Introduction.
The fight
against Conga project has become the most emblematic struggle against a mining
project, emblematic by the determination and courage of a population that has
resisted and continues to resist for years and years against an all powerful
company called Yanacocha . Emblematic, too, by the sum of socio-environmental
liabilities that caused this company Yanacocha. Before getting into the thick
of things, I would put the problem of extractivism in Peru in its global
context both political and economic.
Until the
80s, the majority of Peruvians living from agriculture, today at least 30% of
Peruvians still live of agriculture, yet this does not appear in the balance of
the Peruvian foreign trade, because it is or subsistence agriculture or
agriculture intended to supply local or sometimes national markets. The large
monocultures for export yet don't represent an important line in the Peruvian economy.
The financial data of Peruvian exports in 2014, according to the ministry of
foreign trade, speak for themselves, the mining sector accounts for 55%, oil
and oil products 13%, agricultural exports do not exceed 2%, here we see a
first paradox, mining accounts for 55% of exports and only 4% of employment.
Peru's
economic history since independence has been marked by the "boom" in
the nineteenth century, the first boom was the guano boom, the coast of Peru,
by the presence of the Humboldt current, it has always been an extremely rich
in plankton and consequently in fish and seabirds that produce this fertilizer
rich in phosphate. Later in the same nineteenth century came the
"boom" of saltpeter (nitrate of potassium) that it was essential for
the production of explosives and bullets, was mainly the saltpeter that led to
the war with Chile or Pacific War, in which Peru lost part of its southern
coast and Bolivia its access to the sea. In the early twentieth century the
rubber boom began which caused irreparable damage to the Amazonian native
peoples who were enslaved and massacred, according to historians over 100,000
perished in the time of the rubber boom. Now we live the mining boom. It’s this
series of booms that made the great fortunes of Peru, a rich urban upper class,
who lives essentially in Lima and who lives totally disconnected from the rest
of the Peruvian people. For this urban bourgeoisie living from extractive
income or related services, the hinterland is a mere source of raw material
that wants to exploit regardless of human or environmental consequences.
A long
digression, however, in my opinion, necessary to understand the global economic
and political context of the conflicts in Peru, ie, a high Lima bourgeoisie of
whom come the senior officials of the state apparatus (police, army, ministers,
justice and even the Church itself), allied for interest, with foreign
companies that bring financial investments and technology required for the
operations. In front of this power at once political, economic and military ,
native peoples and peasants of Peru who must defend their land to survive, a
fight apparently rather uneven and that will require courage and determination.
THE YANACOCHA
COMPANY AND THE CONGA PROJECT.
LOCATION
Location of Yanacocha mine and the
Conga project in the department of Cajamarca in northern Peru
DATA
Shareholders of the company Yanacocha:
Yanacocha's
capital is held by three entities, the US mining Newmont Corporation, based in
Denver Colorado with 51.35%, the Peruvian mining company Minera Condesa SA
(family Buenaventura) based in Lima with 43.65% and the World Bank
(International Finance Corporation) with 5%.
The Yanacocha mine
The name
"Yanacocha" or the "black lagoon" comes from the name of a lagoon, now
disappeared, which existed in the area occupied by the mine.
This picture went around the world and summarizes
alone and more than a long speech, what are the impacts of open-pit mine.
For 20 years (from 1994 until 2014), the Yanacocha
mine produced 27 million ounces of gold, representing 840 tons, more than all
gold mined in Peru since the conquest until 1990. The three shareholders,
Newmont, Buenaventura and the World Bank have won $ 16 billion. For Peru, are
30,000 hectares of wet meadows, wetlands and lakes that disappeared forever,
thousands of dispossessed peasants of their livelihood and condemned to
poverty, thousands of farmers who cannot sell their products because of the
contamination, thousands people who already have or will suffer from serious problems
of health from the effects of such mining activity. To produce these 840 tons
of gold, the Yanacocha impact on the environment is reflected in the
astronomical quantities of a mining operation of this type with such a
gigantic scale, there were 500,000 tons of sodium cyanide to be used in the
leaching process which largely ended in the environment, are more than 600 million m3
of water consumed, there were more than 400,000 tons of explosives based on ammonium
nitrate (toxic), there were more than 300 million liters of diesel, thousands and
thousands of tons of dust put into the atmosphere by blasting, more than
1350 million tons of rock removed and reduced to powder, more than 1.1 billion
tons of tailings that will continue to pollute the water by acid drainage and
heavy metals for centuries.
The Conga project.
Located on the borders of three provinces (Cajamarca,
Celendin and Bambamarca-Hualgayoc), department of Cajamarca.
Planned investment: about $ 4.8 billion.
Expected production: 700,000 ounces per year with a
life of 20 years, if gold is the main reason of the project, it is a
polymetallic project with a secondary production of silver, copper and other
metals.
Type of mine: like Yanacocha open-pit mining,
crushing, heap leaching with sodium cyanide, activated carbon treatment,
refining and smelting. The mine has two pits, the Perol pit and the Chalhuagón
pit.
Overview of Conga
project as planned by Yanacocha
THE PROBLEM OF MINING IN BASIN headwaters
One of the main features of the Yanacocha and Conga
mines, is the fact of being above the main water reservoir in northern Peru.
During the rainy season, numerous regional aquifers are recharged that keeps
the flow of many rivers and streams during the year, that allows to sustain
agriculture and grazing throughout the year, this water flow maintains also agriculture
downstream in Peru, is particularly noticeable in the case of the Pacific coast
where water stress is especially severe. Mining in a basin headwaters is a
madness and an environmental disaster for at least three reasons, first, the
fact of digging pits, destroys aquifers in the area, secondly, mining,
especially in case of mega -mining, generally consumes a volume of water
greater than the regenerative capacity of the aquifer system, thirdly, mining
generates enormous tailings dumps that are a permanent source of pollution by
acid drainage and heavy metals that can last centuries, this pollution follows
the course of rivers and poisoning the rivers downstream. In the case of
Jequetepeque River, pollution linked to the Yanacocha mine has reached the Gallito
Ciego reservoir and the Pacific Ocean, causing serious problems with the
presence of heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium and mercury.
Mining and traditional agriculture in the Cajamarca
region.
Before Yanacocha, the Cajamarca region was known as
the "Peruvian Switzerland" for its bucolic landscapes and beautiful
meadows. This is the first region of Peru for milk production. The most famous
local specialty is the " "manjar blanco", a kind of caramel, is
also a region famous for its cheeses.
Products
from the Cajamarca region
The department of Cajamarca has an area of 33,320 km2
and a total population of about 1.5 million, Cajamarca is a department located
in the sub-equatorial zone (between the 5th and 8th south latitude), consisting
of many ecological levels (from 400 to 4000 meters), allowing the production of
numerous plant varieties. Western part borders with dry coastal areas and the
departments of La Libertad, Lambayeque and Piura, the eastern part borders with
the Amazon and the Maranon River valley.
Location
of the Cajamarca department
Altitude areas (> 3000 meters) allow the
cultivation of tubers and especially potatoes, the lower zones allow the
cultivation of coffee, rice, manioc corn, sugarcane, but also crops that gives
export opportunities like mangoes, cocoa and avocados.
The main wealth of the department is the large number
of aquifers and wetlands that represent a great reserve of fresh water which
should allow a prosperous agriculture, on the other hand, this region is the
source of major rivers of the north coast of Peru. However, the department is
now concessioned to over 40% for mining companies and most of these concessions
are especially concentrated in the same high areas where are located the
aquifers and natural reservoirs that feed springs and rivers that supply water
to throughout the region (basin headwaters).
Landscapes
of the Cajamarca region, here the lagoons of San Pablo
This is the reason why the food sovereignty of the
region and the country is in danger, in fact, open pit mines, if they don't
destroy aquifers, consume much of the water available (the production of an
ounce of gold consumes an average of 20 m3 of water and Yanacocha produced up
to 3 million ounces a year) or contaminated the water by the toxic emissions
from leaching and tailings deposits. This contamination makes that the water is
no longer fit for human consumption and agriculture; heavy metals decimate
herds or, if not kill livestock, contaminate it, since these heavy metals are
concentrated in meat or dairy products by so they become unfit for consumption.
Result of mining pollution and the presence of heavy
metals, many farmers who formerly exported much of their milk and cheese, lose
this opportunity and are forced to stop their activities.
Another important consequence of mining megaprojects
is the total destruction of the outer layers of fertile soil (30,000 hectares
in the case of Yanacocha) that become open sores, subject to severe erosion
mechanisms.
HISTORY
OF THE CONGA PROJET CONFLICT
Struggle against the mega Yanacocha – Conga project is
the latest episode in a long history of conflicts between a population of
farmers and an irresponsible and unscrupulous mining company associated with an
accomplice State.
The Conga project is actually the extension of an
existing mine, the Yanacocha mine, which is the largest open pit mine in South
America. Yanacocha began operations in 1993, at first; the company had four
shareholders, Newmont in Denver (USA), the company Buenaventura (Peru), the French
BRGM (who discovered the site) and the World Bank. In 1994, after several
political and legal disputes, the BRGM was forced to sell its stake to Newmont
and Buenaventura and left of capital (link). The mine is located
on a plateau with a large number of aquifers, lakes and springs (basin
headwaters), the impacts of the activity was quickly felt. Already in 1999, the
first complaints about the poisoning of cattle and water pollution (link) were given, however
legal actions were closed without consequences for the company.
In 2000, Choropampa scandal broke out when a chartered
truck for Yanacocha that carried barrels of metallic mercury (under-product of
gold mining) lost 150 kg of highly toxic metallic mercury in the streets of
Choropampa village. The company offered to residents pay for the recovery of
mercury, without informing them of the terrible toxicity of the product, then,
the villagers attempted to recover the mercury with totally inadequate means
and without any protection, stored it in their home in unsuitable containers, more
than a thousand people were contaminated, dozens were killed, many more
remained with extremely serious neurological sequelae. Demanded by the facts,
Yanacocha was initially bleached by a court of the State of Colorado because
the main shareholder Newmont is based in Denver, but the complaints continued
by other means, and the company later played with the division of communities
to avoid a good part of the financial compensation.
Video: Choropampa the price of gold.
In 2001, studies by the CEDACAJ, (company that
provides potable water and sewerage services for the city of Cajamarca) and
other organisms already spoke of contamination by heavy metals (particularly
arsenic and cyanide) not only on major rivers in the region, including
Jequetepeque river, but also in the waters that feed the city of Cajamarca (200,000
inhabitants) (link).
In 2004, Yanacocha decided to expand its operations in
the Quillish mount (just 8 km from the CEDACAJ plant ), the aquifers of the
Quillish mount are the main source of water for the city of Cajamarca, is also
a sacred place for farming communities in the region. This time the people
expressed opposition to the project and mobilized massively, Yanacocha and the
government had to retreat ... momentarily (link)
. From 2006 to 2011 numerous incidents took place with the populations of
farmers by the incessant problems of water pollution and its dramatic impacts
for agriculture.
Mobilization
for the defense of Quilish mount in 2004
In October 2010, the Peruvian government approved the
Environmental Impact study (EAI) of
Conga project and, in 2011, Yanacocha
announced without any consultation, which was to begin operations at its Conga
concession (a concession of about 12,000 hectares located in the northeast of
the mine in activity) and thus, destroy and / or contaminating other lakes,
other sources, other aquifers (link). Farmers in the area
knew this was going to be the death of their activity and their way of life,
the rejection was massive.
The May 30, 2011, then-candidate Ollanta Humala Tasso
in election campaign in Cajamarca, announced that he would not allow the Conga
project will take place, but once elected, in September 2011 stated that Conga
project should go and It was very important for the Peru , the mobilization in
the region of Cajamarca to reject the project was extremely strong, with
demonstrations and roadblocks and ended on November 24 with an indefinite
general strike, to the point that the Yanacocha own announced a suspension of
its operations in Conga day 29, after six days of strike..
The same day 29, a young of Cajamarca, Elmer Campos,
was shot by the police, there were more than 20 people wounded by police this
day, Elmer can no longer walk and travels in a wheelchair, he has lost a kidney
and the use his left arm, also he has never received any help from the State
and he lives with the help of family and friends (link).
However, the US organization EarthRights International made a lawsuit against
Newmont in Denver to deliver information concerning police repression in Peru (link),
the March 16, 2015, a ruling by the Federal Court of Colorado orders Newmont to
disclose their informations (link).
On November 29 Yanacocha declared a suspension of
Conga project, however, what the people wanted, was not only a temporary
suspension, but a definitive cancellation of this deadly project and did not
stop the strike, the government declared a state of emergency the December 4
for a period of 60 days. But that was not enough to subdue the opponents of the
project, the resistance continued and structured. Finally, they got up to 16
thousand people came together to participate in a national march for water,
from Cajamarca to Lima (860 km) from 1 to 9 February 2012 (link)
Video: The national march for water
- Unity and solidarity of an entire people.
But the Peruvian government did not take into account
the point of view of the people and its response was to increase the police
repression that culminated in the deaths of five protesters in Celendín and
Bambamarca the 3 and July 4, 2012 and a new declaration of state of emergency (link)
(link).
However, the events of Celendin and Bambamarca and the 5 murders provoked
reactions of indignation and protest nationally and internationally and the
government and the mining company had to go back and declare the suspension of
Conga project (link).
Paulino Eleuterio García Rojas, César Medina Aguilar,
José Faustino Silva Sánchez, Joselito Vásquez Jambo, José Antonio Sánchez
Huamán, The 5
victims killed by police in Celendin and Bambamarca 3 and July 4, 2012.
Video: happenings of 3 and 4 July
2012.
Nevertheless, the counter-attack did not wait long,
and in 2013 the inspections at the Conga gaps showed that the work has
continued in secret. In January 2014, the Peruvian government enacted the law
30151 commonly called "license to kill" (law that exempts from
liability police and military personnel that kill or injure people in their
interventions) (link)
in the same month it began in the medias a smear campaign unprecedented in
which opposition to mining projects is presented as a terrorist focus. They did
not hesitate to accuse international organizations and NGOs supporting and
helping rural communities, to finance terrorism, in addition, the press gave
the idea of an international conspiracy to keep Peru in underdevelopment (link).
European organizations incriminated could never
respond officially to these slanderous accusations and answered through the
alternative press (link).
The beginning of 2014 is particularly difficult for
the resistance, the DINOES (special forces of Peruvian police), with more than
600 men blocked the movement of the peasant patrols and ruthlessly suppress any
attempt to ascend to the lagoons of Conga, what allowing to Yanacocha continue
secretly their preparations for the exploitation (link)
(link). The main leaders of
the peasant patrols and opponents of the mining project are victims of judicial
persecution and various threats, including death threats, to the point that the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS (IACHR), which was
attended since 2011, requires precautionary measures for 46 people in May 2014
and gave to the Peruvian government a period of 15 days to comply with the measures (MC 452/11 2014
record). The response of the Peruvian government will be to do nothing. In June
2014, the Executive Chairman of Minera Yanacocha, Javier Velarde said in an
interview, be confident in starting the Conga project in 2015.
In 2014, Yanacocha also decided to expand its
operations to the southwest (the granting of Conga is located northeast of the
current mine), threatening the lakes of San Pablo (280 idyllic mountain lakes),
the mayor of San Pablo filed a lawsuit against Yanacocha and the mining company
lost the case at first instance and its appeal was rejected, but we know that
company lawyers are still working on the issue (link).
Demonstration for the defense of the
San Pablo lagoons
In June 2014, the elected regional president of
Cajamarca and one of the main opponents at the Conga project, was arrested and
imprisoned (link)
in the same period, the government decreed the law 30230 (commonly called
"package"), which reduced to light formality the environmental impact
studies of projects and limited the social rights of workers, (the government
reiterated in May 2015 with the 3941 law). But the peasant patrols were not
discouraged and called in August 2014, an international meeting in the village
of El Tambo (Bambamarca province ) for the protection of water and
environment, the Solidarity Committee with Cajamarca of Paris was present at
this meeting which ended with two press conferences, on August 7 in the palace
of government of Cajamarca and the next day in the Congress in Lima, there was
born the idea of organizing a symposium in France, which was held at the Senate
in Paris the May 22, 2015.
Despite his imprisonment, Gregorio Santos Guerrero was
re-elected as regional president in Cajamarca on October 5, 2014, with a large
majority. That was clearly a vote against the Conga project, as he was the unique
candidate who opposed this project. Nevertheless, their conditions of detention
in a maximum security prison, with a right to receive visit very limited and
forced to share a cell with one of the bloodiest murderers in the country,
Telmo Hurtado, called the butcher of the Andes, made that he got precautionary
measures by the IACHR (link).
Gregorio Guerrero Santos arrested on
June 25, 2014
The May 20, 2015, the Peruvian government declared it
would not implement any of the precautionary measures requested by the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), precautionary measures
involving opponents of the mining project Conga, decisions issued in 2014 and
in 2015 respectively and are available at the following link (records
MC MC 452/11 and 530/14).
THE
STORY OF MAXIMA ACUÑA AND THE CHAUPE FAMILY.
Máxima Acuña, the lady in the blue
lagoon and the Chaupe family.
In the province of Celendin, in a place called
Tragadero Grande, Sorochuco district, about 200 meters from the Blue Lagoon
(which will be transformed into dump if the Conga harmful project goes) lives a
humble peasant family, the Chaupe family . Maxima Acuña the family's mother was
not ready with what was going to happen. The family acquired a 26 hectares land in 1994 and
lived quietly until one fateful day in May 2011, employees of Yanacocha with
heavy machinery came to their house to open a service road for future mining,
they said them that this area was not their land, it belonged to the company Yanacocha. The
family was surprised, but made no more case as they had a notarized title
property. Nevertheless, in August 2011,
the nightmare really began when a gang consisting of employees of Yanacocha
accompanied by DINOES policemen came with the intention to "clear the
ground" and violently hit the family, Jhilda the youngest daughter was
beaten to head and lost consciousness for more than two hours, his brother was
also beaten, the older sister Ysidora recorded the scene, the assailants did
not even have a judicial order or something similar. From this moment, the
harassment of his family was harsh and permanent (link)
(link)
..
The family made a demand for violence but justice closed
it. Yanacocha, in turn sued the family for usurpation of land and in October
2012 won. However, the ruling was appealed and in August 2013, the Criminal
Court of Cajamarca declared the nullity of the judgment of first instance, as
the trial judge would not consider the title of property of the family. The
trial resumed in July 2014, the lower court decision was favorable to the
mining company and after a new appeal in December 17, 2014 the Criminal
Superior Court of Cajamarca acquitted the family Chaupe of allegations of
usurpation of land, recognizing de facto their right to remain on their
premises. Yanacocha tried to appeal to the Supreme Court, but his appeal was
rejected (link)
(link).
Maxima Acuña with her husband Jaime Chaupe Lozano and
her attorney Dr. Mirtha
Vasquez
However, the torment of Maxima and his family did not
stop after this long legal episode, the company returned to persecution and
harassment, destroyed part of their house, stole their animals, spoiled the
dog, surrounded their property with wire fences, made new lawsuits to prevent
that they could grow crops and threatened to kill them (link).
The last four years of the history of Maxima Acuña and
her family have been truly horrific. Nevertheless, the violations were such
that it created a solidarity network around the family and Maxima became one of
the main icons of the resistance against mega mining. Yanacocha's attitude
showed how a mining company could be above the law and could act with full
impunity.
Among the organizations that helped Maxima and her
family, there are Grufides (link) and particularly the attorney Dra Mirtha Vasquez
Chuquilin, the LAMMP organizacion (Latin American Mining Monitoring Program),
the Latin American Women's Union (ULAM network)(link) and the Latin American Network of Women Defenders of Social and Environmental Rights (link). The peasant patrols mobilized several
times to express his support to the family, but the threat is permanent.
In France, the Solidarity Committee with Cajamarca of
Paris received Maxima and her daughter Ysidora in Paris in May 2014 (link). On
August 6, 2014, members of the Committee and the French Senator Laurence Cohen
accompanied the peasant patrols at the Conga lakes and visited the Chaupe
family (link).
French
Senator Laurence Cohen visited the Chaupe family the August 6, 2014
Finally, we remember that Maxima and his family are
part of the group of 46 people who benefit from the precautionary measures
adopted by the IACHR (MC 452/11) that the Peruvian government refuses to
comply.
SOME
REFERENCE DOCUMENTALS
Video: Open pit of Gianni Converso
- documentary reference on the Yanacocha mining.company
Video: Choropampa the price of gold.
The tragedy that struck the town of Choropampa.
Video: The march of the caxamarcas
- 2012 This video shows the actors of the resistance and in particular its
most prominent leaders who formed the CUL (Unitary Control Committee), among
others Marco Arana, Eddy Benavides Ruiz, Ydelso Hernandez Llamo, Milton Sanchez
Cubas, in a march through the region of Cajamarca.
Video: National March for water:
Final march on the capital Lima
Video: Latin America as open pit
- Clave del Sur documentary on the resistance against mega mining mega in a
continental context.
Yanacocha is the archetype of unscrupulous transnational
mining and that for a multitude of reasons, among others we can mention, its absolute
contempt for human life, its total irresponsibility in social and environmental
issues, its systematic use of violence against its opponents, its management of
corruption networks, its ability to divide its opponents and the communities,
its "special" relationship with political power.
In addition, Yanacocha operates in Peru, a centralized
country concerning the economic policy and run by a Lima oligarchy that does
not care to people living in the countryside. This Lima oligarchy believes that
one country's wealth is its subsoil, therefore, allows concessions to companies
for the sole purpose of maximizing the volume of exports and the extractive
income. These concesions are allowed without consideration for the people who
live there or for the environment, so the country becomes a mere mineral
reserve for the international markets.
In case of problems with the local population,
successive governments have always resorted to the same method, violent
repression. Almost all the socio-environmental conflicts are resolved with
violence and end up costing lives. To encourage its extractive policy, the
Peruvian government has set up a complete legal arsenal that includes laws such
as the Law 30151 which exempts from criminal responsibility to the forces of
repression or the laws 30230 and 3941 that eliminate all barriers that could
curb extractive investment.
However, the Peruvian government is violating all
international conventions relating to human rights, the rights of native
peoples, the universal right to water and sanitation. In addition, the
government is seriously endangering the food sovereignty of the country.
After thirty years of formal or informal mining and
especially of large-scale mining, Peruvians have been aware of the catastrophic
impacts of this activity, the dramatic consequences for health and nature.
Today, the mining mega-projects are not synonyms of development, despite the
propaganda hammered by big media. The population realizes the millions of
dollars earned by mining companies, contrasting increasingly with almost absolute poverty
that prevails in the areas where those mining companies operate.
The government and companies try to divide communities
that resist, sometimes they succeed. However, the rejection of the mining
sector and, more generally, the rejection of the predatory extractivism increases
as a result of the terrible ravages it produces. When conflict broke out with
the Tia Maria project in Arequipa, people of Cajamarca supported the struggle
of their counterparts in Arequipa. Resistance against predatory extractivism
are not longer localized, communities in resistance begin to have contact
between them. From local, the struggle is becoming national and international.
¡CONGA NO
VA!
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