General, videos have been revealed in which civilians are seen in police clothing. Did you authorize it?
Not in any way. We have already filed a criminal complaint and the prosecution has arranged to carry out investigations to find out who is responsible for having used clothing with the police logo. Apparently that clothing they are wearing is from the municipality or something like that and they have given it the name of police.
Didn’t you deliver those uniforms?
Nerd. What are we going to deliver that uniform, that is exclusive, it is as if I delivered my card, my weapon, my uniform. I can’t give that to anyone.
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I ask because the mining company has replied that they coordinated everything with you.
No. We can’t do that. That is a crime, that is why we have denounced it to the provincial prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor has already made his resolution by ordering the police investigation.
Before what prosecution?
Challhuahuacho Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
Have you led the police operation?
Yes that’s how it is.
Then he would have had to have knowledge of the personnel who participated in the operation.
No. Here, when it comes to a possessory defense operation, it is when the entity, the legal or natural person, asks the police or the municipality -as the Civil Code says- for the guarantee so that they can recover the invaded spaces. In this case, the company has requested the guarantees from the National Police, obviously presenting documents, those documents that have gone through a consultancy and it has been verified that they were property of the mine and the invaders have recognized this. The guarantees have been provided on a certain date, that was the 27th (April) and the company has to recover its properties. Before doing everything. First, they talk to the leaders again to see if they can leave voluntarily. So, faced with intransigence, the mine removed its workers. I don’t know if they will be your workers or contracted, I don’t know, that is a question of the mine. He brought a group of people to the place to be able to drive out the invaders. And the invaders began to respond with stones, blunt objects, with everything they had. Even cartridges of dynamite were even found, because they do informal mining in different places. So the Police had to make rational use of force to be able to avoid that disturbance of order, because otherwise it was going to be chaos and the Police were able to calm everything down using tear gas after approximately three hours. The company is so huge that there are two points. The distance from one place to the other end, by vehicle, is one hour. It is immense. It’s not like a block, it’s huge. The mine has a perimeter of 47 km. We are talking about Huaral to Cañete.
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Isn’t the police directing the possessory defense operation?
The company does it under the guarantee of the Police. The Police offers the guarantee so that, effectively, no disturbance of order occurs.
You were not aware of the characteristics of the personnel with whom you would carry out the operation? Are these data not requested beforehand? At what moment do you become aware of this personnel?
Nerd. The mine already sees the way how it can get them out (the invaders) without using violence. That’s what the rule says.
But in the field they do see this group of civilians, wearing police clothes, or not?
Of course you do, but it’s not that… you would have to see the place. It is not a place where you can observe: “there are ten people that we are seeing who are going to recover”. No no no. The place they have occupied is so immense and so extensive that not everyone could be visualized. So, when all these events occur and the confrontation occurs, these people who had used these elements, this clothing, had it covered inside their body. After having carried out the police action of having re-established order, these workers just took off the clothing they had on and there you can see the protector that said “Police”.
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Do you deny that there was coordination with this group, previously?
It’s not that I deny. There has been no coordination.
What crime did these workers commit?
Usurpation of functions.
How many people would that be?
We do not know. Right now we are still at work. We are not done. Right now we are in a state of emergency. We are patrolling because the residents continue to hold their meetings and meetings are prohibited. They are making other types of demonstrations. We can’t do this right now.
I understand how delicate. In the videos, those civilians say they are at risk and abandoned…
Nerd. I do not have that information. They will have their argument. Here, in this police action, we have tried as rationally as possible to avoid costs. It’s a terrible place to be able to control order. They (the community members) are from here, from the area, they walk and climb the peak of the hill like any other place, they can do it in 15 minutes to the peak of the hill and they are inaccessible places and the Police with the equipment they have has suffered , there are many injured by the stones.
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How many police officers injured?
We have had four injured in their ankles and another six with blows and bruises on the body. We have had around 12 troops that we have no longer made public so that they do not believe that we are victimizing ourselves.
Who is responsible for the usurpation of functions?
The clothing has been, they say, according to them, to protect themselves from the stones and all that. And on top of the clothing they had put on something that covered them, that is, it was not exactly seen that they had the clothing on at the time, and later.
In the videos it is clearly seen that it says “Police”.
But these clothes seem to me to have characteristics more like those used by the night watchmen in the municipalities and they have put a logo on it that says “Police”.
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According to some testimonies, you and they intervened together.
They were, surely, but on top of that protector they had polo shirts with shirts that you couldn’t see at all, you can see that later, because we are not going to allow such an irrational thing, not to mention, that cannot be allowed because nobody can usurp our authority, no one.
Does the work of the Police in possessory defense not comply with personnel verification protocols?
No no no. We only call the legal representatives of the company. They are the ones who say: “Now, gentlemen, we are going to recover”, and they bring out their workers, the people they want, and they begin to recover. So that there is no such friction, they call the police.
Did the company surprise them by making them part of that crime?
Of course, of course yes, don’t I tell him that we have filed a criminal complaint? Obviously at the time we didn’t know exactly, but later we found out.
According to the community members, thugs and foreigners were hired.
I don’t know if they will be thugs or not, I don’t know. Because each one cannot be identified at that moment, otherwise we spend the whole day. What yes, the action of the community members has been very terrible, totally disastrous. That action that has reached these limits of conflict has been only because of the attitude of these gentlemen. Gentlemen who have used women, minors, to avoid being sent or gassed. That is also very bad.
Is there a complaint about that exhibition?
The investigation is being done. They can’t be exposing. With great fury they entered to burn vehicles, company plants, they are a total disaster, it seems that they were out of their minds. This was terrible.
Could we access the complaint?
I am in the field of operations. I’m not at the police station, I’ve gone to a space to talk to you. It will be at another time.