In the Bolivian highlands, the Indigenous community of Cala Cala is waging a battle to defend the headwaters of its river from mining. What began as a peaceful demand for dialogue has escalated into violence, abductions, and legal battles. At stake is not only the community’s water and livelihood, but also the fragile Andean ecosystem that depends on it.
It’s a cold June day in the Andean highlands of Bolivia in the far North of the Potosí region. A group of citizens from the Ayllu (a Quechua term for an Andean Indigenous community in Bolivia) of Cala Cala have gathered to deliver a notice to the leaders of a mining co-operative.
The community have been in this position before: they successfully ousted the mining cooperative from the heights of Cala Cala in 2022 by occupying the mining area and impeding their work. This time, however, early attempts at dialogue failed. The representatives of the community of Cala Cala were met first with harsh words and then with violence.
‘They threw stones at us and set off dynamite to frighten us,’ Qhapahqñan, a local from Cala Cala who took part in the protests, told me. While running in the chaos he was abducted by the miners, beaten heavily and taken to the city of Potosí where they attempted to hand him over to the police on grounds of trespassing.
‘Many of our friends tried to run,’ Sara, the frontwoman of the protests, said ‘as they were worried they would be hurt or injured. That’s when they grabbed Qhapahqñan and took him away’. Qhapahqñan’s description of his ordeal is harrowing. Stuffed in the back of a Toyota pickup, he was tied up and beaten severely, with his front dentures knocked out and bruises left covering his face.
The crux of the conflict is the headwaters of the Cala Cala basin, the source of the water that the community lives off. This water is used for their crops, herds of llama and sheep, and the necessities of daily life. The origin point of this water is also a place where minerals have been discovered, namely silver, lead and tin – all valuable, the profits of which can change lives.
From mid-May, the mining co-operative Molle Pata moved into the Cala Cala heights and began mining for these metals. ‘They have made perforations reaching 60 or 70 meters,’ Sara told me. ‘They have already caused some of the water to be diverted’.
The mining company has secured licenses to mine and environmental permits from the regional government in Potosí. Sara does not know how they managed this: ‘The area should be protected by law. Cooperatives in Bolivia cannot start mines at the source of rivers or near bodies of water.’ She thinks they must have exerted pressure somehow to gain this. One element of this is the promise of royalties. ‘It’s all about the royalites… about the money [the municipality] can earn,’ Qhapahqñan told me.
Potosí is the poorest region in Bolivia and mining is one of the few methods outside of tourism and quinoa growing for municipalities to earn money to reinvest in social services and infrastructure. But the costs are borne by frontline communities near mineral-rich mountains. As Sara told me, ‘We have seen the damage caused to rivers and aquifers from mining like this in neighboring communities.’ The people of Cala Cala fear that the river they rely on will be polluted, especially with heavy metals.
The mining co-operative insists it has the correct documentation under both mining law and the laws of Mother Nature, as defined in the Bolivian constitution. In their interpretation of events, the headwaters of the river fall within an area where they are permitted to work. ‘We have mined the area for a long time,’ the leader of the mining co-operative said in an interview for local news. ‘Those from the community of Cala Cala have disturbed us, ambushed us, they have done everything against us,’ the leader stated.
Molle Pata is both the name of the mining company and the neighboring Ayllu it comes from, though not all members of the Ayllu are a part of the co-operative. This conflates the issue, as the co-operative argues that the zone they mine is part of their community and that they have ‘full legal rights to work the area.’
The co-operative argues that this area ‘is a desert, there is no agriculture there, nothing.’ In this context, the protesters from Cala Cala are seen as ‘delinquents’ who ‘hide their faces.’ Miners from Molle Pata argued Qhapahqñan was not beaten and claim this is a lie invented to damage their image locally. They claim they have the right to defend themselves and argue the community members of Cala Cala have tried to damage their equipment.
Following the protests, the environmental defenders have been pursued in the courts by the Molle Pata co-operative. Eight of the protestors have faced legal action. They are accused of harassment and impeding the miners’ work. Though the protestors were able to defend themselves with their own lawyers, two of them have been barred from attending meetings or turning up at protests. Legal action by Qhapahqñan against the cooperative is ongoing.
The region around Cala Cala has a rich ecology based on the large number of freshwater springs in the area. In particular, it is a place where vicuñas, the wild cousins of llamas and alpacas, can be found in significant numbers. Vicuñas in the regions of Potosí and Oruro have seen their population numbers increase steadily as a result of environmental protections but they still face conservation challenges, not least as a result of poaching.
With the increased movement of people into the area for mining, vicuñas, killed for their high-quality fur, have been found around the community of Cala Cala. Those of the community I spoke to see a clear connection between the increase in mining and the threat to these animals. This is covered in the formal denunciation put forward by the Ayllu of Cala Cala through Indigenous law, in which the cooperative’s activities are said to affect ‘the ecological equilibrium, water security, and ancestral territory’ of the Ayllu.
Also covered in the denunciation is the lack of free, prior, and informed consent, especially regarding the lack of environmental documentation presented to the community. Sara informed me that the communities Molle Pata contacted to obtain signatures are not those located downriver from the headwaters. This is a central issue flagged by the Ayllu.
Also flagged is Law 071, the Law of Mother Nature. The actions of Molle Pata are considered a threat not only to the capacity of the community to live but also to Mother Nature herself, whose rights are enshrined both within the Bolivian Constitution and in Andean cosmology.
This conflict fits into a wider trend in Bolivia wherein mining cooperatives have increasingly acted as the driving force behind the expansion of extractive activities. Mining co-operatives are, as labour and community organizations, protected under Bolivian law. They have also been aligned with the ruling party, Movimineto al Socialismo (MAS).
The term ‘cooperative’ can be something of a misnomer in Bolivia as they are often hierarchical organizations. Some are family-run while others are small corporations in all but name.
With low tax rates and an ease of mobility, mining co-operatives have expanded significantly, buoyed by high prices for certain minerals, with gold in particular driving much of this. This has often put mining co-operatives at odds with conservation efforts and environmental protection more generally. Large-scale protests in La Paz earlier this year by Fencomin, the national federation of cooperatives, show the sector’s ability to exert pressure on the government, and their strong commitment to protecting their privileged position within Bolivia.
Cooperatives have been associated with violence and pressure throughout the country, both with environmental defenders and other cooperatives. This is especially true of the Andean highlands, where large amounts of mineral deposits can be found. These conflicts, as with Cala Cala, are often associated with water. The highland regions of Bolivia are particularly at risk of water shortages, a fact worsened by climate change.
The minerals mined by Bolivian cooperatives are largely sold abroad. Many of these minerals are essential to modern technologies and so China is often a large market, with some cooperatives directly affiliated with Chinese companies. In May of this year Fencomin even requested access to the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat and a massive reserve of lithium, in order to mine this mineral that is required for rechargeable batteries used in phones, laptops, and electric vehicles.
‘They are protected by the municipality,’ Qhapahqñan told me ‘because they promise royalties.’ The contradictory position of cooperatives is often tied to this aspect. The promise of royalties can have a real effect on the wealth of Andean communities facing drought, joblessness, and poverty. But this often comes at a cost to nature itself and causes divisions within and between communities.
Frontline communities are most at risk. Despite the challenges, the Ayllu of Cala Cala are ready to continue resisting, as they successfully have in the past. As Sara told me: ‘We don’t want them to mine in this sector. There has never been mining here and there never should be. That’s why we continue to fight.’
