Territorialidad de la intervención estatal en contextos de crisis.

El caso del virus ISA, la industria salmonera y la Región de Los Lagos, Chile

Abstract

To alleviate the crisis caused by the ISA virus that affected the Chilean salmon (2008- 2010), the Chilean State offered aid for about US$ 120 million, and implemented institutional responses such as the salmon taskforce, and reforms to the aquaculture law. However, the aid was not aimed at responding to the social problems arising from the crisis in Los Lagos region (unemployment, migration, conflict), but rather to revive the industry. The article reviews the capabilities of regional governments vis a vis central government to defi ne and implement policy interventions in context of crisis. The argument presented is that the process of regionalization in Chile implemented in 1976 affected the state’s ability to intervene in its territories, causing a double movement: on the one hand, it increased the ability to attract investment to the region, but on the other, it decreased the capacity of regional institutions created to control the local effects of such investment.