LIMA (Reuters) – A key Peruvian official tasked with implementing a law to give indigenous groups more rights has resigned to protest efforts by President Ollanta Humala’s cabinet to roll back the law to protect mining investments.
Deputy Culture Minister Ivan Lanegra, who confirmed his resignation yesterday on Twitter, was upset the government decided to exclude Quechua-speaking communities in the mineral-rich Andes from being covered by Peru’s “prior consultation law,” a number of sources told Reuters.
That law gives indigenous communities the right to shape natural resource developments that affect them, but does not allow them to veto projects.
Still, mining companies in one of the world’s top minerals exporters were worried the law would slow new projects by making community approvals more difficult.
Reuters reported in an exclusive on May 1 that Mines and Energy Minister Jorge Merino had persuaded Humala to keep Quechua communities from being covered by the law, because Merino feared its broad application in the Andes would hold up a $50 billion pipeline of mining investments.
Foreign investment in mining has traditionally powered Peru’s fast-growing economy.
