- The protest march was led by local self-defence militia, or 'ronderos', to the El Perol lagoon on Yanacocha company property. The president of the Frente de Defensa de Cajamarca, Idelso Hernández, said there would be further protests on 24 January in the eponymous regional capital to remind the authorities that opposition to Conga has not weakened.
- The Humala administration continues to defend the view that Conga is a viable project. On 28 December, the prime minister’s high commissioner on dialogue and sustainability, Vladimiro Huaroc, said that Conga could restart operations in 2014. Huaroc made his assertion shortly after meeting in Cajamarca with leaders of 32 communities surrounding the project site, who all backed Conga “unanimously”. He said that Yanacocha was meeting its commitments, completing the Chailhuagón reservoir last year and working on another one at El Perol, and that if the State delivered on promised health, education and electricity supply improvements over the coming months, the project would face “absolutely no opposition from the local population” and would win a “social licence”.
- The regional president of Cajamarca, Gregorio Santos, a fierce critic of Conga, responded by calling for protests against the project. “Technically, socially and economically, Conga is an unviable project and detrimental to the region’s sustainable development” Santos said.
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