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OPINION SHAPER: JOAQUIN LEGUIA OREZZOLI (int'l edition)Joaquin Leguia Orezzoli, the grandson of a 1920s Peruvian President, turned his back on the pampered lifestyle of Lima's elite to study indigenous communities in the jungles and the Andes. Ensuring that such places share in the country's economic gains could be crucial to his country's stability. That's because rural misery is the incubator for the Maoist Shining Path insurgency, which rampaged in the early 1990s and is still simmering. Peru's current economic slowdown could further increase tensions. Two months ago, the Canadian consortium planning the $2.2 billion Antamina project, one of the world's biggest copper and zinc mines, tapped Leguia's expertise by hiring him as a social development consultant. His challenge: to cement friendly relations between the mine and the impoverished Quechua villages around it by helping to improve their livelihoods. Leguia, 31, is looking at possibilities from trout farming to a shoe factory, which would first supply shoes for the mine's 4,000 construction workers and later expand to other markets. Leguia is a pioneer in such work in Latin America. As a teen, he spent his summers in the Amazon, where his Swedish stepfather operated a hospital. Later, he earned degrees from Cornell University and Yale University. Back in Peru, he set up a group to study the environment and traditional communities. Leguia thinks that companies are going to pay more attention to such issues, particularly in Peru because of the Shining Path. The Antamina project will provide a major test case of such corporate-village ties.
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Updated Oct. 15, 1998 by bwwebmaster
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