Roberto Izquierdo didn’t hold back in criticising Chile’s fisheries laws.
In an interview with CNN Chile, the head of Invermar, one of country’s main salmon farmers, made some colourful comments about the government’s handling of fishing issues.
Currently Chile is gripped in violent protests dubbed “the squid wars.” The southern city of Concepcion has seen workers from industrial fisheries striking since Jan. 9 after lawmakers passed a bill to regulate fishing of the large squid.
The salmon entrepreneur criticised the government for its handling of the situation and said that the bill should be dumped as it was “corrupt.”
Izquierdo said that the current government is “populist not at the extreme of the UP (Unidad Popular) – it is populist only at the level of fishing. Also, this is a populist and weak government.”
He also criticized the Undersecretariat for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Eduardo Riquelme Portilla. “When they named him he had no idea, but he is a political operator,’ he said.
Though he reserved the rest of his ire for the current head of state. When asked by CNN if the problem lies with President Sebastián Piñera, the businessman replied: “Is that a question?”
