In spite of the round-table meeting (mesa de diálogo) between communities, local officials, MMG and ministerial delegations earlier this month, violence has once again broken out at Las Bambas. On 14 October, one person was reported killed and many injured in a battle between police and community members. Quintino Cereceda Huisa is the first person to lose his life in a socio-environmental conflict during the present government. He was shot in the head.

As in the past, conflict centres on the road that passes through community lands, used by MMG to transport mineral from the mine to the port of Matarani. Community members were blocking the road.

The agreement reached at the mesa de dialogo included a deal by which this dirt road would be paved at the company’s expense.

However, community members from Pumamarca, Choqega and Allahua in Tambobamba district, as well as from Qehuira in Challhuahuacho district, have continued to protest at the lack of agreements which would deal with the negative effects of transporting concentrates through their communities and the company’s failure to win community permission for trucks to drive over community land.

It seems that not all community members were happy about the way in which representatives took part in the mesa de diálogo http://www.conflictosmineros.org.pe/node/282