Doe Run ten years in Peru

In October 2007 the La Oroya Health Project organized in Huancayo and Lima three days of activities to commemorate ten years of Doe Run Peru's (DRP) operations in La Oroya. The events were marked by attempts from DRP to intimidate participants and disrupt the activities.

by Raul Chacon Pagan, Communicator

International Advocacy for La Oroya Health Project

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Tuesday 23 October: Press Conference

A Press conference was held in the Congress (Lima) to strengthen the commitment of the Gloria Ramos Committee on the La Oroya case. About 25 people participated in the conference, ten of them sent by DRP. Eventhough journalists did not participate in the activity, El comercio, magazine Minerandina and Press Perú, an internet medium, did make mention about the conference.

In their published notes, Congresswoman Gloria Ramos, chairman of the Committee on People Andean, Amazonian and African Americans, Ecology and Environment, pointed out that any polluter company should be penalized, and regretted the biased position of a segment of La Oroya's population that does not allow this issue to be visible and is in favor of pollution.

Other exhibitors included Washington Mori, technical secretary of the Roundtable on Environmental Dialogue of Junin; Eliana Ames, attorney of 65 plaintiffs from La Oroya before the Inter-american Comission on Human Rights; and Rosa Amaro, president of the Movement for the Health of La Oroya (MOSAO). The three panellists agreed that it is the responsibility of the State to solve La Oroya's problem, with the participation of civil society.

A number of women who originally had been sent by DRP to intervene in favor of the company, are now interested in the case brought before IACHR.

Wednesday 24 October: Round Table

To make the problems of health and environment in La Oroya better known to students and scholars of Huancayo, a Roundtable discussion on "La Oroya: health and environmental problems and proposed solutions from the State and civil society" was organized in the Continental University of Huancayo. The speakers were Carlos Rojas, manager of the Peru's central region of CONAM; Ivan Lanegra, manager of natural resources and environment of the regional government of Junin, and Washington Mori, technical secretary of the Roundtable of Environmental Dialogue of Junin.

Lanegra argued that little had been done to resolve environmental issues of La Oroya in the era of CENTROMIN (1974-1997). But today, he said, there are resources and the capabilities to launch a new path for La Oroya. Lanegra added that the extension of the Environmental Program of DRP was disastrous, since it established a bad precedent in the environmental field. Rojas called attention to the fact that environmental policy is subject to public investment policy, which is not linked to improving the quality of life. He pointed out that environmental initiatives were frustrated by not having for La Oroya a mechanism like the EPA's Superfund.

Mori noted that human beings must receive priority attention, and that the right to life and health is above the right to work. He concluded that the Roundtable of environmental dialogue of Junin is looking for help to generate an environmental culture, based on the rights and dignity of the person.

During the Round Table discussion, attention was drawn to the arrogant behavior of the company's envoy of about 15 persons. The gathering resulted in great disorder when many of them tried to talk simultaneously towards the end of the event.

Thursday 25 October: Forum

To make the IACHR case on La Oroya public to a professional audience, especially lawyers, as well as law students, a forum was held in the Bar association of Juninon on "The Problem of Public Health in The Oroya to the IACHR". Carlos Chirinos, a lawyer of the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law, presented to an audience of 110 people with Ivan Lanegra; Miguel Vilcapoma, dean of the law faculty at the University Los Andes, and Alcides Chamorro, a teacher at the same faculty and former Congressman the Republic as commentators.

Chirinos explained that the case of La Oroya before the IACHR links legal, social, economic and environmental issues, and has a very strong emotional burden as well. He added that this problem has a lot to do with the subject of externalities, which involves assuming costs of production and regulation of the State. Chirinos remarked that in La Oroya there was no massive presence of people who fight for their rights, as in other cases. He summarized what was done to bring a legal solution: the filing of a compliance action before the Peruvian judiciary had resulted in a judgment of the Constitutional Court of Peru in favour of La Oroya; and the presentation of several precautionary measures before the IACHR, which included only one decision on the subject of health. Chirinos concluded that the matter depends on who will make the diagnosis and treatment. He stated that legal means generate context solutions. They constitute the decision by the state to reduce pollution. but do not provide a definitive answer. Besides, health should not be separated from strategies to ensure sustainability of the company. Lanegra commented that the four regional governments of Mantaro river basin met that day to design the agenda for decontamination. He added that first the law should be enforced to make sure that DRP meets the obligations for expanded environmental programs.

When 20 participants sent by DRP tried to talk in a disorderly manner during the event, they could successfully be controlled. Once again the arrogant behavior of the DRP to the community was highlighted.

Thursday 25: Ecological Walk

Religious schools, the ombudsperson, project El Mantaro revive, and participants at the Roundtable of environmental dialogue of Junin gathered in the morning at the center of Huancayo for an ecological walk, convened by the Roundtable of environmental dialogue of Junin.

Although the march was peaceful and harmless without any posters citing the company, the DRP sent people to film the march.