190 191 cerro de pasco The greatest investment of the XXth century Despite the drastic changes in the environment, many of the corporation’s professionals, officials and workers continued to work at Centromín and, with their effort and dedication, managed to sustain the previous pace. This was mainly because they defended the philosophy of efficiency and discipline in the company, which had been the backbone of their training. Even some North American executives, including the last CEO, Harry Allen, stayed with the state-owned company for a time. From their positions, they defended the production processes, they managed to continue obtaining results despite the strikes and they were able to face fluctuations in the foreign market because the corporation’s trading company, Cerro Sales, was exclusively in charge of selling Centromin’s minerals abroad. Fundamentally due to the performance of its human assets in an unstable environment, for the following five years the company continued to score surprisingly good results. But as history knows, the populist illusion does not last forever. With the coming to power of the first Aprista government, the terrible hyperinflation that it caused, with the nightmare of terrorism and facing internal pressures arising from the flaws of the state-owned company –such as the excessive hiring of employees without the required technical background– Centromin entered the mid-eighties in a downward spiral and was unable to avoid collapse. The politicised environment, demagoguery and ignorance of the government in the management of public affairs crept into the company. This scenario, similar to that of other companies run by the State, ended up fading the revolutionary dream and turning everyday reality into a nightmare. Over time, Centromín-Peru would find itself unable to handle the continuous shutdowns, the distorsions caused by political interference in the administration of the company and the irresponsible financial management. After Velasco, the first government of Alan García would end up enfolding in obscurity what had once been the most ambitious and glittering mining project in South America. However, what also caused the gears of that clockwork mechanism, which had worked with mathematical precision for decades, to rust, was the complacency with the bonanza of the present. Little by little, Centromin-Peru’s lack of interest in prioritising scientific research became more frequent, its refusals to satisfy the laboratory’s requirements became more constant, the absurdity of dismantling the Explorations Department was undertaken, the number of teams trained in the best universities in the world and the philosophy of meritocracy, efficiency and constant technological renewal was relaxed until its disappearance. In short, it was sufficient for the State to extol in its discourse of revolutionary self-affirmation the symbolism of nationalisation and to ensure quick gains. But due to authoritarian myopia, it forgot the most important thing: to prepare and plan its own path into the future. The investment climate Over the last decade in Peru there has been a consensus among the different political forces on the importance of investments for the economic and social right– General Fernandez Maldonado, then Minister of Energy and Mines, arrived in La Oroya to take over the company.
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