Business, Law & Justice, Mining, Politics, Provinces

Comptroller General: Cajamarca Gov’t Used Education Funds For Mine Protests

Peru’s comptroller general, Fuad Khoury, has accused the regional government of Cajamarca of using funds for recent protests against mining projects that were instead supposed to be used for education, according to daily La Republica.

Cajamarca Regional President Gregorio Santos began leading protests against Newmont Mining’s Minas Conga gold project last year. The protests paralyzed much of Cajamarca and resulted in the suspension of Conga, Peru’s biggest mining project and which will require an investment of $4.8 billion.

“After a series of reviews of documents that we received, we found that there were resources, destined for certain education projects, that were used for the demonstrations,” said Khoury.

Santos denied the allegations, saying that it is part of a political persecution against him.

“There is political, administrative and criminal intervention,” he said. Santos took office in 2011. He is a strong critic of Conga, arguing that it will harm the local water supply.

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