• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > Latin America

Peruvians Continue Protests Against Tia Maria Mine

  • Images of Tuesday night's protests in Islay

    Images of Tuesday night's protests in Islay

  • Images of Tuesday night's protests in Islay

    Images of Tuesday night's protests in Islay

  • Images of Tuesday night's protests in Islay

    Images of Tuesday night's protests in Islay

Published 12 August 2015
Opinion

Residents in Arequipa affected by the Tia Maria mining project are not backing down, despite government and corporation attempts to win them over.

Peruvian citizens continued to defiantly march through different towns in Islay Tuesday night, demanding a definite end to the Tia Maria mining project of the multinational Southern Copper Corporation.

Earlier this year, confrontations with the police during anti-mine protests in the Arequipa region of southern Peru turned the issue into the largest social conflict of 2015, with at least three civilian casualties and one police officer left dead.

“There are absolutely no leaders here,” said agricultural worker Jesus Juarez, who was a present at the demonstration. He emphasized that the protests were decentralized and spontaneously organized.

Another protester, public school teacher Elard Juarez Bernedo, agreed the protests were spontaneous: “The population has come out by itself and come out to the streets.”

"We don't want more violence in our town,” he added. “We want peace, we want tranquility but we also want justice for our people of the Valley of Tambo and justice will be served when this mining (company) leaves."

RELATED: Renewed Protests Against Controversial Mining Project in Peru

Before the renewed actions, a general strike took place in all the towns affected by the mine.

Protests stopped, however, after the government announced a state of emergency in June and July, deploying thousands of police and army officers.

During this time, the Southern Copper Corporation also invested heavily in media advertisements in the region in a bid to sway residents into supporting the project, but the efforts do not seem to have changed the opinions in Arequipa.

“The state of emergency has only been able to postpone the conflict, not resolve it,” said Javier Jahncke , the director of Red Muqui, a network of Peruvian institutions dedicated to promoting sustainable development.

“What we have now is a population that is considering taking new measures since there haven't been any changes (in the government’s position),” he added.

“The position of (the government) has been to explain the project with the goal of implementing it,” but, “they are not considering the point of view of the population and making a decision afterwards on whether or not carry the project forward," he added.

The latest polls show that the great majority of the residents of Islay oppose the project and are suspicious of both Southern Copper Corporation and the government.

They fear the mine would end up drastically polluting the Tambo river, whose streams serve to provide farm jobs and agricultural products to the south of Peru and beyond.

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.