Las Bambas: leaders resign their positions amid blockade in Ccapacmarca (PHOTOS)

Last January 27, residents belonging to four peasant communities of Chumbivilcas (Cusco) blocked the Southern Mining Corridor in the Ccapacmarca area, demanding the repeal of the designation of this highway as a national highway and asking to be included within the zone of environmental influence.

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Five days after the start of this protest, the leadership of the protesters is fractured, due to conflicting positions about the viability of their claims and about the impediment to the passage of vehicles, that would contravene the economic activity of several residents.

Judith Cjuno, president of the Front for the Defense of the Interests of Ccapacmarca, in communication with Mail, pointed out that he has just resigned from his position, as well as the leader Luis Huamaní, president of said community, due to positions that they would consider prejudicial to the development of their protest.

“In Ccapacmarca there are plenty of prominers, people who provide goods and services to the mine, such as lodging, restaurants, laundries, they want the land to be sold to the mine and to be paid, pointing out that the derogation will not progress, we (Judith Cjuno and Luis Huamaní) cannot sell the interests of our people, that’s why we have made our positions available “, pointed out the cusqueña.

This determination was made in the last assembly held in Ccapacmarca last Sunday, when the conflicting opinions about continuing or leaving the blockade of the Mining Corridor, He made many community members withdraw from the meeting, setting aside their charges.

Due to this dispute, the passage of buses, private vehicles and others was also authorized through the blocked part of the Mining Corridor, which now does not allow the passage only of encapsulated trucks, tractor-trailers and fuel tankers from the Las Bambas company.

THE BLOCK WILL CONTINUE.

For Luis Huamaní the blockade continues strong and will continue its course until the end. He mentioned that if Ccapacmarca decides to withdraw from the demonstration, the communities of: Huascabamba, Sayhua and Tahuay will continue with the protest measure.

“The blockade is going to continue because it was decided that way in the popular assembly; the people who have their businesses, who do not exceed 50, wanted the land to be delivered for sanitation and later asphalt, they want to sell the land and receive the money, but the rest of us are still standing for the repeal and environmental influence”, he nodded.

Regarding the change of the ministerial cabinet, of the main ministers and even of the premier of the Republic, the leader mentioned that it is a good initiative, since in all this time they have felt that the agreements made in Chumbivilcas have not reached Lima and that both Mirtha Vásquez and the ministers on duty have done nothing to solve their demands.

BEFORE.

On the morning of last Thursday, January 27, the national road known as the Southern Mining Corridor was blocked again, this time in the Ccapacmarca sector, belonging to the province of Chumbivilcas., where hundreds of settlers took the road, preventing the passage of private vehicles and the mining company MMG Las Bambas.

This protest takes place within the framework of the signing of agreements between the mining company and the residents of Chumbivilcas, represented by Wilber Fuentes, whom the inhabitants of Ccapacmarca have ignored, as well as the pacts signed by his client recently.

Thus, the residents have once again blocked this road, pointing out that they do not agree with the recently signed minutes of understanding, and that they do not seek to be participants in the mining value chain by putting trucks or vans to work, rather, they seek environmental reparation for the damage they claim MMG Las Bambas causes to their communities.

“We do not want to be suppliers, we care for the environment, that they recategorize us and recategorize our highway that was named as a national highway illegally. Now we are going to radicalize our protest measure, we are tired of not being attended to, we are the most contaminated communities in the Chumbivilcan territory”, referred then Luis Huamani.