| DOCUMENTAL SERIES
"Seated on a bench of gold"
Two centuries ago, Italian explorer Antonio Raimondi wrote that
Peru is like a “beggar seated on a bench of gold.” Today,
nearly half the country’s population lives on less than US$2
a day despite billion dollar mining, oil and natural gas extraction.
While the profits fatten bank accounts abroad and the lucky few
in the nation’s capital, the promised economic benefits have
failed to trickle down to the majority of Peruvians.
Instead, they are left with environmental destruction,
social decay and labor unrest. But Raimondi's ancient and cynical
metaphor does not reflect the creativity and strength flowing through
Peru's small towns and peasant communities where citizens are standing
up to powerful mining interests and demanding a voice in their own
development.
Guarango is producing the ‘Bench of gold’
documentary series to transmit these proud, spirited voices to the
outside world. Each film is a portrait of one community’s
experience with transnational mining, narrated by the local people
themselves. We provide the vehicle – cameras and production
skills – and they tell the story.
Recent History
Peruvian schoolchildren learn of the Spanish conquest of the Americas
through the tale of the assassination of the Inca ruler Atahualpa
for gold and silver to satisfy Spanish greed. The new rush on Peru’s
natural resources, however, is rooted in more recent history. A
protectionist military government in the late 1960s and 70s, followed
by a 15-year armed conflict with left-wing guerrilla groups and
rampant hyper-inflation converted Peru into a virtual pariah for
foreign investors.
The government of President Alberto Fujimori opened
the country to a frenzy of outside investment in the mid-1990s by
quashing armed – and unarmed – resistance, and imposing
aggressive neoliberal reforms. Mining corporations flocked to Peru
in search of a modern-day El Dorado, or city of gold beneath the
country’s under-explored soil. By the year 2000, Peru had
90 registered mines in production and dozens more under exploration,
with mining making up 40 percent of the country’s exports.
Fujimori’s political fall that same year
was accompanied by a re-birth of civil society movements and 2001
was marked by nation-wide demonstrations from mining communities.
Instead of calming these tensions, however, Peru’s new government
of President Alejandro Toledo has embraced Fujimori’s neoliberal
policies and made transnational mining the centerpiece of the country’s
economy. Alarmingly, Peru’s environmental and labor legislation
remains weak and monitoring ineffective, providing a further attraction
for transnational companies.
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