The Peru Support Group would like to express our sincere solidarity with the family, friends, and the entire community of Espinar, following the killing of one of their most renowned social leaders, human rights and environmental defenders, Oscar Mollohuanca. His body was found on the streets of Espinar on 7 March, approximately 300 metres from his home, naked from the waist up. The circumstances around his death remain unknown.

Numerous homages have been paid by the Peruvian human rights community expressing their shock and sadness and highlighting the legacy of his work in the defence of human rights and the local environment. Oscar Mollohuanca had been the mayor of Espinar for two periods and was one of those leaders who faced lengthy and unfounded criminal proceedings for his participation in the social protests that took place in 2012 against mining company Glencore (then Xstrata-Tintaya).

The protesters claimed that the expansion of the mining activities in Espinar would continue to threaten their livelihoods and cause further contamination of water and the atmosphere. His arrest, and that of other leaders, caused much concern at the time for the lack of due process and other legal abuses. After more than eight years of legal proceedings, in December 2020, they were finally cleared of all charges.

According to the Cuzco-based organisation, Derechos Humanos sin Fronteras, Mollohuanca was planning on standing as a candidate in the upcoming municipal elections to represent the district of Pallpata in the area of influence of Glencore’s Coroccohuayco mine expansion project.

We join civil society organizations and the Peruvian Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo) in requesting an immediate, full, impartial and transparent investigation into the causes that led to Mollohuanca’s death.