Between the regions of Ica, Ayacucho and Arequipa there is an area where the law does not exist. It is a place controlled by illegal miners and informal people who fight for control of these lands rich in gold, copper and other metals.
This immense and wild area in the south of the country was the scene of a brutal confrontation that has left at least 14 dead. Seven bodies were found yesterday in the Huanaquita sector of Penthouse (Caravelí, Arequipa) and the remaining seven were found last week.
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According to the authorities, the confrontation occurred between June 1 and 2. Meanwhile, relatives of the miners indicate that since then there have been 12 disappeared.
According to the Provincial Corporate Criminal Prosecutor’s Office of Caravelíthe deaths have their origin in the land dispute between the miners of Calpa Renace, Atico Calpa and the company Intigold Mining SA
The police preliminarily detained 31 people, who were taken to the police station in Penthouse. During the intervention, firearms, ammunition, cartridge boxes, magazines, among other items, were seized.
According to the fiscal hypothesis, there would be a criminal organization that would have hired personnel to carry out a violent eviction of informal miners.
Máximo Franco Becker, president of the Federation of Artisanal Miners of Arequipasaid to Trade that this type of confrontation has been taking place for several years in Penthouse. He pointed out that the authorities have not taken this problem seriously.
“Only in Calpa [Atico] there are regarding 1,500 artisanal minersthe majority in the process of formalization”, he specified and then accused Intigold Mining SA of having “hired people to evict them from the concession lands”.
He recalled that in 2018 and 2020 there were clashes that left people missing and dead. “I call on the authorities to resolve this conflict urgently“, said.
READ ALSO | Arequipa: seven dead and wounded in Atico following confrontation between artisanal miners
Intigold Mining SA’s lawyer, Frank Melo, ruled out that the company had been involved in the murders and blamed the Calpa Renace association for what happened. “On June 1, miners from Atico Calpa broke into our mine, which caused the conflict with Calpa Renace. The latter has been denounced for criminal organization, usurpation of land, among other crimes. Both clashed over control of land that is not theirs. We are not the aggressors“, he pointed.
Melo said that so far the Office of the Regional Government of Arequipa and the National Superintendency of State Assets do not comply with evicting these groups from their property despite having an order.
fight for gold
The acts of violence that revolve around the illegal mineral extraction are not exclusive to Penthouse. Yesterday followingnoon there was another armed confrontation between police officers from the Palpa police station and criminals in the Saramarca sector, in Ica. The National Police reported that this happened when they were on their way to the facilities of the mining company Inversiones LW&W EIRL and Mi Buena Suerte Concession. An agent was injured.
Political analyst Iván Arenas explained that between the southern zone of Ayacucho and Ocoña, in Arequipathere is an area taken by illegal miners due to its richness in zinc, copper, scandium and especially gold. “There is a gold rush. It is an area dominated by the informal mining. It is a very wild sector, from Pausa, in the Ayacucho province of Páucar del Sara Sara, to Ocoña“, accurate.
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Ángel Manrique, head of the office of the Ombudsman in Arequipacommented that despite the fact that years ago these groups of illegal miners started the formalization procedure, it has not concluded. “It is up to the Ministry of Energy and Mines to define an intervention strategy, since many of the confrontations are due to the delimitation of properties“, said.
Actions
- the mayor of PenthouseMilton Medina, requested that the area be intervened with personnel from the Armed Forces and the National Police.
- A conflict prevention committee led by the prefect of Arequipa to start a dialogue, said the defense.
- Relatives of the disappeared and dead miners yesterday blocked the Panamericana Sur in Penthouse. They request the presence of the Minister of the Interior and the Army.