Blockade in Las Bambas: parties involved delay dialogue

Despite the fact that the president of the Council of Ministers, Mirtha Vásquez, announced that the meeting between officials of the Executive Power, MMG Las Bambas and leaders of communities of Chumbivilcas (Cusco) was going to take place yesterday, it was postponed due to factors that involve each party.

Meanwhile, the blockade that began on November 20 in said section of the mining corridor You will still not see a solution.

Common tenacity

A few hours before the meeting scheduled – and later canceled – for Tuesday, December 14, the legal advisor of the province of Chumbivilcas, Victor Villa, He maintained that they were not going to talk to lift the blockade, as a sign of rejection of the offer presented by Las Bambas. “This is a joke. We will not meet. We will not accept any meeting, “he told Reuters.

In that line, Wilber Fuentes, president of the Front for the Defense of the Interests of the Province of Chumbivilcas, confirmed to the Republic that no representative of the Executive or of the mining company approached to dialogue, which reflects that “the Government does not care to solve the conflict” after presenting the counterproposal of eight communities.

However, former leaders of that front questioned Víctor Villa and Wilber Fuentes for distorting the demands of the communities.

“They want to negotiate the rights of the communities in exchange for economic issues (encapsulated for the transport of minerals) as if this provided a solution to the environmental issue,” they indicate in a document.

More blockades in Chumbivilcas

Of the 10 striking communities, two withdrew from the joint lawsuit: Tuntuma and Hatun Collana, both from the Velille district. The latter decided to carry out its own protest and blockade in its sector. What’s more, they have already built their huts in the middle of the mining corridor.

The president of the Collana community, Daniel ColqueHe said that the requirement is that the Las Bambas mining company consider them as an area of ​​direct environmental and social influence due to the impacts suffered by the passage of hundreds of encapsulates per day.

“We endure dust and noise every day. Our health, our animals, the river that runs through our community, everything is polluted. We want the mine to take responsibility. We live on the side of the corridor ”, Colque pointed out.

Meeting until further notice

Through a statement, the Council of Ministers explained that last Monday, December 13, the counterproposal of eight communities of Chumbivilcas was sent to the company MMG Las Bambas for its respective analysis and evaluation.

Along these lines, they affirmed that once the response from the mining company has been received, a new meeting will be called “in the shortest time” with the representatives of the peasant communities.

“What must be recognized is that we have a structural problem of mining conflicts and relationships with mining that have not been resolved. and part of our proposal is aimed at improving this situation ”, summarized the head of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), Pedro Francke, to a local media.

Hochschild seeks to expand operations

Hochschild Mining expects Peru’s environmental regulators to approve in the first half of 2022 a plan to extend the life of its Inmaculada mine to extract more gold and silver until 2042, Reuters reported.

For its part, the mining company Nexa (Ica) reported that, after almost a week of a blockade carried out by a group of people to the access roads of the Cerro Lindo Mining Unit, it will suspend its operations. They await a solution from the Government.