On May 4, the bodies of the 13 Peruvian miners who were missing in Pataz, La Libertad, were found. The remains of the workers were found in a mining tunnel belonging to Poderosa, one of the largest mining companies in Peru, which mines gold in that region. According to the company, a total of 39 mining workers have been killed by criminal groups in the recent period.
Hours before the bodies were found, the alleged kidnappers released a video on social media showing the cold-blooded execution of the miners with point-blank shots, which has caused commotion in Peru. According to some reports, the government did not directly inform the families of the kidnapped victims about the discovery; instead, the families found out on their own.
The 13 workers were subcontracted to work at Poderosa. Many have speculated that their abduction and murder was an act of intimidation by mafias linked to illegal mining, aimed at driving out competition and securing control over the area’s mining operations.
The main suspect in the massacre, Miguel Rodríguez Díaz, appears to have fled Peru and is now in Colombia. Colombian migratory authorities announced that Rodríguez Díaz was “admitted following the established protocols” as there was “no migratory alert in the control systems” from the government of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte.
This news has caused unease among the miners’ families, who have questioned how the Boluarte government can accuse Rodríguez Díaz yet took no steps to have him apprehended.
Who is to blame for the rising insecurity?
Insecurity in Peru has been increasing steadily for several months, and citizens seem to blame the inaction of Boluarte’s government. According to the pollster IPSOS, “56% of Peruvians believe Dina Boluarte is responsible for citizen insecurity. Citizens do not feel protected by the institutions that are supposed to fight crime, and point to them as responsible for the situation in the country.”
According to lawyer Andy Carrión, “Peruvians have identified the real problem very well, because it is the Presidency of the Republic that autonomously chooses the Minister of the Interior and coordinates citizen security policies. Peruvians also perceive that the Congress is not contributing, normatively speaking, in the fight against crime.”
Boluarte’s unfulfilled promises
This is why the brutal murder of the miners in Pataz has turned the spotlight on President Boluarte, who on May 7 suggested a series of urgent measures that have not yet been implemented through official decrees. Boluarte announced that Congress will be asked to classify the crime of extortion and hired assassination as “urban terrorism”. The government announced that, if Congress did not prioritize its request, it would do so independently.
Another of Boluarte’s announcements was the suspension of all mining activity in Pataz and the militarization of the area, which has been widely discussed by the local mayor, Aldo Carlos Mariño, arguing that such a measure would provoke enormous unemployment in the region; the measure, he assures, does not destroy the cause of the problem, but only hides it.
Hours later, the Secretary of Energy and Mines, Julio Diaz Zuelta, clarified that this measure would only apply to mining projects that have not completed their formalization process with the state. More than 200 small mining companies are operating in Pataz, so the decision to suspend all mining activity could provoke a severe economic crisis in the region.
Boluarte also decreed a curfew from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am beginning on May 8 for 30 days.
These measures are in addition to those already taken by the central government, which has declared an emergency in several areas of the country, including the capital, Lima, have seemingly been insufficient to decrease crime in the country.
Protests against Boluarte’s government announced
After meeting with the president of the nation, the mayor of Pataz, Mariño, informed that he will call for an indefinite strike to begin on June 5 to demand greater action by the government, the national congress, and the Secretary of the Interior. Later the Pataz mayor announced that he would travel to Lima and embark on a hunger strike to push for those demands.
Meanwhile, the wave of insecurity across the country, including the massacre in Pataz and continued extortion and violence in Peru’s capital, has driven small business owners, street vendors, transportation workers, and others to call for a national strike on May 14. The Guild of Transport Workers of Peru as well as the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP) are key promoters of the strike to demand that the national government take strong measures to address the issue of violence which affects all.
Julio Campos, vice president of the National Transport Alliance, stated, “Now it’s not just us transport workers, but all sectors, including teachers, students from different universities, markets, Gamarra, Malvinas, schools, parents, Apafas, and other union organizations, such as CGTP, SUTEP, FENATE, and PERÚ CUT.”
