[Excerpt translation from Spanish to English provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

...In this advocacy agenda, meetings have been held with the Permanent Mission of Peru in Geneva in which Rodolfo Abarca, representative of the Defense Front of Cotabambas, also participates. He shared the situation of criminalization that his and 18 other community members are experiencing for protesting in the conflict of Las Bambas in 2015... Let's remember that in Peru, specifically in the mining corridor of the southern Andes, two large companies are present: the Chinese state-owned company MMG with the Las Bambas mining project in Cotabambas, Apurímac, and on the other hand the Swiss privately owned company Glencore, which has a presence in the Cusco province of Espinar with the Antapaccay mining project... Mining activity in both cases has seriously impacted human rights.  Currently, there are more than 700 people with heavy metals in Espinar, Cusco, as a result of the contamination generated by mining activity in the water. 19 people in Cotabambas, Apurímac have been criminalized and accused of material damages to the company MMG during the social conflict of Las Bambas and have been waiting more than 4 years for their trial to be resolved, which has been postponed up to 6 consecutive times. Added to this is the fear and anguish generated throughout the mining corridor by the constant declarations of a state of emergency that threaten the right to free transit. There are around 72 communities and 142 populated centers that are being affected by the dust, vibrations and noise generated by the more than 250 trucks that pass through the mining corridor.