06 April 2010

PERU: UPDATE: Gold Miners Lift Roadblocks After Protests That Left At Least 6 Dead.

BUSINESS WEEK/UPDATE/ 07 ABRIL/  Peruvian miners have ended  protests that left at least six people dead after the government agreed to review a ban on unregulated gold mining. Previously, President Alan Garcia maintained that his government would shut down wildcat miners who protested new regulations. The army killed 6 protesters, while the miners claim 9 were shot dead. "We’re not against mining, but this is a savage, informal kind of mining that pays no taxes and establishes its own ways of working like slavery, prostitution, white slavery and even the enslaving of children,” Garcia said. About 10,000 miners battled police and blocked roads along the southern coast since April 4, with at least 27 people injured, 60 arrested and 1,500 vehicles stranded on  the Pan-American Highway near Chala.