30

The “peasant community” of Fuerabamba, in Southern Peru, should be displaced at the end of 2013 by the Swiss mining company Xstrata. Since the arrival of the company late 2004, its cohabitation with the “community” has transformed local dynamics. Between the retornantes returning to Fuerabamba, and the comuneros calificados who shut the doors of the community on them, the presence of the mining company and the prospect of displacement compensations alter internal patterns and (re)create community tensions. These tensions are perceptible within the conversations and divide the community around issues of rights and compensations. Through an ethnographic study on a local scale, this article discusses the complex relationships built within a “peasant community” cohabiting with a multinational company, which is by its weight in a position to shape the politic, economic, and social inner organisation of the “community”.