Our Latin America team is currently traveling in Argentina to learn more about the impacts of fracking in local communities. Yesterday, we visited a farmer whose apple orchard is being impacted by a fracking well built right next to the property. Almost immediately after we parked the car, two police officers came and demanded the personal information of our team and the local farmer. The police officers were friendly, but could not provide a concrete reason for demanding our information. We had not committed any offense or broken any law.
Ultimately, we gave our personal information to the officers. Our farmer friend is certain that the fracking company ordered the police officer to gather our personal information. For us, it was clear that despite these officers being friendly, they were acting to protect private interests and not the people.
Here is a picture of our encounter:
