Peruvian government's goal is the total eradication of illegal mining

Peuvian interior minister José Luis Pérez Guadalupe traveled to Puerto Maldando in Peru’s Madre de Dios region, ground zero for illegal mining in the country. He told the press that, “The government’s final objective is the total eradication of this crime [illegal mining] and the normalization of informal mining.” Minister Guadalupe explained that illegal mining also generates insecurity because it attracts thousands of addition people just looking to make a quick buck to areas of the country that are already disadvantaged. The minister traveled to the area to meet with regional president Luis Otsuka and come up with a holistic, joint solution to the problem, so that the various government officials do not end up working in isolation.

In other news related to illegal mining in Peru, approximately 15,000 informal miners are meeting in Puno this week for the Fourth National Meeting of Small and Artisanal Miners. The activist and outspoken Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto will also attend the event to lay out a new alternative to the Peruvian government’s formalization program, which he believes has been a colossal failure. The organizers of the event hope to unite all of the country’s disparate groups of informal miners behind a new proposal.

Lastly, the Peruvian government is scrambling to protect the mashco-piros tribe, an indigenous group of some 800 people that had lived intentionally cut off from the rest of Peruvian society. Unfortunately, the mashco-piros had been living in the Madre de Dios region, and are being forcibly displaced by the illegal gold mining in the area. Peruvian officials fear that because of the tribe’s isolation, it could be particularly vulnerable to disease.