Over the weekend, additional reports and photos came out
about the Peruvian armed forces’ raid on the town of La Pampa. This “unofficial
settlement” is located in Peru’s Madre de Dios region, which is rife with
illegal mining. Telesurtv
noted that the Peruvian government’s use of armed helicopters and 900 police
officers to raze the settlement was unprecedented.
The Peruvian high commissioner again illegal mining, Antonio
Fernández, emphasized
to reporters the tremendous environmental damage caused by illegal mining.
According to a study by the University of Puerto Rico, between 2001 and 2013,
illegal mining destroyed 1,680 km2 of tropical forest.
One former resident of La Pampa told
a reporter that, “They don’t treat us like human beings, they treat us worse
than animals. What are we going to do now? We don’t have where to live and
there is no way to move forward. But they don’t care. The fact that hundreds
have been affected so does not matter at all.”
In Peruvian oil-related news, Gestión
reported on the collapse of Peruvian oil production so far in 2015. Production
for the first half of the year, totaling 10.6 million barrels was almost 60% than
production for the same period last year, falling to a level not seen for at
least 10 years. According to Gestión, the poor production is due to the
collapse in oil prices and the lack of new projects in the Peruvian oil sector.
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