Peru's Lima (AP) – A week ago, the bodies of 13 security guards were found kidnapped a week ago in a major Peruvian gold mine, and the Ministry of Interior said their deaths were coming as violence escalates in the Andean country's vital mining industry.
A search and rescue team recovered the remains of staff on Sunday, La Poderosa, the gold mining industry said. The company blamed informal miners for the kidnapping, which allegedly linked to a criminal gang that ambushed the gold mine on April 26.
The Peruvian Ministry of Interior said special police forces have been deployed to “find and capture those responsible for these heinous crimes”. It provides no further details about the attack or its perpetrators.
La Poderosa, a private company in Lima, the Peruvian capital, said that since it began operating there in 1980, the criminal group fought for Pataz, a remote northwestern city of Peru, has killed 39 workers, including the latest 13.
In a particularly rough incident in December 2023, illegal miners attacked the same Poderosa mine with explosives, killing nine people and injuring 15 people. La Poderosa sent more security personnel to deal with a series of attacks.
Peru is the world's leading supplier of gold and copper, with some protections while allowing informal miners to plan to legalize their operations. But as metals become increasingly profitable, new mining technologies emerged, and illegal mining quickly grew into a huge industry, the government worked hard to respond.
As much of Peru's crime wave prompted the government to declare a state of emergency last month, manual miners and entrepreneurs in the country's northern mining areas have blackmailed reports of blackmail in recent months.
