Peru's Conga Mine Conflict: Cajamarca Won't Capitulate
Peru's Conga Mine Conflict: Cajamarca Won't Capitulate
Monday, 12 May 2014 09:35
By Lynda Sullivan, Upside Down World | News Analysis
The fight over the Conga mining project is one of Peru’s largest current social conflicts. Today, the local population continues resisting the imposition of one of Latin America`s largest gold mining projects – Minas Conga. The situation remains tense, and the resistance continues, but with an intensified sense of urgency because as the battles are won and lost, many feel that the conflict is nearing its conclusion.
The struggle against the Conga project has been a long and arduous one already (1). To summarize, Conga is a 4.8 billion dollar project of Yanacocha – a company which combines the interests of Newmont mining corporation (US-based), Buenaventura (Peru) and the IFC of the World Bank. It aims to destroy the head of the water basin for the province of Celendin, and in part that of neighboring Cajamarca and Hualgayoc, leaving severe water shortage and contamination. This would prove disastrous for the mainly rural provinces of the region of Cajamarca, in the northern highlands of Peru, where the majority of dwellers live by agriculture and cattle rearing. It would be an aggressive open pit mining project, an Earth-destroying technique that Newmont itself initiated in the early 1960s (2), and similar but more expansive than Yanacocha`s previous work in Cajamarca. For this the population rejecting the project have a fair idea of what is in store – all they need to do is look next door to the devastation that 20 years of open pit mining has left in its wake (to see more about the particulars of this devastation please see the aforementioned article).
The campaign against the project is growing stronger, constantly renewing itself as the pressure crushes the spirits of some and makes space for others. The struggle doesn`t belong to any one person, or any particular high-profile figure, as the mass media would have you believe, rather the struggle is of the people, and for this it remains strong. Though it is this very fact that has led to an intensification of the repression and criminalization of the resistance – as the government and Yanacocha become ever more desperate to push the project through 'by blood and by fire' (3).
The Woman of the Blue Lagoon
A woman who is shining example of the resistance, some say the embodiment of it, is Doña Maxima Acuña Chaupe who leads her family in their fight to defend their land – which happens to sit in the heart of Conga. The mining company, once they realized that their dogged attempts to buy up all the land destined for exploitation had left a few holes – one hole being the Chaupe family`s land, they tried to drive the family away by violence and intimidation. Due to courage and perseverance against all the odds, the family successfully resisted. So now the family find themselves in a legal battle spanning years, which has been riddled with negligence, corruption and foul play. They continue to be harassed constantly by the police, mining security and certain locals who are believed to have been paid by the mining company to intimidate the family. Amnesty International recently released an Urgent Action calling for a stop to the harassment which included death threats (4), as did the women`s network ULAM (5). The family claim they will not give their land up as they are the rightful owners; they believe the mountain lakes are sacred, and are willing to protect them, and Mother Earth, at all costs. So if the mining company continues with its mission to forcibly evict this campesino family, they would be violating their right to a home, to a safe environment, to food (as their land is their source of food) and perhaps even their right to life.
Criminalization of Social Protest
The repression also extends to the entire resistance movement and only intensifies with time. Mirtha Vasquez, a local human rights lawyer from Cajamarca, in her report ‘Criminalization of the protest in Peru’ details how the state has assumed the role of protector of neoliberal economic interests, and as such, deliberately and systematically tries to eliminate elements that threaten to disturb the working of this model (6). The arms of the state body that it uses to crush dissent include lawmaking, the judicial system, the police and armed forces, and the intelligence services.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/23638-perus-conga-mine-conflict-cajamarca-wont-capitulate