CAJAMARACA AND REGIONAL UNREST

UNCLAS LIMA 004722 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PINR PHUM PE SUBJECT: CAJAMARACA AND REGIONAL UNREST REF: LIMA 4519 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Cajamarca may be emblematic of the broader regional challenges facing the Garcia administration, namely persistent poverty and rising frustration with inadequate public services that fuel antipathy towards all levels of government. Social discontent in Cajamarca has at times metastasized into conflict with the region's largest employer, Yanacocha mining company. Because Cajamarca has long been a ruling APRA party stronghold, it raises questions about the Garcia government's plan to decentralize both authority and blame for problems to regions and municipalities. End Summary ¶2. (SBU) Persistent poverty has characterized life for a significant majority of Cajamarca's residents. Located on the country's northern border far away from the marginalized southern regions that are the focus of the government's poverty alleviation efforts, Cajamarca ranked as one of the poorest regions in Peru in 1993 -- 22nd out of 25 departments. Thirteen years later, Cajamarca ranks 23rd. Regional officials told poloff during a recent visit that 40 percent of children in the region are malnourished, and 60 percent of homes lack electricity. They also described a simmering frustration with the status quo, where government promises -- at the national, regional and municipal levels -- come and go with each election but the situation fails to improve. In that sense, Cajamarca is emblematic of the broader regional challenges confronting the Garcia administration. ¶3. (SBU) Following repeated and vain petitions to the government, local populations have found a ripe target for their anger in Cajamarca's mining sector. Most recently, in August local residents, frustrated by a lack of roads and clean water, blockaded the activities of Yanacocha mining company (which is operated by Newmont, a U.S. firm). One leader of the protest, Father Marco Antonio Arana, told poloff that direct action against Yanacocha was justified because local government had proved unresponsive to popular demands. Communities have also been angered by the lack of access to the mining "canon," funds reserved from mining taxes and earmarked for local infrastructure projects (but controlled by the central government). The protest ended when Yanacocha promised to build a road linking local towns and a number of water filtration stations. (Comment: In that sense, the mining company has shouldered blame for the public sector's failures, and is pressed to provide the kinds of public services that governments normally dispense. End Comment.) ¶4. (SBU) Problems in Cajamarca raise questions about the Garcia government's plan to decentralize responsibility and blame for problems on to regional and local governments. In a November speech criticizing the failures of regional governments, President Garcia cited Cajamarca as an example of bad government, noting that local authorities had ignored pressing needs like child malnutrition. Ironically, Cajamarca has long been a ruling APRA-party stronghold: APRA candidates had won mayoral elections four times in a row, and also held the regional presidency -- until now. In the November 19 municipal elections, the APRA incumbent lost the regional presidency, and the mayor was re-elected by a razor-thin margin. In that sense, Garcia's strong words indirectly targeted his own party, and suggested that in the long run the central government will have difficulty esaping blame for public sector failures at the local level. ¶5. (SBU) Comment: President Garcia may succeed in the short term in shifting anger for ineffective government from the national to local level, and in securing the support of the private sector through "voluntary contributions" to the communities in which they operate. But in Cajamarca as in other poor regions of Peru, the government, at all levels, will have to correct its own failures -- and begin providing the basic services that populations increasingly demand -- if it hopes to avert social conflict in the future. End Comment. STRUBLE