"COMMUNITY MEMBERS OF MOQUEGUA ARE VIOLENTLY EVICTED AND HOLDEN BY SOUTHERN COPPER'S CUAJONE MINE GUARDIANS", 11 March 2022

...60 security workers of the mining company Southern Peru, violently evicted and illegally held for several hours 20 community members of the peasant community of Tumilaca, Pocata, Coscore and Tala in the sector of the Viña Blanca dam...According to the information given to Radio Americana de Moquegua, at least one community member was seriously injured in this violent eviction. According to local authorities, the aim of the repressive action by Southern Copper, a subsidiary of the conglomerate Grupo Mexico, was to open the water valves of the reservoir that supplies the Cuajone copper mine camp located in the district of Torata, province of Mariscal Nieto, department of Moquegua....

The villagers had taken over these facilities as a form of rejection of the planned expansion of the Cuajone mine. Southern plans to expand the capacity of the Cuajone concentrator plant from 85,000 to 120,000 tons of ore per day, which would generate an even greater demand for water and the consequent contamination of the Torata River, as the communities living in its basin have confirmed.

The communities...demand the presence of a "high-level commission" made up of the premier, Aníbal Torres, and the heads of the ministries of Energy and Mines, Environment and Agrarian Development and Irrigation. With this they seek... to agree on some minimum requirements regarding the use and prevention of contamination of the river...

(Translated by the BHRRC - Full article in Spanish here)