PATAZ: What is known about the kidnapping and murder of 13 miners in Peru by which President Dina Boluarte declared the curfew in the area

The murder of 13 people in a Pataz mine, in the department of La Libertad, shocked Peru and highlighted the security crisis suffered by the country.

The bodies of the 13 workers were found on Sunday with indications of having been executed in cold blood in a sinkhole inside a mine owned by the powerful company, after days of unconfirmed rumors and information about their alleged kidnapping.

The episode has shaken a country in which citizen insecurity has become one of the main concerns of the population and cup the political debate.

The fact that the province of Pataz would have been emergency since February last year to stop crime did not prevent deaths and has aggravated doubts about the management of the authorities.

The rise of crime has led the president of the president, Dina Boluarte, to declare the state of emergency in different parts of the country, including Lima, and the Pataz massacre has opened the debate about whether the proper response is being given to the problem.

This same Monday, Boluarte declared a touch touch in Pataz and gave the armed forces control of the mining area.

Last Friday, after days of speculation, the powerful mining company denounced in a statement that a group of “illegal miners collided with criminals” attacked one of its facilities in the province of Pataz and kidnapped 13 workers.

According to the company, the workers provided services to a “artisanal miner” that maintains “an exploitation contract” with the mining company.

The company said what happened “highlights the terrible deterioration of security conditions in Pataz.”

He denounced that illegal mining has taken over a large part of its facilities despite the statement of the state of emergency and the deployment of 800 police officers in an operation carried out last week.

On Sunday, the Peruvian media reported the finding of 13 bodies in a socavón of the mine, confirming the worst fears of family members, which were arriving in the area from different parts of the country.

Police sources cited by the Peruvian medium RPP indicated that the victims were “handcuffed, bandaged and naked when they were executed with a shot in the neck.”

Although an official list of victims has not been published, the Peruvian media have already begun to disseminate some names, and some relatives have presented themselves in the morgue of the city of Trujillo, where they wait for legal and forensic procedures to be completed with the bodies of their loved ones.

Enrique Carbonell, who identified himself as the father of one of the murdered workers, was very critical of the management of the authorities in statements to Channel N.

“There is neither a police post nor a fast aid” in the area, Carbonell complained.

According to the company’s story, the 13 people were killed after being kidnapped in the attack of an armed group that took control of the area of ​​the facilities in which they worked.

The armed attacks and deaths in Mines of Peru have increased and the company reported that there are already 39 “collaborators, artisanal miners and workers finalized” by the criminal groups that have taken control of the area.

Peru has an immense mining wealth. It is one of the world’s largest gold producers and contributes about 4% of the world supply.

And many seek, especially in Rural Peru, where economic opportunities do not abound, make a living in the mining business, a sector in which informality prevails and around which in recent years the criminal groups have proliferated.

Many of the clandestine farms are found in difficult access areas, often in mountain or jungle areas, where the State and its security forces have little presence.

Extortion, human trafficking and sexual exploitation are some of the problems that usually accompany the expansion of these criminal groups.

The Peruvian government established in 2017 the Integral Registry of Mining Formalization (Reinfo), which allowed to register and formalize its situation to artisanal miners.

Although he was born as a temporary mechanism, he has been extending and the last attempts to end them have encountered the strong opposition of the interest groups created around artisanal mining.

Their detractors denounce that the reinfill has become the practice on the road that allows illegal activities without an effective inspection and is being used by organized crime networks involved in illegal mining to create covers and bleach its assets.

Illegal mining has been identified by experts as one of the engines of the increase in crime and violence suffered by Peru.

The country had registered more than 640 homicides until mid -April this year, which represents 19% more than those accounted for in the same period of the previous year.

Days before the bodies were found, the Peruvian prime minister, Gustavo Adrianzén, questioned the veracity of the information about the 13 kidnapped in Pataz.

In a press conference last Wednesday, Adrianzén said: “Our security forces have no indications that the reported event is truthful,” and added that he did not know “any complaint so far.”

But Carbonell said he filed the complaint for his son’s disappearance on Tuesday night and described Adrianzén’s comments as “a very big lie.”

Already on Monday, with the country impacted by the discovery of the bodies, the president, Dina Boluarte, offered a televised message to the country in which she defended that “from the first moment it was rumored that there were people kidnapped, the Executive took due actions.”

Boluarte declared the imposition of a touch touch in the Pataz district between 06.00 am and 06.00 pm, and announced that the Armed Forces will take control of the mine and establish a military base.

The president also announced that all mining activities in Pataz will be suspended for an initial period of 30 days to “facilitate the installation” of military and police in the area.

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