Curfew in Peru province after 13 mine workers killed

The Peruvian government has imposed a night-time curfew in Pataz province, where 13 kidnapped mine workers were killed last week.

President Dina Boluarte also ordered that mining activities be suspended for a month while extra police and soldiers are deployed to the region.

The incident has shone a spotlight on the activities of criminal gangs in Pataz.

La Poderosa, the Peruvian company which owns the gold mine at which the men worked, said they had been kidnapped by “illegal miners colluding with criminals” on 26 April. Their bodies were found on Sunday.

President Boluarte said that the armed forces would take “full control of La Poderosa mining area”.

La Poderosa said in a statement that in total, 39 people with links to the company had been killed by criminal gangs in Pataz, a mining region more than 800km (500 miles) north of the capital, Lima.

It added that the state of emergency which has been in effect in the province since February 2024 had had little effect.

“The spiral of uncontrolled violence in Pataz is occurring despite the declaration of a state of emergency and the presence of a large police contingent which, unfortunately, has not been able to halt the deterioration of security conditions in the area,” said the statement from 2 May.

The 13 men whose bodies were found on Sunday were employed by a subcontractor, R&R, which worked at La Poderosa’s mine.

They had been sent to confront a group which had attacked and occupied the mine but were ambushed and seized as they were trying to regain control of it.

Videos shared by their captors showed them tied up and naked, lying in a mine shaft.

The footage, and the fact that their captors shared it with the relatives in an attempt to get them to pay ransom money, caused outrage in Peru.

The discovery of their bodies on Sunday and forensic evidence suggesting they were shot point blank more than a week before they were found, has caused further shock.

A prosecutor from the region, Luis Guillermo Bringas, told local media that the area was being rocked by “a war for mining pits” between illegal miners and criminals on the one hand and legal miners on the other.