Members of the Union of Citizen Assemblies (UAC), joined in opposition of megamining operations in Argentina, will hold an escrache outside the House of the Province of Catamarca at 6.00pm this evening.

The UAC’s mobilisation comes after the detainment on Saturday of three assembly members, who confronted police escorting trucks of the mining company La Alumbrera in Tinogasta.

Since 29th January, protesters in Tinogasta have maintained a strategic roadblock of National Route 60, preventing the passage of trucks carrying supplies to transnational mega-mines.

The three individuals involved in the confrontation were deterred with pepper spray and beaten by police, after which their whereabouts were kept unknown for over an hour.

It was later revealed that the three protesters—Dario Moreno, Eduardo Argañaraz, and Ezekial Koch—were temporarily taken to Fiambalá to avoid confrontations with police. They were released that night and returned to their peers, who protested at the police station in Tinogasta.

The incidents in Tinogasta have sparked demonstrations from citizens in Famatina and Chilecito, who marched to the town of Campanas, La Rioja, to denounce mining operations detrimental to citizens and the environment in Argentina.

With as many as 51 protesters detained since the start of the blockade in January, the demonstration tonight will seek to further press citizens’ demands about mining at the House of the Province of Catamarca.

Radical anti-mining leader Wilfredo Saavedra was arrested yesterday in Peru.

According to local media, Saavedra, president of the Environmental Defense Front of Cajamarca, was detained for his failure to respond to allegations of his involvement in acts of violence against the Conga mining project.

Saavedra was initially arrested in the southern Peruvian city of Tanca, and today was transferred to Cajamarca, where he will face charges from the Public Ministry.

Saavedra is one of the leading adversaries against the mega-mining project, and has invested millions of dollars in the cause. He was previously imprisoned for several years for his involvement in the extreme leftist group MRTA.

The Conga is dedicated to excavating the Yanacocha mine, the largest gold producer in South America. According to local reports, the mega-mining project plans to drain four lakes in the area to extract the product. Environmentalists charge that this will cause irreversible damage to the country’s ecosystem.

The Peruvian government supports the mining effort, which is considered the largest and most ambitious in the country.

Local news sources reported that a legion of Saavedra’s followers conducted a series of speeches at the Public Ministry of Cajamarca earlier today. They claimed that the environmental leader’s involvement in the the effort was arbitrary, and his detention was an act of political revenge.

Despite strong oppositions by environmentalists, Ecuador President Rafael Correa yesterday launched a US$5.4 billion mining deal with a Chinese company for the extraction of five million pounds of copper beginning in 2013.

This is the most lucrative contract in Ecuador’s history. It has already sparked harsh protests by environmental campaigners, who were in turn labeled “simplistic and ignorant” by President Correa.

The Chinese firm Ecuacorriente will begin production in the site of El Pangui, in the southeastern province of Zamor Chinchipe, in late 2013.

Officials expect royalties for the mining concession of at least US$5.4 billion, and estimate that reserves could exceed 5,000 million pounds of copper. The Chinese firm will initially invest around US$1.500 billion for the megaproject.

Environmentalists argue that the operation is unlawful and reckless. According to Argentine newspaper Clarín, their leader, Alexandra Almeida, told reporters that there are many irregularities in the concession, including missing assessments of environmental impact.

A protest march orchestrated by environmentalists is set to arrive in Quito from Zamora Chichipe on the 22^nd of March.

Last Thursday, Macarena Villalobos joined thousands walking in an anti-mining march in Buenos Aires.

Holding her four-month old daughter to her chest, her dark eyes lit up as she explained why she was there.

“As a member of the Partido Obrero, I’m here against mega-mining,” she said. “We’re here against what [the government] is doing in negotiations for significant mining projects and the destruction of the provinces where the mines are.”

Villalobos is not the only one expressing concern about government mining policies.

Over the past few months, mining – specifically, the large-scale type referred to as “mega-mining” – has entered the public consciousness in a big way.

As foreign interests try to set up shop, protests have erupted in several Argentine provinces. From Jujuy to La Rioja, people are fighting to keep mining companies away from their air, land and water.

Writer Javier Rodríguez Pardo also marched at Thursday’s protest. His book ‘They Come for Gold, They Come for It All: Mining Invasions 500 Years Later’, focuses on mining communties and companies like Barrick Gold and Meridian Gold in Argentina.

In an interview afterward, Rodríguez Pardo said people need to talk about the kind of country they want – and whether they want international companies taking resources beyond the borders, leaving behind open pits.

AUDIO: Anti-mining protestors speak to The Indy during a march in Buenos Aires on 23rd February

“We have problems,” he said. “We have opened the doors and the avenues with admiration, with the ‘progressive’ governments in our region. But at the same time, we feel a great pain. These governments, while talking about human rights, they’re allowing transnational corporations to destroy our territories and take the common goods.”

The Environment: An Ongoing Concern

Over the last decade, mining interests in Argentina have soared. In a paper from the University of Dundee’s Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, writers argue that “legal and policy measures ensured the stability of the legal regime of the mining sector” after the 2001 economic and political crisis.

“With a more favourable international climate and domestic exchange rate, investment in the sector after 2002 has even soared, paving the way to what has been called as the ‘second wave’ of mining investment in the country,” the paper said, noting that Argentina first opened its doors extensively to international mining interests in the 1990s.

As such, protests movements against government and mining companies have sprouted up all over the country, too.

Andalgalá is one area where the anti-mining community has been fighting for years.

Located in Catamarca, the city is close to the copper-and-gold Bajo de La Alumbrera mine. It is the oldest and largest open pit mine in Argentina, and some residents accuse it of contaminating ground water and negatively affecting air quality.

More recently, reports from Catamarca say about two dozen people were injured around Tinogasta in clashes on February 10th, adding to a list of other incidents in the province. Protestors were holding up a truck on its way to the Alumbrera mine, one which a government representative said was carrying explosives.

As well, the Canadian Osisko Mining Corporation announced on 31st August that they had entered “a binding agreement” with the La Rioja state mining corporation, Energía y Minerales Sociedad Del Estado, to explore for gold. People in the province of La Rioja started protesting the potential mine on Famatina mountain, citing environmental concerns. On 30th January, the company announced a hold on exploration in that region.

“In the days immediately following the signing of the agreement, groups from Famatina and elsewhere in Argentina commenced organised protests against what has misleadingly been called the ‘Famatina mega-mine project,’” the company stated in a press release. “In fact, the development of a mine is still highly hypothetical, since very little is known about the amount, quality and location of the mineral resources that may exist in the properties within the Famatina Project.”

In addition, joined by governors of other provinces, Jujuy governor Eduardo Fellner announced the founding of a federal mining organisation on 15th February, in an attempt to bring all interested parties to the table.

As mining is governed in each province separately, the organisation could bring various provincial organisations and contacts together to deal with mining on a national scale.

“We seek solutions to the environmental impact,” Fellner said. “Tourism generates an impact and no one would ban it. We have to handle it, drive it and improve it.”

Rodríguez Pardo says the move allows government to control the narrative.

“The idea is this: to have their one discourse, their one action,” he said. “In all the provinces, they are distributing the same flyers in favour of mining, the same books in favour of mining. The same policies in schools and colleges. The same policies in our media. This is what they do, the federation that was created.”

Next Steps

Rodríguez Pardo noted that while most anti-mining protests have been outside of the capital, environmental organisations are trying to change that.

Buenos Aires resident Liliana Cubilla was at last Thursday’s protest. A member of the Dario Santillan political movement, she said she was at the march to meet people and connect with those who want to keep mega-mines out of the country.

“To help [the provinces' residents] and give them a little more force – and so they’re not suppressed” she said.

Getting ready to start the march last Thursday, protestors were lighting fireworks in the street. As the sky boomed with light and smoke, Villalobos – who moved to Argentina seven years ago to raise a family – lifts her baby’s pink and white hat to make sure she is still napping.

“The government has the intention of negotiating these mines,” she said. “The mines, with all their exploitation – and that’s my government. This is the problem. The government attacks the inhabitants, contaminates the land and makes demands – even more than the mega-mining companies.”

This protest will not be the last in the capital, say demonstrators.

On 1st March, local organisations are planning a demonstration starting in the Plaza Lavalle in Buenos Aires at 6pm.

Find out what locals think about the impact of mining in Argentina here.

Mega-mining has been a hot topic in Argentina in recent months. Between the announcement of a national mining organisation and protests in La Rioja, Catamarca, and Buenos Aires, local media have kept busy writing endless stories about the industry and its relationship with human rights and the environment.

The Argentina Independent hit the streets to find out what people in Buenos Aires think about mining in the country and how they feel about the mega-mining operations.

Eugenio Fernández, 30, PC technician/anti-mining campaigner, Temperley

You don’t have to be a mining engineer to realise that millions of litres of water with cyanide and toxic substances will result in contamination. These types of operations [mega-mines] are not sustainable nor are they good for the environment; in fact it’s totally the opposite and that’s already been proven all over the world.

The local population don’t earn anything, nothing. They talk about how it brings in lots of jobs but mining only creates jobs during the initial stage, when they need people for the construction of the buildings. They employ a lot of people to get the site up and running, to make it look pretty but once it’s operational the amount of people working there drops by a huge amount.

We want her [Cristina Fernández de Kirchner] to stop misinforming people with engineers, professors and technician who lie with false data. We want her to stop treating us like we’re stupid and we want her to respect local populations’ right to make their own decisions.

Juan Alberto Madelaire Reyes, 51, Electrician, San Cristóbal

It’s criminal taking these natural resources that are not renewable, and it’s also harming the environment. Not only do they destroy the environment and rob the natural resources but they also destroy the regions’ economies.

With the destruction of the environment - mountains, hillsides, plateaus – mega-mining is criminal, almost genocide. But it has the full support of the government; this is a cipayo [South American term that refers to politicians who work for the governments of other countries] government. It sells its own land and it doesn’t care about anything.

They are giving away resources that aren’t renewable and are worth a fortune to mining companies from Canada, England, North America, well, from lots of countries really. Absolutely nothing is left here.

Anyone who has any conscience or heart will support them [the people striking in the North]. They are destroying everything around them, they’re destroying their environment, their economy, they’re taking their water and lots of people are dying.

Garcia Soleda, 43, Housewife, Jujuy

I think it’s bad the way they’re exploiting the mines, that they are taking away Argentina’s natural resources. I think it’s bad that other companies come along and take what belongs to Argentina. The environment is very important nowadays with global warming everywhere so I don’t agree with what the mines are doing.

I support the people who are striking; in the North we always see them on the television and I support their protests against the way the mines are working. The people in the countryside suffer a lot, so do the animals, well the whole environment suffers; it really damages nature. And the people there hardly touch the money and I don’t agree with that either.

Eduardo Alberdo Fuentes, 61, Driver, San Cristóbal

I’m against the mining because they are destroying the land, emptying all the fruits of the earth that is ours and the government is supporting it. They are working with cyanide, which is damaging for the environment and the people and then they’re taking all of the materials – the precious metals – that we’ve got.

I support everyone who works but can’t make it to the end of the month. But those people who block the roads, that’s not good either. For me it would be more logical if they picketed at the door of president, the minister, the senator or the governor and blocked their exit and not those people who are trying to work. I understand if you block my road because you’re having an argument with the government, but why do I have to pay? I support people who strike just as long as they don’t bother other people.

Paula Lifschitz, 35, Artist and English teacher, Palermo

I don’t know how much money mines make but I doubt that it’s equal [to the ecological damage]. No, I’m sure they do a lot of damage; they make a lot of money but do a lot of damage.

And the money doesn’t stay in Argentine hands; they funnel money out like crazy so the benefits don’t weigh up with the cost to the locals.

I’m not a fan of the president, CFK [Cristina Fernández de Kirchner] – I don’t think she is very honest. A lot of people I know don’t like her and I don’t think she has done a lot of good. This article just came out about inflation in The Economist. About Argentina lying about their numbers and inflation; not being honest with the IMF. They [the people in power] are all dirty crooks. They’ll do anything they can to make money and steal money and funnel it off somewhere else.

Photos by Beatrice Murch