Latin American Update
Published by MAC on 2006-11-06Source: Front for the Sustainable Development of
Latin American Update
6th November 2006
PERU
Grave Attacks Carried Out By Monterrico Metals and Minera Majaz Against Campesinos in the Hormiguero, Carmen de La Frontera District, Huancababa Provience, Perú
Press Release by the Front for the Sustainable Development of the Northern Frontier of Perú,
3rd November 2006
Yesterday, the second of November 2006, personnel contracted by the mining company Minera Majaz, subsidiary of transnational mining corporation Monterrico Metals, brutally attacked and injured campesino residents of the village of Hormiguero, in the district of Carmen de la Frontera, Province of Huancabamba, Perú.
These paramilitary groups, armed by Minera Majaz, often under the influence of alcohol, have been systematically carrying out acts of violence and provocation against campesinos and community members who are against the Rio Blanco mining project. Yesterday they attacked and injured various campesinos, among them Paco Herrera and Saul Pintado and others, and when young Hermalin Melendez Ojeda tried to defend them, he was shot with a shotgun and suffered 20 pellet wounds in his back, kidneys, buttocks and hand. The young man´s father, with the help of the President of the Federacion of Rondas Campesinas of Namballe-San Ignacio, sent his wounded son to the city of San Ignacio, where he remains hospitalized in a private hospital.
The Front for the Sustainable Development of the Northern Frontier of Peru condemns this act to the corresponding authorities, to human rights organizations, to the media, and we place responsibility for this crime on the Ministry of Mining and Energy for permitting a transnational company to continue operating illegally in our border zone, not only putting at risk the contamination of the earth, water and evironment but also attacking the lives of defenseless campesinos, as in this case, and as in the case of two other campesinos: Remberto Herrera Racho and Melanio Garcia, murdered by the police forces which protect the illegal mining activities of Majaz Mineria in the lands of campesino communities.
We equally place resonsibility upon the British ex-ambassador Richard Ralph, president of the Board of Directors of Minera Majaz, who has been directing a so-called policy of respect and reconciliation with the campesino communities affected by the mining project Rio Blanco. We see the reality in this violent aggression against innocent campesinos who only want to live in peace and see their lands and fields, the guarantors of their existance, respected.
We demand the immediate withdrawal of the company Minera Majaz from the so-called Rio Blanco project, because they are illegally operating in territories of campesino communities, who never gave permission; and that the company cease the attacks and murders of our fellow campesinos.
Atty. Carlos Martinez Solano President of the Front for the Sustainable Development of the Northern Frontier of Perú, and Mayor, Province of San Ignacio