Le PCF condamne l'arrestation de Gregorio Santos Guerrero
Le Parti communiste français exprime sa plus profonde
préoccupation après la détention pour 14 mois de Gregorio Santos Guerrero,
président de la région de Cajamarca. Cette décision de justice a lieu dans le
cadre des élections régionales qui auront lieu le 5 octobre prochain. Elle a
lieu aussi alors que les communautés paysannes et indigènes de cette région se
battent depuis des longues années contre les projets des transnationales d'exploitation
minière qui mettrait en danger les principales sources d'eau de cette région
agricole.
L'engagement de
longue date de Gregorio Santos Guerrero dans la résistance à la surexploitation
des ressources minières et les victoires obtenues face aux transnationales en
sont pas, non plus, sans rapport avec son arrestation. De toute évidence, le
président de la région de Cajamarca est victime d'un procès motivé par des
raisons politiques et par les intérêts des transnationales.
Le président péruvien Ollanta Humala se trouve en ce
moment à Paris et sera reçu par le président François Hollande et par les
responsables du MEDEF.
La France ne peut pas se limiter à voir dans ce pays
une cible de plus pour les investissements de ses transnationales. Il serait
inacceptable que les graves violations des Droits de l'Homme qui ont lieu au
Pérou, soient ignorées.
Le Parti communiste français condamne toute tentative de mise
à l'écarte de Gregorio Santos Guerrero, candidat des forces de gauche de
Cajamarca à la présidence régionale et affirme son soutient avec les
communautés en lutte pour leur droit à vivre dans un environnement
MENSAJE DESDE ESTADOS UNIDOS PIDIENDO LA LIBERTAD DE GREGORIO SANTOS.
Statement of Solidarity with
People of Cajamarca, Peru – Free Goyo!
Alliance for Global Justice
Statement on the Detention of Gregorio “Goyo” Santos, President of the Region
of Cajamarca, Peru
The Alliance for Global
Justice (AfGJ) condemns the preventive incarceration of Gregorio “Goyo” Santos
Guerrero, President of the Region of Cajamarca, Peru (analogous to a US
governor). Goyo’s
election in 2010 was the result of a mass mobilization of the region’s voters.
It reflected a popular struggle against the proposed Conga gold mine involving
an alliance of miners, teachers, farmers, unionists and indigenous communities.
These maintain the gold mine will export not only gold but mega-profits, with
little social investment or sustainable economic development. They also point
out that the mine’s best jobs are being given to outsiders, while there are few
local financial benefits. Cajamarca is the second poorest region in Peru. The
Conga mine is a collaboration between the Denver-based Newmont Mining
Corporation, Buenaventura (Peru) and the International Monetary Fund. Newmont
holds a 51.35% controlling interest.
The Conga
mine is an expansion of the twenty year old Yanacocha mine, Latin America’s
largest gold mine. That mine has already had devastating consequences for the
local ecosystem and residents. The Yanacocha mine completely dried up an
ancient lake and decimated and polluted the main water supply leading into the
capital city of Cajamarca. In 2000 the spill of more than 330 pounds of mercury
being carried by Yanacocha trucks poisoned over 900 residents of Choropampa,
leaving behind a legacy of death, sickness and deformity. The Conga project
would be three times the size of Yanacocha and threatens the system of highland
lakes and waterways that are the area’s main source of irrigation for local
farms and drinking water for hundreds of thousands of residents.
Goyo was
elected because of his outspoken opposition to the Conga project, and because
of his proposals in favor of diversified economic development and funding human
needs. Since assuming office, he has not wavered in these priorities and has
used his position to strengthen the struggle in the streets. This struggle has
caused repeated setbacks for Conga and has impeded the mine’s construction. As
an alternative, Goyo has proposed investment in sustainable farming and
aquaculture, agro-industrial capabilities, and eco-tourism. For this he has
been the victim of a steady stream of slanders and attacks on the part of the
national government, Newmont and its partners, and the corporate media. Since 2011, Goyo has been the target of 38 prosecution cases. Of these, 35
have already been dismissed due to lack of evidence.
Goyo is now
being charged with taking bribes in exchange for 11 public works contracts. No evidence for this has been made public by prosecutors. Meanwhile, Goyo is in the midst of
his reelection campaign. The assertion that Goyo represents a flight risk is
ridiculous. This detention is clearly a political ploy to stop his campaign and
undermine the will of the people.
As a US
based organization, AfGJ has serious questions about the activity of the National
Endowment for Democracy (NED) and USAID in Peru, especially in Cajamarca.
Cajamarca is home to significant projects involving the International
Republican Institute (IRI) and the Center for International Private Enterprise
(CIPE, associated with the US Chambers of Commerce). Both IRI and CIPE are
core-institutes of NED and receive USAID funding. The partnership of US-based
corporate interests backed by these agencies are the kind of combination we
have seen in electoral destabilization efforts from Honduras to Venezuela to
Haiti to Ukraine. We demand a clear and detailed accounting of all NED and
USAID activities in the Cajamarca region.
The
preventive incarceration of Goyo has nothing to do with the due process of law.
It is a bald-faced effort to get Goyo and the popular movement he represents
out of the way. Polls commissioned in 2012 by Ipsos-Apyo show 78% of
Cajamarcans oppose the Conga project, with only 15% expressing support. Jailing
Goyo is a brazen effort aimed at obtaining a regional government that will be
friendly to Newmont, its partners, and the US favored neoliberal model of
private development–communities and ecosystems be damned.
In April, 2013, AfGJ’s James
Jordan visited the Cajamarca region, including the Yanacocha and Conga sites. According to Jordan,
From the moment I arrived, I saw a community united in
opposition to Conga. That morning when I got off the bus, there were already
hundreds of unionists marching against the development. The businesses and
houses were full of anti-Conga signs and placards. Even on one of the
mountainsides, giant letters had been arranged to tell the city: “No a
Conga!” For the entire duration of my visit, every where I went, I saw public
signs of opposition. When I met with the regional government, they expressed
their strong unity with the people against Conga. And when I went into the
mountains, into the lake country, there I saw the guardians of the lakes,
campesinos and indigenous maintaining a 24 hour a day, seven days a week vigil
to watch over the waters and intervene to stop any development by Newmont. It’s so clear to me that the people of Cajamarca don’t want the Conga mine.
That’s why Newmont and the US-favored political powers are doing everything
they can to subvert the people’s wishes.
The Alliance
for Global Justice calls on Newmont Mining Corporation to end the Conga project
and to leave the region. Cajamarca does not want you. We call on the NED, IRI
and CIPE to leave as well, since the only reason these organizations exist is
to manipulate international elections. As NED co-founder Alan Weinstein told
the Washington Post in 1991, “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25
years ago by the CIA.” We call on USAID to end any and all activities related
to political advocacy and the funding and advising of Peruvian political
parties and movements, especially in Cajamarca.
Most of all,
we call on the Peruvian national government, the Ministry of the Interior and
the prosecutor’s office in Cajamarca to release Goyo from so-called preventive
incarceration and respect the will of the Peruvian people and stop sabotaging
the region’s elections.
Fuente : http://afgj.org/statement-of-solidarity-with-people-of-cajamarca-peru-free-goyo
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