Peru

The US Returns To Latin America

April 17, 2016 Vijay Prashad, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Imperialism, Latin America, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

By Vijay Prashad for the Hindu and Counterpunch. The financial crisis of 2007-08 dented China’s economy and saw the slow deterioration of commodity prices. It took a few years for the economic impact to strike Latin America with ferocity. A sharp tumble in oil prices in the summer of 2008 put the brakes on many of the social programmes that had become essential to the Bolivarian dynamic. It signalled the weakness in the experiment against Western domination. President Barack Obama’s administration focussed intently on Latin America. Opportunity struck with the 2009 coup in Honduras against the Left-wing government of Manuel Zelaya. Mr. Obama recognised the new military-backed government. It opened the door to a more aggressive stance vis-à-vis Latin American states. The presidency of Peru’s Ollanta Humala (2011) and the second presidency of Chile’s Michelle Bachelet (2014) — both ostensibly of the Left — hastily drew in cabinet members vetted by the bankers and made their peace with the hegemony of the U.S. Chávez’s death in 2012 meant that the Bolivarians lost their most charismatic champion. The impact of the Honduran coup and Chávez’s death had made itself felt along the spine of Latin America. The U.S., it was being said, is back.

400-Year-Old City In Peru Could Disappear Due To Mine Toxins

December 5, 2015 Janel Saldana, www.latintimes.com Educate! Mining, Peru

By Janel Saldana for Latin Times - A Peruvian city that was once high up in the Andes is now slowly sinking into the abyss. 400 years ago, Cerro de Pasco, the first town in Peru to be liberated from the Spanish, was one of the richest cities in the country because of its rapid mining growth. The legend tells that in the 1800s, the rocks around campfires in town wept silver. Unfortunately, a city that seemed to have it all has found an enemy in the entity that has been supporting it for all these years, the mine. Operated by Volcan Compañía Minera, the open-pit mine is creating a deep hole in the middle of the city and destroying its neighborhoods and most importantly, its people.

Las Bambas Project: Restriction On Indigenous Input In Peru’s Mining

November 7, 2015 Evelyn Estrada, www.coha.org Resist! Mining, Peru

By Evelyn Estrada for COHA - On September 29, 15,000 people from the mountainous Peruvian regions of Apurimac and Cusco broke into Las Bambas mining camp, which is a $7.4 billion USD Chinese-owned copper mine being developed in the region. The protesters are deeply troubled over the mining project’s environmental impact and the lack of consultation with the surrounding unsettled communities.[1] MMG Limited (Minerals and Metals Group), a Chinese-based firm, planned to continue to develop build a plant to process the mining ore near their communities rather than transport it by pipe, raising concerns over potential environmental damage that could be done to the surrounding area.

Lima: 5,000 Protest Against World Bank, IMF, And TPP

October 20, 2015 Michael S. Wilson, www.nacla.org Resist! IMF, Peru, TPP, World Bank

By Michael S. Wilson for NACLA - At the annual governors’ meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Lima between October 5th and 12th, an estimated 800 representatives from 188 countries negotiated the shape of the world’s soon-to-be renovated finance infrastructure. While the international media focused on the official event, 1,200 people attended the Plataforma Alternativa conference—a parallel three-day meeting organized under the theme “Belying the ‘Peruvian Miracle.’” The World Bank and IMF’s governor’s meeting was safeguarded by three perimeters of police.

Civil Society Challenges World Bank Annual Meeting

October 11, 2015 Anuradha Mittal, Alnoor Ladha and Cesar Gamboa, www.ourlandourbusiness.org Resist! Neoliberalism, Peru, Poverty, wealth inequality, World Bank

By Anuradha Mittal, Alnoor Ladha and Cesar Gamboa for Our Land, Our Business. Lima, Peru — The International Monetary Fund–World Bank Annual Meetings will take place in Lima, Peru this year from October 9 to 11. This is the first time these meetings are happening in Latin America in over 40 years. Peru is the poster child for the World Bank claiming “success” from its neoliberal policies and reforms, which the Bank is promoting to the rest of the world. Ranking 35th in the Bank’s Doing Business survey, Peru scored the second highest position in Latin America in 2015. This, according to the World Bank, means that Peru has created a regulatory environment “conducive to business.” The Peruvian development model, based on extractive industries and exports of raw materials, however, has concentrated the country’s natural resources and wealth in the hands of few private corporations at a high cost for the Peruvian population.

Peru Declares State Of Emergency Over Mine Protests

October 2, 2015 Staff, www.dw.com Resist! China, Mine, Peru, Protest

By Staff of Deutsche Welle News - On Monday night local time, Peruvian police clashed with locals protesting the construction of a large copper mine, leaving three dead and 15 injured, including eight police. In response to the clashes, the Peruvian government on Tuesday issued a state of emergency in six provinces. The government order suspends the right to freedom of assembly, inviolability of the home and freedom of movement. The national police will be supported by the armed forces in maintaining the country's internal order and protecting public services, according to the state of emergency declaration.

Peru: Indigenous Protesters Occupy Airport

September 15, 2015 TeleSurTV, www.telesurtv.net Resist! Indigenous People, Oil & Gas, Peru

By TeleSurTV - Peru has been grappling with a growing protest movement against oil privatization. Indigenous protesters have seized an airport in northern Peru, escalating demands that the government hold consultations with local communities before implementing any deals that would privatize oil exploration. Peru has been grappling with a growing protest movement that is calling on the government to nationalize and invest in the largest oil block in the country, Lot 192, which was recently licensed to a Canadian transnational, Pacific Stratus Energy, in August. Protesters are demanding that the state-run Petroperu operate the oil-rich lot instead of transnational companies, which many remain highly suspicious of. On Saturday, Indigenous activists with the Quechua Community Assembly in Cuenca del Pastaza decided to take over the small airfield in Andoas in an effort to send a message to the government of President Ollanta Humala and business community.

Peru Indians Halt Production At 11 Oil Wells

September 3, 2015 Fox News Latino, www.latino.foxnews.com Resist! Indigenous Peoples, Mining, Peru, Strike

By Fox News Latino - A group of Peruvian Indians opposed to private oil production in the northern Amazon region of Loreto halted output at 11 wells and seized an airport on the eve of a planned 48-hour regional strike. The indigenous communities led by the Federation of the Achuar and Urarina Indigenous Peoples of the Corrientes River on Tuesday occupied several oil installations at Lot 8, which is located near Lot 192, the nation's largest oil block and the focus of the protest, Argentine energy firm Pluspetrol said in a statement. Pluspetrol, whose concession for Lot 192 expired last weekend, is the operator of Lot 8. The Indians halted crude output at 11 wells at Pluspetrol's Pavayacu field and seized control of the Trompeteros airport and three storage tanks, the company said.

Amazon Tribe Creates 500-Page Traditional Medicine Encyclopedia

July 2, 2015 Jeremy Hance, www.news.mongabay.com Create! Brazil, Indigenous Peoples, Medicine, Peru

By Jeremy Hance in Mongabay News - The Matsés have only printed their encyclopedia in their native language to ensure that the medicinal knowledge is not stolen by corporations or researchers as has happened in the past. Instead, the encyclopedia is meant as a guide for training new, young shamans in the tradition and recording the living shamans' knowledge before they pass. "One of the most renowned elder Matsés healers died before his knowledge could be passed on so the time was now. Acaté and the Matsés leadership decided to prioritize the Encyclopedia before more of the elders were lost and their ancestral knowledge taken with them," said Herndon. Acaté has also started a program connecting the remaining Matsés shamans with young students.

Peru Cracking Down Against Dissent On Excavation Economy

July 1, 2015 Lynn Holland, www.coha.org Resist! Environment, Food and Agriculture, Mining, Oil & Gas, Peru

By Lynn Holland in COHA - Throughout much of southern Peru and Cajamarca region in the north, farmers and community organizations have declared their opposition to a $1.4 billion USD copper mining project known as Tía María. The project belongs to Southern Copper Corporation, which is owned by Grupo México, a Mexican American mining company. Community members are quite familiar with Southern Copper’s dismal record in neighboring regions where its mining projects have dried up water supplies and contaminated surrounding lands. The result for indigenous and other rural people has been serious illness and the loss of employment in farming and fishing. With this in mind, the Tambo Valley communities rejected the project by a resounding93.4 percent during a popular consultation in 2009.

Peru’s Indigenous People Protest Against Relicensing Of Oil Concession

June 25, 2015 Davi Hill, www.theguardian.com Resist! Environment, Indigenous People, Oil & Gas, Peru

By Davi Hill in The Guardian - Hundreds of indigenous people deep in the Peruvian Amazon are blocking a major Amazon tributary following what they say is the government’s failure to address a social and environmental crisis stemming from oil operations. Kichwa men, women and children from numerous communities have been protesting along the River Tigre for almost a month, barring the river with cables and stopping oil company boats from passing. Oil companies have operated in the region for over 40 years, and have been linked by local people to pollution that has led the government to declare “environmental emergencies” in the Tigre and other river basins. “The Tigre is the most contaminated, but the government has done nothing serious,” says Jose Fachin, a Kichwa leader.

Peru’s Tia Maria Mining Conflict: Another Mega Imposition

June 12, 2015 Lynda Sullivan, www.upsidedownworld.org Resist! Environment, Mining, Oil & Gas, Peru, Resistance

By Lynda Sullivan in Upside Down World - Peru has been rocked once again by a social conflict which pits the government, looking out for the economic interests of a multinational corporation, against its people. The Tia Maria Mine, an open-pit project of Southern Copper Corporation, controlled by Grupo Mexico, is the latest attempted imposition of a destructive mega-project by big business on rural communities in the interior of the country. To date, the conflict has claimed eight lives: four in 2011 and four more since April of this year. The affected communities have been on an indefinite strike since March 23rd and, as a response, President Ollanta Humala has called a state of emergency, permitting the Armed Forces and the National Police to violate the constitutional rights of the local population in the hope that repression will breed consent.

Mega-Dam Projects Threaten Ecosystem Collapse

April 29, 2015 David Hill, www.news.mongabay.com Educate! Amazon, Dam, Environment, Peru

Peru is planning a series of huge hydroelectric dams on the 1,700-kilometer (1,056-mile) Marañón River, which begins in the Peruvian Andes and is the main source of the Amazon River. Critics say the mega-dam projects could destroy the currently free-flowing Marañón, resulting in what Peruvian engineer Jose Serra Vega calls its "biological death." In 2011, Peru passed a law declaring the construction of 20 dams on the main trunk of the Marañón to be in the "national interest" and that the projects will launch the country's "long-term National Energy Revolution." But many Peruvians following the issue believe the planned dams are less about meeting "national demand" for electricity as the law reads, and more about supplying mining companies, and exporting to neighboring countries.

150,000 With Peruvian Woman In Fight Against Largest Gold Mine

April 25, 2015 Erik Hoffner, www.ecowatch.com Resist! Environment, Mining, Peru

Community activists from Cajamarca, Peru appeared at the annual shareholders’ meeting of Denver-based Newmont Mining Corporation this week to deliver a petition bearing 150,000 signatures protesting the company’s practices in the region, and demanded that it live up to its own goals for human rights and sustainability. Newmont is majority owner of the massive Peruvian gold mine Yanacocha, the second largest gold mine in the world, and its planned Conga gold and copper mine nearby would be even larger, requiring a farming community to move and the four lakes they rely on for irrigation to be drained. But the community has so far refused to relinquish its treasured land and lakes, and in response activists say the company has reacted with intimidation and harassment.

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