PERU: Huanta paralyzes against the plundering of the great imperialist mining and the big bourgeoisie
We hereby share an article published in Nuevo Peru website.
Introduction:
This process of great plundering has been intensifying since the 1990s, and clearly reveals the semi-feudal and semi-colonial character of Peruvian society, the farce of a “free market economy” or “democracy” that the imperialists, mainly North Americans, the big bourgeoisie and landowners of our country crow about.
Here, we offer the news of the latest strike of the peasantry and the population in Huanta against the plundering of the big imperialist mining and the big bourgeoisie, which adds to many others carried out in the month of July in the south of the country. Then an extract from a communiqué from the South Regional of Huancavelica and then the graphic document of the same.
1. The news:
Residents have closed all access to the city of Ayacucho. They are not only asking that the authorities take measures to prevent the contamination of their main source of water, but that all mining activity that threatens their natural resources be prohibited.
Analí Espinoza (Infobae)
By
Analí Espinoza
06 Aug,
Wilfredo Oscorima was almost lynched by protesters of anti-mining strike in Huanta: governor fled in helicopter.
The popular measure that began on August 5 aims to demand the departure of the mining companies that have located themselves in the upper part of the province and that, according to the protesters’ complaint, are contaminating their main source of water: the Razuhuillca basin.
The roads leading to Huanta continue to be blocked with trees and stones, and the shops and markets are closed. Also, according to videos spread on social networks, the protesters walk the streets shouting slogans such as “Water yes, mine no.”
“Our request is fair. The people of Huanta are demanding the vindication of our Razuhuillca basin (…) Until when will the people be oppressed, why is the regional governor in the Pampa de Junín; why is he not looking for bridges of dialogue, while the people are here fighting,” said one of the leaders during a rally in the Huanta plaza.
It should be noted that the regional government of Ayacucho, headed by Wilfredo Oscorima, issued a statement urging the population to be patient, assuring that they are working to meet their demands. In the message, it was detailed that the closure of the mining companies Comunidad Americana FTH S.A.C. and that of Richard Figueroa Auccatoma has been requested, which have hindered the oversight work of the Regional Directorate of Energy and Mines. In addition, the signing of an agreement with the National Water Authority to safeguard the headwaters of the basin from mining activities was announced.
2. Statement on the situation of the country (extract)
Contemporary Peruvian society is going through the worst crisis in its history. We have an old bureaucratic, police and military landowner State, that is to say a dictatorship of big bourgeois and landowners, under the command of imperialism, mainly North American.
A representative ‘democracy’ that no longer gives for more, as bourgeois analysts such as Francisco Durán said: a business republic, or Fernando Altuve: a monopolistic republic, these have already completed their cycle; the deepening of neoliberal politics in Latin America leads to overexploitation and greater oppression that is covered up with the term ‘increased inequality’.
According to a report by the British NGO Oxfam: “…In the region, the richest 10% concentrate 68% of the total wealth and the poorest 50% only have access to 3.5% of the total wealth.”
This process has been intensifying since the 1990s, and clearly reveals the semi-feudal and semi-colonial nature of Peruvian society, the farce of a “free market economy” or “democracy” that the imperialists, mainly North Americans, the big bourgeoisie and landowners of our country crow about to cover up the plundering and concentration of wealth, natural resources, energy and services, via privatization and concessions.
Various analysts point out that ‘Peru is already highly oligopolized with corporations that have more than 95% of the market in their hands. Example: written press 78%, pharmacies and drugstores 83%, milk (Gloria group) 75%, breweries (Backus and Johnson) 99%, domestic gas 73%, airlines 72%, taps 65%, fishmeal concentrated in 4 groups that control 71% of the market, BCP, BBVA, SCOTIABANK and INTERBANK own 95% of the net profit of the sector and 83% of credits and deposits, Alicorp (Romero group) has 95% of food products, and to cite another fact, the Agrarian Magazine points out that “22 investors control a good part of the lands of the coastal strip… Gloria, Romero, Oviedo and Dyer (favored by the mega irrigation projects that invest in sugar, biofuels and in the land market), from the group of the imperialists are the Manuelita group, Damper, Maple, or the agricultural society rapel, who own hundreds of thousands of hectares of wild land.
If we talk about mining, according to the Guide for mining investment in Peru 2022-2023, Peru is the second largest producer of copper in the world, in addition to producing gold, silver, zinc, lead, tin, molybdenum and most importantly lithium, the most coveted mineral by Yankee and Chinese investors… and according to the ‘Portfolio of Mining Investment Projects 2023’, there are 47 mining projects, distributed in 18 regions of our country, including ‘Pucaqaqa south of the company NEXA Resources Peru, many of them in execution that require expansion and/or renewal of the contracts-law. This is what worries the imperialists, mainly North Americans, the most! who have always been and are behind the political decisions of the governments in power, the Congress of the Republic and all the powers of the State, the Armed Forces and the police, the CONFIEP, the Catholic Church, the mercenary press of the capital, pro-employer union organizations such as the CGTP, CEN of the SUTEP, FENATEPERÚ, all of them ganged up in the Forum of the National Agreement, have the urgent need to sign said contracts.
The educational reality of our country is one of total abandonment and precariousness, with a gap in educational infrastructure and equipment that exceeds 153 billion soles, IIEE in more than 95% that require in many cases new premises, and as a lifeline they bring out the failed ‘municipalization’, ‘concessions’, ‘adoptions’ and even the ‘educational voucher’ so that the private company or, failing that, the municipalities take charge of education. There is a curriculum at the service of the interests of the large transnationals and not at the service of the country; that is, a neoliberal educational policy that only seeks to deepen private education, to the detriment and precariousness of public education, free and run by the State.
Sute Regional Huancavelica
3. Copy of the declaration of the Huancavelica Regional Sute