Wikileaks Peru: US targeted Indigenous, promoted copper mining

[Derechos]

Peru: US Ambassador and five other diplomats in alliance to promote mining interests of Barrick, Newmont, BHP and others

By Brenda Norrell

The cheerleading of the United States for corporate copper mining in Peru is exposed in two cables just released from Wikileaks. The diplomatic cables reveal the United States government's promotion of copper mining, while targeting Indigenous activists and their supporters.

The new cables reveal that a core group of diplomats formed an alliance with mining companies globally to promote and protect mining interests. The diplomats were from the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, Switzerland and South Africa.

While rallying for copper mining in Peru, US Ambassador J. Curtis Struble failed to point out in the cables the torture and murder of Indigenous activists by mining companies, near the border of Peru and Ecuador. Struble failed to reveal the long-term destruction to Mother Earth and poisoning of the land, water and air from copper mining.

Further, Struble named names, while promoting the mining corporations. Struble targeted specific NGOs and urged the rotation of teachers and those supporting Indigenous activists out of Peru.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2011/02/wikileaks-peru-us-targeted-indigenous-promoted-copper-mining

[Judi Lynn]

1. Every time you think you've finally seen everything, there's just one more creepy surprise.

So now, thanks to a stroke of fate, we learn the U.S. Ambassador J. Curtis Struble has been behind this filthy behavior toward the helpless indigenous people of Peru in active pursuit of the mining industry's interests. #### the poor, long live the powerful, apparently.

I guess this is nothing new, but it's ugliness still takes your breath away.

From the article:

Struble, the former Ambassador to Peru, however, had only insults for Indigenous Peoples struggling to protect their land. Struble was US Ambassador in Lima in 2005 when he wrote the cables.

While seeking sympathy for the copper mining company, Struble targets those defending the land.

Struble said in one cable: “The anti-mining forces in action in Majaz represent a strange group of bedfellows indeed -- the Catholic church, violent radical leftists, NGOs, ronderos and perhaps narcotraffickers. These organizations are competing for a leadership role but in some cases also cooperate. The extent to which the church is tied into the ronderos and radical left is both controversial and still open to question. Unlike recent conflicts in Southern Peru (e.g., Tintaya) the protests in Majaz are not aimed at forcing a redistribution of royalties or more generous economic support from a mine. Northern Peru has a reputation for being more anti-mining than the South, where the industry is better developed and more of the local populations see benefits from the activity. The objective of protesters in Majaz is to kill the project while it is in the exploration phase -- before, presumably, a pro-mine constituency can develop in the area."

Ambassador Struble doesn't appear to have a clue why the people who live on the land want the mining halted, or the impacts for future generations.

http://filer.livinginperu.com.nyud.net:8090/news/Struble.jpg http://raul.lamula.pe.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/blogs.dir/1752/files/2010/12/embajador-james-curtis-struble-150x150.jpg

Mega a-hole. Struble.
Recommending.

[Bacchus39]

2. wow, the article didn't mention the kidnappings and beatings of mine employees

by the "activists" also, the cable quoted a mine employee's comments about the NGOs not the US goverments. also, note it was from 2005. the only reasonable thing about the "article" is that the actual cable links are linked at the bottom read those, and you won't arrive to the same conclusion as this "article".

[Peace Patriot]

3. "a core group of diplomats formed an alliance with mining companies"

This is what our tax dollars are going toward--to pay for the salaries, benefits, health care, airplane tickets and other travel, posh digs, security, banquets and other entertainment, meetings, entourages--secretaries, aides, cooks, maids, et al--for some jerk to form a cabal with other well-off, pampered, all-expenses-paid jerks, to collude against the poor on behalf of multinational mining interests?

We know this stuff goes on, but it is very disturbing to read the details of it, to bring it to mind as the everyday reality of what our government is doing and how our money is being spent.

A friend just told me that she just got a Social Security letter saying that she is going to be charged federal income tax on the money the government is WITHHOLDING from her Social Security check for Medicare. She gets very little Social Security and a 5th of it is withheld as a Medicare premium. They are going to TAX THAT PREMIUM--money she will never see or possess.

I had a hard time wrapping my mind around this. Her pittance income is being taxed, on money she will never see, to pay for this asshole in Peru to aid and abet oppression of Peru's poor and to enrich the already rich.

Altogether, it is mind-boggling.