Peru's Campaign Against Illegal Gold Miners Cut Short

It was supposed to be a campign on the side of the angels, rescuing workers paid a pittance and abused in squalid conditions. Unfortunatley, the Peruvian government's campaign against illegal gold miners in the Amazon hit a snag: violent protests by a lot of the miners themselves. So, it's being called off early.

Armed forces blew up 19 river dredges in Peru’s south-east Amazon last week in an effort to curb a gold rush that has destroyed at least 18,000 hectares of jungle and tripled the level of mercury in waterways.

Officials had planned to keep targeting the $250,000-apiece dredgers and other heavy machinery brought to the region by rich private investors.

But after nationwide protests by more than 15,000 illegal miners, Antonio Brack, environment minister, shut down the operation in exchange for an agreement to register illegal miners.

“Formalising mining will bring increased revenues to promote regional development and formalisation,” Mr Brack said....

Unfortunately for him, the protests continued. In fact, the miners became even more inflamed after four of them were killed after a clash with police.


So, what the Peruvian government has is another one of those situations when the people suposedly being helped would rather take their own chances. A lesson some people never seem to learn.