Peruvian Campesinos Tear Down Mining Gate

A gath­er­ing of campesin@s tore down a gate at the site of the con­tro­ver­sial Con­ga Cop­per Mine in Peru on August 20. The farm­ers claim that Yana­cocha, the com­pa­ny in charge of the mine, built the gate ille­gal­ly in the first place, so there’s real­ly no need to have it there.

The gate would impede a tra­di­tion­al path used by locals to access the impor­tant Lagu­na Namo­co­ha, so campesin@s took up their farm imple­ments and dug it out. Nation­al Police did not inter­vene. If a meet­ing is not held with campesinos, they have promised to tear down two oth­er gates access­ing lagu­nas Azul and Cor­ta­da

The Yana­cocha min­ing com­pa­ny is actu­al­ly a front for the New­mont Min­ing Com­pa­ny based in Den­ver, and they have a ter­ri­ble rep­u­ta­tion in Peru. In 2011, their exist­ing gold mine was halt­ed by a block­ade, dur­ing which time eight machines were torched cost­ing 2 mil­lion dol­lars and kneecap­ping their stock for some time.

The start of the new Con­ga Cop­per Mine has been halt­ed for for over a year by local direct action, includ­ing large block­ades. As recent­ly as June, thou­sands of farm­ers and min­ers gath­ered at El Per­ol Lake to demon­strate against the oblit­er­a­tion of local fresh water.

This from Cli­mate Con­nec­tions:

“Over the course of the ongo­ing occu­pa­tion of the Con­ga site, police have some­times used vio­lence but most­ly sought to avoid con­fronta­tions that could win sym­pa­thy for the pro­test­ers. Qui­et harass­ment of project oppo­nents has con­tin­ued unabat­ed, how­ev­er. On July 28, jour­nal­ist César Estra­da, who has doc­u­ment­ed the occu­pa­tion for local media, was detained near the Con­ga site by agents of the Nation­al Police Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Diec­torate (DINOES) and men in orange safe­ty vests who appeared to be Yana­cocha workers—but, like the police agents, in ski masks. The men con­fis­cat­ed his cam­era, cell phone and wire­less modem before releas­ing him. (Celendin Libre, Aug. 3)

Mobi­liza­tions against oth­er min­er­al and ener­gy develpo­ment projects in Caja­mar­ca are gain­ing ground. Ear­li­er this month, hun­dreds of campesino res­i­dents of San Mar­cos and Cajabam­ba provinces held a five-day cross-coun­try march, dubbed the “March in Defense of the Con­de­bam­ba Val­ley,” to oppose the oper­a­tions of the Sul­li­den Shahuin­do min­ing com­pa­ny, as well as unli­censed “infor­mal” min­ing in the area, which they charge is con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing local waters. (Servin­di, Aug. 9 via Con­sul­ta Pre­via)

On Aug. 17, a pub­lic forum was held in the town of Celendín enti­tled “Hydro-elec­tic­i­ty in the Ama­zon: Rivers, Life and Extrac­tive Indus­tries,” ana­lyz­ing the dan­gers posed by 24 new dams planned for the water­shed of the Río Marañón, and espe­cial­ly the Chadín 2 project, intend­ed to spur fur­ther min­er­al devel­op­ment in Caja­mar­ca. Researcher Anto­nio Zam­bra­no Allende of Forum Sol­i­dari­dad Perú said the new thrust of hydro devel­op­ment would result in “thou­sands of forced dis­place­ments” in the regions of Caja­mar­ca and Ama­zonas. The high­land region of Caja­mar­ca strad­dles the con­ti­nen­tal divide that sep­a­rates waters bound for the Pacif­ic from those flow­ing into the Marañón, a major trib­u­tary of the Ama­zon. (Aler­ta­Pe­ru, Aug. 21 via Celendin Libre)

A new report by Peru Top Pub­li­ca­tions finds that min­ing invest­ment in Peru in 2013 has reached a record $9.9 bil­lion, a 15% increase over last year, with 54 major projects planned or already under­way. Peru now ranks eighth in glob­al min­ing invest­ment, and its rank­ing will like­ly advance in the next two years. How­ev­er, the report notes that the coun­try cur­rent­ly lacks the ener­gy capac­i­ty to meet the demands of the new min­ing projects, and a major expan­sion of the elec­tric­i­ty sec­tor will be nec­es­sary for the pro­ject­ed growth in the min­er­al sec­tor. (La Repub­li­ca, June 27)”

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