Another death over Tía María forces Peru to declare a state of emergency

Despite the temporary 60-day suspension of Southern Copper’s proposed Tía María mining project in the Province of Islay in Southern Peru’s Tambo Valley, violent protests have continued unabated. On Friday, the Peruvian government declared a 60-day state of emergency in the valley after a fourth person died in the protests: 55-year-old Ramón Colque who, according to his nephew, was killed by a bullet while selling stuffed potatoes during the protests. Local witnesses told the AFP that he was shot in the chest.

This apparently was the last straw for the Peruvian government, which pulled out all the stops by suspending civil liberties and declaring a state of emergency for the whole Tambo Valley. Additional troops arrived in the area over the weekend to take over security responsibilities from and reinforce the more than 2,000 police officers already deployed to the Valley. Workers organizations in the area had declared last week that they would launch an additional strike next week, and the Peruvian government likely decided that it needed to take decisive action before the situation got out of hand.

Jose Ramos Carrera, mayor of the municipality of Punta de Bombón, told the Wall Street Journal that, “What the state of emergency shows is that the government wants the mine to go ahead at all costs.” He added that local residents would continue to protest despite the government’s measures. 

The Tía María protests have dominated Peruvian headlines for weeks. All eyes are on the country’s Tambo Valley, as the outcome of these protests will determine the country’s economic future. Peru relies heavily on its mining industry to drive the country’s economic growth, and if the case of Tía María shows that locals can defy the country’s government and business interests to shut down a vital project, it will likely deter future investment in the country’s mining industry.