#LASCWeds Talk: Mining Conflicts in Cajamarca (Peru), by Lynda Sullivan

dublin | worker & community struggles and protests | event notice Wednesday January 20, 2016 22:29 by lasc - Latin America Solidarity Centre

In the northern highlands of Peru, in a region known as Cajamarca, indigenous-campesino communities are struggling to protect their land and their water supply from destruction. A multinational mining corporation, backed up by the World Bank, wants to turn the mountain lakes, the source of water for tens of thousands of subsistence farmers, into immense open pits. This would be the biggest extractive project that Latin America has ever seen.

Speaker: Lynda Sullivan

Weds 27th Jan @ 7pm

In the northern highlands of Peru, in a region known as Cajamarca, indigenous-campesino communities are struggling to protect their land and their water supply from destruction. A multinational mining corporation, backed up by the World Bank, wants to turn the mountain lakes, the source of water for tens of thousands of subsistence farmers, into immense open pits. This would be the biggest extractive project that Latin America has ever seen.

In the face of this mega threat the local population has organised and resisted, and have managed to have the project suspended. However they have had to endure aggressive repression from the Peruvian state, a repression that has cost five lives and has left scores seriously injured. The criminalisation of the social protest and constant judicial harassment has also been a strategy employed by the state and the mining company.

To make matters worse, the population has had to take on another battle - to save the Maranon River from being dammed up to provide energy for the mega mining projects. This would also lead to forced displacement of communities and severe environmental degradation.

This talk will focus on giving a background to the conflict in Cajamarca, understanding its root causes and discussing how we can show solidarity.

Speaker:

Lynda Sullivan is an Irish activist and freelance journalist who has been living in Cajamarca for the past three years. She has been helping in the defence of the land and water and regularly reports on the situation to raise awareness and build international solidarity.

Wednesday 27th of January @ 7pm

Venue: Comhlamh, 12 Parliament St, Dublin 2