04.30.09
Huancabamba!
Huancabamba is one of the most fun words to say that I have ever encountered. It’s actually a Quechua word (the language of the Incas) which means “moving earth” on account of its propensity for mudslides. Pronounced something like Juan-ca-BOMB-a, it’s a village in the Peruvian sierra with about 20,000 people. It’s mostly an agricultural area, but lately a lot of mineral concessions have been granted to large foreign mining companies. I made the trip last Thursday along with one of my comrades from the Office of Justice and Peace. As you can see from the first picture, the ride was phenomenal. You wind through mountain roads and go as high as 3000 meters, then descend to about 1800 and Huancabamba sits in the valley.
Our mission was to attend a meeting at city hall that included the mayor of Huancabamba, the mayor of Carmen de la Frontera (another village affected by the mining) local government officials, and several representatives from groups of Campesinos (essentially farmers, villagers) that live out in the mountains. These representatives are part of groups called Rondas Campesinas, and they’re essentially autonomous law-making and law-enforcing bodies that govern their small communities. Since they live too far from any state police, someone has to keep the peace and make decisions. So in the whole mining deal you essentially have six positions - 1) The villagers who are 99% opposed to mining and are scared to death that the government is just going to give their land away to the mining companies who exploit it and then leave it contaminated (happens quite often); 2) The mining companies and big business men and women of the town who are obviously in favor; 3)Those who are out of work and welcome the mines as a job opportunity; 4) Local government officials who are either in favor or not, depending on their alliances; 5) Federal government officials and police officers who are almost always in favor of the mining, and 6) You have us. We just try to encourage dialogue and keep the peace between groups of people who quite frankly, are up to their ears in fear. The Rondas Campesinas fear the villagers who are in favor of the mining as well as the police, and the government officials on all levels fear an uprising from the Rondas Campesinas. There has been violence between the groups in the past, so often the fear is justified. Nobody trusts anybody outside their small group, really.
What ensued was a three hour meeting that was called to determine whether this group would meet the following day with Yahude Simon, the President of the Counsel of Ministers (essentially the 2nd most powerful man in the Peruvian gov). The meeting was mostly unproductive as everyone followed the general rule of “he who shouts the loudest will be heard”. Finally, two hours into the meeting, my teammate was able to convince everyone that they should attend the meeting, and he presented a format that they could follow. 1) Give the general history of Huancabamba, 2) Present a plan for development based on agriculture, 3) Explain the threats posed by the mining. For a moment everyone put aside their fear and mistrust. At 9pm, they faxed a message to Simon’s office in Lima saying that they’ll be there tomorrow for the 9:30am meeting (a solid 12 hours notice…).
In the morning, we all gathered in the plaza to get ready to drive to the meeting site. Sadly, the whole thing fell apart. Simon’s reps decided not to come because they weren’t given enough notice and rejected several demands that had been made. Each side blamed the other for the failure to meet, and in the end this weekend did little to ease the tension.
Overall, the trip was a great opportunity for me to see the reality of the mining situation. Clearly, agreements and resolutions will not come easy, and like everything here, it’s going to take time, but I feel comfortable with the church’s approach: Encourage dialogue about peaceful solutions, educate about human rights, and most importantly, focus on building community. Our successes this year will undoubtedly seem small and will not be very measurable, which is likely to frustrate me quite a bit. However, as Oscar Romero notes in ”Sowers of Hope”, the kingdom lies far beyond us and it’s important to have faith in the fact that our small successes, combined with those of others, do in fact make a world of difference.
Kevin Krainz
Chulucanas, Peru 2009