The demonstration is organized by indigenous communities, social organizations, teachers and farmers that demand Ollanta Humalla’s administration to stop the gold extractive project in the Conga region and in other several areas that affect the sources of fresh water.

Meanwhile, the demonstrators demand the banning of cyanide and mercury in mining activities and that all mines should have a social license to operate. In the march, where over a thousand people participated, people chanted slogans like “yes to water, no to gold”.

The Conga project implies an investment of 4.8 billion dollars and the use of four lagoons of Cajamarca, two to extract gold and another two to store the residues. An extra official report of the Peruvian Minister of Environment warned about the vulnerability of the ecosystem where the project is planned to be implemented and the risk for underground waters.

The mining project resulted in a massive strike in the affected are in November 2011 and political turmoil in Ollanta Humala’s administration that led to the firing of some ministers who criticized the project. The regional government of Cajamarca declared the project was inviable and it is expected that the 10-day march will further support this resolution.

There will be plenty of activities during the march. The main ones will be the Forum on Water Justice, scheduled for February 9 in Lima and the big peaceful demonstration for water on February 10.

At the same time there will be activities in support to the march. Youth groups, social organizations and human rights groups took to the streets to support the march. There will also be demonstrations in other Peruvian cities.

Another measure of the demonstrators is the creation of a Truth Commission on Mining to investigate all the damages caused by extractive industries over the past 20 years.

Contagio Radio from Colombia reported on the subject and collected on the ground the testimony of Leoncio Vallento, a local authority of Nuevo Peru village, who participated in the demonstratio. He accuses Humala’s administration for supporting the mining project, going against his electoral commitments.

Photo: diarioelpopular.com