Peru miners protest over wildcat mining row

Some 5,000 protesters took to the streets in Peru's eastern Amazon region Monday to rally against the government's tougher new line against illegal gold mining, local media reported. The protesters, including indigenous and other illegal gold miners, paralyzed the streets of Puerto Maldonado, capital of the Amazon basin province of Madre de Dios bordering Brazil. The province's mining federation and the local indigenous peoples' federation are among groups accusing the government in Lima of cracking down on wildcatters instead of helping them become authorized, legal miners. Several hundred police officers were deployed in a bid to avoid an escalation of violence, and businesses were closed, according to local media. Clashes between police and miners left two people dead and 36 wounded in Puerto Maldonado early last year. Peru is the world's fifth largest producer of gold, and with global prices sky high, unauthorized mining has surged. And the ecological disaster created by these unregulated mines has worsened in the past three years as gold prices soared. The new Peruvian law penalizes illegal mining, with violators facing four to 10 years in prison. The harshest penalties would be reserved for use of child labor or contaminating water used for human consumption. The previous maximum penalty was eight years in prison. Over the past six months, the government has also led a series of crackdowns on unauthorized mining, with a thousand police officers and soldiers deployed each time. In November, more than 1,500 police officers and soldiers seized or destroyed at least 75 dredging machines along with river boats used for gold mining in Madre de Dios, near the border with Brazil and Bolivia.