Over the last years mining projects have become the principal source of social conflict in Peru, due to the enormous expansion of the sector throughout the country. Conflicts can have very different kind of reasons (access to land and water, financial compensation for local populations, etc.), but in some cases the economical, political and territorial organisation of Peruvian society itself seem to be at stake. Hoetmer will analyse this scenario, with special emphasis on the conflicts in the northern department of Piura, in which local populations ended up in conflict with the central government due to their rejection of mining (in popular referendums organised by local municipalities) and their claim of the right to choose their own developmental model.
Speaker: Raphael Hoetmer is Coordinator of the Program on Democracy and Global Transformation related to the San Marcos University in Lima, PhD student at the Institute for Social Studies, and colaborator with the National Confederation of Communities Affected by Mining in Peru (CONACAMI).
