"All Eyes on Bolivia: Indigenous Resistance in the Country's Mining Wasteland" 26 Septiembre 2025

At 54, Flores has witnessed the systematic destruction of his ancestral homeland in the Ayllu Acre Antequera, a confederation of eight Quechua communities that have farmed these highlands for generations.

"It used to be way better because at least we had water in those times," Flores reflects

The Bolívar Mine, jointly owned by Canadian company Santa Cruz Silver Mining Ltd. and Bolivia's State-run mining corporation, has excavated 450 meters into the earth, creating a massive pit that floods with groundwater the company cannot control. The operation consumes 800,000 liters of water daily while discharging 80 liters of contaminated wastewater per second into the Antequera River—far exceeding the limits of its lease agreement....

Flores leads the Justice Council of the Ayllu Acre Antequera, representing all eight communities in their David-versus-Goliath struggle against mining giants...

"We noticed that the water was starting to become scarce, and we also noticed the pollution. So we went to one of the mines to see what was happening, and then they took me to jail," Flores recalls...

That first arrest in 2018 would prove to be just the beginning of a campaign of intimidation and violence designed to silence Indigenous resistance...

Over the years, multiple criminal accusations have been filed against Ayllu authorities and community members. The pattern is clear: anyone who speaks out against the mining operations faces the prospect of criminalization, job loss for family members employed by the mines, or worse...

In this arid region, where annual precipitation barely sustains traditional agriculture, the mining operations' massive water consumption has been catastrophic. Many families have been forced to sell their llamas, alpacas, and sheep. These livestock represent not just economic security, but cultural identity stretching back to pre-Columbian times...

The impact extends far beyond immediate environmental damage. As traditional territories become uninhabitable, families are forced to migrate to urban areas, severing the intergenerational transmission of Quechua language, agricultural knowledge, and spiritual practices tied to specific sacred sites...

The most dramatic confrontation came on June 7, 2022, when Flores and other community leaders organized a peaceful vigil to pressure mining companies to address environmental concerns....Approximately 1,200 mining workers and union members, armed with dynamite and incendiary devices, descended on the vigil sites. The attackers physically assaulted women protesters, threatened them with sexual violence, and destroyed the communities' sacred symbols.

In September 2024, Indigenous leaders from the Ayllu Acre Antequera, together with organizations Qhana Pukara Kurmi, Cultural Survival, and Earthworks, submitted a comprehensive human rights report to Santa Cruz Silver ahead of its annual general meeting in Vancouver. The report documented violations of multiple human rights at the mine site, including the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent, the right to health and a healthy environment, freedom of expression, safety, non-discrimination, cultural rights, and the right to belong to an Indigenous community.

The communities presented five key demands to the Canadian company: end violence and intimidation against defenders, stop criminalizing Indigenous authorities, implement proper consultation processes for Free, Prior and Informed Consent, clean up heavy metal contamination in the Antequera River, and conduct independent investigations of tailings management following reports of leaks and wind-blown toxic waste.