Bacilio Mayta - Peasant and Indigenous Patrols Affected by the Conga Mining Mega-Project
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Bacilio Mayta is a human rights defender and president of the Peasant and Indigenous Patrols affected by the Conga mining megaproject in the Cajamarca region.
He was the victim of physical aggression and an attempted kidnapping by persons of unknown identity. In the midst of the aggressions, the unknown subjects attempted to hang Mr. Mayta, hit his eyesight, his lung and other parts of his body. Simultaneously, they tied him by the feet, turned him upside down and tried to put him in the hopper of a pick-up truck.
According to the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the threats and aggressions suffered by Mr. Mayta constitute acts of reprisal for his work to protect other human rights defenders and members of the Patrols, as well as for his ongoing work to oppose illegal mining in the district of Huasmín, his denunciation and opposition to the expected environmental damage caused by the viability of the Conga Mining Project of the Yanacocha, S.R.L. company, as well as retaliation for his work in defence of the environment in the region of Cajamarca.