Police raise the number of human remains found in the largest gold-producing area in Peru to 16

Peruvian police on Monday increased the number of human remains found in a mountain mine in the country’s largest gold-producing region, plagued by crime, from 11 to 16, prompting the government to restrict constitutional rights in the country. area for almost a year and a half.

General José Zavala, police chief of La Libertad — the region where the remains were found, located 559 kilometers northwest of Lima — told by telephone to The Associated Press that at least six complete corpses in a state of putrefaction and another 10 additional human remains have been recorded. He also indicated that the hypothesis used by the police is that the remains would be the product of a possible confrontation between criminal organizations “due to the predominance of whoever stays” with the sinkholes to obtain the gold.

Zavala explained that the alleged criminals operating in the area arrived approximately two years ago to a remote area that belongs to the concessions of the La Poderosa mining company, one of the most important in the country. From there, some holes were drilled in the mountain that even crossed “with the holes of the La Poderosa mining company”, these legally built.

In the clashes that have occurred, at different times over the last two years, between groups of criminals who steal gold — known as “parqueros” — “long weapons and pistols” have been used.

The bodies were found almost four kilometers deep from the mouth of the sinkhole, in a remote area called Las Tolvas. “It is there where they have thrown the bodies of people who have died in that area and they have been putting them in that place,” said the police chief, who also indicated that machinery from the La Poderosa mining company was used to remove the bodies. Remains are now under analysis at the morgue in Trujillo, the regional capital, he added.

The AP He requested comments from the mining company La Poderosa, without obtaining a response at the moment.

In the province of Pataz, constitutional rights are restricted by a state of emergency decreed by the government of President Dina Boluarte since January 2023. However, Pataz and the entire La Libertad region continue to suffer extortion from criminal groups. According to the authorities, until mid-year, 150 schools in La Libertad had been extorted and 20 of them attacked.

Pataz, in the Andes, is the largest gold producing area in Peru where three large mining companies work but hundreds of illegal miners also work in other pits.

In April 2024, the La Poderosa gold mining company said in a statement that in the last two years a total of 16 workers linked to the mine had lost their lives in attacks by illegal miners and 14 high voltage towers had been knocked down, affecting energy. that they receive to work.

Peru produces around 100 tons of gold per year, but another 40 tons are produced illegally and informally, according to calculations by the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

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