Peru Is Winning Over Miners With Soft Hand on Conflicts, PM Says
- Socialist government wants to avoid bloody battles of the past
- Castillo administration working with World Bank on oversight
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Mining companies in Peru are starting to get on board with a new soft-handed approach to resolving social conflicts that threaten some of the world’s biggest copper, zinc and silver operations, according to a top government official.
Previous governments tended to send in the military to deal with mining protests, leading to injuries, deaths and simmering resentment among isolated rural communities. The new strategy of respecting the right to protest while brokering lasting agreements may take longer, but it’s starting to bear fruit, Prime Minister Mirtha Vasquez said in an interview late Tuesday.