International observers who attended the vote disagreed. Canadian-based Rights and Democracy Center reported its belief that the vote "was conducted in a free, democratic, and transparent manner, allowing citizens the opportunity to express their opinions through secret ballot with the effective guarantee that the votes would be counted correctly," and expressed its hope that the vote would help in lowering the level of conflict and finding a solution to the problems.

Peru's Minister of Energy and Mines promised to hold hearings in the affected towns, although he warned that the national mining law assigned decisions exclusively to the national government. The community continued to hold public actions to remind both Manhattan and the national government of their strong opposition to mining in the area. In November 2003, a three- day general strike was followed by an anti-mining demonstration in the town's main square, attended by over 10,000 residents.

The end of the project

One month later, the Peruvian government found that Manhattan Minerals had failed to meet essential criteria necessary to commence work on the mine. Voters privately cast ballots in

the corner of the roomManhattan announced that it would seek arbitration of the decision, but in early 2005 the end finally came. Manhattan was unable to find a major mining multinational corporation to help it meet the government's conditions. According to Manhattan's president, "The trouble for us was that we weren't able to find a partner like that because the social conditions were so anti-mining that nobody wanted to touch it."

Rio Blanco

The second local vote of this type in Peru took place in the same region as Tambogrande, in three smaller communities high in the foothills of the Andes. This time the subject was a copper and molybdenum mine called the Rio Blanco project, proposed by Minera Majaz.

Many in the communities had opposed the mining plan ever since exploration began in 2002. Since then, two men have been killed, one by a gas grenade fired by the National Police and one shot to death while carrying a wounded demonstrator to an ambulance. Many more have been injured in confrontations and demonstrations.

The Peru Study Group, an NGO from the United Kingdom with experience in resource issues, published a lengthy examination of the Rio Blanco project in March 2007, detailing the history of the conflict between the national government and the mining company on one side, and local communities and citizens on the other. The authors recommended a vote because both sides were completely polarized, and because a vote would provide a "clear statement on the balance of opinion" that all parties "would then have to live with and abide by."

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Peru Local Vote

Farmers and townspeople in Tambogrande gather in the town's main square to watch a documentary about their own successful efforts to hold a vote and stop mining development.

Mayor Rengifo then discovered an obscure provision in Peru’s municipal law that allowed a non-binding ‘consulta vecinal,’ or local vote…