| 2015 Peruvian protests against Las Bambas mining project | |||
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 Location of Cotabambas Province, the hotbed of protests | |||
| Date | 28 September 2015–present | ||
| Location |  Apurímac Region, Peru | ||
| Caused by | Las Bambas mining project | ||
| Resulted in |
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| Parties | |||
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| Lead figures | |||
Jaime Osorio | |||
| Number | |||
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| Casualties and losses | |||
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The protests escalated on 29 September, when four people were killed and dozens injured in clashes between demonstrators and police, prompting President Ollanta Humala to decree a state of emergency.
| External videos | |
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 Three killed in protest at massive copper mine in Peru on Reuters |
On 29 September, an estimated 15,000 people gathered in Challhuahuacho to protest against a $7.4 billion copper mine project. Locals in the region are concerned that the copper mine project will cause environmental damage to the Andean area. [1] [2] Peruvian authorities sent 1,500 police officers and 150 soldiers to the area. Several hundred demonstrators attacked the mine installations and clashed with police, who responded with tear gas. [3] The protest escalated, after law enforcers opened fire on protesters, [4] killing four of them. The four fatalities were all local men. [5] In a press conference, authorities confirmed that Uriel Elguera Chilca (34), Beto Chahuallo Huillca (24) and Alberto Cárdenas Chalco (23) died from gunshots on way to Cusco, [6] while Exaltación Huamaní (30) succumbed to death at Challhuahuacho hospital. [6] Likewise, 23 other people, including eight policemen, [7] were injured in ensuing clashes. Officials say ambulances couldn't reach the local clinic following the attack because police also shot at a vehicle carrying doctors. [8]
MMG says that Las Bambas has reserves of 6.9 million tons of copper and expects to produce more than 2 million tons of copper concentrate in its first five years. [9] The deposit was discovered at more than 4,000 meters above sea level and will become one of the largest copper mines in the world once it is in full production. Construction started on 10 August and began operations in early 2016. [10] [11]
Peruvian President Ollanta Humala regretted the loss of lives during the violent repression of the protest and called on calm and for dialogue. He also stated that "many of the protest leaders (...) come from outside the region and are using the protests to promote their campaigns for the April 2016 general elections".
Humala decreed the emergency for 30 days in the southern Andean regions of Cusco and Apurímac, [12] where the mine, Las Bambas, owned by China's MMG Ltd., is under construction. [13] The state of emergency applies to six provinces. [14] Suspending civil liberties and authorizing military patrols, the government announced that more troops would be sent to Apurímac "to restore internal peace". [15] Interior Minister José Luis Pérez Guadalupe said radical groups from outside the area had provoked the clashes. [16]
Amnesty International's executive director in Peru, Marina Navarro, called the deaths "unacceptable" in an email sent to the AP. "The price of social protests should not be the death of any person", the statement said.
Antauro Igor Humala Tasso is a Peruvian ethnocacerist, a former army major, and nationalist leader. He has been the Leader of the political party ANTAURO since its creation in 2023.
The ethnocacerist movement is a Peruvian ethnic nationalist movement that espouses an ideology called ethnocacerism. The movement seeks to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat led by the country's Indigenous communities and their descendants. It draws on the ideas and history of several Indigenous and anti-colonial movements, including those of Juan Velasco Alvarado, Evo Morales, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Muammar Gaddafi, and Che Guevara. Ethnocacerism is considered an Indigenist ideology and is currently represented in electoral politics by the Union for Peru party and other smaller parties. The ideology is also followed by Peruvian militant groups such as the Plurinational Association of Tawantinsuyo Reservists and Ejército de Reservistas Andino Amazónico – T.
General elections were held in Peru in on 9 April 2006 to elect the President, two Vice-Presidents, 120 members of Congress and five members of the Andean Parliament for the 2006–2011 period. As the no presidential candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on 4 June between the top two candidates, Ollanta Humala and Alan García. Garcia won the run-off with 52.63% to Humala's 47.37%. He was subsequently inaugurated on 28 July 2006, Peruvian Independence Day.
PeruRail is a railway operator providing tourist, freight, and charter services in southern Peru. It was founded in 1999 by two Peruvian entrepreneurs and the British company Sea Containers.
Isaac Humala Núñez is a Peruvian labour lawyer and the ideological leader of the Movimiento Etnocacerista, a group of ethnic nationalists in Peru.
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The Toquepala mine is a large porphyry copper mine in the Tacna Province, Tacna Department, Peru. The mine is an open-pit mine producing copper, molybdenum, rhenium and silver with minor gold and zinc.
MMG Limited is a mid-tier global resources company that mines, explores and develops base metal projects around the world. MMG's largest shareholder is China Minmetals with 68%.
Conga Project is a gold mining and copper mining project in Cajamarca Region of Northern Peru. It is a project of Minera Yanacocha, a company mainly owned by Newmont Mining Corporation.
Oscar Mollohuanca was the mayor of the Espinar Province of Peru. On 30 May 2012, he was arrested by the national government and accused of inciting protests against an expansion of a copper mine owned by Xstrata. He was conditionally released on 13 July. On March 7, 2022, he was found dead near his house, the circumstances of his death lead to the assumption that he was murdered.
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Las Bambas copper mine is an open-pit copper mine in the Cotabambas province of Peru. With over a billion tons of copper ore, the deposit is one of the largest in the world and produces 2% of global copper. Las Bambas also produces molybdenum concentrates. Development began on the mine in August 2015 and production began in early 2016.
Luis Alberto Otárola Peñaranda is a Peruvian attorney and politician who was the Prime Minister of Peru from 2022 until his resignation in 2024. He previously served as Minister of Defense twice, under Ollanta Humala and Dina Boluarte.
On July 23, 2021, following Pedro Castillo's electoral victory, mining communities near Las Bambas copper mine blocked the road used to transport the copper. The protesters claimed that local communities saw little benefit from the wealth generated by the mining.
Following the ousting of president of Peru, Pedro Castillo on 7 December 2022, a series of political protests against the government of president Dina Boluarte and the Congress of Peru occurred. The demonstrations lack centralized leadership and originated primarily among grassroots movements and social organizations on the left to far-left, as well as indigenous communities, who feel politically disenfranchised. Castillo was removed from office and arrested after announcing the illegal dissolution of Congress, the intervention of the state apparatus, and the forced establishment of an "emergency government", which was characterized as a self-coup attempt by all government institutions, all professional institutions, and mainstream media in Peru while Castillo's supporters said that Congress attempted to overthrow Castillo. Castillo's successor Dina Boluarte, along with Congress, were widely disapproved, with the two receiving the lowest approval ratings among public offices in the Americas. Among the main demands of the demonstrators are the dissolution of Congress, the resignation of Boluarte, new general elections, the release of Castillo, and the formation of a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. It has also been reported that some of the protesters have declared an insurgency in Punos's region. Analysts, businesses, and voters said that immediate elections are necessary to prevent future unrest, although many establishment political parties have little public support.
The 2022–2023 Apurímac protests corresponds to a series of protests and violent confrontations that began on 10 December 2022 in the department of Apurímac in the context of the December 2022 Peruvian protests. The protesters demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, the closure of the Congress of the Republic, and new general elections. Unlike the protests in other regions and cities, in Apurímac the confrontations are more violent, and criminal acts have been recorded, such as the kidnapping of police officers and attacks on police stations. The Boluarte government declared a state of emergency, removing some constitutional protections from citizens, including the rights preventing troops from staying within private homes and buildings, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly and "personal freedom and security".
Events in the year 2023 in Peru.
This is a broad timeline of the 2022–2023 Peruvian protests against the government of Dina Boluarte and the Congress of Peru, sparked by the self-coup attempt of President Pedro Castillo, who was later arrested for his actions. The protests were organized by social organizations and indigenous peoples who felt they experienced political disenfranchisement, specifically on the politically left-wing to far left, with the groups demanding immediate general elections and a constituent assembly to draft a new Constitution of Peru.