Manuel Jesús Yupanqui-Ramos, a 23 years old Peruvian mine worker, has been killed by the government of Alan Garcia, with a gun shot to his upper chest, on Saturday July 12.
Cover of La Primera newspaper of Lima
Meanwhile the Peruvian government has declared the state of emergency in Madre de Dios, a region located in the Amazon region where Native people protested on July 9 against the sale of protected and sacred land to private corporations.
Twenty five protesters in Madre de Dios were freed yesterday, days after being arrested without reason. Seven Indigenous men -who didn't understand Spanish- were tortured and forced by the Peruvian police to declare themselves guilty of crimes they didn't commit.
These are reports and information arrived from Peru, written originally in Spanish. The translation and interpretation is by me, Carlos Quiroz.
The Mining Federation of Peru -FNTMMSP the Peruvian miners union - reported oficially:
Map by La Republica
As the hours of 9:30 am this morning on July 12, 2008, a contingent of 200 police officers from the Tayabamba area clashed with workers of Marsa in the region of La Libertad, who hold a general strike since June 30 demanding an extra bonus payment for produced work during the period 2007.
Sources from the area told the FNTMMSP that this morning, 200 police arrived in 2 "combis" vans, attempting to "maintain the public order" and it led to a confrontation with workers using of their weapons and seriously wounding 6 miners:
-- Luis Fernando Saldaña-Enriquez, from Alfa contractor.
-- Rosario Ramos-Castillo, from Oniliz contractor.
-- Miguel Yupanqui-Ramos , from Oniliz contractor [who later passed away].
-- Jorge Huanaco-Tutuca, from Tauran contractor .
-- Ricardo Chahua-Gomez, from Micotral contractor.
The Federation Minera de Peru, conducts intensive coordination with the Peru's labor authorities, through the Deputy Minister Jorge Villasante, who pledged at the end of last mining nationwide strike on Sunday July 6 that the government will not exercise any retaliation against workers miners.
La Primera newpaper reported yesterday from Lima:More deadly repression. A worker of the mining company Minera Aurífera Retama SA (MARSA) Abalos died as a result of violent repression by 200 policemen from the Directorate of Special Operations (DIROES) of the Police in the district of Parcoy, province of Pataz, department [
state] of La Libertad, where the miners gathered by the main entrance of the mine field, which remains closed 13 days ago as a protest against the system of contracts or outsourcing (ghost companies) leaving thousands of workers without labor rights.
According to the correspondent of the first, Juan Guerrero, the fatality was identified as Miguel Ramos Jesus Yupanqui, while five others were wounded by bullets, being the state of Rosario Castillo Ramos (35) the most serious since the projectiles drilled their intestines. The other injured are: Jorge Huanaco Tutupa (30), Ricardo Chaves Gomez (49), Luis Enriquez Saldana (28.) And Walter Ruiz Romero. It was learned that another detachment arrived on its way, workers wanted to repel, but were shot in response.
Luis Castillo, general secretary of the Federation of Mining Workers (FNTMMSP) informed that [...] the workers were "provoked" by the Police. [...] their strike is because the company violated its commitments concerning payment of profits for the years 2006 and 2007 that owes to 3.900 workers.
Castillo explained that the workers are formally employed as contractors by nine companies, which serve as a "facade" to the company Marsa, which [
argues] that it has accumulated losses, something that is denied by the mining union leader because it is one of the major gold extractors.
He argued further that the Peruvian Ministry of Labor did not defend the miners' labor rights, because after an inspection, mining Marsa was ordered to formally employ 2.000 workers, however the regional office of the government archived the case.
La Republica from Lima reported yesterday:
Photo La Republica
A clash between striking workers of the Minera Aurífera Retama (Marsa) and police resulted in one death and five miners seriously wounded.
The clash occurred yesterday at 9 am at the mine site, in the town of Llacuabamba, district Parcoy, Pataz province, in La Libertad, located at 3.900 meters high [
about 11.000 feet above sea level].According to the union's secretary-general of Marsa, Innocent Chihuala, a contingent of about two hundred policemen tried to evict the miners using firearms in order to unlock the entrance gate to the company site and to reopen the entrance.
"Law enforcement officers have attacked directly to our bodies and there wasn't a warning. They took the hills, with the collaboration of the company, so they can carry out the shootings and launching tear gas bombs," said Chihuala in dialogue with La Republica.
As a result of the shooting, said the union leader, worker Manuel Jesus Yupanqui-Ramos, 24 years old, died upon receiving a bullet to the upper chest.
According to reports, among those wounded by bullets are Rosario Castillo-Ramos (35 y.o.), Luis Saldana-Enriquez (28) Ricardo Chagua-Gomez (49), Walter Ruiz-Romero and Jorge Huanuco-Tutupa (30). The case that is more serious is of Castillo-Ramos, who is caught between life and death a projectile is caught in his stomach and its vital organs. Castillo had to be moved by helicopter to a hospital in [
the city of] Trujillo to receive surgically intervened of emergency.
In this regard, the worker Ciro Yupanqui-Sulca said that the order to shoot came from the company because its refusal to talks about the workers demands.
"The attack from the policemen was at point-blank range. We were rallying peacefully, when suddenly a large number of agents appeared and they began firing on us without any reason as if we were criminals or drug traffickers. This has been planned by the company," said Yupanqui.
According to Luis Castillo, from the National Mining Federation union, workers were camping away from the premises of the mining unit when police agents approached them generating hostility. "The police have hiked the hill, obviously wantingto lift the strike and surely they have provoked them and that is why there has been confrontation," he said. [...] the company has a monthly production of 30.000 tons of gold.
An official of the Ministry of Labor in the region, Jose Cerradas, reported that there are attempts to reach an understanding between the involved parties, and a meeting is planned for tomorrow at three o'clock in the afternoon.
At the end of this edition, it was reported that there is a relative calm in Parcoy but workers are reluctant to leave the area. It is expected that another police delegation will arrive today at night to restore the control in the mine site.
Pagina12 from Argentina writes:
Alan García opened fire on minersCarlos Noriega from Lima
Photo Pagina12Labor disputes and social tensions are still going on in Peru, after the national strike of last Wednesday. Yesterday, the police attacked with bullets to workers from a mining company under strike since June 30, killing one protester and wounding five others. At least one of the wounded is in serious condition. The confrontation between police and strikers took place in the province of Pataz, in the region La Libertad, 570 kilometres north of [
Lima], where operates the Minera Aurífera Retama SA (Marsa), of Peruvian ownership. [...] The violent police repression against striking miners came three days after a national strike that was felt intensely in the interior of the country and after which the government has accused labor unions of "conspiring against democracy" and has launched tougher attacks and threats against the organizers.
MARSA is one of the major gold producers in the country and its workers are on strike since two weeks ago, demanding payments for utilities due to them for profits of the year 2007. [...] It is a common practice among mining companies operating in Peru not to contract workers directly but they do it so through third-party companies to avoid paying social rights, such as the distribution of eight per cent of profits that must be distributed among workers in mining companies, according to Peruvian laws. It is estimated that of the approximately 100.000 mining workers in the country, 80 percent worke [
within this informal system]. According to the
MARSA website, it has 2.000 employees. However, the Mining Federation of Peru says that in reality MARSA has 3.900 miners, including those hired temporarily.
What happened with Marsa occurs in the context of a confrontational situation in the mining sector, which in recent years has produced successive confrontations between mining companies and their employees, who are demanding a greater participation in the enormous profits of mining as a result of the rise of international prices of minerals, as well as numerous clashes between the mining companies and farmers and villagers from the areas where they operate, who accuse the companies to remove them from their land and to pollute waters [
and air]. Mining companies are also accused of mistreating populations from areas where they operate and they are questioned by enjoying of tax privileges granted by the [
Peruvian] government.
In recent years the profits of mining have increased by more than 500 percent. In 2007 profits were about $ 4.5 million dollars, of which 70 percent are taken by the companies and they leave only 30 percent in the country. During the 2006 election campaign, then-candidate Alan García offered to establish a tax on the mining companies profits so that the country, especially the impoverished regions where the mineral deposits are located, may obtain greater benefits from boom in minerals prices. However, once [
Garcia] came to power, he negotiated with the mining corporations a "voluntary contribution" and put aside his election promise. The voluntary contribution of the mining reaches about $150 million dollars a year, which represents only three percent of their profits. According to economist Humberto Campodónico, a professor at the University of San Marcos, a tax on mining profits "in terms of other countries, like [
neighboring] Ecuador, would leave the country an income of at least $830 million dollars annually, instead of the $150 million now provided by mining companies ". In this context, the death of the miner of Marsa overheats the status of an industry that has become one of the greatest sources of social tension.
This information was shared by Wilfredo Ardito, from Peru:- Manuel Yupanqui, a mining worker, became the 22th Peruvian murdered by members of the National Police in the current Alan Garcia government. Yupanqui, who was 23 years old, died while participating in a strike of workers of the mining company Marsa, known for its abusive employing practices, hiring workers from contractors in order to avoid labor rights. The events occurred in the isolated province of La Libertad in Pataz.
- Speaking of police abuse, 25 indigenous leaders of FENAMAD (Native Federation of Madre de Dios) who were indiscriminately arrested in Puerto Maldonado, have been released. They were accused of participating in the fire torching of the Regional Government building, although they were in another place, signing an agreement with the Governor. Seven Native man who did not speak Spanish were brutally beaten and forced to sign documents where they admitted guilty. The President of the local Chamber of Commerce, Manuel Calloquispe was also arrested and beaten up.
- Speaking of Puerto Maldonado, protests prompted the government to send the Minister Antonio Brack and announce any changes to the legislative decrees that threaten the ownership of native communities. Let us hope that changes will soon be announced.
- In a new road crash, twelve bus passengers were killed in the Andean mountains of Huaral [north of Lima]. Last week there were at least thirty other deaths [for the same reason].
Road crashes occur in Peru in a daily basis, and they affect directly mostly rural and Native American population, with very little action from the centralist goverment of Lima in order to prevent or reduce these horrendous rates.
UPDATEMarcona Protesta blog reports from Peru:Today July 13 at about 6:00 am, departed to Pataz, a high-level commission that will try to reach a solution to labor disputes between Marsa mining company and its workers, which already have caused a casualty, and six workers seriously wounded [...]. The Commission will be made of of 2 members of the Ministry of Labor, 2 members of Marsa and 2 officials from the FNTMMSP miners union. They should be arriving on a charter flight to the airport of Marsa in Pataz.
We are also aware that are traveling by land the Regional Authority of Labor and Pablo Ramos, a representative of the CGTP -the main labor union of Peru.
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Links were provided in part by the excellent blog Marcona Protesta, which focus on the protests of miner workers agains the abuses of Chinese multinational Shougang, in Marcona, in southern Peru.
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La maca peruana con marca chilena
Maca en tabletas
Aparentemente esta hecha por peruanos
