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By Staff Writers, Telesur
Telesur
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2014
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| Cero Verde machinery (photo: Andinax) |
Police have not been able to remove the protesters from the roads, and protesters have said they will stay there "indefinitely."
On Tuesday, inhabitants of Congata, district of Uchumayo in Arequipa, Peru, picketed different parts of the road to Cerro Verde mine, stoping vehicles from passing through. More than a hundred people participated, causing a large build-up of vehicles.
Earlier in August, a similar event took place ending with 10 people arrested. However, so far officers from the Special Services Unit tried to disperse the crowd at 10 a.m. but failed.
Cerro Verde’s main shareholder is the transnational Freeport McMoRan from Arizona, USA. This corporation is the largest producer of copper and gold in the world. It is also the main investor in El Abra, Candelaria, and Ojos del Salado in Chile and several other mines in North America, Africa, and Indonesia.
Alberto Zeballos, secretary of the Defense and Development Front of Uchumayo, declared that the blockade was called for 24 hours due to the “lack of interest” of the mining company to engage in dialogue regarding the residual water treatment plant, La Enlozada. A series of pipes have been installed to transport contaminated water to be treated to be used in the mine. To install those pipes, the public transportation routes were changed causing delays and inconvenience for the population.
Zeballos told teleSUR that, “When the dialogue session was set, they did not want to talk to us because they said we did not have legitimacy.”
“The mining company is the one that kicked the board,” he added. “Kicking the board” is a common expression in Peru for when someone has a fit even though the established rules are being followed, and leaves the “game.” Zeballos also claims that the company might be in secret deals with the drivers that performed the public transportation services in the sector to subsidize the cost of transportation to build the pipes.
On Wednesday, there will be a meeting of the members of the Front to decided whether they will maintain the blockade permanently if there is no answer from the mine’s authorities. “We want to know what works they are going to do and how it will affect us,” concludes Zeballos.
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