Only days before Peru’s general elections on April 10, three protesters were killed and dozens injured by firearm-wielding police near the southern city of Arequipa.
The protesters were taking part in a community uprising against the Tia Maria copper mine proposed by Mexican-based, US-funded Southern Copper. The company has one of the worst environmental track records of any mining company active in Peru.
Fearing that the mine would irredeemably contaminate local water, the residents of Islay took to the streets, despite realising it would put their lives at risk.
But risking your life is what you have to do to be heard in neoliberal Peru, where the interests of the general population have been deemed expendable.
Thousands of protesters also converged on Arequipa itself, filling the historic Plaza de Armas in a display of popular solidarity.
The timing of the local uprising alarmed the Peruvian establishment, which feared yet another government massacre carried out on behalf of international mining interests could cause even more votes to go the way of left-nationalist Ollanta Humala.
On the eve of the election, the government of President Alan Garcia announced the cancellation of the Tia Maria project — for now.