It's difficult to explain just how much of a snafu the Twobreakfasts government has made of Doe Run Peru (DRP) but the latest chapter, written last night, should come as no surprise. Basically there are three actors in this play:
- Ira Rennert, billionaire owner of Genco who are in turn the owners of DRP. He's a piece of crap but at least he's a predictable piece of crap; he dosn't care about anything but the money.
- The workforce of DRP. They just want their jobs back.
- The government of Peru that has tried to be play at governance and authority and has been laughed off the stage. The result has been death, mayhem and inertia.
Twobreakfasts&Co has tried to play the strongman card about the environmental regulations that DRP has to comply with by the end of October.
"You must comply with the October 2009 deadline", says Twobreakfasts.
Ira says, "screw you, we want 32 extra months".
This extension comes on the back of a previous extension that he totally ignored, so there's no reason to believe he'll clean up DRP this time, either. So the government decides to "be flexible" (read KY Jelly) and give DRP 20 months to do its cleanup program.
"Screw you", says Ira. "I said 32 months, you bunch of wimps."
So continues the impasse. Meanwhile, Ira rallies his troops on site and tells them to strike again to demand that the government caves in and gives DRP the 32 month extension. This they do (out of fear for losing jobs and desire to get back to earning a salary). The main road is blocked, the police move in and last night yet another police officer dies on the scene when hit by rocks pushed on to their position by the strikers.
Rule of law? Rule of $$$$$. The senseless, toothless, wet blanket government of Peru still has no idea what it's up against. In the Wild West of neoliberal Peru, Ira's money talks and Twobreakfasts' bullshit walks. There is no national pride, because if there was Ira Rennert would have been kicked out of the country and his assets seized months ago. The cowards that run Peru bow and scrape before the altar of investment grade at all costs.