The announcement came a day after 17 were killed, including two teenagers, as protesters attempted to occupy the local airport in Juliaca, Puno region. One National Police officer was also killed and several injured in the confrontation, as protesters launched fireworks at security forces. That same day, another protester was killed in the nearby town of Chucuito, as police moved against a road blockade.

These deaths were immediately acknowledged by Peru’s official human rights ombudsman, the Defensoría del Pueblo, which issued a statement calling on the security forces to act with restraint. But on the day of Benavides’ announcement, another protester was killed in the city of Cuzco. (InfoBae, La Republica, Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, CNN Español, Jurist)

Jennie Dador, executive secretary of the non-governmental National Human Rights Coordinator of Peru (CNDDHH) blamed “indiscriminate use of force” for the deaths. “What happened yesterday was really a massacre,’” she told the media. “These were extrajudicial killings.” (NYT) A leader of the social movement in Puno, César Quispe Calsin, said: “What happened in Juliaca is a genocide.” (Pachamama Radio)

Peru’s southern regions of Puno, Cuzco, Arequipa and Madre de Dios have been almost entirely cut off by roadblocks since the protests remobilized on Jan. 6. (RPP Noticias) The giant Antapaccay copper mine in Cuzco region, operated by the Swiss multinational Glencore, was also occupied by protesters, who set two company vehicles on fire and attacked a worker housing complex at the facility. (Reuters)

Senderismo panic
In what appears to be the latest effort to smear Castillo’s supporters as linked to the Shining Path guerillas, police in Ayacucho region on Jan. 13 announced the arrest of Rocío Leandro Melgar on charges of collaborating with the now-moribund Maoist insurgency. Police said Leandro, president of the Defense Front of the People of Ayacucho (FREDEPA), is actually a guerilla operative known as “Comrade Cusi.” Leandro and five other FREDEPA members were flown to Lima, where they are being held in “preventive detention.” According to media reports, Leandro had served nine years at the notorious Chorrillos Women’s Prison in the late ’80s and ’90s for links to the Shining Path. (RPP Noticias, La Republica)

Boluarte intransigent
After the Fiscalía’s announcement, Boluarte purged her cabinet yet again, with Vicente Romero, a retired National Police general, replacing Rojas as interior minister.

But Boluarte insisted that she will not step down, a key demand of the protesters. “Some voices that have come from the violent and radical factions are asking for my resignation, provoking the population into chaos, disorder and destruction,” Boluarte said in a televised address Jan. 13. “I will not resign. My commitment is with Peru.”

She also dismissed a second demand of the protesters, that a constituent assembly be called to draft a new constitution. Refering to herself in the third person, she said that such a decision “is not in the hands of the executive, nor of Dina Boluarte.” (AFP, InfoBae)

The total death toll in the unrest since Castillo’s ouster now stands at 47, according to the Defensoría del Pueblo, including the police officer killed at Juliaca and seven civilians killed in traffic accidents related to the blockades. The remaining 39 were civilians killed by the security forces. (NYT)

On Jan. 14, Boluarte declared a 30-day state of emergency in the cities of Lima and Callao as well as throughout the regions of Cuzco and Puno and selected provinces of Apurímac, Madre de Dios and Moquegua. The decree suspends freedom of assmebly, and gives the army special powers to maintain social order. (InfoBae, DW) A nationwide state of emergencydeclared last month was about to expire.

Photo: Max Nina/Pachamama Radio via Wayka

Protesters also pointed to the profligate use of water by the mining industry in Moquegua. Under pressure of the protests, the Organism for Environmental Evaluation and Oversight (OEFA) ordered the Aruntani mining company to immediately cease dumping of tailings and contaminated water in local creeks at its Florencia-Tucari gold mine in Mariscal Nieto province, Moquegua. After years of operation, the company was finally ordered to instate a water treatment program at the facility. (Canal N, Aptil 20)

Photo: OEFA via Canal N

The route would bypass Bolivia but The Guardian notes that the project echoes the so-called "Devil's Railway," conceived as a link between Bolivia's remote Amazon territory and the Brazilian coast during the rubber boom a century ago, and abandoned incomplete.

Environmentalists are voicing concern at the idea being revived. Christian Poirier of Amazon Watch told The Guardian: "As with road projects, railways open access to previously remote regions, bring a flow of migrant workers inevitably followed by deforestation mafias and cattle ranchers, creating a perfect storm of pressures upon the forest and forest peoples."

Nilo D’Ávila of Greenpeace was more equivocal: "The good part is that it's an investment in a different mode of transport. But it seems to follow mining logic—first you build a road, then a hole. They need to guarantee it can be built without causing problems."

Li has other stops on the tour. In Colombia, he met with President Juan Manuel Santos to discuss expansion of Colombian exports to China, a Chinese bid to construct Bogotá's first metro—and the possibility of a railroad connecting Colombia's Pacific and Atlantic coasts. He is also to visit Chile. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said Beijing and Santiago will sign currency exchange deals and discuss upgrades to their Free Trade Agreement. (Colombia Reports, May 22; China Daily, May 14)

Merino portrayed the project as a boon to the region’s peasantry. “Cajamarca is the region of the greatest natural resources, and has retrogressed in terms of the struggle against poverty,” he said. Calling out regional president Gregorio Santos, a fierece opponent of the project, as more interested in campaign “tours” than helping his constituents, he added: “It is certain that Cajamarca has had irresponsible management in combating poverty, so the central government is giving priority to doing justice in Cajamarca… We understand that any investment in the country will be done with respect for the issue of the environment, the issue of water, and above all with social inclusion.” (Gestión, El Comercio, June 10)

On June 12, a group of European Parliament members, noting the pattern of “violence against the peaceful resistance in Cajamarca,” called upon Peru’s President Ollanta Humala to cancel the project. The letter was signed by Catherine Grèze of France, leader of the Euro-Parliament’s Development Committee. (Celendin Libre, June 12)

Similar controversy has emerged around the Quellaveco copper project in southern Moquegua region. Merino last month said that he would meet in Lima with the CEO of Anglo-American mining company, Mark Cutifani, to discuss the project’s future, which has been similarly clouded by local protests. Merino insisted: “It is normal that they will evaluate their costs, but the company has invested much money and has an interesting plan for dialogue in Moquegua.” (Gestión, May 20)