Deadline Lapses In Peru For Illegal Gold Miners

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The clock has run out for an estimated 40,000 illegal gold miners who had until Saturday to legalize their status in a region of southeastern Peru where fortune-seekers have ravaged rainforests and contaminated rivers. The government's vow to enforce a ban on illegal mining is raising fears of bloody confrontations. The miners already have been clashing with police while intermittently blocking traffic on the commercially vital interoceanic highway that links the Pacific coast with Brazil, protesting government attempts to squeeze them out by drastically restricting shipments of the gasoline they use for their machinery. Peru criminalized unpermitted mining in rivers and other protected natural zones in 2012 but repeatedly delayed implementing the law, which imposes up to 12 years in jail and fines of up to $54,000 on violators. [...] with the government preparing to host global climate talks in December and the world's eyes upon it, authorities insist they are determined to end the illegal mining, even if critics say that invites mayhem because no economic alternatives have been offered to the miners, most of them dirt-poor migrants from the Andean highlands. Authorities destroyed 400 trucks and dynamited 13 illegal refineries valued at more than $30 million in the coastal towns of Chala and Nazca, far removed from Madre de Dios.

Topics:  lima   peru ap     the   pacific   brazil   december   andean   authorities   chala   nazca   madre   dios   peru   the   illegal gold miners   government   mining   rivers   
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