By Jonathan Manthorpe
The Vancouver Sun
Hundreds of local farmers besieged the exploration mining camp of Vancouver-based Candente Copper Corp. in northern Peru last week after clashes with police in which at least four people were wounded.
The protests against the Canariaco project in Peru’s northern region of Lambayeque, in which up to 20 people have been wounded by police bullets according to local doctors, is the latest in about 150 similar disputes between local people and mining operations in the last five years.
But in a statement last week Candente’s chief executive Joanne Freeze insisted “There are business interests working to make it look like a community issue. It is pretty well known that this is not what it appears to be.”