On Tuesday, the Peruvian government announced that it had agreed
to changes to the Las Bambas copper mining project after meetings with local
mayors, who had expressed concerns over the project’s impact on the
environment. However, the mayors constituents are refusing to follow their
elected leaders, insisting that they will keep up the fight until the Peruvian
government withdraws the state of emergency declared last month after the
protests erupted in violence.
TelesurTV quoted one protester, Efrain Condori, as saying,
“The struggle continues. … There is no agreement with us. We have not been
informed. On the contrary, the (government’s) ministers have met only with the
mayors who have come to Lima and have set another meeting that we the people
from Cotabambas and Grau did not know about.”
In related news, La
Republica published an opinion piece by Antonio Zapata about the social
conflict over Las Bambas. Zapata defends the protestors and explains their
grievances against the Las Bambas project. Originally, the Las Bambas project
had planned to transport ore via an underground pipeline, to be refined in a
different region. Now, the project’s new Chinese owners will transport the ore
via truck to refineries located in the same complex as Las Bambas. Zapata
argues that the local community is right to protest, and that the project
should be forced to apply for new environmental and social licenses.
In oil-related news, Argentinian oil company Pluspetrol and
three partners have released
a tender to sell 900,000 barrels of gasoline at the Pisco Port.
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