More than 500 residents in the campesino community of Tumpa in Yungay [7] province of Peru's central Andean region of Áncash, began blocking roads leading to the local operations of the Mina California company Aug. 6, declaring an open-ended paro (civil strike) to demand a halt to the mine's pollution of local waters. The mine is located near Nevado Huascarán, Peru's highest mountain, and the national park of the same name, which forms the headwaters of several of Peru's major rivers. (Servindi [8], Aug. 6) That same day, Aymara indigenous residents of Acora community in Puno [9] region announced that a 72-hour paro will begin Aug. 13, to protest President Ollanta Humala's plans to move ahead with the Pasto Grande II [10] irrigation project. The Pasto Grande II project would divert waters from the Lake Titicaca [11] basin for agribusiness tracts on the coast in Moquegua region. The strike, called by the South Puno Natural Resources Defense Front, will also protest contamination of local waters by mining and other extractive industries. (Pachamama Radio [12], Aug. 10; Los Andes via La Mula [13], Aug. 6)
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