By Elvia Rodríguez (Ñuu Savi, CS Staff)
Have you ever wondered what life is like in a place affected by mining exploitation? I have, many times: every time I read an article, every time I heard a testimony, every time I watched a video on social media, and I thought I understood what it meant. However, no book, no article, no video can convey what it is like to live day after day in a territory that is being sacrificed.
Totoral Chico is a small community located in the Andean Altiplano (high plateaus) in Bolivia, named after the totora plant: a perennial aquatic herb common in South America. To get to Totoral Chico, you have to pass through the city of Poopó. The 35-minute trip between one community and another is a journey that invites reflection, as it takes you through different scenes. First, a landscape of cliffs and mountains, where water is clearly a scarce resource and the land, covered with bushes, reveals the silent force of nature and its inhabitants. Later, you will see houses, most of them built with adobe, as a living testimony to the deep history and memory of the Peoples who have inhabited and continue to inhabit the territory.
Along the dirt road that leads to Totoral Chico runs the Desaguadero River, a tributary where people no longer see the presence of reeds or know the transparency of the water: the riverbed is stained with shades of yellow, orange, green, and red, giving off a pungent smell of sulfur and decay, a clear sign that the water is sick. On top of this is the accumulation of hundreds of pieces of trash, and in the distance, people can be seen wading in the river extracting minerals. The landscape is arid, dominated by shades of ochre and brown that starkly reflect the magnitude of pollution in the region.
Soraida Ventura, a member of the Totoral Chico community, is speaking out about the violence they experience in the territory.
Mining residues from the La Salvada Mine are released directly into the Desaguadero River.
Despite these difficulties, the hope of seeing these territories clean and healthy persists among the community members, who risk their lives every day. In Totoral Chico, we were welcomed enthusiastically by the sisters and brothers who continue to resist and who, despite the multiple forms of violence they have suffered, remain steadfast in the defense and preservation of their territory. During the meeting, they shared the serious situation they face, marked mainly by a shortage of water for human consumption, animal care, and food cultivation. Added to this are pollution and dispossession of their lands, exposure to a dangerous environment, the violation of their human and collective rights, as well as harassment and physical, psychological, and community violence, among other adversities.
For years, the Totoral Chico community has denounced the illegal presence of mining companies in their territory and has documented the violence to which they have been subjected. Despite these complaints, the situation remains unchanged. They continue to live in a situation of vulnerability and obvious danger, while their lands are gradually being taken away by mining families who have settled in the community.
Soraida, a Quechua woman, recounts that mining in Totoral used to be an artisanal practice. However, in 2022, her community discovered that the La Salvada mining company had a subcontract with Meraki S.R.L. to rent them heavy, modern machinery that would allow them to carry out large-scale mining operations. This involved the use of highly toxic substances, including mercury, arsenic, and sulfuric acid. In response to their demands for access to clean water and protection of their territory for cultivation, community members who resist mining have frequently been subjected to violence by mining unions.
Landfills of mining tailings and solid waste in the community of Totoral Chico.
The event that marked a turning point in the community occurred on April 5, 2024, when a group of women and men conducted peaceful surveillance to protect their collective grazing lands, where, days earlier, the mining company had attempted to deploy heavy machinery to begin mining operations. At around 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning, a contingent of miners from the Avicaya Union arrived, accompanied by their wives, numbering approximately 200 people. These individuals physically assaulted the small group of community members who were protecting their territory. The physical and verbal violence that morning led to the intervention of the Oruro Ombudsman, who came to attempt a dialogue and try to calm the conflict. However, after he left the community, the miners surrounded the homes of the traditional authorities and detonated dynamite, without consideration for the children or the elderly.
As a way to ensure their safety, early the next morning, a group of women and two girls were forced to leave Totoral Chico, with the intention of filing the corresponding complaints with the Huanuni Prosecutor's Office and other institutions of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. A few days later, the community members filed an Emergency Constitutional Defense (Habeas Corpus) action before the Seventh Court of Oruro. However, the judge denied the request to protect their right to life, public safety, free transit, and the return of the displaced women and girls to the community.
Open-pit tailings dam at the Bolívar Mine, located in the community of Queaqueani Grande, close to areas inhabited by community members.
Since then, the inhabitants of Totoral Chico have been living in uncertainty and insecurity, as both children and adults are harassed in all public spaces. "The shops won't even sell us bread because we are community members," one of the attendees told us. "Our children are bullied by their classmates at school because we are community members and not miners," another community member added.
Today, the lawsuit filed by the community is in the Second Instance of the Plurinational Constitutional Court of Bolivia, but their circumstances have not changed. They live in fear in a territory that continues to be bled dry by the many mining companies in Totoral Chico and Ayllu Acre Antequera. Unfortunately, the day when mining activities will cease and the profound environmental and social damage that has marked this small town will be repaired still seems far off. At the end of our conversation, in addition to feeling deeply moved by the harshness of what we heard, we were impressed by the strength and determination of the community members who continue to resist.
In Totoral Chico, the landscape shows mining tailings and land affected by extractive activities.
Sharing with us the violence they experience in their daily lives is not easy, either personally or collectively; however, they keep alive the hope of seeing their mountains, rivers, and lakes healthy again, as they were in their childhood and adolescence. They refuse to leave their children in a contaminated territory because they are certain that the sacredness of the land and what it provides is the guarantee of their continued existence as a Quechua Peoples, in that place where the community finds meaning and strength.
The community's central demands are clear: effective access to justice, full reparation for the damage caused by mining companies, a full guarantee of a life free from violence, and the application of the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). Cultural Survival, in line with its mission to protect and defend Indigenous Peoples, strongly supports this demand and urges the Bolivian State to fulfill its obligation to safeguard the human and collective rights of communities affected by mining. The dignity and security of Peoples are not negotiable; they are the indispensable basis for strengthening a true rule of law.
The author wishes to thank Jess Cherofsky for assistance in translation.
Top photo: Tata Joaquin Villanueva, authority of Ayllu Acre Antequera in the town of Antequera, an area where the Bolívar Mine has incorporated large areas into the mining and settlement.
