Reports from Junin today tell of three Daimi Services employees taken to Junin by dozens of anti-mining protesters from several communities to protest the presence of Daimi Services and Ascendant Copper Corporation in Intag. On previous occasions, the mining company was clearly warned by communities that neither they nor their representatives were wanted in the area.
No one was hurt in the collective action against Ascendant and Daimi, and the employees were released by the community members to the police, after they agreed to leave the area for good. There were no arrests. Many of the participants were women who felt enraged by the continual violation of their decision to reject the mining project. The police were also apparently not pleased at all by what the people told them the company has been doing in the past.
I have been told by very reliable sources that DAIMI hired four bodyguards (guns, bullet-proof vests, the whole outfit), to protect Daimi employees when they go around the communities offering everything under the sun (the latest we hear is environmental education classes, and suppossedly, the people who go to them are paid a daily wage plus food)!! Was this what Daimi was hired for?
This new defeat for Ascendant comes right after of a loss of support from many CODEGAM members from García Moreno…
On Saturday the 14th of February, I talked to two people from Garcia Moreno, (the town that was supposed to be in favor of the mining) — There’s a big meeting /party organized by the local soccer league sponsored at one time by Codegam — and one of the main things on their agenda was what to do with the mining company.
From the report of two people who are there who called me, most of the people who were fully supporting Ascendant are right now organizing against the company. There are all kinds of anti-Ascendant signs painted all over the walls of Garcia Moreno with anti-Ascendant and anti-Daimi Services messages. The main entity leading this initiative is the River Plate soccer team — from García Moreno, with a little help from Ronald Andrade. The main discourse is that they have been lied to by the company about mining; the company has not kept promises made to them and other organizations and communities — and they are specially angry about them hiring Daimi Services.
It seems the only vialbe option for ASCENDANT is to GET OUT!
KEEP tuned for new developments.
