IACHR orders Peru to compensate victims of lead poisoning living near mine

[Judi Lynn]

María Paz Rodríguez Galiano | Facultad de Derecho PUCP, PE
MARCH 23, 2024 09:48:51 AM

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) conducted the notification of the judgment in the case of Residents of La Oroya v. Peru this Friday, addressing the Peruvian State’s responsibility for the damage suffered by 80 residents of La Oroya and ordered the payment of compensation to the victims for the damage incurred.

In December 2002, a group of residents of La Oroya, located in the Peruvian highlands, filed a compliance lawsuit against the Ministry of Health and the General Directorate of Environmental Health of Peru, seeking protection of their right to health and a healthy environment. The community argued that the company managing the La Oroya Metallurgical Complex (CMLO) failed to comply with environmental protection standards, leading to extremely high levels of lead and other components in the blood of children and pregnant mothers in the community.

In 2006, the Peruvian Constitutional Court ordered the adoption of measures to protect the community. However, in 2020, the IACHR indicated that, more than 14 years after the court’s decision, there was no evidence that the state had taken effective measures to fully implement the Peruvian judgment.

In its judgment, the court declared the Peruvian State’s international responsibility for violating the right to a healthy environment for the residents of La Oroya. The court noted that Peru, despite being aware that CMLO generated high levels of pollution, did not fulfill its obligations to protect the rights of the population.

More:
https://www.jurist.org/news/2024/03/iachr-orders-peru-to-compensate-victims-of-lead-poisoning-living-near-mine/#















(Before they were apprehended so very late in the game, the company used to wait until dark, then started pumping deadly chemical-laden water into the small river. )

[Judi Lynn]

1. Jury: Billionaire looted mining firm; trial eyed huge home

By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press | February 27, 2015 | Updated: February 27, 2015 5:35pm

NEW YORK (AP) — Billionaire Ira Rennert plundered a now-bankrupt mining company to pay for personal luxuries, jurors found Friday after a trial that spotlighted one of the world's biggest private homes.

A Manhattan federal jury levied $118 million in damages against Rennert and his Renco Group Inc.

The lawsuit stemmed from the 2001 bankruptcy of the Magnesium Corp. of America, or MagCorp, a Salt Lake City-based producer of magnesium. But the trial also showcased Rennert's 100,000-square-foot, 29-bedroom, 40-bathroom beachfront complex in the Hamptons. MagCorp's bankruptcy trustee argued the billionaire built the mansion with money improperly milked from the company.

Lawyers for the trustee applauded the verdict as a step toward repaying more than decade-old debts. Rennert's company, Renco Group Inc., said that aspects of the complicated verdict were contradictory and that the company would appeal.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Jury-Billionaire-looted-mining-firm-trial-eyed-6105968.php














(At the time Rennert built this, it was the largest private home in the United States.)

[Judi Lynn]

2. La Oroya: A Poisoned Town, A Billionaire's Profit

When we discuss pollution, we tend to focus on global effects of global consumption -- warming caused by billions of individual lifestyle choices. La Oroya, however, is a place where the effects are felt here and now.

By
Dennis O'Brien, Contributor
Media Consultant / Producer / D(Squared) Digital

Oct 31, 2008, 05:12 AM EDT
|Updated Dec 6, 2017

This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.


La Oroya, Peru is one of the most polluted places on the planet. Situated high in the Andes, scouring acid rain has made it a moonscape. According to one recent study, 97% of the children suffer from lead poisoning. The average child in La Oroya has twice the arsenic and six times the cadmium in his blood than the average American child.

Sagaponack, Long Island has pristine beaches and some of the most beautiful homes on the planet. Even by the opulent standards of the Hamptons, one mansion stands out. Perhaps palace is a better word; Fair Field dwarfs its neighbors and mocks nature with narcissistic grandeur. It's over 100,000 feet, has 29 bedrooms, three dining rooms, multiple libraries, bowling alleys, squash and basketball courts, a $150,000 hot tub.

What do these two places, separated by 3,000 miles, have in common? They are both owned by a man named Ira Rennert.

Rennert is an industrialist in the natural resources business. He controls the Doe Run Company, which claims to be the largest company of its kind in the western hemisphere, and US Magnesium. The EPA just announced last week that they want to declare US Mag's Utah plant a Superfund site, because of 'largely uncontrolled' releases of PCBs and Dioxin. Rennert bought the metal processing plant in La Oroya, Peru in 1997.

He got a good deal, too. At $125 million, he took over a big producer of lead and copper. But there was a catch: as part of the agreement to buy the facility, Rennert's company promised to clean up its operations within 10 years. According to many in Peru and the United States, it has failed to do so. It is a failure that has affected the health of a generation of kids and continues to make La Oroya a paradigm of pollution.

. . .

Ira Rennert's monstrous home on the beach proves vulgarity knows no bounds, and the fact that it has been paid for, at least in part, by his operations in La Oroya, is truly shocking.

More:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/la-oroya-a-poisoned-town_b_130448

[Judi Lynn]

3. "House of Lead: A story of greed" - La Oroya, Peru

0:21 / 9:23

The Children Of Lead - Trailer