Celendín Province

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Celendín Province
Location of the province in the Cajamarca region
Location of the province in the Cajamarca region
Symbols
flag
flag
coat of arms
coat of arms
Basic data
Country Peru
region Cajamarca
Seat Celendín
surface 2,641.6 km²
Residents 79,084 (2017)
density 30 inhabitants per km²
founding September 30, 1862
ISO 3166-2 PE-CAJ
Website municelendin.gob.pe (Spanish)
politics
Alcalde Provincial José Ermitaño Marín Rojas
(2019-2022)
The city of Celendín from above
The city of Celendín from above

Coordinates: 6 ° 47 ′  S , 78 ° 13 ′  W

The province of Celendín is one of the 13 provinces that make up the Cajamarca region in northern Peru .

The province of Celendín borders on the province of Chota in the north, on the Amazon region in the east, on the provinces of San Marcos and Cajamarca in the south and on the province of Hualgayoc in the west .

history

Plaza de Armas and City Hall in Celendín
The top of the pass east of Celendín with a view of the valley of the Río Marañón

Before the Europeans settled the area, indigenous people of the Caxamarca culture lived in the area .

The province of Celendín was founded on September 30, 1862. The eponymous capital has been the city of Celendín from the beginning , which was formally founded on December 2, 1802 by Baltazar Martínez de Compañón y Bujanda, the bishop of Trujillo . It was laid out according to a plan drawn up by the engineer José Comesana.

The fertile and beautiful valley 50 km northeast of the city of Cajamarcas attracted many settlers. Because of some of their surnames, it is believed that they included Gallic-Portuguese Jews; but there is little evidence for this theory.

In the 21st century the province of Celendín experiences a steady emigration of its inhabitants. In 2017 it had only 79,084 inhabitants. In 2002 there were still more than 93,000; So within 15 years the population fell by a sixth.

Administrative division

The province of Celendín consists of 12 districts. The Celendín district is the seat of the provincial administration.

District Administrative headquarters
Celendín Celendín
Chumuch Chumuch
Cortegana Cortegana
Huasmin Huasmin
Jorge Chavez Lucmapampa
José Gálvez Huacapampa
La Libertad de Pallán La Libertad de Pallán
Miguel Iglesias Chalan
Oxamarca Oxamarca
Sorochuco Sorochuco
Sucre Sucre
Utco Utco

"Conga" mining conflict

The province of Celendín became known internationally for its resistance to the "Conga" mining project of the US company Newmont Mining , which is planned on the soil of the province. In a consortium with the World Bank subsidiary IFC and Buenaventura from Peru, Newmont Mining operates the Yanacocha mine , one of the largest and most profitable gold mines in the world, in the neighboring province of Cajamarca . The same consortium planned to invest $ 4.8 billion in the Conga Project to operate an even larger gold and copper mine. The environmental impact study presented by the group for Conga was approved shortly before the end of the term of office of President Alan García in October 2010, thus creating the essential prerequisites for the project.

When it became apparent after President Ollanta Humala took office in July 2011 that the project should be retained, protests increased in Celendín and neighboring provinces in the Cajamarca region . In particular, the drainage of four mountain lakes accepted in the environmental impact study by Conga has met with criticism, as it is feared that the regional supply of clean drinking water will be endangered. After the conflict worsened due to a general strike in the region and the failure of Prime Minister Salomón Lerner Ghitis' attempts to negotiate , the government declared a state of emergency in four provinces of the Cajamarca region from 5 to 15 December 2011: Celendín, Cajamarca, Hualgayoc and Contumazá. Prime Minister Lerner then submitted his resignation. This led to the first government reshuffle just 5 months after President Humala took office.

President Humala had an additional environmental report drawn up and urged the company to accept the proposed measures and dry up two instead of four mountain lakes. To compensate for this, it was proposed to build larger reservoirs. In addition, the consortium is to create 10,000 direct jobs and set up a social fund for the region. The group accepted the new requirements at the end of June 2012 and now expects that the water reservoir of the four mountain lakes (1.3 million cubic meters) could be increased to a total of 14 million cubic meters, thus serving the needs of the mine without the drinking water supply Endanger the region.

After the government of President Humala gave the green light for the construction work at the end of June 2012, the conflict intensified again: The use of the police and army during the protests resulted in 5 civilians being killed and 50 injured in early July. As a result, on July 4, the government again declared a state of emergency in Celendín and the neighboring provinces of Cajamarca and Hualgayoc for 30 days. The government's violent crackdown on the conflict, led by Prime Minister Óscar Valdés , led to strong criticism. As a result, on July 23, 2012, a prime minister resigned for the second time within the first year of President Humala's office and, as prescribed in Peru, the government was newly (and partially) re-elected.

On August 3, 2012, the state of emergency was extended for another 30 days. On August 21, Newmont Mining President Richard O'Brien said in an interview that the Conga mining project needed harmonious conditions, including in terms of transport, employees and equipment, and that there are currently none in the region. The state of emergency was lifted on September 2, 2012. According to a survey by the University of Cajamarca at the beginning of October 2012, 80% of the rural population were against the Conga project. On average for the entire urban and rural region of Cajamarca, the rejection was 73%.

Since September 2012, several hundred farmers with changing occupations have been staying in a peaceful protest camp on the lakes Laguna Azúl and Laguna Namacocha. They stayed when the temperatures dropped to minus degrees in early October and rain and sleet showers set in. The farmers are demanding the withdrawal of the mining company's construction machinery with which the water reservoirs are to be built, as well as the stop of the entire Conga project. The government doubled the police force in the area to 600 in early October.

Special police forces guard the construction of a water reservoir for the Conga project (October 2012)

On October 18, 2012, the union of farmers' associations ( Federación de Rondas Campesinas de Cajamarca ) called for the on 24/25. October went on a 48-hour strike to go to the threatened lakes and strengthen the protest camp against the construction work on the water reservoirs by the mining company. Interior Minister Wilfredo Pedraza said that the state would prevent an advance into the concession area of ​​the mine and sent 400 special police forces ( División Nacional de Operaciones Especiales de la Policía ) to the lake area.

In November 2012, the (legally non-binding) Latin American Water Tribunal called on the Peruvian government to stop the project because it violated national and international laws and the Peruvian Environment Ministry's powers to protect people and the environment were insufficient. The tribunal criticized the increasing privatization of water resources by mining companies, found irregularities in the issuing of permits for the Conga mine and criticized the criminalization of social protests and the violence against representatives of environmental and farming organizations by state security forces.

In June 2013 the first of the four planned water reservoirs was completed. It is named after the mountain lake "Chailhuagón", which is said to have fallen victim to mining. With 2.6 million cubic meters, the container holds about twice as much water as the mountain lake and is to be used for local agriculture. The storage facilities have been criticized because it is unclear who will take over the water management and maintenance costs of the storage facilities after the natural lakes have been destroyed and in future after the mine has been closed. In April and June 2013, several thousand farmers again protested against the mining project on the mountain lake "El Perol". They demanded that the government adhere to the promised construction stop and accused the mining company of having started road and earthworks, although there was no permit to “relocate” the mountain lake.

In 2018, Newmont Mining confirmed that it would no longer pursue the Conga project. Because there is no social acceptance for it . In addition, it is unprofitable at the current raw material prices.

tourism

The province of Celendín lies between two tourist areas of particular interest in Peru: the city and province of Cajamarca in the south and the province of Chachapoyas with the towns of Leymebamba and Chachapoyas in the northeast. It is therefore mainly visited by tourists on the transit trip. In addition to bus tours from tourism companies, there are public buses once a day in each direction between the places Cajamarca and Chachapoyas (approx. 10 hours travel time). There are other options by rental car (rental in Cajamarca) or by bike (for those with mountain tour experience). Between Cajamarca and Celendín, the first half of the route is paved, the second half a gravel road. From Celendín to the north, the road consists of a gravel road until shortly before Chachapoyas. On the route east of Celendín there are numerous curves with very beautiful views of two passes. Between the heights of the pass, the road at the village of Balsas descends into the tropical banks of the Río Marañón , which forms the Amazon further downstream.

In Celendín there is a cattle and vegetable market every Sunday. In addition to the central square (“Plaza de Armas”) there are several restaurants.

literature

  • José de Echave, Alejandro Diez: Más allá de Conga . Red Peruana por una Globalización con Equidad, Lima 2013, ISBN 978-9972-2617-3-2 .

Web links

Commons : Province of Celendín  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Celendín, Province in Region Cajamarca . www.citypopulation.de. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
  2. ↑ Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (INEI): Directorio Nacional de Centros Poblados - Censos Nacionales 2017 . Lima 2018, vol. 2, p. 549 ( online ).
  3. ^ Latin America News
  4. ↑ a b c New Prime Minister should arbitrate. In: the daily newspaper . July 24, 2012, accessed August 9, 2012 .
  5. ↑ Nick Magel: Newmont's Conga mine brings major clean water problems. In: Earthworks EarthBlog. November 9, 2011, accessed August 10, 2012 .
  6. ↑ INFOAMAZONAS
  7. ^ Estado de emergencia en Cajamarca es oficial: estas son las libertades suspendidas. In: El Comercio (Peru) . December 5, 2011, Retrieved August 9, 2012 (Spanish).
  8. ↑ When mining becomes a regional conflict , Neue Zürcher Zeitung, July 14, 2012
  9. ↑ Knut Henkel: Conditions for the gold mine. In: the daily newspaper . April 27, 2012. Retrieved August 9, 2012 .
  10. ↑ Maria Elena Castillo: Yanacocha acepta nuevas condiciones para explotar Conga. In: La República (Peru) . June 20, 2012, Retrieved August 9, 2012 (Spanish).
  11. ^ Gerhard Dilger: Cabinet falls over mining conflict. In: the daily newspaper . December 12, 2011, accessed August 9, 2012 .
  12. ↑ Prórroga de estado de emergencia en Cajamarca busca preservar normalidad de actividades, afirmó Huaroc. In: El Comercio (Peru) . August 3, 2012, Retrieved August 9, 2012 (Spanish).
  13. ↑ Muertos en Cajamarca suben a 5, mientras la región vive en un clima de tensión. In: La República (Peru) . July 6, 2012, Retrieved August 20, 2012 (Spanish).
  14. ^ Newmont CEO: Conditions Not There for Peru's Minas Conga to Proceed. In: Foxbusiness. August 17, 2012, archived from the original on August 24, 2012 ; accessed on September 3, 2012 .
  15. ↑ Ejecutivo no prorrogará estado de emergencia en Cajamarca. In: El Comercio (Peru) . September 1, 2012, accessed September 3, 2012 (Spanish).
  16. ↑ Las últimas de Conga. In: La República (Peru) . October 27, 2012, Retrieved November 4, 2012 (Spanish).
  17. ↑ Según el 73.4% de los cajamarquinos Conga no debe ir “de ninguna manera”. In: La República (Peru) . October 10, 2012, accessed November 4, 2012 (Spanish).
  18. ↑ Cajamarca: se DUPLICO número de agentes en zona de protestas contra Conga. In: El Comercio (Peru) . October 9, 2012, Retrieved September 3, 2012 (Spanish).
  19. ↑ 400 Efectivos de la DINOES se instalan en zona de lagunas de proyecto Conga. In: La República (Peru) . October 17, 2012, Retrieved November 4, 2012 (Spanish).
  20. ^ "No vamos a permitir el avance de comuneros a Conga" afirmó Pedraza. In: El Comercio (Peru) . September 1, 2012, accessed September 3, 2012 (Spanish).
  21. ↑ Peru: Water Tribunal calls for the Conga mining project to be stopped. In: Rettet den Regenwald e. V. November 12, 2012, accessed July 30, 2013 .
  22. ^ Judgment of the Latin American Water Tribunal. (PDF; 286 kB) Buenos Aires, tragua.com, November 7, 2012
  23. ↑ La minera Yanacocha permanent operando en Cajamarca hasta el 2027 . April 27, 2018, accessed January 23, 2019.