They put pressure on the Government again. The informal miners of Confemin —led by their president, Máximo Franco Bequer, an activist from Rafael López Aliaga’s Renovación Popular; from the union’s legal advisor, Adolfo Valverde, a member of Perú Libre, from Vladimir Cerrón; and the main leader of Pataz (Ama-Pataz), José Torrealva, a Podemos activist, of José Luna Gálvez—announced, through a statement published on their social networks, that they will carry out a national mobilization for next Monday the 30th.
This, to demand the Executive to promulgate the law that expands the Comprehensive Registry of Mining Formalization (Reinfo), until before the 31st of this month, because if not from that date they will become illegal miners.
This is the Confemin statement announcing the protests.
According to the Confemin statement, in a national meeting of the aforementioned union, in which the leaders, the mining bases and the advisors participated – held on the 23rd of this month -, they made this decision because the Executive still “has not promulgated the signature of the law that establishes the stewardship and the extension of the term of the process of comprehensive mining formalization of the activity in small and artisanal mining.
Confemin justified that the new day of protest will be held because “the formalization process concludes on December 31, 2024 and that as of January 1, 2025, all miners in the formalization process will be Illegal and in the absence of a political decision of President Dina Ercllia Boluarte Zegarra to promulgate the signature of the law, putting at serious risk our right to work that will harm 500 thousand families directly and 4 million people indirectly”.
THEY REQUEST THE RESIGNATION OF THE VICE MINISTER AND DIRECTOR OF THE REINFO
The two agreements made, the statement indicates, are: to call for the fifth national mobilization of Confemin, starting on December 30, 2024, in Lima and all of Peru, until the final solution, “guaranteeing the participation of approximately 500 thousand operators miners and their productive chain”, and demand from the Executive Branch the immediate removal of Henry Luna Córdova, vice minister of Mines, and Mayra Mercedes Elisabeth Figueroa, general director of formalization mining, for being enemies of the artisanal miners of Peru”.
THEY PUT AN AGENDA TO THE MINISTER
Last Friday the 13th, which is supposedly a date of bad luck, was not one for informal miners, Peru21 reported on Friday the 20th.
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, that day, with the new Minister of Energy and Mines, Jorge Luis Montero.
After achieving the censorship of Rómulo Mucho and the one-year extension of the Reinfo, and favoring illegal mining, they have now begun to put their hands in the Small Mining and Artisanal Mining Law, MAPE Law, so that it is written just as they they want.
This, to be favored, and place some of their demands and tricks, in that norm, such as the shortening of the time of mining concessions and their redistribution.
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, pointed out to Perú21 last Monday the 16th that illegal miners use the Reinfo papers, to which informal miners belong, which are provided to them by those who have that valid document, 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 the 18th, 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 load 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 the 13th, the informal miners not only set the agenda but the minister played the music that their ears like.
Once the meeting was concluded, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) released a statement in which 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.
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 a year.
THE MINING COMPANY LEAVES
To put the cherry on the cake of this informal-illegal mining plot, this medium revealed, on Wednesday the 18th, that an evident partiality of the president of the Energy Commission, Paul Gutiérrez (Bloque Magisterial), with the illegal and informal miners has been proven. , the National Mining Society (SNMPE) announced its withdrawal from the work table for the preparation of the new Law on 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 has already been presented and which we consider to be a departure from that approach, without having finished listening to and analyzing the opinions and technical proposals of those invited to the table.” , points out the union in a letter addressed to the head of the commission.
So far, the informal miners, who are playing against the wall with illegal mining, are winning the game. But, as in any novel, the ending is always unexpected and illogical.
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