Mining Opponents Tortured in Peru
Holding an English mining company accountable
The controversial Rio Blanco mine
The English mining corporation Monterrico Metals hopes to create Peru’s second largest copper mine at Rio Blanco, in the Huancabamba mountains near the border with Ecuador. Peru is a leading copper-producing nation, and the mine in the province of Piura could result in exports worth up to one billion dollars per year for the next twenty years.
However, the corporation found itself in conflict with local farmers soon after its arrival in the region in 2001, and has struggled to develop the project. Much of the vast area of the mining concession is covered by cloud forest that collects rainwater and feeds it into rivers flowing into the agricultural basins below. Farmers and environmentalists feared the rivers would become polluted and depleted, that the fragile ecosystems of the region would be severely damaged, and that farmlands would be endangered.
On September 16, 2007, the affected communities held a non-binding vote to gauge popular sentiment on the mine. An EDLC attorney attended that vote as an international observer. His account of the vote, and a short video of the voting process, can be found on this website. Over 18,000 people voted, with all but 285 opposing the mine. The national administration immediately declared development of the Rio Blanco mine to be of national importance.
A peaceful protest leads to kidnapping and torture
In August 2005, hundreds of people converged on the mine from communities scattered across the region, some walking for several days. Once there, they say, they were attacked by the mine’s security 
guards and by contingents of the Peruvian federal police firing teargas and live rounds.
A group of twenty-eight of the protesters were arrested by the police. The protesters claim that they were detained for three days at the mine installations and were tortured, including by being hooded with hands tied behind their backs, beaten with sticks, and whipped. Two protesters were shot in their legs, one man lost an eye to gunshot wounds, and farmer Melanio Garcia suffered a fatal gunshot wound.
The national courts of the countries where harms of this type arise are rarely able to offer a fair judicial forum to victims of corporate abuse, and this case is no exception. While the case initially attracted intense interest in Peru, a government investigation failed to bring any results despite the evidence of wrongdoing.
EDLC and Leigh Day lend a hand
EDLC had helped in the successful criminal defense of dozens of leaders of the opposition to the mine. When photos emerged in 2009 confirming the claims of the twenty-eight protesters that they had been kidnapped and tortured, EDLC introduced the victims to solicitors at Leigh Day in London, a firm with an international reputation for pursuing violations of human rights norms around the world.
After traveling to Peru, the lawyers commenced proceedings in the High Court in London. When the firm learned that Monterrico was 
delisting from the London stock exchange and transferring its assets and operations to China, home of its parent company, the lawyers applied for an injunction to halt the asset transfer. After a fully contested hearing, the High Court ordered a freezing injunction for £5 million against Monterrico, ruling that the claimants had a “good arguable case.”
Peruvian protesters tortured
- Rio Blanco Copper, public statement of January 16, 2009