September 18, 2007 Tuesday
Mining project was rejected by local communities in a popular
referendum;
PERU: Communities Say 'No' to Mining Company in Vote
BYLINE: Milagros Salazar
LENGTH: 1239 words
People from outlying rural areas and villages began arriving in the
towns of Ayabaca, Pacaipampa and El Carmen de la Frontera on Saturday
night, packing the streets and plazas after walking up to eight hours
to cast their ballots in Sunday's non-binding vote.
'The people can't be fooled. They don't want the mine,'
Servando Aponte told IPS after casting his vote. People began crowding
around the polling centres before dawn, even though they did not begin
operating until 8:00 AM.
The results went against Minera Majaz, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the
London-based mining company Monterrico Metals, which was taken over
earlier this year by China's Xiamen Zijin Tongguan Investment
Development Co.
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when it acquired 89.9 percent of the mining company's shares.
Communities in the highlands province of Piura have opposed Minera
Majaz's operations in the area since the company began to explore for
copper and molybdenum in 2002, and demonstrators have been killed and
injured in protests against the mine. Relations between the company and
local residents remain tense.
On Sunday, 93.4 percent of the ballots cast in Ayabaca were against the
company's Río Blanco mining project, as were 97 percent in Pacaipampa
and 92.5 percent in El Carmen de la Frontera.
Of the more than 31,000 registered voters in the three districts, an
average of 60 percent took part in the referendum, which has
increasingly drawn the wrath of President Alan García and Prime
Minister Jorge del Castillo.
Although del Castillo had complained that local residents opposed to
the mine were causing problems, the police did not report any incidents
or irregularities, and the unofficial vote organised by local
authorities and a group of concerned citizens went smoothly.
The outcome was reminiscent of a popular referendum held by local
farmers in Tambogrande, another town in Piura, in 2002, when 98 percent
of voters opposed the operations of the mining company Manhattan
Sechura, a subsidiary of the Canadian corporation Manhattan Minerals.
The company eventually withdrew from the area.
Now history repeated itself. The communities in the area where the
exploration phase of the Río Blanco project was already shown to have
caused damages say the mining represents a threat to the rivers on
which they depend for their crops, and complain that the company has
been operating illegally on their communally-owned lands.
President García once again emphasised on Sunday that the vote was
non-binding and that it was not considered legal by the country's
electoral authorities.
While the campesinos (mainly indigenous country people) in Piura
flocked to the polling stations in the three towns, García asked the
public 'Are we going to let misinformation and ideological
manipulation stand in the way of the country's progress? What do we
Peruvians want? To stay where we are, or to grow?'
The García administration argues that the organisers of the referendum
are undermining the country, given that the mining industry is the
backbone of the economy, accounting for 60 percent of income tax, and
with 11 billion dollars in new projects in the pipeline.
Peru is the world's second biggest producer of silver, the third of
copper and zinc, the fourth of lead, and the fifth of gold.
With minerals prices booming, the government is keen on taking full
advantage of the moment.
'The government is desperate to keep up the economic growth figures
based on mining,' economist José de Echave, director of
Cooperacción, a local non-governmental organisation, told IPS. The NGO
was one of the groups that helped organise the popular referendum.
More than 22 international observers from NGOs in Ecuador, Bolivia,
Spain, Germany, Britain, Canada and Switzerland took part in the
process.
Ralph Hoelmer of the Network Institute for Global Democratisation said
in Ayabaca that the referendum is entirely legitimate. 'This is a
good thing because it allows people to express their views on their own
destiny. These democratising processes are rare in the world,' he
added.
Representatives of the Peruvian Ombudsman's Office also visited the
area to investigate the prime minister's claims that the local
promoters of the referendum forced people to take part in the vote by
means of fines and by cutting off water services.
The Ombudsman's Office has not yet published its report.
Although no violent incidents were reported, Magdiel Carrión Pintado,
the president of the Provincial Federation of Rondas Campesinas (groups
that make up a sort of alternative community justice and
dispute-settlement system) of Ayabaca, reported that flyers were found,
urging people not to vote in the referendum because it was an act of
'communist meddling' aimed at blocking development in the
region.
President García himself set forth similar arguments in remarks to the
press.
The government's opposition to the referendum went beyond mere
statements. The National Election Board (JNE) accused the three mayors
involved in organising the referendum of 'usurpation of
functions' and on Sept. 11 requested the confiscation of the
election materials used in the process.
Added to that was a last-minute parallel referendum organised in
Talara, another town in Piura. The mayor, José Vitonera, belongs to the
governing APRA party.
A week ago, he suddenly asked the town council to vote on whether to
hold a referendum to allow people in Talara to vote for or against the
mine. With 20 percent of the ballots counted, it was reported that 83
percent of the local population had voted in favour of the mining
company in the surprise referendum.
'The referendum in Talara was just a boycott,' Marisol
Espinoza, a lawmaker with the Nationalist Party of Peru, told IPS.
'It is aimed at tarnishing the results of the popular consultation
organised by the communities opposed to Majaz.'
On Sunday night, del Castillo once again attempted to dismiss the
referendum held in Ayabaca, Pacaipampa and El Carmen de la Frontera,
claiming that 'at least 50 percent of voters' failed to turn
out.
But the organisers of the referendum and local leaders reported that 70
percent of voters participated in Pacaipampa, 59 percent in Carmen de
la Frontera and 50 percent in Ayabaca.
'When a huge investment is made (an allusion to the support of
non-governmental organisations), and not even half of the electorate
comes out to vote, it's obviously a fiasco,' said del Castillo.
But while he has consistently criticised the referendum organised by
the communities opposed to the Río Blanco mining project, del Castillo
said the government was open to dialogue with all of the concerned
parties.
Local authorities and community leaders, however, say they will only
sit down to talk once they have the results of the referendum in their
hands, and insist that the people's will must be respected.
Under Peruvian law, local communities need to give permission for
companies to use their lands. Although the Ombudsman's Office verified
that the communities in question denied their consent for Minera Majaz
to use their communally-owned lands, the Ministry of Energy and Mining
disregarded their refusal.
The preliminary results of a study by researchers at the University of
Texas recently showed that the exploration phase of the Río Blanco
mining project caused damages to the area's biological diversity. ©
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