Together with Children
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Together With Children is the blog of the Office of Child Advocacy.
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A Call to Prayer
March 17, 2012
In 2009, three things happened that changed the landscape for the campaign for the health of La Oroya:
1. Doe Run Peru entered into bankruptcy hearings. Citing the world economic crisis and the temporary decline in world metal prices, Doe Run Peru unsuccessfully petitioned for a government bailout. In June of 2009, it closed operations for the first time in the history of the plant. It remains closed to this day. Keenan Steiner, “As Renco lobbies and Peru deliberates, Doe Run Peru remains idle,”(http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2011/la-oroya/, 8 March 2011) Currently the residents of the town have clean air to breathe; however, the soils are still deeply contaminated. Were the plant to start up again, it would do so without the necessary changes required by the PAMA. The risk for further contamination still exists.
2. In 2011 Renco Group filed arbitration for $800 million against the State of Peru for violating the 2009 Free Trade Agreement implemented between the United State and Peru. Citing an Investors’ Rights clause within the agreement, Renco Group claimed that the high cost of the PAMA had led to the bankruptcy of Doe Run Peru. Renco claimed that this amounted to indirectly depriving them of their investment—a violation of the Free Trade Agreement.
3. A new voice for La Oroya was born – the voice of CAMBIALO! In 2009, Joining Hands Against Hunger in Peru received an email from a group of fourth and fifth graders in New York City. They wanted to learn more about La Oroya from the kids of La Oroya themselves. So Joining Hands gathered children born after 1997 along with their parents to see if there was a desire among them to tell the story of La Oroya. The desire was great! And so the group CAMBIALO was formed, and their mission defined. Among all the causes of the contamination,
such as the irresponsibility of the company, the lack of will by the government of Peru, and even an international trade agreement that appears to allow the company to get away with the contamination, the kids of CAMBIALO recognize there is one more cause — a people and a culture who do not speak up and take a stand. This is the mission of CAMBIALO, to awaken a culture of care for the environment and for the rights of all to breathe clean air.
But recent events are again threatening the health of the residents of La Oroya. Faith leaders and others in Peru are opposing attempts to re-open the smelter without putting in place the environmental safeguards that would ensure that more pollution does not take place.
An Interfaith Prater Vigil is scheduled for Thursday, March 22 in Peru, and people of faith there are calling on us to join them in prayer. Read more about the vigil .
- Posted at 6:00 a.m.
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