Via this
official letter, we the rural community of Ollachea, in full defence of its
territory and its community rights, make our statement on the commitments
agreed upon as company partners and community. We have made the decision via
General Assembly to declare Señor Daryl Hodges ‘Persona Non Grata’ and solicit
his retirement from the company, due to his lies and his lack of respect from
not taking us into consideration and mocking our fair petitions.
Señor Hodges
does not care about nor respect the relationship of trust built over eight
years between company and community through our Honorary Community Member, Dr.
Diego Benavides, for who we clearly asked that his position of Interim CEO be
ratified, to be recognized and part of the directorate and as the lead
authority of the company according to our community assembly dated 15th August
2015.
If Señor
Hodges has not taken into consideration, nor even respected, our request made
to him by the assembly, what trust can we have in him while at the same time we
see he has auto-proclaimed himself the maximum authority of the company without
giving any sort of proposals to the community?
The
community has always trusted in Dr. Diego (Benavides), which is why we gave him
our support in order that he could reach the financing agreement with COFIDE,
and now Señor Hodges wants to push all that aside and change the company to get
the project for himself and damage our community, appropriating our territory
in the same way that Rio Tinto before him wanted to do. This is something the
community will never allow.
Therefore,
we have decided that the project will advance no further if Dr. Diego Benavides
Norlander is not put in charge exactly as requested and that the commitments
agreed upon are adhered to, such as the case of the machinery plus the payment
of surface rights for 2015 that was agreed upon in August with him. Also, we
request that our agreements and decision on no activity at the project are
complied with and respected. If not, we will be obliged to take drastic strike
measures via all the community.
Sincerely,
Juan Luis Valeriano Gutierrez
President of the Ollachea Rural Community Directive