Comrades from the Association New Democracy have compiled a list of press snippets on the still ongoing protests that highlight, how the current situation in Arequipa in the south of Peru develops. There the struggle that originated around the protest against the Tía María mega-mining project is continuing for close to 60 days and, instead of the protests cooling down, the masses again and again find new ways to raise their protest.
According to different reports, protesters from Tambo Valley blocked many roads in the province of Islay, located inside the region of Arequipa, setting tires ablaze and collapsing trees onto roads so to make them impassable. Images of such a blockade show thick black smoke arsing for a major barricade in that area. Traffic and transportation in this area remains to be heavily impacted with a state of order far from being established. Further reports indicate an attack of at least 30 people carried out in El Arenal in the district of Deán Valdivia.
The Peruvian reaction faces the complex situation, that the struggle that originated from the resistance against Tia Maria has spread and continues to unite more and more people in Peruvians south and that apart from all proposed deals the masses are not pacified. Hence, the current situation is marked also by an upsurge of reactionary violence. Last week it was reported, that the police shot two farmers in Tambo Valley, hitting on in the leg and the other in the abdomen.
The spreading of the struggles and increase of vioelence can also clearly be seen in yesterdays report on the confrontation in the district of Mara, located inside the province of Cotabambas (in Apurimac, the region bordering Arequipa to the north): Here 200 police goons were deployed in an attempt to use heavy machinery to clear away barricades of villagers erected by them after declining an proposal of the mining company MMG Las Bambas and the Peruvian Ministry of Transportation and Communication. When the villagers resisted the destruction of their blockade, the police instigated a confrontation, in which two protesters were wounded.
