Mining in Cajamarca: there are no easy answers

Cajamarca has been the epicenter of the social conflicts in Peru between large mining companies and the central Peruvian government on one side and local communities on the other. Yanacocha’s giant gold mining project, Conga, has been indefinitely put on hold because of these conflicts.

On Wendesday, the Appeals Court of Justice of Cajamarca ruled on the conflict between Maxima Acuña, a farmworker from Cajamarca whose land was needed for the Conga project, and Yanacocha. The mining company had to get Maxima to sell, because her property abuts the Blue Lagoon of Celendin, the water in which is vital to Conga. Maxima, though, refused to give in, and the police repeatedly attacked her and her family for their intransigence.  The legal battle was long and winding: “In August of this year, a judge sentenced four members of Maxima’s family to two years and eight months of suspended imprisonment for not vacating the land. The judge also ordered the family to pay close to US$2,000 in penalties. All of these verdicts were overruled this Wednesday with the absolution of Maxima and her family putting an end to the legal battle.” It appears that the legal battle is still not over, as Yanacocha plans to appeal the ruling to the Peruvian Supreme Court.

While the David and Goliath nature of Maxima’s story warms our hearts, Peruvian business journal Gestión’s opinion piece on Cajamarca gives the story some economic context. Gestión explained that region of Cajamarca is going through a brutal economic recession. While the region is strategically located and has an abundance of natural resources, its economic potentially is fatally undermined by its lack of infrastructure. There are few roads, no trains, and little regional flight routes.

The article lamented the ideological polarization that has halted all of the large projects in the region. The recession is affecting all sectors of Cajamarca’s economy, causing people to lose their jobs, business to close, and, above all, people to leave the region. Gestión recognized that mining projects are not a panacea, but emphasized that the income from these projects will directly and indirectly generate employment in the region. According to the piece, the biggest culprit behind Cajamarca’s lack of economic development is the central government. The central government has not given the region any support, and Cajamarqueños feel abandoned.