Biden’s promotion of electric cars could be in for a big surprise By Monica Showalter

Posted By on April 26th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/04/bidens_promotion_of_electic_cars_could_be_in_for_a_big_surprise.html

Anything the Bidenites can do, the radical leftists running Chile can do better.

Which takes us from the world of Sam Brinton managing U.S. nuclear waste in the states, to (hold muh’ pisco), Chile nationalizing its lithium mines and bringing in a purple-haired feminist activist social-worker academic to regulate their activities instead.

Get a load of Chile’s new “Seremi,” or, secretary of the regional ministry, for the mighty mining province of Antofagasta, Macarena Barramuno, who’s been named for that job in Chile’s desert north.

 

 

Antofagasta is home to Chile’s gargantuan lithium mining reserves, the world’s second-largest, whose extraction is used create batteries for Joe Biden’s much-promoted electric cars.

A Google Translate of an item that ran in local PiTV Noticias Calama in neighboring Atacama reads (I left the translation imperfect):

MACARENA BARRAMUÑO ASSUMES AS NEW MINING SEREMI IN ANTOFAGASTA

The social worker took over today, replacing Ruth Rodriguez, who declined to assume the position due to problems.
During the morning, Macarena Barramuño González, a social worker by profession and Master of Development studies specialization of Gender, from the University of Melbourne, took over as the new Mining Seremi for the Antofagasta region, who has developed her career mainly in community management designing , coordinating, and directing initiatives with the purpose of transforming and improving communities.
The Presidential Delegate Karen Behrens received Barramuño at the DPR premises to talk about projections and regional needs in relation to the position that she will begin to exercise from today, wishing her success in her management.
Both agreed on the relevance of this portfolio for the Antofagasta Region, given its characteristics as a mining area, within the framework of a transformative government program that places a new development model built from local communities at the center of its policies.
It is necessary to highlight that Ruth Rodríguez was unable to assume the position due to health problems.

And as one might expect, Chile’s locals weren’t impressed.

According to Google Translate:

A question with a lot of respect……..WHAT THE F*** knows about mining, is this communist pokemon designated as mining SEREMI? Natalia Valdebenito Karen Araya Irací Matías del Río Martín Pradenas #Concepción #Rancagua Sierra Bella Tacna Macul Panguipulli #SinFiltros #sinfiltros_tv

As a Brazilian observer noted, it’s a new addition to President Gabriel Boric’s “troop of imbeciles.”

Other Chileans noted in the comments thread (Google Translate again):

They are going to choose the mineral with a gender approach, they are not going to get a ton of trans copper!!

It is that she has studies in gender. She meets the requirements in friends or relatives of the lighter [The word used is ‘mechero’ which best I can tell, is a reference to leftist rioters or flash-mob looters who target retail establishments].
Social worker in mining, what did they expect if we have a lighter [looter] for president, a geologist for spokesperson and add and go on the list of incompetents in positions nothing to do with.
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He gives a gender perspective to the extraction of the mineral. Something obviously very stupid, as stupid as claiming human rights violations in the Dictatorship with a stick of dynamite in your pocket.
The pituito’s [political crony is] scratching, another unfulfilled campaign promise.
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·How within their ranks they will not have a mining engineer who is up to the job.
The Chileans continue in the same vein, on and on.
Who is this new chieftain for Chile’s largest mining state, Macarena Barramuno?
According to her LinkedIn profile, she’s a freelance guest lecturer at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and her skill set is described as:
Community engagement manager with wide experience designing, overseeing, and mobilizing initiatives to transform communities. Capable to lead projects that create social impact and generate awareness towards gender equality. A passionate advocate of feminism with a genuine interest in impacting the creation of public policies and programs aimed to contribute to the sustainable improvement of the living conditions of women across the world. Proven ability to actively engage with communities, organise events, assist with setting goals and responding to needs by empowering communities and encouraging active participation.
She is or has been a social worker, a feminist activist, a research assistant for the United Nations, a self-described woke activist and a participant in the network of “chilenxs feministas migrantes” — a rare Latin American who prefers that wokester ‘x’ as is used in ‘Latinx.’
Fine and dandy, but her appointment comes at a mighty sensitive time — a few days after Chile’s radical left-wing government announced that it would be nationalizing the country’s lithium mines, which made the markets swoon. Lithium is what makes all those Teslas and Volts and other electric cars go. Experience shows that once an industry is nationalized for political purposes — expect a lot less of that industrial production. Ask anyone who ever lived in the Soviet Union, Venezuela, Cuba, or any socialist hellhole.
But that experience has never stopped a leftist.
According to Reuters:

SANTIAGO, April 20 (Reuters) – Chile’s President Gabriel Boric said on Thursday he would nationalize the country’s lithium industry, the world’s second largest producer of the metal essential in electric vehicle batteries, to boost its economy and protect its environment.

The shock move in the country with the world’s largest lithium reserves would in time transfer control of Chile’s vast lithium operations from industry giants SQM (SQMA.SN) and Albemarle (ALB.N) to a separate state-owned company.

It poses a fresh challenge to electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers scrambling to secure battery materials, as more countries look to protect their natural resources. Mexico nationalized its lithium deposits last year, and Indonesia banned exports of nickel ore, a key battery material, in 2020.

“This is the best chance we have at transitioning to a sustainable and developed economy. We can’t afford to waste it,” Boric said in an address televised nationwide.

This position paper on transporting electricity through Antofagasta, a very important thing in a mining state in the world’s dryest desert, shows just how above-and-beyond important Antofagasta is to the world’s lithium consumption.
Well, now they’ve got Macarena with her purple hair and feminist social worker credentials in charge of the regulation in Antofagasta in terms of global lithium production and supplies, what could go wrong?
Seems that Chile is imitating the Joe Biden model of employing only the craziest and least-qualified leftists, chosen for their wokesterly correctness, with its expansion of big government, utterly indifferent to results. This may explain why that government is as unpopular as Joe Biden’s is here in the states.
What’s fascinating is how this is bound to collide with Biden’s plans to foist electric cars onto the public. Less lithium, fewer electric cars, and no Trump to blame for it. It all comes down now to a purple-haired academic wokester who knows as much about mining as Hunter Biden knows about energy. Good luck with that one, Joe.
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