Shortly after 4am this morning police and national infantry troops violently responded to protesters blocking the entrance to the Veladero mine in San Juan de Jáchal. Twenty-three people were arrested, several people were severely injured, and at least one woman was hospitalised in what witnesses are calling a “brutal” reaction by local law enforcement.
The protest, which began Wednesday, called for the end of mining activity in the area after one million litres of cyanide solution spilled into a nearby river on 13th September. Members of the environmentalist group “Jáchal No Se Toca” blocked access to a private road leading to the high mountain area where the Barrick Gold mine is located.
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The Veladero gold mine in San Juan province (Photo via Barrick Gold)
Joseph Gambino, geologist and member of Patria Grande San Juan, told Radio La Tribu that on Thursday afternoon provincial judge Pablo Orjita (who has handled all of the cases relating to September’s spill) issued a court order to remove the protesters.
Gambino explained that the gendarmerie failed to act quickly because it was a provincial road and the provincial police were hesitant because most of the protesters were women and they only had one female officer on duty.
Protesters were notified of the court order shortly after 3pm on Thursday and continued blocking access to the road. Later that evening when “Jáchal No Se Toca” member Gisela Carrizo and other members went to take food for those who were protesting, they found employees of the mining company had blocked their entrance with trucks and threatened those who tried to pass. In a radio interview after the incident she said they threatened that anyone who tried to pass, regardless of gender, would “be beaten up.”
Fearing the safety of those still protesting, she and other members of “Jáchal No Se Toca” immediately filed a habeas corpus in the provincial court. The court quickly ordered that the area was to be cleared and around midnight, and the mining trucks withdrew.
Protesters received word shortly that the police would be coming to evict them and more protestors gathered. Domingo Jofré, a journalist and member of the group, said that shortly after 4am infantry troops finally went in and did so ruthlessly, leaving many of the female protesters “battered and bruised.”
Jofré, saddened by the violence said the group was calling on the community to gather in the main plaza of Jáchal to demand an explanation from local government and police.
The 23 detainees were held in the nearby town of Rodeo before they were transferred to Jáchal in the morning to appear before Judge Orjita. At around 8am he ordered them to be transferred and released, and when they arrived at the police station in Jáchal they were welcomed by a group of demonstrators protesting the police violence, outside of the station.
Later in the day Argentine human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel expressed disgust at the police and judicial handling of this protest and the Barrick Gold case following the cyanide spill in September. He urged the state to defend the Argentine people rather than foreign multinational corporations, and warned that, unless those responsible for environmental crimes are punished, this scenario is bound to repeat itself.
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