FACTORTIERRA

They said that 2012 would be a dry year… they said.   By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo   PIURA CITY, Peru – Sánchez Cerro Vridge, February 24 th , 2012, 7:00 in the morning, 1400 cubic millimeters per second. The water is colorized by the violent improvisation instead of the unexpected. Piura River overload was the season attraction after months and months looking a flow like a creek-category.   The cement coat of Eguiguren Pier avoids the flow power to erode the banks of Piura and Castilla Cities, like it happened in 1983. The work was build after 45 miles to the west, El Niño Current caused extreme rains between January and June of that year.   The river put the people on alert in 1998, 2001, and 2005. Just in 1998, the power of water destroyed Bolognesi Bridge, the fourth from north to south, killing around 50 people. “I’m not never going to forget that number – 4414 cubic meters per second,” El Tiempo’s journalist Teo Zavala remembers. After that tragedy, every ...

TAMBOGRANDE, Peru – On June 2, 2002, nearly 40,000 people voluntarily participated in a non-binding local referendum to express their opinions on mining activities throughout the Tambogrande District, including the agro-exporting San Lorenzo Valley and the dry forest in the Locuto Community .   98% of the valid votes were against mining, which dealt a blow to Manhattan Minerals Corporation (now Mediterranean Resources), which had the concession to exploit three deposits between the City of Tambogrande and the Community of Locuto, as it evidenced a lack of social license . The Vancouver-based company had repeatedly claimed it had the support of the local population.   The impact of this exercise in democracy was such that it was replicated in Esquel (Argentina), Sipacapa (Guatemala), and three districts in the highlands of Piura (Peru) between 2003 and 2007, with similar results.   In the case of Tambogrande, following the referendum and the boycott b...

  The cards that Rio Blanco Cooper could play.   By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo   A week delayed, on July 11 th , 2012, former Huancabamba Mayor Ramiro Ibáñez had a letter from Rio Blanco Cooper, the former Peruvian affiliate of the British Monterrico Metals, lately part of Zijin mining group. If the news surprised, it could must have forgotten some details of all this issue since FACTORTIERRA undisclosed it in August 2003.   But this Zijin approach seemed not to be casual but a skillful move that responded to the controversy’s developments and other details that happened around like the Conga Conflict. Then, to avoid a play with marked Chinese cards, here we have some cards that the Hong Kong fellas looked like to have in their deck.   The consultation? The Chineses expected that the fifth anniversary of the consultation in Ayabaca , Pacaipampa, and El Carmen de la Frontera spent like the tenth anniversary of Tambograndé’s – unseen. In that o...