The police force has this month resumed efforts to deal with illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios, the heart of such operations, by burning down more than 50 production camps. This follows a six-month break, due apparently to the diversion of police activities to controlling protest at Tía María in Arequipa.  The authorities seem to have learnt little from the great speed at which these activities resumed over these six months. Illegal businesses and livelihoods have been damaged by this latest bout of police activity, but valuable machinery could not be found having been successfully hidden, sometimes in muddy swamps. Repression still seems to be the essence of the policy response rather than proper consideration of the deeper causes of these activities or measures to deal with the whole production chain.