Indigenous and rural communities along the Nanay River in Peru’s northern Amazon filed a complaint on Friday accusing the government of failing to stop illegal gold mining that is contaminating their water and food with toxic mercury.
The complaint was submitted in the country's capital, Lima, to the Secretariat General of the Andean Community, a regional trade bloc that includes Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia. The communities argue that Peru has violated a binding regional policy adopted in 2012 to combat illegal mining.
