E-LAW U.S. Executive Director Bern Johnson traveled to South America last year. In Chile, Bern met with Fernando Dougnac, an experienced environmental lawyer who brought many of the leading environmental cases in Chile, including the case challenging plans to dam the Bio Bio river. He won that case in trial court only to be reversed on appeal. He is eager to begin working with the E-LAW network and sharing resources with colleagues through Latin America and around the world. Fernando works in Santiago and Puerto Montt, a city of about 120,000 people located roughly 500 miles south of Santiago.
Southern Chile is a beautiful land of pristine lakes, deep fjords and forested mountains.
From Chile Bern traveled to Buenos Aires, where he met with the advocates of E-LAW Argentina. They are working to challenge a full range of environmental abuses. Among their efforts are challenging plans to irradiate sludge, supporting legislation to require the use of recycled paper, monitoring efforts to clean up the Rio Riachuelo, and helping develop regulations to control incinerators. Bern flew from Buenos Aires to Lima, where E-LAW Peru is working to reach out to colleagues throughout Peru. Doris is a lawyer who formerly represented employees of the Southern Peru Copper Corporation and now works to limit the environmental damage resulting from the mining.