Peruvian community blocks key highway in protest against Glencore mine
LIMA — An indigenous community in Peru’s Espinar province
has blocked a key mining road, a local leader told Reuters on Wednesday, in
protest against the government and Glencore’s Antapaccay copper mine.
The conflict comes a day after the government defused a
similar standoff in nearby Chumbivilcas
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/peru-government-says-deal-struck-head-off-road-blockade-las-bambas-mine-2021-10-05.
The Antapaccay mine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The road is known in Peru as the mining corridor, and has
become a lightning rod in the country, the world’s No. 2 copper producer.
As of Wednesday, the community has blocked the road in
protest against Antapaccay and the government, said Flavio Huanque, a community
leader in Espinar. He said they want dialog with the company and for the
country’s Prime Minister Guido Bellido to be removed.
“He (Bellido) came here on Sept. 11 and showed an absolute
lack of knowledge about the problems regarding the indigenous communities of
Espinar,” Huanque said.
The mining corridor, which traverses the Andes for about 500
km (310 miles), was blocked for about three weeks in September. Those blocks
were in a more remote part of the road, affecting the huge Las Bambas copper mine,
owned by Chinese state-owned enterprise China Minmetals Corp’s unit MMG Ltd,
but sparing other mines like Antapaccay.
The block now would affect both mines. Antapaccay is Peru’s
sixth largest copper mine, while Las Bambas ranks No. 4, according to the
ministry of energy and mines.
Bellido became prime minister in July under new President
Pedro Castillo, whose leftist administration wants to use the country’s mining
wealth in order to fund social programs.
Bellido was born and raised in the broader region of Cuzco,
where Espinar province is located. But he is from a different province,
Chumbivilcas, which on Tuesday reached a landmark deal in its own conflict with
Las Bambas.
The deal with Chumbivilcas will trade mining-related jobs
for residents in exchange for preventing future road blocks.
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