Peruvian Subsistence Farmers Take U.S. Gold Mining Giant to Court
EarthRights International (ERI), together with Máxima Acuña Atalaya de Chaupe and her family, have filed a lawsuit in Delaware federal court against Newmont Mining Corporation and three of its corporate affiliates. The lawsuit seeks to stop a pattern of harassment and physical and psychological abuse that the Chaupe family has suffered at the hands of security personnel working on behalf of Newmont and its corporate affiliates...
The Chaupes are subsistence farmers who reside in the rural highlands of Cajamarca, Peru. They have cultivated crops and raised livestock on a plot of land known as Tragadero Grande for over twenty years. According to the complaint, this all changed in 2011 when agents of Newmont Mining Corporation attempted to forcibly oust Plaintiffs from their farm so that Newmont could expand their gold mining operations. Since then, Newmont's agents have used harassment and violence to try to evict Plaintiffs from their farm...
In 2011, Newmont's Board of Directors approved full funding for Conga, a controversial US$4.8 billion mining project, which engendered strong local opposition – including from the Cajamarca Regional Government – due to concerns about the mine's impacts on local water supplies. For years, the surrounding communities have organized and held nonviolent protests against Conga.
The protests have been met with violent repression by the Peruvian National Police (PNP), under contract to Newmont's local affiliate...