"Communities struggle to hold Chinese miners to account in Peru", Dialogue Earth, 30 Jul 2026

The CCCMC [...] launched its mediation mechanism. It allows communities in host countries to submit complaints regarding social and environmental impacts [...].

The Toromocho case was supposed to offer the CCCMC mechanism its first test. After the complaint was accepted, a historic visit was announced: Chinese mediators would travel to Peru in April this year to hear from Elvis Atachahua and his neighbours. However, the visit was cancelled with one day’s notice. The CCCMC’s explanation was brief, telling affected families that travel authorisation had not been granted. No further details or proposals for reorganising the trip were shared.

Daniel says the last-minute cancellation risked “re-traumatising community members who have already been through so much”.

The community was told to redirect its communications to Chinalco’s head of community relations in Peru, Lisset Mesa. Atachahua says Mesa was present on the day of the evictions. Edwin Alejandro, from Red Muqui, an organisation fighting rights violations by the mining sector, says Chinalco has so far been allowed to act as its own “judge and jury” in the case, because the communities have no other recourse.

Neither the CCCMC nor Chinalco has responded to Dialogue Earth’s requests for comments regarding the case.

[...] in recent years, the Chinese government has published a plethora of documents aimed at raising the human rights and environmental standards of Chinese companies’ investments overseas. [...].