Jen Moore de Mining Watch Canada y John Dougherty, documentalista, presentaron un documental sobre la transnacional minera Hudbay. En consecuencia, fueron arrestados por autoridades Peruanas con el pretexto de que sus visas de turistas no les autorizaban para realizar esta actividad. El gobierno del Perú que normalmente actúa contra el pueblo Peruano y en beneficio de las transnacionales mineras y extractivas, persigue ahora a ciudadanos extranjeros por poner en evidencia, con trabajos informativos verdades. No les basta con perseguir a Doña Máxima Acuña Chaupe y su familia, ni haber cometido la masacre de Bagua ni reprimir, perseguir y asesinar donde quiera que hay intereses mineros, petroleros y extractivistas. Ahora también arrestan, persiguen e intimidan a quienes quiera que desde fuera hacen su trabajo de informar con la verdad para defender territorios y pueblos. Esa es la obligación del gobierno. No servirle a despojadores! Afortunadamente Jen y John están a salvo en Bolivia, pero si no se da una fuerte reacción, este será un precedente para que el Estado y Gobierno Peruanos, oficinas de enlace del poder corporativo extractivista, sigan actuando de oficio para destruir al Perú y a sus pueblos.

Mining Watch Canada sends this News Release (SEE BELOW) after the release of Jen Moore and John Dougherty, after a successful screening of a documentary on Hudbay Minerals. The Canadian mining corporation has something to hide and in order to cover-up whatever the documentary exposes, it acts in collusion with Peruvian authorities to arrest Jen and John with the absurd pretext that showing a documentary was not permitted under their tourist visas. While shocking, this action is not surprising in a country where the government, including its armed forces and now the immigration authorities are at the service of extractive corporations such as mining and hydrocarbons. Maxima Acuña Chaupe, the Goldman Environmental awardee from Cajamarca facing attacks from Newport mining and the Yanacocha project, has had to face the Peruvian police and authorities on several occasions, including a recent attack while she was being honored by the Peruvian Congress. No-one can forget the Baugua events under President Alan García, which lead to the massacre of indigenous peoples who defended their territory against destruction by oil extractive transnational corporations, or the massive uprisings throughout the country against mining projects, all brutally repressed by the government. We are pleased to know that Jen and John are out and safe and we share this News Release in support of work in defense of peoples and territories agains mining industries. Obvious as it is, one must underscore how important it becomes to reject these actions from the Peruvian Government at the service of corporate interests and against its own mandate and peoples as this will become a precedent for future actions against exposing abuses from Canadian and other transnational corporation as Mining Watch does supported by evidence.

Pueblos en Camino
April 24th 2017

MiningWatch Canada News Release – http://miningwatch.ca/news/2017/4/24/what-does-hudbay-have-hide-peruvians-miningwatch-canada-staff-member-us-journalist

What does Hudbay have to hide from Peruvians? MiningWatch Canada Staff Member, US Journalist Arbitrarily Detained in Peru over Documentary About Hudbay Minerals’ Operations

(Ottawa) At about 8:20pm on the night of Friday April 22, MiningWatch Canada’s Latin America Program Coordinator Jen Moore and US journalist John Dougherty were arbitrarily detained in Cusco, Peru after a successful public event screening a documentary film about Hudbay Minerals’ operations in Canada, the US, Guatemala and Peru. The two were surrounded by 15 to 20 national police officers, many in plain clothes, and a handful of migration officers and taken into custody.

Moore and Dougherty were then questioned about their immigration status and informed that their activities – showing a film and engaging in discussion with people about it – were not permitted under their tourist visas. They were released four hours later with an order to appear in court today to be charged.

“The situation that arose on Friday is not about our immigration status, it is about Hudbay trying to exert control over what information communities living around its Constancia mine have access to. What is Hudbay so afraid that the communities will learn from a film about its global operations?” remarked Moore.

Stigmatization and criminalization of those involved in screening the documentary “Flin Flon Flim Flam” in communities around Hudbay’s Constancia mine, as well as in Cusco and Lima, began well before Jen and John arrived in Cusco on April 15. An anonymous article in a Cusco newspaper accused Jen Moore, MiningWatch Canada, and Peruvian organizations coordinating the film screenings with local organizations and district authorities of trying to “ambush” Hudbay.

The ambush, however, was against those involved in the film screenings.

From April 17 to 20, while the film was being screened in public events in the province of Chumbivilcas, Peru where Hudbay has its largest mine operation, Dougherty, MiningWatch Canada, and representatives of the Peruvian NGOs Human Rights Without Borders and Cooperacción were constantly filmed by unknown individuals and tracked by police, while community leaders reported being questioned by police and company representatives about the film screenings.

These public events were organised for Dougherty to share the film, which he had produced in part on the basis of interviews with members of the same communities in November 2014, when they were protesting Hudbay’s broken promises and faced violent police repression. Dougherty dubbed the film in Spanish and Quechua in order to be able to give copies of the film to the communities and screen it in the cities of Cusco and Lima.

The arbitrary detention on Friday night followed a screening at the municipal Cultural Centre in Cusco and lasted over four hours. During this time, Moore and Dougherty were asked to make a lengthy declaration about their activities in the country. Given the irregular way in which they were detained and prior evidence that the company and police were seeking evidence to lay criminal charges against them for ‘inciting violence’ by screening the film, they exercised their right to remain silent.

On Saturday, the Peruvian Ministry of the Interior issued a public statement affirming the Peruvian government’s support for Hudbay’s operations and further trying to incriminate Dougherty and Moore with serious accusations of inciting people to violence and of being a threat to public order and national security. The Ministry’s statement tries to link the two to protests in 2016 over Hudbay’s broken commitments regarding social benefits, contractual agreements, and social and environmental issues in the area of the Constancia copper mine.

“I am deeply troubled by the apparent level of coordination between Hudbay, the police and the Peruvian government and the lengths to which they are willing to go to prevent local communities from receiving independent information,” said Moore.

“We know that Hudbay has had contracts with the national police force in Peru to provide security to its area of influence in Cusco, so it’s quite possible that the police could have been acting under company orders or according to their obligations to the company, not to public security,” she added.

“The Canadian government should be calling on the Peruvian Ministry of Interior and Hudbay to account for why a Canadian and US citizen, as well as members of Peruvian human rights and environmental justice organizations and local community leaders, were subject to this sort of surveillance, harassment and criminalization,» concluded Moore.

Dougherty and Moore were issued summonses to appear before the migration authority in Cusco on Monday morning. They will challenge this administrative process through their Peruvian legal counsel. On advice of their lawyers and fearing arrest on trumped-up charges, Dougherty and Moore left Peru on Saturday.

The film will be shown at 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 25 at CCPUCP, Avenue Camino Real, 1075 San Isidro, Lima. See https://www.facebook.com/events/229821817496463/ for details.

Contact: Jen Moore, cell (613) 722-0412, jen@miningwatch.ca

The film is available free on Youtube:
English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7aacPtEI8s
Spanish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BF06KsgMsc
Quechua: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT0RB2QCP1w
—
Jamie Kneen, Communications & Outreach Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada
MiningWatchMiningWatch@MiningWatch