By Sebastian Castaneda and Marco Aquino
TRUJILLO, Peru (Reuters) – Peruvian mining sector worker Frank Monzón was aware of the risks, but the lure of gold deep in the Andean rock of northern Pataz province outweighed the danger. Now he and 12 others are dead in one of the country’s worst mining massacres.
Authorities this week halted some mining activity in Peru’s gold-rich north and sent in the military after police recovered the bodies of the 13 mine workers from inside the Lidmar mine after they were kidnapped by illegal miners last month and killed.
Lidmar was working in agreement with major local gold producer Poderosa, Peru’s second-largest producer.
The killings, by suspected gangs involved in illegal mining, have shaken the mineral-rich country, the world’s no. 3 copper producer and no. 8 for gold, where soaring global prices of the precious metal have led to a boom in illegal activity and sparked clashes between big mines and wildcat operators.
Illegal mining, primarily of gold, has surpassed even drug trafficking in terms of value, hitting some $3-4 billion each year, according to Peru’s government.
“He used to tell me that there were many deaths and I always kept telling my son ‘leave this job, son, come back, don’t work there, work somewhere else’,” said Abraham Dominguez, who identified himself as the father of one of the victims.
“For us as parents, it is such a great pain that we feel. It’s our children, our blood. I thought maybe one day he would bury me, but instead, I am going to bury my son.”
Into the night on Tuesday, relatives of the murdered mine workers, who had been security guards, said farewell to their loved ones, with burials in cities around the country.
In Trujillo, capital of the region where Pataz is located, relatives were scared to speak to the media as funerals were held, saying they feared reprisals from criminal gangs who authorities have blamed for the murders.
The white coffin of Monzón was carried by friends and family and paraded through the streets of Trujillo before his burial. In northern Piura, Darwin Cobeñas was laid to rest in his humble hometown, while his family sobbed and prayed that his death not go unpunished.
“I’m only alive because my friend told me not to go,” one local man in his 30s, who said he had worked before with some of the victims, told Reuters at Monzon’s funeral. “He told me: ‘A lot of things are happening, don’t go'”.
‘GOLD IS A CURSE’
Pataz has become Peru’s largest gold-producing region, in no small part due to artisan or informal mines, which operate under temporary REINFO permits.
However, with gold prices near record highs, illegal groups often muscle into the operations of small-scale miners or steal their production in collusion with criminal gangs, according to police and industry sources.
“Gold is a curse for Pataz,” the mayor of Pataz, Aldo Mariño, told Reuters. He had traveled to Lima to speak with President Dina Boluarte and demand greater investment in his remote region, an 18-hour drive even from Trujillo.
He said that despite the area’s great mineral wealth, his community lives in poverty, without basic services and on deteriorating or unpaved roads.
“This has been going on for several years, with the difference that now everything has collapsed. It’s due to the absence of the State,” he said. “People continue to die.”
Trujillo prosecutors investigating the deaths said on Tuesday that the workers had been dead for seven to eight days, citing forensic studies. Lidmar said in a statement its workers “were ambushed, cruelly tortured, and murdered by hitmen.”
Poderosa has reported the deaths of 39 workers in recent years in attacks on its facilities or small mines that supply it with gold. And in the last four years, 15 of the company’s high-voltage towers have been destroyed with explosives.
Peru exported $15.5 billion in gold in 2024, a sharp increase from $11 billion the previous year. It is estimated that around 40% of this likely came from illegal sources.
(Reporting by Sebastian Castaneda and Marco Aquino; Additional reporting by Anthony Marina; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Sharon Singleton)
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