Newspaper "Correo" interviews Walter AduviriIn this interview, Walter Aduviri summarizes his position about the Falchani (and Corani) project. He again states his "critical" position on large scale mining but recognizes that it's an attribution of the Central Government.
https://diariocorreo.pe/edicion/puno/walter-aduviri-yo-soy-critico-con-la-gran-mineria-860347/ Walter Aduviri: "I am a critic of the large scale mining" After winning the last regional elections, Walter Aduviri comments on the management perspectives he has for the Puno region during the next four years.
What has the Aimarazo meant for Walter Aduviri?
In this issue, the march was moving forward in 2011 and was for the mining concession that Alan Garcia Perez had signed in 2007. This affected the province of Puno and the districts of Kelluyo, Pisacoma and Huacullani. In this context, the population organized itself. The decree violated the fundamental rights of the person, of the brothers of the zone and, the worse thing, is that it came from acts of corruption. People demanded that the right to prior consultation be respected, minimally. After the dialogue, DS 083 was repealed.
Is that where Walter Aduviri decides to apply to the Regional Government of Puno?
Not in any way. I decide to go to the political scene, when I was no longer a leader, at the end of 2013 and at the beginning of 2014, because I had seen a lot of disparagement from Lima, not just to one or two people, practically to the entire jurisdiction: insults, defamation, unionize as terrorists, radicals, anti-investment or as if we were from another planet or the backyard of Peru. At that time, we started a process of collecting signatures with the Mallku movement, but it was not achieved. However, after that we talked to Democracia Directa and participated in the 2014 electoral process.
What will be your position regarding the Corani project, the case of exploitation of lithium and other mining projects?
In the first place, we have identified our attributions. Our attribution is small-scale mining and artisanal mining. There we will work in a responsible manner, giving technical and legal assistance in the formalization process of the brothers who work in this activity. Now, the large scale mining is not an attribution of the Regional Government but of the Central Government. But if they ask us for an opinion, we are critical, although that does not mean not listening to the population. For example, if the Government promotes a project, the minimum is that it consults the population, using the instruments of the right to consultation, which is ILO Convention 169. I am critical of the large scale mining, so I proposed that the Bolivian extraction model be put into debate, because it is different from what happens in Peru.
What is the difference?
In Peru, we have murders, imprisonment, persecution, denunciations, and even handicaps as a result of social struggles. To this you have to add the stoppages, strikes, mobilizations, states of emergency and the Army controlling the communities. You also should add the corruption and the fact that the extractivist model only leaves you pennies. While in the Bolivian model, the natural resource is of all Bolivians and the surpluses of those benefits are used in highways, gas domiciliary, automotive park and industry. They have good schools in the city and the countryside. In Bolivia there are no stoppages, there are no marches against extraction, on the contrary, they support the use of natural resources. With the Bolivian model we would grow from 8% to 10% in Peru, but instead of discussing that proposal, we only receive insults.
However, the Bolivian model continues to be extractivist, which clashes with the approach of indigenism or indigenous peoples...
Well, it is a proposal of the Andean Amazonian people. Let's not forget that in Tahuantinsuyo natural resources were extracted, but that was exploited by the inhabitants themselves, not by foreigners.
However, in Bolivia there are strikes and denunciations of corruption. Many people think that the management of the State and its approaches should not be only in charge of a group...
That is another issue, we are talking about natural resources, strikes are on other issues. The strikes in Bolivia are not against lithium or the use of natural resources, work stoppages are for labor rights or for respecting the Referendum outcome.
How would Walter Aduviri like to see Puno in four years?
A region where the foundations of development have been laid, large projects have been directed and, definitively, the quality of life has been improved, anemia, chronic malnutrition, health and education have been improved. In addition, the foundations have been laid for water development with micro-enterprises, planting and harvesting water; a region that gives added value to its products.