Back

Andean Group - September 2015 (ISSN 1741-4466)

POLITICS: Trouble in the mining sector

There has been fresh unrest in the mining and hydrocarbons sectors, both of which already are struggling in the face of lower mineral commodity prices.

On 17 August a local police sergeant, José Luis Quispe de la Cruz, died after falling 200 meters into a ravine following clashes in Tacacoma, La Paz department, between local protesters and security officials. Ten other security officials were injured.

The clashes, in which protestors reportedly attacked police officials with sticks and rocks, took place after months of simmering tensions between local residents and mine workers from a local mining cooperative, Rosario de Ananea. The police had arrived on the scene to enforce a court order to evict locals who had taken over the mine alleging that the cooperative had breached a compensation agreement struck weeks earlier to exploit it. The compensation agreement, in turn, was aimed at quelling unrest that erupted in May after locals accused the cooperative of operating in unauthorised areas – claims denied by the cooperative’s president, Marcelo Yupanqui.

The violence illustrates the continued problem of mine invasions despite legislation (Ley 367), approved in May 2013 by the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) government led by President Evo Morales [RA-13-09], specifically aimed at stopping such incidents, as part of efforts to restore investor confidence. Ley 367 followed violent June 2012 clashes at the Colquiri mine, also in La Paz department, and other key mines like Mallku Khota, in Potosí department. Nonetheless according to Carlos Soruco, the director of the administrative jurisdictional mining authority (Ajam), despite the introduction of Ley 367 there are at least 40 cases of mine invasions across the country currently.

The unrest in the mining sector coincided with protests over the Morales government’s insistence on pushing ahead with hydrocarbons exploration projects – which has come in for strong criticism from human rights ombudsman Rolando Villena (see box). In August the indigenous Capitanía Takovo Mora group, which is part of the Asamblea del Pueblo Guaraní (APG) regional indigenous organisation, erected blockades on the Santa Cruz-Yacuiba road linking the city of Santa Cruz in the eastern eponymous department to the Argentine border. The blockades were in response to efforts by Bolivia’s state-owned oil company, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), to drill for oil in the territory. On 18 August a police operation to clear the road of protesters – which resulted in 28 arrests – drew strong criticism from various sectors. As well as Villena, the Catholic Church and human rights organisations like the Asamblea Permanente de Derechos Humanos and legislators from the political opposition Unidad Demócrata (UD) criticised the “excessive use of tear gas” and violence against protesters.

On 23 August, the APG and Morales government agreed to start talks. These have since unraveled and indigenous groups have decried the political persecution of the leaders. As well as being excluded from the new directorate of the government’s indigenous development fund (Fondioc), which was overhauled last month (see sidebar), protesters also complained about the arrest on 3 September of Adolfo Chávez, the president of the indigenous organisation, Confederación de Pueblos Indígenas de Bolivia (Cidob). He was detained as part of ongoing corruption allegations relating to the Fondioc. One of the main opponents of the government’s proposed plan to build the Villa Tunari-San Ignacio de Moxos highway through a local indigenous territory and national park, Isiboro Sécure (Tipnis), Chávez was later released.

Concerns over indigenous rights

As well as criticizing recent police repression of protesters, the human rights ombudsman Rolando Villena also came out against a ruling, issued on 13 September by Bolivia’s constitutional court (TC), rejecting an appeal by the office of the ombudsman against two articles of a November 2014 supreme decree (DS 2195) relating to compensation for hydrocarbons concessions in indigenous territory.

Villena had presented the appeal in June, on the grounds that the supreme decree – which sets out financial compensation for indigenous communities affected by concessions – violates the right of indigenous groups to decide “with their own norms and processes the destination of compensation resources”.

The ombudsman – who is also appealing two other supreme decrees [RA-15-06] relating to the development of the hydrocarbons sector – maintains that DS 2195 violates international agreements that Bolivia has ratified like the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (which was incorporated into domestic law in November 2007) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s Convention 169 on the right to prior consultation (which Bolivia ratified in 1991).

Trust fund

On 9 September President Morales announced that the government would set up a new trust fund for the country’s nine departmental governments, using the country’s international reserves (RIN) to offset the effects of the fall in international commodity prices. Latest figures from the Instituto Boliviano de Comercio Exterior (IBCE), a private sector trade lobby, valued Bolivia’s total exports in the first half of the year (of which hydrocarbons and mining exports accounted for 81% of the total) at US$4.6bn, down by 30% in value terms and by 4% in volume terms over the same period of 2014.

  • Fondioc

President Morales in late August announced the overhaul of the government’s indigenous development fund (Fondioc), which made headlines in February following a massive corruption scandal [RA-15-02]. A key change is that the government will have increased influence on the new ‘consultative council’, which replaces the old Fondioc’s directorate. The former directorate included representatives from eight of the main indigenous organisations, but the ‘consultative council’ will have representatives from just four. One of those excluded was the Asamblea del Pueblo Guaraní (APG), which is complaining that its exclusion is in punishment for protests against hydrocarbons exploration.

  • Bolivia blacklisted again

On 15 September the US government released the ‘Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2016’, which designated Bolivia and Venezuela (along with Burma) as countries “that have failed demonstrably during the previous 12 months to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements”. This is the eighth consecutive time Bolivia has been included.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 996 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

LatinNews
Intelligence Research Ltd.
167-169 Great Portland Street,
5th floor,
London, W1W 5PF - UK
Phone : +44 (0) 203 695 2790
Contact
You may contact us via our online contact form
Copyright © 2022 Intelligence Research Ltd. All rights reserved.