Experts warn

The massive march of the miners affiliated with the National Federation of Mining Cooperatives of Bolivia (Fencomin) should not be an excuse to negotiate the natural heritage or to ask for the green light in illegal mining exploitation, maintain the director of the Bolivian Documentation and Information Center (Cedib), Óscar Campanini, and the representative of Productivity Biosphere Environment (Probioma), Sofía Balcázar.

Hundreds of cooperative members arrived yesterday from the nine departments of the country to the Government headquarters to present their 10-point petition to the Government.

In Balcázar’s opinion, the miners’ march seeks to put pressure on the President of the State, Luis Arce Catacora, to respond to their request, which is structured according to the interest of their sector, as production actors; however, the expert reminded the Government that it should not govern only for the sector that supports it politically.

“We believe that regardless of the pressures that may exist or from the productive actors, there are certain things that should not be negotiated, such as the issue of fundamental human rights or natural heritage or the management of Mother Earth,” said the representative of Probioma.

The petition list consists of 10 points: respect for the institutional unity of Fencomin and its federations; guarantee the operational stability of mineral, metal and non-metal exploitation activities; security for the commercialization of minerals, metals and non-metals; legal certainty and red tape of procedures; environmental policy for the country’s cooperatives; development policies and issues of immediate attention.

The vice president of Fencomin, Zenón Guarachi, affirmed that the issue of debureaucratization of procedures is making the request for work areas viable, which is not being attended to by the Mining Administrative Jurisdictional Authority (AJAM).

For his part, the director of Cedib added that the miners’ request to “guarantee operational stability for the exploitation of minerals” is like giving them the green light for illegal exploitation, because many cooperative members do not comply with the regulations. He specified that they cannot use as an “excuse”, that it is the only activity they have, to threaten the lives of Bolivians and the environment.

According to data from the Vice Ministry of Mining Cooperatives, in Bolivia, as of May 2023, there were nearly 30,000 mining cooperatives registered in general in the country, of which nearly 1,800 are dedicated exclusively to gold extraction. Of this last quantity, at least 85% are constituted in the north of La Paz.

Balcázar indicated that the State should place above economic interest, the collective interest of the populations that live in the Amazon, where high levels of water contamination is taking place, an element that is consumed by the indigenous people. She specified that if the law were to be applied, one of the consequences would be to “sweep away” all illegal mining activities. (ANF)