March 22, 2012 World Water Day protest march by local campesinos at the site of the proposed Conga gold mine, which would destroy pristine alpine lakes in Peru’s northern Cajamarca region. A year later, the struggle against the Conga project… Read moreStruggle for land and water in the Andes
Campesinos Stand Up to the Mineral Oligarchy
by Bill Weinberg, WIN Magazine
In what has become an emblematic struggle against government plans to open peasant lands to mineral interests throughout the sierras of Peru, local campesinos continue to hold strikes and protests in the northern region of Cajamarca—in defiance of a state of emergency and a heavy presence of army and National Police troops.
The months-long campaign to halt the mega-scale Conga gold mine high in Cajamarca’s alpine zone—which Colorado-based Newmont Mining hopes to develop with Peruvian partners and investment from the World Bank—cost five lives last July 3 and 4, when government troops opened fire on protesters in the rural towns of Celendín and Bambamarca. The youngest of the fallen was only 17 years old.
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