Backyard Empire: The U.S. in Latin America · Episode 5 of 14 · 34 min
The Mining Empire That Poisoned a Town for a Century
In the Peruvian Andes, the Cerro de Pasco Corporation's La Oroya smelter poisoned surrounding farmland, let the company buy dead fields cheaply, and pushed Andean villagers into the mines as wage labor. La Oroya became one of the most lead-contaminated towns on earth. The story runs through the 1974 nationalization, Doe Run's years after 1997, and a landmark 2023 international court ruling against Peru.
Who's who
- Manuel ScorzaNovelist whose Drums for Rancas dramatized the land fight at Rancas
- Juan Velasco AlvaradoPeruvian military ruler who nationalized Cerro de Pasco in 1974
Where it happens
- La Oroya, PeruSmelter town, among the most lead-contaminated places on earth
- Cerro de Pasco, PeruOld silver city consumed by the expanding open pit
- Rancas, PeruAndean community whose land dispute inspired a novel
Timeline
- 1922La Oroya smelter begins operating
- 1974Cerro de Pasco nationalized, becoming Centromin Perú
- 1997Doe Run Peru buys the La Oroya complex
- 2007La Oroya named among the world's ten most polluted places
- November 27, 2023Inter-American Court of Human Rights finds Peru responsible
Still debated
Health statistics, such as the share of children with elevated blood lead, vary by study, year, and safety threshold. Responsibility is also shared among the original company, the state, and later owners.