Lima, (EFE).- Peru’s government imposed a nighttime curfew and authorized military control in the remote Andean district of Pataz, following the abduction and murder of 13 security workers at the Poderosa gold mine.
The decision, announced Monday by President Dina Boluarte, comes amid growing national outrage over rampant violence linked to illegal mining.
The killings have sent shockwaves across Peru, the Confederation of Private Business Institutions (Confiep), the country’s most powerful business guild, condemned the attack, calling it a sign that “the state has lost control of security in Pataz, and in much of the country.”
In a public statement, the group compared the massacre to atrocities committed during Peru’s internal armed conflict, which claimed 69,000 lives between 1980 and 2000.
“This spiral of violence is a reflection of systematic disorder,” the statement read.
“The barbarity shown in the execution of these miners reminds us of the darkest years when Sendero Luminoso and MRTA terrorized Peru,” it added referring to the famous Peruvian guerrilla group, active during the armed conflict.
Interior Minister contradicts Cabinet over timeline
Interior Minister Julio Díaz Zulueta traveled to La Libertad region to oversee police operations and confirmed that authorities had been searching for the workers for five days before discovering their bodies on Sunday.
“The victims were taken from a tunnel entrance on Apr. 25. After an exhaustive search, we entered a blocked mine entrance from a different point and found the corpses, Díaz told reporters.
His version contradicts earlier statements by Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzén, who had questioned whether the workers were kidnapped, claiming there were no formal complaints.
Relatives of the victims had, however, sounded the alarm days earlier.
Díaz also reported that 20 out of 30 illegal mine shafts identified in the area had been dismantled by police, though many remain under criminal control. He pledged more breakthroughs soon, stating, “We will have good news from Pataz in the coming days.”
The minister is expected to appear before Congress on Monday to answer questions regarding the deteriorating security situation.
Lawmakers have filed motions to censure of Boluarte’s cabinet over the crisis, which has left at least 39 people dead in Pataz this year, according to mine operator Poderosa.
Mining company blames government inaction as violence mounts
In a statement, Compañía Minera Poderosa confirmed the 13 fatalities and accused organized crime groups tied to illegal mining of the massacre.
The company warned that Pataz has become “a lawless territory where violence reigns with impunity.”
Poderosa urged the government to revise its security strategy and criticized authorities for failing to carry out interdictions in known illegal tunnels, saying many have been geolocated but remain untouched.
The firm also blamed the Ministry of Energy and Mines for ignoring requests to exclude illegal miners from its concessions and accused Congress of protecting informal miners by repeatedly extending the formalization registry (REINFO), a temporary permit system the company described as a “total failure.”
An ambush over the weekend in the same province left eight people wounded, including two police officers, during an attack on workers at another mining camp.
Victims were intercepted while en route to the Caravelí processing plant in Jucusbamba, Tayabamba district.
Poderosa’s call was clear: “Faced with this destructive spiral, the government, private sector, and civil society must forces to confront and defeat it before it’s too late.”
Illegal mining extends along the coast, highlands, and jungle of the country.
The National Society of Mining, Petroleum and Energy (SNMPE) estimates that it generates annual losses to Peru of around 7 billion dollars or 6.2 billion dollars.
In the south, this activity is particularly intense in the region of Puno and the Amazonian department of Madre de Dios, where thousands of hectares of jungle have been destroyed and there is the Pampa, an area devastated by mining, where there is no presence of authorities and where human trafficking and drug trafficking abound. EFE
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