The National Police and the Armed Forces will not stop until they find the criminals who killed 13 miners in Pataz, Environment Minister Juan Carlos Castro stated today, after noting that the government has formed a Special Group against organized crime.
“As a government, we reaffirm our rejection of illegal mining. All the efforts being deployed are being implemented by the National Police and the Armed Forces, who will not stop until they find these criminals, these scourges of society who are committing these unforgivable crimes,” he stated.
After expressing his condolences to the families of the 13 victims, Minister Castro said that specialized National Police kidnapping and extortion investigation units have been deployed to Pataz to work with the Armed Forces in the search for the criminals.
He also stated that the Executive Branch is insisting before Congress that the urban terrorism bill be approved to combat crime, but "unfortunately, we have not received the same response."
He indicated that this proposal has been before Congress for some time and said he hopes the government and the National Police will be given the tools to combat crime.
Regarding the Comprehensive Registry of Mining Formalization (Reinfo), the Environment Minister stated that this registry must be cleaned up, given that the coordinates provided by artisanal or small-scale miners often do not correspond to their actual location.
"The Ministry of Energy and Mines is finalizing the regulations and beginning to clean up Reinfo; the coordinates must be verified. We must root out the criminals who have disguised themselves as informal miners to operate," he stated.
Ministerial water summit
On the other hand, Minister Juan Carlos Castro said that the Latin American and Caribbean Ministerial Water Summit will be held in Lima on May 27. Eighteen of the 33 ministers of state invited, along with deputy ministers and directors general of water, have confirmed their participation.
He specified that the purpose of this summit is to establish a common agenda for all these countries to present a single regional proposal to the United Nations Water Summit, to be held next year in Azerbaijan.
"In Latin America and the Caribbean, we have the same water problems, in areas such as water shortages, availability, access to water, etc. Some countries have made a little more progress at the technical level and other regulatory levels, but the problems are almost the same. The idea is to have a common agenda," he said.
Following the Ministerial Summit, he said that the Board of Directors of the Environment Minister's Forum will meet on May 28 to discuss more specific issues.
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Published: 5/5/2025