The mayor of a remote Chilean town has become the latest Bond villain after driving a vehicle at the cast on the set of the new James Bond (Quantum of Solace) film.Carlos Lopez made his unscripted appearance on the set of
Quantum of Solace in a small saloon car, which he reportedly drove between
Daniel Craig, the
James Bond star, and the cameras before braking. Mr Lopez was protesting over his small town, Baquedano, being used for the filming.
Mr Lopez was arrested and briefly detained for what police called “causing public disorder”. It was claimed that he almost ran over two people at the town’s railway station as he sped onto the set.
He had been protesting at what he called an excessive police presence in Baquedano and objecting to Chilean soil being used as a stand in for neighbouring Bolivia.
Baquedano lies in a mining region around the city of Antofagasta in the far north of the country. It was forcibly annexed by Chile from Bolivia in the late 19th century – an issue that continues to divide the two countries.
In the film Bond only briefly visits Bolivia, but the decision by the producers to use locations in Chile to represent Bolivia has inflamed local tensions.
Chileans traditionally look down on the poorer Bolivians and there have been protests about the Bond crew using Bolivian flags and uniforms while filming on the streets of Antofagasta.
Bolivian militants clashed with Chilean border guards when filming began and a protest in a Chilean newspaper read: “Chile is Chile. We’re not Bolivian Indians. Imperialist British out.”
Mr Lopez said yesterday: “For a town that has just 1,000 residents, sending in special forces and water cannon, preventing people from walking in the street, reminded me of the worst of the Pinochet years.
I disagree with national territory being used as locations [to represent] other countries. Even in a fictional film, unfortunately, friendly, neighbouring countries use decisions like this to make unjustified claims.
A police official said the local prosecutor was considering whether to charge the mayor. “He got angry, entered into a private enclosure… caused public disorder and was detained,” he said.
A spokesman for Eon Productions, the London-based company making the film, said that Mr Lopez pulled up in his car between the camera and a vehicle in which Craig and his co-star, Olga Kurylenko, were sitting.
She said Mr Lopez almost ran over a policeman when he drove through the cordon that had been set up around the railway station, which is being used for filming. But she described the protest as “a small incident that took no more than five minutes to clear up”.
The spokesman, who claimed Mr Lopez was suspended from his post as mayor five months ago, denied that the producers had offered him compensation after he complained about not being consulted about filming. She insisted that permission was received before filming began.
The film, Craig’s second outing as 007, is mainly being shot at
Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.
Craig has said that the plot focuses on Bond’s attempts to get revenge on the villain who murdered his lover at the end of the last Bond film, Casino Royale.
Quantum of Solace is due to be released on Oct 31.
Source:
Reclamos.cl
