In the 2026 elections, the financial financing of campaigns for some parties is assured: they do not care about the illegal origin of the money. Because this year the price of an ounce of gold has skyrocketed internationally—it is currently $2,632 per ounce—several political groups, such as Renovación Popular (RP), as Peru21 revealed last November, are They have dedicated themselves to recruiting into their ranks several leaders of the informal miners so that they can run as congressmen and can also secure not only their millionaire dirty gold, but also the thousands of votes of their members and their families.
LOOK: López Aliaga and Bellido sat at the same table with the informal miners
However, Rafael López Aliaga (RLA), through his RP party, has not been the only political leader who has launched this recruitment plan throughout this year, as he already did with Máximo Franco Bequer, president of Confemin, as detailed by this medium in its December 3 edition.
The president of Podemos Peru (PP), José Luna Gálvez, has also followed in the footsteps of RLA. On September 18 of this year, the congressman also got the president of the Association of Artisanal Miners of Pataz (Ama-Pataz), José Torrealva Yparraguirre (53), to register as a member of his party.
The former congressman of the Peruvian Aprista Party (PAP) and today a member of Podemos, Elías Rodríguez, was the one who recruited Torrealva, who is not a rookie in politics because he has previously been a member of Acción Popular and has been district mayor of Pataz (2018 and 2022). .
DIRTY GOLD MILLIONAIRE
In an interview with Perú21, Torrealva did not rule out running for Congress in 2026 and indicated that the only thing missing is for him to receive the formal invitation from José Luna, with whom he maintains communication.
The last time he met with the owner of his new political house was before November 29 in Congress, to coordinate the expansion of the Comprehensive Registry of Mining Formalization (Reinfo), which in the end was given for up to one year.
When asked if the 1,500 informal miners of his Ama-Pataz guild, with the enormous profits from the commercialization of their gold, will contribute to Luna’s campaign in 2026, Torrealva explained that each one will carry out their own campaign. “He who wants to be an authority makes his campaign, it’s that simple.”
However, from the numbers he gave us, he will not lack money if he is a candidate. According to him, per month an informal/illegal miner can fill between one and five dump trucks with 25 to 30 tons of unprocessed cargo, valued between 15,000 and 20,000 dollars. That is, you can earn up to US$100,000 per month.
If he is a congressman, what will be the first measure he will take? We asked Torrealva. “Reduce the years of (formal) mining concessions and redistribute those that exist,” he indicated.
According to El Comercio, Torrealva would earn much more money than he tells us. The leader appears on a list of the dump truck owners who have sold the most gold between January and November of this year, with a figure that collectively exceeds 100 million soles.
I KNEW THAT
-Ampay We are Peru. Gaudencio Asencio was captured by that party on October 1 and appears in Reinfo.
-On December 16, the date of the second working group of the ASM Law in the Congressional Energy Commission, the informal miners were present, led by Máximo Franco Bequer, from Renovación Popular, and José Torrealva, from Podemos.
SNMPE withdraws from the work table
Given the obvious bias of the president of the Energy and Mines Commission.
After verifying an evident partiality of the president of the Energy Commission, Paul Gutiérrez (Bloque Magisterial), with the illegal and informal miners, the National Mining Society (SNMPE) announced its withdrawal from the work table of the preparation of the new Law of Small Mining and Artisanal Mining, MAPE Law.
“It is of priority interest to our union to promote sustainable and responsible mining activities, with emphasis on respect for the rule of law and the constitutional guarantees that allow us to function as a society and nation. Unfortunately, we see that you have already stated your position regarding how to address the problems surrounding small-scale mining activities, reflected in the legislative initiative that you have already presented and that we consider to be a departure from said approach, without having finished listening to and analyzing the opinions and technical proposals of those invited to the table,” the union states in a letter addressed to the head of the commission.
This newspaper reported that Congressman Gutiérrez has Modesto Robles as an advisor, who signed the Movadef forms for his failed registration in the National Elections Jury (JNE).
