Various efforts have been made by the regional authorities to unblock the conflict, which has been going on for 19 days, between the communities of Valle del Choapa (Coquimbo Region) and Minera Los Pelambres (MLP), controlled by the Luksic group, due to the saturation zone that has existed for years, and to date they have not made any major advances.
After intense negotiations, with the mediation of the regional cabinet led by the presidential delegate Rubén Quezada, certain localities reached an agreement with the company, however, last Saturday MLP left the table before the petition of three communities: Batuco, Tranquillas and Cuncumén.
In order to contribute and collaborate in the reestablishment of the talks, and given the importance of the mining company returning to dialogue, the deputy Nathalie Castillo met with the councilor Milena Báez, as well as with the former councilor and leader of the Salamanca commune , Luis Alegre, to coordinate the efforts between leaders, the Government and the company.
“We have made ourselves available to the community and the regional delegation to act as mediators in this conflict, with the management tools and attributes of our work as deputy in the area. This coordination is essential for MLP to be able to return to the table that they left last Saturday. We believe that it has been an advance to work together to unblock the conflict and, on the other hand, to reassure the movement that the commitment is to avoid the intervention of the use of force by the Government at all costs, something that the community appreciated. profoundly,” said parliamentarian Castillo.
In this sense, along with advancing in joint work with the Executive to restore dialogue, it was agreed to carry out actions that curb the use of force, placing the legitimate right to social protest at the center, in addition to technical and legal support to contingency and future circumstances.
“We have received the good news that the Corporación 20 de Octubre de La Serena – a specialist in human rights – has made its work available to the mobilized communities, which is tremendously positive for the best performance in this environmental fight that they have raised for decades the organized localities”, added the deputy.
In an official statement signed by the water communities in the area, they demand that the company take “responsibility for the contamination of the irrigated soils of the Cuncumén River, due to high concentrations of copper and its production systems,” in addition to the contamination to daily -they add- due to the dust emitted from the MLP operation, which affects “our forestry and agricultural production activity and people’s health”. Likewise, they extend the request to the competent authorities to evaluate the future expansion projects of the mining company: INCO Project (approved in February 2018 and execution progress close to 80%); and the PAO and EVU projects, presented in April 2021 and 2022, respectively, both awaiting the environmental assessment process.
Regarding the petition pending between these three communities and the mining company, the following points are found: compliance with the MLP agreements with the communities in a given time; the establishment of a compensation mechanism under “reasonable criteria”; determine how to resolve the consequences of mining activity on the quality of the air, water and land to ensure reparation to the communities; the table that addresses these issues must be made up of executives with decision-making capacity; and that MLP recognizes the damage caused as a starting point for the resolution of the conflict.
