Raphael Hoetmer, Lima

From December 10th till the 15th several hundred farmers marched more then 200 kilometres, from Ayabaca to Piura in the north of Peru. This march of sacrifice” was intended to demand recognition by the national government of the results of a September 16, 2007, referendum, in which they had rejected the development of mining activities in their territories. The march culminated in the departmental capital, Piura, with a massive protest march against mining, and the second Meeting of Communities and Social Organizations of the North of Peru.

Walking through the desert, between Tambogrande and Sullana, the young woman farmer Juana tells us: “I am not tired. I am happy to walk, as this is part of our struggle. It makes us stronger. We do not want mining. We want water and life. Therefore we can’t be tired.” The sun burns without mercy on the heads of more than five hundred men and women from the twenty-one farming communities of Ayabaca. Their hats protect them against the burning sun, and they walk with traditional whips in hand. The protesters sleep in so-called tambos, which include the municipal theatre in Tambogrande, and a quiet spot in the grass, just next to the Pan-American Highway before it enters Piura

Magdiel Carrión, President of the Provincial Federation of Farmer Comnunities of Ayabaca(FEPROCCA), states that the farmers are marching because of the attitude of the government in Lima: “We have been very clear. We do not want mining in our communities, it contaminates the water,creates conflicts, and doesn’t even bring us sustainable development. As communities we have our own developmental model, based on farming, ecotourism and our social organization. We have the same rights as the people of Lima, and all other Peruvians. Both Peruvian and international law recognises the democratic right of communities to decide their own future”.

The protest of the community members is directed towards the mining project of the Rio Blanco corporation, which hopes to develop the second largest copper mine of Peru right inside the territories of the farming communities of Yanta (Ayabaca) and Segunda y Cajas (Huancabamba) The Chinese/British company Majaz has been exploring the zone since 2003, hoping to thus

inaugurate a much larger “mining district”, for the exploitation of the abundant reserves of minerals and precious metals in the region. However, the presence of Majaz is illegal, as it has never obtained – as Peruvian law requires – the necessary permission from the communities.

Resistance and Dialogue

The activities of the Majaz company have met the resistance of the communities since they began. Supported by human rights organizations, environmental activists, scientists and parts of the Catholic Church, the farmers oppose the mining activities in the zone. They fear the possible

consequences in terms of deforestation, contamination of the rivers and lands of the farmers, damage to the rare ecosystem of the cloud forests, and an increase in social conflicts in the region. Peru has various experiences with the negative impacts of mining, which include children with lead in their blood in Cerro de Pasco and Callao, and the case of La Oroya, which has been declared the most polluted city of Latin America. This is especially worrying, as Peru doesn’t have an autonomous body for the supervision, avoidance and sanctioning of environmental and social damage caused by mining projects. Faced by the on-going explorations of Majaz - supported by the national government -, the farmers founded the Front for Sustainable Development on the Northern Border of Peru (FSDNBP). This unites communities, social organizations and municipalities of Piura, with potentially-affected areas of the neighbouring department of Cajamarca. Between 2004 and 2005 the communities twice marched towards the mine, which is located in a remote area. They faced heavy police repression that left two farmers dead, various injured and a several dozen on trial.

September 16th, 2007, the search for a democratic solution to the conflict resulted in a ‘citizens’ consultation’ on mining in the involved municipalities of Ayabaca, Pacaipampa and Carmen de la Frontera. Sixty percent of the population participated in the referendum, and over ninety

percent rejected mining activity, despite an extreme campaign against the consultation launched by the national government, the Majaz company and various media bodies. This campaign insisted on the illegality of the referendum and accused its organizers of being terrorists and communists.

Both the Peruvian Ombudsman and the Human Rights Commission of the Ministry of Justice denied the asserted illegality of the consultation.

The Peruvian government clearly showed its position in response to the overwhelming result of the consultation: it convoked a dialogue with the involved municipalities, but simultaneously declared Rio Blanco and nineteen other mining projects to be of “national interest”. The dialogue broke down

on the 6th of December, in its third meeting, as the Prime Minister, Jorge del Castillo, left the meeting, angered at the insistence of the municipalities that the consultation be on the agenda. On top of this, the illegal concession for exploratory activities, with which Majaz has legitimized its activities, expired on November 28th, leaving the company without any legal without even the pretence of a legal? basis for its presence in the region.

In defence of the communities

In this situation, the FEPROCCA, the Central of Rondas Campesinas of Ayabaca based in Hualcuy -for which see below-, and other provincial organizations, decided, in various communal assemblies, to organize a “march of sacrifice”. This was for recognition of the consultation and the right to define their own model of development. The march was organized in coordination with

Conacami (the National Confederation of Mining-Affected Communities), which was present during the whole week, with community leaders from the wide-spread departments of Moquegua, Arequipa, Cerro de Pasco, Ancash, Huancavelica and Lima.

The participants in the march were leaders of the Rondas Campesinas (Farmers’ Circles), which are crucial to the social organization of the farmer communities in the north of Peru. The Rondas emerged at the end of the 1970s, as a response towards state inability or lack of interest in

controlling the rise of cattle-rustling in the zone. The community members started to organize collective patrols, and in the following decades assumed more tasks in the communities, including part of the administration of justice. Recently, the Rondas have been providing political leadership in defence of the identity and traditions of the communities of northern Peru.

The president of Conacami, Mario Palacios, therefore sees the march as part of a broader struggle: “This government has declared war on the communities, with various legal proposals to protect mining projects, take away rights of the communities, and simultaneously criminalize protest and allow the military to participate in the repression of demonstrations. In this way they want to expropriate the lands of the communities to give them to the transnational mining companies. Therefore they have launched a campaign to delegitimize us, by saying that we are backward organizations incapable of generating development. But the communities are Peru. We do want development, but a development that values our identity as indigenous peoples, based on solidarity, reciprocity and harmony with mother nature.”

Solidarity with Ayabaca

During the long days of walking, the farmers receive numerous gestures of solidarity, from their neighbours in Paimas, Las Lomas, Cieneguillo, Pedregal, Sullana and Piura. The welcome in Tambogrande was even warmer. Here the mining project of the Manhattan corporation had been defeated by popular protest - after the first referendum on mining worldwide – in 2002. The struggle of Tambogrande has become an international example, and has been crucial in the struggle of the Ayabaquinos as well. Presently, the mango- and lemon- lemon, lime? growers of the Front for the Defence of Tambogrande and the Valley of San Lorenzo (FDTVSL), are part of the Front for Sustainable Development on the Northern Border of Peru.

According to Luis Riofrío of the FDTVSL, the band between Tambogrande and Ayabaca is very strong: “We feel very close to the Ayabaquinos for two reasons. Firstly, the water we use for our agriculture comes from their heights. A mining project in Ayabaca will destroy our possibilities of

agriculture in the Valley of San Lorenzo. Moreover, Ayabaca hosts our most important pilgrimage, which we celebrate each year in October. The Ayabaquinos are like our brothers”. Dozens of Tambograndinos show this is true, by handing out mangos to marchers along the way.

After six days of walking, the march arrived in Piura, where the 2^nd Meeting of Communities and Social Organizations of the North of Peru took place on Sunday, December 16th. Almost a thousand community members, from the departments of Lambayeque, La Libertad, Piura and Cajamarca participated in the popular assembly. Their fighting spirit was well-expressed by a leader

from Cajamarca: “They have made us believe that politics is something for people above us, but when it comes to pillage and hunger, shouldn’t we consider this political? As ronderos, we administer justice and guarantee order. We are already a social power, now it is time to construct political

power.” Gregorio Santos, the foremost leader of the ronderos in Cajamarca, stated: “Our struggle is political, and consequently we are calling, together with Mario Palacios, for greater farmer unity”.

The final declaration of the meeting expressed its support for the march of the communities of Ayabaca. Moreover, it affirmed the necessity for building “popular and community power”, for the realization of “a reciprocal transformatory development project, in harmony with nature”, as an

alternative to the “present primary-export model of development”. One of the decisions of the meeting was for a ‘Major Farmer, Worker and Popular March to the Palace of Government’, which should take place in Lima, in May 2008. This would be just before the ‘People’s Summit: Connecting Alternatives’, being organized as a counter-meeting to the presidential summit of the

European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean in Lima. Finally, the document demands a constitutional assembly, for the re-foundation of Peru as a “pluri-cultural country” based on “communitarian democracy”.

Changing Times in Peru?

The week of activities culminated on Monday, December 17th, in a massive march through the streets of Piura that demanded the right to self-determination for the communities. Apart from community members, participants included youth organizations, members of some political parties, social and institutions from Lima, trade unions and seven hundred people from Tambogrande. More then seven thousand people marched from the building of the Ayabaquinos to the city centre.

The march of the Ayabaquinos, the meeting of the communities, and the demonstration in Piura, are a clear signal to the government of Alan Garcia, coming from a region which traditionally supports his APRA party. On the one hand, it shows that the communities of Yanta and Segunda y Cajas are not

alone in their struggle. On the contrary, they are supported by the communities of their provinces, by the Front for the Defence of Tambogrande and the Valley of San Lorenzo, and by social and community organizations of the rest of Peru.

This situation demands a change of strategy by the government and the mining company, in their attempt to break the resistance of the communities. For Garcia retreat is not an option, as this would open the door for referenda in the dozens of communities and cities around the country that are opposed to mining. It is therefore to be expected that the pressure on the communities will increase through trials of their leaders, the intent to divide their ranks through bribery and intimidation, and an increasing militarization of the zone.

On the other hand, the events of this week in Piura mark an important moment in the reconstruction of the social organizations in Peru. The internal war (1980-1995), profound economic crisis, the Fujimori dictatorship and the neoliberalization of society of the 1980s-90s, left the social structures of society devastated. The Second Meeting of Communities and Social Organizations of the North of Peru was characterised by the will to build alliances and define commonalities, instead of the old disputes in the progressive forces of the country. This is partly due to the right-authoritarian turn of the Garcia government, but also shows the growing force of social organizations in the country.

In any case, it is becoming clear that the insistence of Garcia on radical neoliberal and centralizing policies inevitably leads to political polarization and the deepening of social conflicts. The main response of the government to the growing social unrest has so far been the repression of mobilizations, leaving, according to the human rights organization, Aprodeh, ten people death in the last eighteen months. For the communities there is, however, a lot at stake. As Mario Palacios of Conacami clearly states: “These days in Piura have been very important for the social movement and communities in Peru. We have shown that we are going to defend our way of

live, our identity, and our territories. And that struggle doesn’t end today. It might have just started.”