Peru: Máxima vs. the U.S. mining conglomerate

Maxima Acuña smiles and raises her right fist. Other farmers and the Blue Lagoon can be seen in the background. Máxima Acuña is standing firm in the face of violence and prison time. (© Jorge Chávez Ortiz)
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On the 5th of August, Máxima Acuña, a Peruvian small farmer, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison. Her “crime”: refusing to give up her family’s small farm to make way for a gold mine. Please join us in speaking out against this blatant injustice.

Call to action

To: the government of Peru and competent authorities

“Call on Peru to put an end to the injustice being inflicted on Peruvian farmer Máxima Acuña by the Yanacocha gold mining company.”

Read letter

Yanacocha, a 51% U.S.-owned company that operates the largest gold mine in South America, wants to launch a new project in the Andes – the Conga mine. In pushing ahead with its plan, the company is ready to run roughshod over the human rights of local communities unfortunate enough to be in its way.

Máxima Acuña and her children are among Yanacocha’s victims. An indigenous subsistence farmer, Máxima happens to own land that the company wants. Together with her family, she uses her four hectares for grazing, as well as growing potatoes and other tubers to sell on the local market. It’s a modest living – the farm brings in just enough to provide a small house for herself and her children.

Over the past ten years, Máxima and her family have endured repeated threats and intimidation by police special forces, as the Peruvian media report, just because they refused to leave their home by the edge of the blue lagoon. The police intruded on her land and wrecked the family’s house. Máxima was beaten and detained and the family’s dogs shot. The family had no choice but to sleep outdoors at an altitude of 3,600 meters until they were able to rebuild the house with the help of friends and relatives.

The mining company then stepped up the pressure by fabricating squatting charges against her. On August 5, 2014, she was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison. Furthermore, Máxima was ordered to pay 5,500 soles (nearly $2,000) in damages to the company. The family was evicted from its own land with immediate effect.

Please speak out against this injustice and sign our petition to the Peruvian government and responsible authorities.

Back­ground

Video

Meet Máxima:


The Yanacocha mining company

Yanacocha SRL is a joint venture of the U.S. mining multinational Newmont Mining Corporation of Denver, Colorado, as the majority shareholder (51.35%), the Peruvian Buenaventura Minas (43.65%) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group (5%).

The Yanacocha gold mine is located north of the city of Cajamarca in the Peruvian Andes at an altitude of 3,400 to 4,200 meters. The gold deposit, which is located in the headwaters of several major rivers, was discovered in 1980 by a French geologist.

The mining operation leaches the precious metal from millions of tons of mined rock under the open sky using highly toxic chemicals. For years, the region has been the scene of determined protests against gold mining. 150 kg of mercury leaked from a truck and contaminated a 40-kilometer stretch of road in the Choropamba region in 2000. At least 1,000 people were exposed to the highly toxic heavy metal.

The Conga project

In recent years, the yields of the Yanacocha mine have been in a steep decline. Yanacocha now wants to exploit further gold deposits in the area, the so-called Conga project. Here again, locals and environmentalists are fighting tooth and nail against the project, which not only threatens the livelihoods of the area’s residents, but also the local drinking water supply – the local mountain lakes are slated to be drained and replaced by reservoirs elsewhere.

Further information (in Spanish):

Medium, August 28, 2014: Conga tras el fallo por el caso Chaupe

La Republica, August 12, 2014: Máxima contra Goliat

La República, August 5, 2014: Máxima

Letter

To: the government of Peru and competent authorities

Ladies and Gentlemen,

For the past ten years, the small farmer Máxima Acuña and her family have been harassed by the multinational mining company Yanacocha SRL and police special forces. She has been threatened and beaten and had her property destroyed because of her refusal to sell her land to the company.

On the 5th of August, Acuña was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on a charge of squatting and ordered to pay the equivalent of $2,000 in damages to Yanacocha. The court also ordered the eviction of her family with immediate effect.

This conviction has no legal basis. The evidence submitted by Acuña documents that she is the legal owner of her property. In contrast, the company was unable to prove its obviously fabricated allegations.

I therefore urgently call on you to reverse this scandalous judgment immediately, ensure that Máxima Acuña and her family are not subject to further persecution and threats, and compensate the victims for the injustice they have endured.

Sincerely,

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