays a sense of urgency with respect to the topic of destructive corporate behavior and the environment. In the case of El Impenetrable there are dire consequences for the country and the populations that depend upon the forest’s ecosystem for survival. The film documents, with crude realism, the unnatural transformation of a rain forest into a vast expanse of flat farmland in a matter of years. Viewers are accosted with images of toxic clouds of red dust obscuring the camera’s view, calling to mind the formation of the Dust Bowl in North America and the starvation, displacement of people, and economic devastation that followed in its wake.

In recent years Greenpeace and local organizations have opposed the deforestation in Chaco on the ground that these lands are protected under the Forests Law of 2007. Readers of this issue on China and Latin America and the preceding one on environmental violence will find this film illustrative of the concerns they raise. They can watch it by visiting the LAP web site, http://www.latinamericanperspectives.com.