Leaders of local peasant organizations marched on the offices of the judicial authorities in Piura in northwest Peru Dec. 10 to demand justice in the deaths of Vicente Romero Ramírez and Cástulo Correa Huayama, shot by police Dec. 2 in the hamlet of Cajas Canchaque, Huancabamba province. Police were apparently attempting to arrest local comunero Lorenzo Rojas García, suspected in a Nov. 1 attack on the "Henry's Hill" mining camp, run by Rio Blanco Copper, local venture of the Chinese Zijin Consortium with the UK's Monterrico Metals. Two security guards and the mine site manager were killed in the armed attack. The site has been the focus of repeated violent protests over land rights and environmental impacts, which have left two other local campesinos dead since 2004. (CNR, Dec. 10; UDW, Dec. 7; LAHT, Dec. 3)

See our last posts on Peru, the mineral cartel in Latin America, and China's regional interests.

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