Ollanta Humala
Asacasi electrification in a community (source)
This article appears in the upcoming issue of the Latin American News (LN 450).
After the elections in Peru, from which the left-nationalist Ollanta
Humala has emerged as the winner, the expectations are high on the
country. From there he was expecting the majority of its votes and the
people that he is - as promised during the campaign - uses for their
rights and defend them against large corporations. Asacasi threatened,
a small village whose livelihood through a copper mining project is to
meet the residents, the first preventive measures to defend themselves
against the Swiss group Xstrata.
The road is more than bad. It would require many people, heavy
machinery and several weeks of hard work to bring them once in a bad
state. Without warning, the asphalt ends after just twenty minutes
outside of Cuzco, the tourist town, with its five-star hotels and
sushi restaurants. And, although my goal, the city Tambobamba, not
some forgotten place in the no man's land. Tambobamba is the capital
of the province Cotabambas and is just a few hours drive away from the
massive Las Bambas copper project, which is currently under
construction.
Usually benefits the cities that lie along roads to mining projects,
of a reasonable road connections - especially if it is the road to the
provincial capital. Not so Tambobamba. The workers of the mining
company to be flown in by helicopter and the street remains in a
miserable condition. The project includes Las Bambas Xstrata. The
company, based in Switzerland wants to avoid the removal of the
extracted copper ore in open pit mining on the road, and plans a
215-kilometer pipeline to an adjacent region. In three years, to begin
with copper mining. Xstrata expects an annual production of 400,000
tons. This would increase the total copper production in the country
by 30 percent. Peru is currently the world's second largest producer
of important industrial metal.
But in the past, because Las Bambas protests from local communities
who are concerned about possible contamination of the environment and
say that they have not yet received the promised benefits from the
project often. Xstrata in 2008 condemned the Peruvian government for
the prohibited discharge of toxic substances into the environment
during exploration drilling of a nearby community. This news caused
fear among the peasant communities of the province, who live mainly
from subsistence agriculture.
In May of this year, said the district located not far from Las Bambas
Chalhuahuacho a strike against the mine - the company had to evacuate
personnel and equipment. Peasant leaders have complained that only
benefit communities that are close to the mine, and this required more
development projects for the entire region. An agreement between
Xstrata and the peasant leader, was reached in June, ended the strike.
Since then, events have on the national level, the region brought a
tense calm - a pause full of expectations, which is felt in many
places in Peru with conflictive mining projects. The previous
government of Alan García faced a growing number of social conflicts
over - there were a total of 246 after the reports of the Peruvian
ombudsman for human rights in the last year. One half of them are
environmental conflicts as a result of the activities of the
extractive industry sector, oil, ores, natural gas and wood wins or
breaks down.
The widespread dissatisfaction with conservative politicians in
indigenous communities and farmers brought in July this year, Ollanta
Humala - a left-wing nationalists - to the presidency. Now wait his
supporters that he begins the promised social transformation. But in
many parts of the country, people are less patient.
A conflict broke out in late September in Tacna near the Chilean
border. The local people tried to get into a public hearing for the
expansion of a mine for the U.S. company Southern Copper and was
stopped by force by the police. Regional quotation threatened to
strike. In early October Humala government was forced to stop the
public hearings. The people swore that they would protest as long, be
called off until the extension of the project. At the other end of the
country in the northern Andes of Cajamarca, another conflict is
brewing: Between farmers and the company Yanacocha, Latin America
operates the largest gold mine.
Farming communities to protest against the plan of the company, a
sacred mountain and destroy important water sources. The regional
government has declared a protected zone Quilish mountain, but the
U.S. company Newmont Mining as a majority shareholder of Yanacocha
will proceed with the project.
At the end of my exhausting tour, in the small village with just 400
inhabitants Asacasi, slightly outside of Tambobamba, have concerns
over the mining Las Bambas the subject of everyday conversation
developed. The village has just won a prize for the best management of
its water resources, the Centro Bartolome de las Casas (CBC), a
nongovernmental organization from Cuzco is awarded, which works with
marginalized local communities in the Andean region. The price is to
convey to the residents in a training workshop, the knowledge to turn
their own film. I was the leader of this workshop to Asacasi.
The CBC wants the community in the film focuses on their successful
water management plan: a new reservoir, a system for chlorination of
water and a garbage dump, to keep the water clean. But as much as I
try to keep the people at issue - the threat of sneaking through the
open pit itself into every scene. The group decides to start shooting
in a crystal clear river that flows beneath her village in the shadow
of a high mountain. Despite dry season the river is full of trout.
Cuñas Estanislao, President of the Water Committee of Asacasi leads us
to a shallow part of the river and fished out with your bare hands
half a dozen trout. Although he has never made a film that seems to be
Estanislao a born director. He caught the heaviest trout, he can find,
and tells the cameraman to film him with the river in the background.
"The people in the city often think we know that farmers do not know
how to protect the environment," says Estanislao, "but we show them
that they are wrong." People from outside are their biggest threat, he
continues, and expresses concern that Las Bambas will pollute the
environment when mining first start in the copper production. And Las
Bambas is just the beginning. More than 54 percent of the Apurimac
region, located in the Asacasi are licensed for mining.
Like the majority in the region, the people continue to live in
Asacasi the country. It is famous Peruvian Altiplano region, a plateau
at more than 4,000 meters above sea level in the Andes. At first
glance, the surroundings seem barren and desolate - there are no
trees, only large, thorn-like growths, mountain grass and low bush
vegetation. Asacasi lies on a flat, long-range plane, which is
surrounded by majestic mountains, with sharp, rugged rock. The horizon
can be see from any direction - it's a perfect, endless expanse,
undisturbed by buildings or vegetation.
The nutritional basis of the villagers would shame any North American
from movements and groups that use locally produced food for
themselves. Everything is produced in the village: potatoes and herbs
are ground, the eggs, chicken, cheese and milk the cows, meat comes
from the guinea pig, sheep and alpacas and of course fish, shrimp and
frogs from the river. For lunch, we are invited by Gregorio Tarapaqui,
the Secretary of the water committees of Asacasi. The Film Workshop,
he is an excellent cameraman. Gregory brings a large bowl filled with
steaming potatoes and makes them averse to my feet. In Peru, there are
thousands of potato varieties in various colors, flavors and
appearance. We eat small round potatoes with a creamy center and
larger oval, which are white inside and have a dark crispy shell.
The main dish is trout soup. The fish were caught while filming in the
morning. "What do we do when our fish disappearing," asks Gregorio.
"Now we have enough to feed the whole village, we do not have to
ration or control the catch." Peasant and indigenous communities hope
that a new law that was adopted by the government of Ollanta Humala,
gives them the opportunity to to decide whether they want mining, oil
and gas projects on their land. It is the law on prior consultation,
must be questioned on the basis of local communities, before companies
can launch mega projects. Among the farming communities are already
high expectations to the new law, but many analyst are more cautious
when assessing its potential impact.
Father Marco Arana, a sociologist with 20 years experience in
defending the rights of peasant communities against mining companies,
said that much would depend on the subordinate legislation, which must
first be written. These regulations will be crucial for how the
consultation Act is implemented. If the local communities can then
hold a formal referendum, before new licenses will be awarded for
their country? Or will the company be required only to achieve the
consent of the local leaders? If consent is to be at all necessary, or
will the company need only consult the people, but ultimately without
requiring their consent?
The consultation has provoked fears of law in the circles of the
mining proponents. Father Arana has been attacked recently, when he
traveled to Huancabamba, in Peru's northern Andes mountains on the
border with Ecuador. His visit was the celebration of the anniversary
of one of the first referendum on mining. The local population spoke
out in September of 2007 to more than 90 percent against mining
projects in their region. The car, with Marco Arana was on his way to
Huancabamba stopped by several people who told him they wanted to
"development" and are as compared to alternative agriculture. After a
brief conversation could continue Arana - 30 minutes later the car but
was pelted with stones and fired upon by unknown persons with live
ammunition.
Such anger is Marco Arana does not foreign. A few years ago he stood
in the center of a massive espionage operation called "Operation
Devil". Each of his steps over a period photograph of three months and
filmed. He and his colleagues have received death threats over the
phone. Esmundo Becerra, a friend of Father Arana Bauer and committed
environmental activist from the province of Cajamarca, who led the
fight against the expansion of a mining project, was killed early
November 2006.
The persecution and threats frightened Arana. Nevertheless, he began
to develop his staff and a plan to spy on the spies - they took
pictures of her pursuers and filmed them. Arana finally managed to
catch one of the spies, and subsequently to enter into possession of
hundreds of copies of reports, photographs and video footage. This
material became the core of the documentary "Operación Diablo"
(Devil's surgery), I turned with Arana and environmental activist.
We showed the film in Asacasi to give the residents the importance it
can have when they use their new camera, and acquired the skills to
document human rights abuses. After the performance, said the mayor of
the village, Juan Limaypuma, he hoped that the new consultation law
would put an end to mining conflicts. He said Humala's government to
respect her to the of Peru at the United Nations and the International
Labour Organization (ILO) ratified international conventions that
protect the rights of indigenous groups. Limaypuma said that the
negative effects of global climate change, such as water shortages are
already being felt to he feared that new mining projects will bring
more pollution.
Asacasi may be isolated, but the people there know what is happening
around them and at the national level. An overwhelming majority of the
population voted in Peru's southern Andes region for Humala, and they
now expect that he fulfilled his campaign promise to accommodate their
needs and rights in a democratic Peru, in which they are involved.
Humala should fail, the whole social conflicts that have been left by
the Vorregierung under Alan Garcia may reappear. A simple announcement
on the radio by regional leaders can bring thousands of farmers from
nearby villages as isolated Asacasi into action to block streets,
close to airports or to cripple the country economically. Great
promise to produce high expectations and peasant communities in Peru
will not wait until they start seeing results. Time is against Ollanta
Humala.
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