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About GRUFIDES:
GRUFIDES (El Grupo de Formacion Integral para el Desarrollo Sostenible) is a non-governmental organization that focuses on sustainable development and environmental issues in the province of Cajamarca in northern Peru.
GRUFIDES is actively supporting communities affected by Newmont Mining's Yanacocha gold mine. They work closely with campesino (peasant) communities, providing them with environmental training and legal advice.
GRUFIDES recently became involved in supporting the cases of two campesino activists who were allegedly assassinated, one in August and one in November 2006, apparently as a result of their opposition to the expansion of the Yanacocha mining project. The threats against GRUFIDES staff and members appear to have started shortly after the first alleged assassination.
Threats to GRUFIDES and its members:
Father Marco Arana and Dr. Mirtha Vasquez Chuquilin, president and executive director of GRUFIDES respectively, have received repeated death threats and have been followed and filmed both at work and at home. Other GRUFIDES members have also been the target of threats and intimidation in recent months.
On August 31st, Dr. Mirtha Vasquez Chuquilin received an anonymous telephone call and was told: ''Te vamos a violar y luego te vamos a matar'' (We will rape you and then we will kill you). Father Marco Arana received anonymous death threats by telephone on both August 3 and 4. On September 27, Father Arana's niece received a telephone call and was told: ''Dile a tu tio que no se meta, le vamos a disparar un balazo en la cabeza'' (Tell your uncle not to get involved, we will put a bullet through his head).
Father Marco Arana and Dr. Mirtha Vasquez Chuquilin, as well as other members of GRUFIDES, have also been followed by unidentified individuals on motorbikes, and have also been filmed and photographed in the street. On September 23, the home of a member of GRUFIDES was broken into, and documents and computer files relating to the work of the organization were searched. Nothing was taken in the raid.
The Yanacocha mine and community opposition:
The Yanacocha gold mine is the largest gold mine in Latin America, and the second largest in the world. Its majority owner is Denver-based Newmont Mining. The
International Finance Corporation, the World Bank's private sector arm, holds a 5% stake in the mine.
The mine operates in an environmentally sensitive area full of farms that rely on water coming from the mountains in the mine area. There have been repeated community protests over concerns about the mine's impact on the environmental and local water resources. A June 2000 mercury spill along a 43-kilometer stretch of road through 4 local towns affected more than 1,000 people. Many continue to report health effects.
There is also strong opposition to the mine's expansion. In September 2004, thousands of people staged demonstrations against the expansion of Yanacocha to Cerro Quilish, a mountain that local residents believe sits atop the watershed supplying an entire valley of farmers and the city of Cajamarca. Realizing the depth of local opposition to the mine's expansion, Newmont announced that it would halt its exploration activities on Cerro Quilish.
More recently in August 2006, protests were held against Yanacocha's expansion to Carachuga over issues related to the number of jobs, measures to protect local water supplies, and social investment programs. Several demonstrators were injured, and one was shot dead during violent clashes with police and security personnel.
Then on November 2nd, Edmundo Becerra Corina, an environmentalist and a critic of the Yanacocha mine, was shot dead in Yanacanchilla, Cajamarca. He had reportedly received several death threats because of his opposition to the expansion of the mining company's activities in the region. The attack took place days before he was due to meet with representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
GRUFIDES is investigating the assassination of Edmundo Becerra Corina, and has provided support for the families of those protestors that were injured and killed in the demonstrations in August.
"UN Mission Probes Private Security Groups," IPS (February 7, 2007)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36478
"Spies bedevil Peruvian environmental priest," Catholic News (February 12, 2007)
http://www.cathnews.com/news/702/61.php
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