"Water yes, gold no!" - The Effects of a Neo-liberal Development Strategy in Cajamarca, Peru

Sammanfattning: Neo-liberal development strategies have for long been considered the way to achieve development and the Washington Consensus has gained influence in most countries in the world. Peru is one of its faithful followers that despite a left-wing turn on the Latin American continent has not followed suit and continues to embrace neo-liberal policies. The central government’s emphasis on economic growth as a development strategy has included opening its doors to FDIs and policies adapting trade liberalization. This has brought a lot of mining activity to the country which sits on important deposits of copper, silver and gold. Especially the Andes and the northern province of Cajamarca has experienced a large increase in mineral activity where foreign transnational companies such as Newmont Mining Corporation operate large open-pit mines, including South America’s largest gold mine Yanacocha. The mining activity in the region has produced many repercussions for the local population including the contamination of water resources, increasing inequality, displacement and conflict. This study builds on a case study of Cajamarca where a Minor Field Study was conducted in the beginning of 2013, largely building on qualitative interviews. Critique of the neo-liberal development model is adopted to gain understanding of the micro-level consequences produced. It also includes a wider discussion on mining’s potential to generated development, a debate that has increasingly come to stress the complexity between resource extraction and local level development.