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The mining company Poderosa, which operates a gold mine in the department of La Libertad in northwestern Peru, confirmed that 13 of its workers who had been kidnapped in late April had been found dead inside one of its mines, with signs of having been "executed."
The statement confirmed that the case took place in the province of Pataz, where "illegal miners in collusion with criminals" forcibly took over the mine where the victims worked.
The kidnapping eventually gained national notoriety in Peru, especially after it became known that the kidnappers were demanding ransoms from the victims' families for their release.
But in the report on their bodies, the tone became more somber: "According to police sources, (the victims) were found in what appeared to be a mineshaft, tied up, blindfolded, and naked when they were executed with a shot to the neck by the criminals," reported local Peruvian radio station RPP.
According to Poderosa in the statement, in which she expressed her "solidarity with the families of the victims," there are now "39 collaborators, artisanal miners, and their workers killed by criminal gangs who have taken control of Pataz, which has now become a lawless territory."
