Winchumayo, Peru: Adding more death to the shame of corrupt politico Tomas Cenzano

Tomas knows absolutely nothing.

We've had the misfortune of mentioning twice on this blog the social trainwreck known as the Winchumayo mine in the Itaupa region of Puno, Peru. Today comes episode three of the saga.

• First, this post in March chronicled the landslide and resulting multiple deaths at the site.

• Next, this post on September 22nd explained how, contrary to several pieces of legislation, APRA party member of congress Tomás Cenzano just happens to be an owner of the mine. Not only that, but the scumball hasn't paid taxes for gawdknows how long and according the Peru's SUNAT tax office his company owes the state over U$34m in unpaid tributes.

• Now the latest from the Winchumayo mine is how, on Saturday, locals held a meeting to discuss the true owenrship of the mine, how it would move forward etc. While the meeting was happening, a gang of masked men attacked the assembled group and left (according to reports) between three and ten dead and many people injured.

If one day you find yourself in a jeweller's shop in Peru buying gold, have a think about what kind of people you're supporting with your potential purchase. The whole episode is still shrouded in some mystery, with obfuscation aggregated by an idiot of an Interior Minister (APRA party surprise surprise) Octavio Salazar who acted too hasily on erroneous police information and declared to the country that there had been no deaths whatsoever and only five injured, which is clearly untrue according to multiple local reports and hospital stats. What's certainly true is that there was a meeting of locals and then an organized band of hoods moved in with firearms and blades to add their point of view to the discussions taking place.

The question, as always, is 'cui bono?' and the answer comes in Latin, too; status quo.

Meanwhile, the scumball Cenzano is trying his hardest to wash his hands. This morning he stated to local newspaper Los Andes that "I no longer have anything to do with the mine, I have already transferred everything", which translated into LatAm realspeak likely means "I've signed all my ownership rights to this social, environmental and political deathtrap to some friend or other until this all blows over and then he'll sign it all back to me later".

Peru Mining, Taxes, Tomás Cenzano and the APRA Party's Contribution to Society

Remember back in March when the Winchumayo gold mine in the Ituata district of Puno, Peru suffered a landslide and multiple deaths ensued? Well, we wrote about it at IKN in this post right here if memory isn't serving so well.

So today this story is hitting the wires in Peru, all about how the government SUNAT tax office is launching a big campaign to get back taxes paid by those that have dragged their feet at the moment of paying their dues to society. Chief among debtors is a mining company called "Media Naranja" that owes the state a cool two hundred and twenty-three million, eight hundred and seventy-nine thousand, four hundred and fifty-four Nuevos Soles...and 40 cents. To give context, at today's exchange rate that's U$76.93m in greenbacks. A lot of cash.

So what's the connection between paragraph one and paragraph two? Well, Winchumayo is owned by three entities who then rent out its operation to the hundreds (even thousands) of artisanal miners who work the seams and get the gold. The typical system in the Andean Amazon basin region where Winchumayo is located is to get the miners to work five days for the owners, then on the 6th day anything they produce they keep (other areas use different ratios of days). Here are the three owners:

• APRA Congressman Alfredo Tomás Cenzano Sierralta (33%)

• The mayor of the Ituata district, Roger Saya Tapara (34%)

• Foreign private mining company Oro Vega S.A.C. (with offices in Lima) (33%)

In other words, a private miner and two politicians have been making their millions via the ethically dubious, clearly dangerous and almost totally unregulated world of the South American artisanal miner. But the interesting one is Alfredo Tomás Cenzano Sierralta, and for two reasons:

• Members of Congress are prohibited from being involved in this sort of business under the Peru parliament's ethical standards and, more importantly, it contravenes Peru's mining law. Thus Cenzano is violating the rules of Congress and the law of his land to make himself rich, not just getting rich on the backs of the artisan miners paid their pittances under extremely dangerous and unhealthy work conditions.

• Alfredo Tomás Cenzano Sierralta is the 45% owner of 'Media Naranja', the mining company mentioned above that owes the taxman nearly U$77m. Media Naranja is exactly the same kind of set up as Winchumayo, as it owns and mines gold concessions in the Andean amazon basin via the same abusive labour agreements with artisanal miners, the same bad practices, the same get-rich-at-all-costs attitude of the owners. Same, same , same.

And that's how the APRA party works in Peru, folks. You often see me mention the stinking corruption of the APRA party, but it's not so often that an open-and-shut case of its disgusting modus operandi comes to light. An APRA congressman abusing workforce and environment to get rich on unregulated gold production that doesn't pay his taxes to multimillion dollar levels.

Alfredo Tomás Cenzano Sierralta (for it is he)

These are the people running Peru in 2009. No wonder people think it's investor-friendly.

Viva investment grade. Viva, viva, viva.

Peru counts its mining dead again

At around 7:30am today, the continuous heavy rainfall in the mountainous region between Peru and bolivia resulted in a massive landslide which completely covered the mining camp belonging to the privately owned Winchomayo Mining Company situated in the district of Ituata, province of Carabaya in the Puno region of Peru.

According to eyewitness reports, there is not a single house left standing. Eight dead bodies have been recovered from the rocks and mud. At least 22 other miners are as yet unaccounted for.

Local media coverage of this terrible accident can be found here. Those miners and mining company employees that follow IKN out there might like to remember that phrase about the grace of God around about now.

UPDATE: English language coverage from Bloomberg and Reuters.