The mining company said that the bodies of 13 security guards kidnapped from the Peruvian mines a week ago were found on Sunday.
Peruvian company La Poderosa said a search and rescue team recovered the remains of staff on Sunday. This allegedly blames their kidnapping on informal miners related to the criminal gang that ambushed the gold mine on April 26.
La Poderosa, a private company in Lima, the capital of Peru, said that since the extraction began in 1980, including the latest 13 people, the criminal group that fought for control of the mine for Pataz, a remote northwestern city of Peru, killed 39 workers at the company.
“Despite the declared state of emergency, uncontrolled violence in Patatz is still happening. Unfortunately, it is the presence of large police officers whose security situation in the region has deteriorated,” the mining company said in a statement.
In a particularly rough incident in December 2023, illegal miners attacked the same Poderosa mine with explosives, killing nine people and injuring 15 people. La Poderosa sent more security personnel to deal with a series of attacks.
In Trujillo, west of Patatz, some of the victims’ relatives are waiting for the bodies to be transferred to the morgue there.
“We hope this is not only going to stop here,” AFP reported.
Peruvian police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Ministry of Interior in Peru said special police forces have been deployed to “find and capture those responsible for these outrageous crimes”. It provides no further details about the attack or its perpetrators.
Mining is the main economic driver of the Andean country, one of the largest gold producers in Latin America.
Peru is the world’s leading supplier of gold and copper, with some protections while allowing informal miners to plan to legalize their operations. But as metals become increasingly profitable, new mining technologies emerged, and illegal mining quickly grew into a huge industry, the government worked hard to respond.
Most of the crime waves in Peru make the government motivate the government State of emergency was declared last monthin recent months, ransomware reports by hand miners and entrepreneurs in mining areas in the country.
