Therefore, the Public Hearing of the People was held in Uspallata, where the population officially and massively pronounced against the San Jorge mine project (PSJ), with much greater citizen participation. Violation of the Escazú Agreement (2) The government has persecuted opponents of San Jorge Mine, with repression, shock groups (such as the UOCRA mob), censorship, illegal deprivation of liberty, illegal pressure and the fabrication of cases (at the behest and order of the company); clearly applying a policy of abuse of power and dominant position, with a heavy hand and undemocratic practices. A climate of demobilization is consolidating that disheartens environmentalists, because the advance of the government and the mining companies is overwhelming. Regarding the controversial San Jorge project to be discussed today, the Assembly of Self-Convoked Neighbors of Uspallata detailed each of the laws violated by the government: SAN JORGE MINE IS ILLEGAL Violation of the General Environmental Law 25675 in its articles. Therefore, the government should apply the Preventive and Precautionary Principles, established in art. 4 of the same law, instead of rushing the procedure without first complying with the mandatory conditions. Violation of Provincial Law 7722 The government has not requested sectoral opinions from the municipalities of the Mendoza River Basin, nor is it respecting the productive and social reality of each of them, violating art. 5. Tomorrow Thursday at 10 in the morning a plenary of commissions of the Chamber of Deputies will be held to debate whether to ratify the Environmental Impact Statement of the San Jorge mine, which will extract copper and gold in Uspallata. For 17 years, the inhabitants of Uspallata committed to the conservation of the environment and the water of their province, have been fighting against the installation of the San Jorge Copper Mendoza Project. He adds that “this time it is different because it is not a law that is at risk, but they are beginning to contaminate the only river that supplies the entire Northern Oasis”. In the month of August, Cornejo convened a public hearing on private property of San Jorge and in an inaccessible place. Violation of the Escazú Agreement (1) The government has not guaranteed the neighbors of Uspallata full participation in the approval process, taking the public hearing far away and denying the possibility of a plebiscite in Uspallata. Environmental defenders are not being protected or have legal guarantees, as established by the Escazú Agreement; on the contrary, they are being persecuted and imprisoned by the powers of the State. Violation of the right to a healthy environment enshrined in the Constitution In 2009, the Neighbors of Uspallata presented in the Legislature of Mendoza a bill of popular initiative to create the Protected Natural Area Uspallata-Polvaredas, with all the technical, scientific, legal and legal foundation that such a thing requires, as an environmental, social and economic alternative to PSJ. Consequently, invoking art 41 of the CN, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on Biological Diversity; the popular initiative should prevail over the particular interests of the megamining business. Violation of indigenous rights of constitutional rank The government has issued the DIA for PSJ without finalizing the Free, Prior and Informed Consultation with the Indigenous Peoples, as established by ILO Convention 169 and art 75, inc. 17 of the CN. Moreover, two weeks ago the police arbitrarily arrested two people who were peacefully demonstrating. Violation of the customary principle of good faith The company affirms that its project is in a “closed basin” with “confined” and/or “isolated” and/or “without connectivity” aquifers with the Mendoza River, with no scientific certainty in this regard. It is evident that the information presented is incomplete and the law requires prior (not posterior) scientific certainty. Violation of the Provincial Law of Natural Monuments N° 6599 This law protects not only key species of native fauna for the ecosystem, such as the guanaco, the choique, the condor and also the Andean cat (present in the area), but also their habitats (the territory where they live). The PSJ mine is located precisely in the habitats protected by law as a Provincial Natural Monument. In 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the mine and modified a phrase in article 1: “and other similar toxic substances”. This apparent small modification is what enables the mining industry to use other polluting substances different from sulfuric acid, mercury or cyanide for the extraction of minerals. In response, the Uspallata Assembly organized a popular hearing in the patio of a parish that had great participation and once again told the mine that it does not have a social license to install in the town. Uspallata exercises its right to self-determination Eugenia also referred to the repressive context and the defamation and persecution of environmental defenders of water. Both were released but not acquitted. Today, Thursday, November 6, the Environmental Impact Statement of several mining projects seeking to establish themselves in the province will begin to be debated in the Mendoza Legislature. Among them, the San Jorge mine project and 27 other projects from Malargüe Western Mining District II. The government has endorsed this falsehood, outright disqualifying all calls for attention in the Consultation and the Public Hearing. At that time, the government intended to modify this law, but the popular uprising was so massive that they could not achieve it. Unfortunately, business lobbying and official discretion are stepping on it.
