Are we facing the chronicle of the approval of an ASM Law to the liking of informal mining?
After removing the National Mining Society from the table, and getting, through threats of new marches, the Executive to enact the law that extends the Reinfo for up to one year, the informal miners return to the task of their demands, the same ones that also favor, although they deny it, illegal mining.
The Energy and Mines Commission will convene, between the 7th and 8th of this month, a second working group to prepare the new Small Mining and Artisanal Mining Law, ASM Law.
It is very likely that the president of the aforementioned commission, the congressman of the Magisterial Bloc, Paul Gutiérrez, will be present.
Perú21 was able to confirm that the date has not yet been set, the appointment will be for Tuesday the 7th or Wednesday the 8th of the following week. The decision on the date will depend on whether the Legislature has a room available to receive this large contingent of informal miners.
The first working group with informal miners, to review this law, as reported by Perú21, was held on December 16.
On that date, we realized that their unions participated, led by Máximo Franco Bequer (Confemin), an activist from Rafael López Aliaga’s Popular Renewal; and the main leader of Pataz (Ama-Pataz), José Torrealva, a Podemos activist, and José Luna Gálvez.
Although the union’s legal advisor was not present in person that day, Adolfo Valverde, a member of Vladimir Cerrón’s Perú Libre, closely followed the development of the table.
However, for the second work table, scheduled for next week, the presence of Franco, Torrealva and Valverde is assured.
This medium was also able to corroborate that the commission is about to finalize a draft opinion on the ASM Law, which will be agreed upon with the miners’ leaders who will be present.
Five days after that meeting, on December 18, this medium reported that the National Mining Society (SNMPE) was withdrawing from the aforementioned working group.
Because? The SNMPE reported that it did so after verifying an evident partiality of the president of the Energy Commission, Paul Gutiérrez (Bloque Magisterial), towards the illegal and informal miners.
“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 has already been presented and which we consider departs from that approach, without having finished listening to and analyzing the opinions and technical proposals of those invited to the table.” , indicated the union in a letter addressed to the head of the commission.
THEY WILL CONTINUE CONSULTING THE SNMPE
Although the SNMPE has withdrawn from the work table, the Energy and Mining Commission will continue to consult in writing with said union about the details of the new legal opinion, it was learned. Peru21.
On the other hand, it is necessary to remember that the Minister of Energy and Mines, Jorge Luis Montero, met with the informal miners on Friday, December 13, as this newspaper reported.
That day, which was supposedly an unlucky date according to superstition, was not so for the informal miners.
Led by Máximo Franco Bequer, a member of Rafael López Aliaga’s Popular Renewal; from José Torrealva Iparraguirre, a member of José Luna’s Podemos; and Alfonso Valverde Capiluy, a member of Vladimir Cerrón’s Peru Libre, a handful of almost 20 informal miners met, on that date, with Minister Montero.
The appointment was after the informal miners achieved the censorship of Rómulo Mucho and the one-year extension of Reinfo, and indirectly favored illegal mining.
The meeting was to ask that the Executive promulgate the law that extends, for up to one year, the Comprehensive Registry of Mining Formalization (Reinfo), after being approved in Congress.
Because the Executive did not do so, Franco Bequer’s Confemin announced that it would go on strike on December 30. If this law was passed, they would be left as illegal miners because the Reinfo expired on the 31st of that month, was the excuse.
In the end, Dina Boluarte’s government promulgated the law to expand the Reinfo that same day.
But, the MAPE Law is still pending.
At the moment, this is being worked on in the Energy and Mines Commission of Congress. And the Executive will have to send a new bill, after the previous one that was sent by the then minister of the sector, Rómulo Mucho, was discarded.
ILLEGAL MINING MOVES MORE MONEY THAN DRUG TRAFFICKING
The agenda that the informal miners of the National Confederation of Small Mining and Artisanal Mining of Peru (Confemin) and other unions have, plays against the illegal miners, although they deny it, because the latter get around the Reinfo.
The former vice minister of the Interior, Ricardo Valdés, indicated last Monday the 16th to Peru21 that illegal miners use the Reinfo papers, to which informal miners belong – which are provided to them by those who have that document in force -, to transport explosives and the millionaire dirty gold to market it.
According to the former Minister of the Interior, Carlos Basombrío, in a communication with this medium, on that same date, he has indicated that illegal mining moves 6 billion dollars a year, and that this figure is four times greater than what drug trafficking sells. .
That’s not all. On Wednesday, December 18, the president of the Association of Artisanal Miners of Pataz, Ama-Pataz, José Torrealva, told this medium that in his district located in La Libertad, per day, an informal miner can fill a gold dump truck whose cargo is valued between 15 thousand to 20 thousand dollars. And, furthermore, an informal miner can sell between one and four loads a month.
That is, in Pataz, an informal miner from his guild, made up of 1,500 men, can obtain profits of more than 80 thousand dollars per month. Round business.
BANK FOR INFORMAL MINER
That Friday, December 13, when the informal miners met with the Minister of Energy, they not only gave him the agenda but the authority played the music that their ears liked.
Once the meeting was concluded, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) released a statement in which it reported that it will promote the creation of a Mining Fund for Small Mining and Artisanal Mining, which translated into good Christian language is a bank for informal miners. .
The head of the sector, Jorge Luis Montero, told them in that meeting – according to the statement – that miners who wish to participate in the benefits of this fund will be able to register and commit to contributing an annual tax of 0.5% that could amount to about 50 million dollars per year.
Next week will be a key week to see how this story will end, which could be titled, as we began this report, as the chronicle of the approval of an ASM Law to suit informal mining.
