Father Arana of GRUFIDES, a grassroots group in Peru working on issues of extractive mining impacts, has been threatened and followed by men in a mining company vehicle from the Yanacocha Mine, owned by Newmont Mining Corporation.
In 2001, Father Marco Arana of Cajamarca, Peru, founded the Group for Training and Intervention for Sustainable Development (Grupo de Formacion e Intervencion para el Desarrollo Sostenible – GRUFIDES). GRUFIDES helps community leaders and local residents to monitor environmental impacts in their communities, and to take peaceful action to protect their environment and their livelihoods. Father Marco received a 2005 Conde Nast Award for his work to protect Cerro Quilish (a sacred mountain and important water source) from being mined by Newmont as part of the Yanacocha mine expansion. To find out more about Father Arana’s work, click here.
Father Arana has been followed by mining employees in trucks registered to the mine, and masked men tried to break into the Grufides office to find him. On Saturday, May 12, a death threat was also made against the GRUFIDES project coordinator Patricia Rojas.
We will keep you updated as we find out more about what can be done to bring awareness to this situation.