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Canada.com: Illegal miners in Peru plagued by fear of repression

In this May 4, 2014 photo, a miner holds an amalgam of mercury and gold he mined after working a 28-hour shift at an illegal gold mining process, in La Pampa, in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Thousands of artisanal gold miners sweat through the long shifts and endure, for a few grams of gold, the perils of collapsing earth, limb-crushing machinery and the toxic mercury used to bind gold flecks. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Submitted news
15 May 2014 at 14:59 (Updated on 14 September 2020 at 11:45)

Peru’s government declared all informal mining illegal and began a crackdown. It raided the older boom town of Huepetuhe, dynamiting backhoes, trucks and generators. In La Pampa, miners fear they are next.

Peru Gold Miners Photo Essay

In this May 5, 2014 photo, after it stopped raining, Johan tied his father's raincoat around himself while playing in the front yard of their temporary home next to their satellite tv dish at a mining camp in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. It's not just miners who are threatened with economic catastrophe from the government's campaign to wipe out illegal mining operations, said a mining camp cook. For every miner there is a family that eats because he works, she said. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) ORG XMIT: ABD113

In this May 3, 2014 photo, a sex worker sits with potential customers at the informal bar "La Rica Miel" or Delicious Honey in English, in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Wildcat miners began arriving in 2008, populating shantytowns carved into the jungle along the interoceanic highway where coerced prostitution and tuberculosis now thrive. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) ORG XMIT: ABD121

In this May 5, 2014 photo, a sex worker who is employed by an informal bar playfully sticks out her tongue while posing for a photo, outside her place of her employment in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Since artisanal gold mining took hold in La Pampa, miners began carving a lawless, series of ramshackle settlement out of the Amazonian jungle territory in 2008. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) ORG XMIT: ABD120

In this May 3, 2014 photo, wildcat miners wait their turn to melt their amalgam of gold and mercury to burn off the mercury in the temporary home of a gold buyer in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. It's not just miners who are threatened with economic catastrophe from the government¹s campaign to wipe out illegal mining operations, said a mining camp cook. For every miner there is a family that eats because he works, she said. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) ORG XMIT: ABD118

In this May 3, 2014 photo, a jet stream of water passes above two miners known as "Maraqueros" who remove stones and chunks of tree trunks that have been released with the aid of a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a "Chupadera," in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. The Chupadera aims powerful jet streams of water at earth walls, releasing the soils that hold the sought after flecks of gold. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) ORG XMIT: ABD103

In this May 5, 2014 photo, a sex worker who is employed by an informal bar waits for customers in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. No one knows how much gold Madre de Dios contains, but Peru as a whole ranks sixth globally and first in Latin America in gold production. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) ORG XMIT: ABD123

Peru Gold Miners Photo Essay

APTOPIX Peru Gold Miners Photo Essay

In this May 3, 2014 photo, Prisaida, 2, sits in the shallow waters of a polluted lagoon as her parents mine for gold nearby, in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. The lagoon emerged as a result of miners bombarding the earth with jet streams of water in search of gold. The miners know they will be soon be evicted, Peru?s government declared all informal mining illegal on April 19. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) ORG XMIT: ABD115

In this May 5, 2014 photo, miners known as "Maraqueros" ready a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a "Chupadera," after hauling the device about 16-meters deep into a crater at a gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. A new threat now looms for the estimated 20,000 wildcat miners who toil in huge scar of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa, an area nearly three times the size of Washington, D.C. Peru's government declared all informal mining illegal on April 19 and began a crackdown. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) ORG XMIT: ABD105

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