Ready to expand

Looking for an authorization in lands where there was distrust.

 

By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo

 

CATACAOS, Peru – Beginning 2007, Monterrico Metals had one year to leave everything ready and start operations. Minera Majaz, then the local subsidiary of the British mining company, lookked to get closer to communities in Coastal Piura. The purpose was setting up the terrain where a mineral pipeline passes through for transporting extracted matter from the highlands to a seaport at Piura Shores.

 

According to data that FACTORTIERRA learned ending 2006, the initially chosen point was Paita City but another seriously thought choice was Báyovar (Sechura District).

 

Báyovar has approppriate facilities and, in fact, it’s used by the Peruvian Government to ship petroleum that the North-Peruvian Oil Pipeline transports from the Northern Loreto Department, Amazon Jungle, transferring it through the Andean Range until reaching and crossing Sechura Desert to finally arrive to the Pacific Ocean.

 

Majaz pretended to do almost the same with the mineral pipeline. Leaving Río Blanco (El Carmen de la Frontera District), it would take the Andean Plateau at the highlands of Pacaipampa and Frías Districts, to appear somewhere Morropón Province, already the coastal flat, advancing through the dry forest of Ignacio Távara Community (Chulucanas District), San Juan Bautista (Catacaos District), and ending in Báyovar.

 

Asking for explanation

On November 6^th, 2006, Minera Majaz’s projects officer Luciano Avilés sent a letter to the leaders of Mancomún Morante Village, San Juan Bautista Community. Mr Avilés asked for an authorization for entering the territory of that village purposed to set milestones. Signatured, sealed. The kind terms of the officer were not answered in the same way.

 

Two days later, San Juan Bautista Community’s president Miguel Silva and vice-president José Ricardo Sullón clarified details. First, Mancomún Morante Village doesn’t exist(even the National Chart registers a Morante Village like a boundary of the community)and the issues related to the use of land are not treated with village leaders but the central organization.

 

“It would seem… that… it pretends… to ignore the real legal identity which you must treat those issues with,” the leaders answered. Breaking the paragraph, they said the Majaz’s attitude showed a total ignorance of the communities rights about the use of territories, and that the observation was CC to the Regional Direction of energy and Mines, the Peruvian Ombudsman Office, and Diacony for Justice and Peace of Piura.

 

It sounded like provocation

The Ombudsman Office, or at least the Assistance for Public Services and environment, had its own vision of the case. Asked by the Ecumenic Foundation for development and Peace (Fedepaz, as in Spanish), the Ombudsman consulted the Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines about the presence of the mining company at Río Blanco and around.

 

According to the Ombudsman’s, the Ministry didn’t accomplish to request the mining company for assuring the existence of surface land owners authorization, neither it verified the legal formalities the authorizations must accomplish. Ombudsman’s exhorted the Ministry to correct those problems for avoiding further conflicts.

 

Nevertheless, the arrival of Minera Coripacha, that was linked to Majaz, was also the topic of a new request because it required to have the authorization of Segunda y Cajas Community for operating. Coripacha, as its name says in English, pretended to extract gold from the soil.

 

Permission for asking

The Peruvian Government tried to get close to talk in December 2006 but all left like a typical diplomatic meeting and the offer to visit the zone for knowing the problem from prime source. The communities have reacted in the international space again through a letter requesting to stop the project. The position was basically the mining company gets out their territory, and if it wanted to enter, to do the paperwork before the community as it considers it right.

 

The government didn’t answer this letter promoted by FIAN International since Peru is a partner state of the International Covenant on economic, Social, and Cultural Rights which consecrates the human right to feeding. FIAN also remembers that Peru ratified International Labor Organization’s Convention C169 about Rights of Indigenous People.

 

“The Peruvian State has to respect and protect those rights, especially the right to feeding and water, the right of indigenous people to be adequately consulted, and the right to the physical integrity of people,” it added. Meanwhile, Monterrico advanced its feasibility assessment and seemed to receive a purchase proposal for Río Blanco Project, according to ShareCast agency reported on December 22^nd, 2006. Some speculated Cstrata made the offer.

    

 

Devil Plan

The government either responded the denounces that Forza company, that gave surveillance services to Minera Yanacocha, could spy environmentalist leaders. Forza, established 1991 by persons related to Peruvian Navy, also gave surveillance services to Minera Majaz. The denounce, originally made by Grufides in Cajamarca, based upon information of that time’s Human Rights National awarded Marco Arana, put on alert to leaders in Piura. That time’s Congresswoman Marisol Espinoza asked a deep investigation.

 

A national TV newscast assured in 2006 that former Tambograndé’s Mayor Francisco Ojeda, the lawyer Quique Rodríguez, the communitarian leader Mario Tabra, and even late Piura’s Bishop Oscar Cantuarias were leading a network to promote demonstrations against mining companies in Piura, all sponsored by Diacony for Justice and Peace and Patria Roja, the so-called political branch of Shining Path terrorist organization. The allegation against those leaders was never proved.

 

According to Piura el Tiempo newspaper, Congresswoman Espinoza presented the claim to Peru Congress’ ecology and environment Committeeand mentioned Diacony’s former general secretary eva Boyle, Huancabamba’s former councellor Benito Guarnizo, and Huancabamba’s former leader Ramiro Ibáñez were in the list

 

“I’m disappointed because Devil Plan not only considers spying authorities in Cajamarca but farmers, Church’s representatives, and authorities of Piura, and El Tiempo’s correspondent Ramón Álvarez Andrade,” Mrs Espinoza said. The plan presents power diagrams of media editorial guidelines, lists of journalists, and students to train. “This situation is more than concerning,” sshe stressed.

 

Mrs Espinoza passed a motion on December 21^st, 2006, asking for three months to somebody explains all this, what was never granted.

 

With reports of Luis Manuel Claps and La República. © 2007 – 2020 Asociación Civil Factor Tierra. All Rights Reserved.