The Real Entrapment of Latin American Miners...

  The breaking news of 33 miners trapped some 700 meters below the surface of the San Jose mine in Chile after a collapse on the 5th August this year took the world by storm and captivated the hearts and souls of the media and the public alike. News of the progress of their rescue poured in and we learned every intimate detail of each of the trapped men, from what they like  to eat for breakfast to the complications of their love lives. Since then, ad hoc news stories

have appeared of other unfortunate souls in similar predicaments around the globe. In the last few months of 2010, the BBC alone reported on fatal and near fatal mine trappings in Ecuador, China and, most recently, New Zealand, reminding us that the risks associated with mining are not endemic to the developing world. The Chileans’ actual rescue, a staggering 69 days later,

caused another surge in interest and earned them the record of the longest time survived trapped

underground. The extent of coverage of the human interest story behind the Chilean miners, however, was not replicated for the other stories since or those that came before. For example, in the year before the August 2010 Chilean miners’ entrapment, other reports of trapped miners with stories of happy rescues and terrible tragedies were documented in China (with a February 2009 incident affecting over 400 men), Australia, Colombia, India, South Africa, Rwanda, Canada and the US to name a few, which together did not generate the same level of coverage as the Chilean tale. For ‘trapped miners’ on Factiva (which compiles searches on news headlines

around the world), reveals that despite hundreds of trapped mining events in the last two years, news coverage had soared around the time of the Chilean trapping story and again around the time of their rescue, with a significant drop in mining story news coverage throughout December 2010. The previous smaller peak around March 2010 was caused by the story of 153 miners trapped after floods in Xiangning, Shanxi, China. Reportage has centered heavily around human interest stories and despite the high risk the mining industry represents to the health and safety of its workers, the extent of human loss of life resulting from terrible working conditions has largely been ignored. In the West, when we think of mining, we think of mechanized operation, yellow hard-hats and well-paid project safety officers. The reality for millions of men, women and even children in poor countries could not be a starker contrast to this. Many have been grandfathered into the profession and are forced to work in the mines by a combination of social pressures and lack of alternative opportunities, and though many communities have based their

entire livelihoods around the mining industry, working conditions are much more dangerous than in developed countries due to lack of investment in the latest safety equipment, lower standards of health and safety regulation and weaker worker rights, enslaving generations of miners to a 

precarious existence. 

As the media mining interest begins to fade, Latin America, with its rich history and tradition in mining, and the Potosi mines of Bolivia in particular, with their substandard conditions and low pay, provide perfect case study examples with which to dive in a 

little deeper and bring the spotlight onto those forgotten by the recent media splurge, before it is relegated to the archives of news fads. First, let me provide a snapshot on the history of mining on the continent with a focus on the working environment and the culture of unavoidable servitude. Going all the way back to the fifteenth century, it is no secret that the Spanish (and European) colonial Conquest (1492-1570) was largely driven by the ‘worship of silver and gold’, and the mining, processing and transport of precious metals. The discovery by the Spanish of large silver deposits at Potosi in Southern Bolivia (the highest city in the world, towering at 4,090 meter above sea level), led to their development in 1545. A huge city built up around the 

mountain and by 1573 it had the same population as London and by 1650 it was the largest and richest city in the World, ten times the size of Boston.  Based on a detailed account by Dore, E. (2000) “Environment and Society: Long-Term Trends in Latin American Mining”, Environment and History, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 1-29 and Eduardo Galeano’s infamous 1973 book “Open Veins of Latin America”, Monthly Review Press, New York. The locals will tell you tails of such wealth and riches that you could find almost any item imaginable to have been made of silver. The wealth that collected in Potosi and that transferred to Europe was largely built on the backs of Indian and African slaves, which was also the case for mining all across Latin America.Even with the abolition of slavery on the continent (including Chile in 1823, Bolivia in 1831, Peru in 1854, and the last of Latin American countries being Brazil in 1888), the mining industry in South America was still largely based on force and indebtedness of workers. The conditions in the underground mines led to the demise of thousands of Indian workers due to mercury poisoning, other minerelatedhealth effects, and general exhaustion.

    A technological revolution in mining and transition to open-pit mining of the 1960s generally led to big improvements in the conditions under which miners worked, and mid twentieth century saw big improvements made due to the militancy of Latin American trade unions. But fastforward to today’s Potosi and a different picture emerges. On a tour of the mines, our guide, a 

young ex miner-turned tour operator, Juan Jose, gives us a little bit of insight. According to him, the mountain only has a few more decades at most before it either collapses or there will be no

minerals left to mine. Whilst, after almost 500 years of mining, it was only 10 years ago that a few of the larger syndicates (into which the miners are organized) have installed electrical pulling mechanisms to winch up the heavy rock-laden barrels up to the surface. The rest still carry the ore to the surface on their backs in 35kg sacks. The transportation system of rocks within the mine itself is still based on pairs of miners manually running the large-sized metal containers along tracks. As they pass by in the tunnels, it is customary for visitors to give gifts of coca leaves, cigarettes, fizzy drinks or Ceibo (the miner’s tipple of choice to get through a hard days’ work – a 96% volume clear spirit). Throw in one meal a day at most and that is what makes up the typical diet of a miner here, there is simply no appetite, especially as it is suppressed by the coca and the altitude.

      As you slide further into the mine shaft, sometimes on your hands and knees, a dizziness ensues from lack of oxygen and an overbearing presence of other gases and heavy particles in the 

tunnels, which taste like acid and feel like sand against your airways. “Arsenic and asbestos”, proclaims Juan Jose, upon noticing our discomfort, as he chews on his coca leaves and grins with black stained teeth. He does not expect to live past forty. And he is pretty spot on, since that is the life expectancy for the residents of Potosi, now one of the poorest places in the World. The biggest cause of death is lung-related illness. It is estimated that over eight million men have died in these mines from these and other afflictions and mining accidents, whilst up to a thousand 8-12 year olds toiling in the mines today are likely to suffer similar fates upon reaching 

middle age (BBC, 2004)

   

In addition, miners and their families as well as other local people suffer indirect effects from

environmental pollution and unregulated mine discharge. Perhaps not so much unregulated, but definitely insufficiently policed, since broad and progressive environmental legislation became law in 1992, however it remains largely ignored by the mining industry at Potosi and elsewhere.

Evidence comes from a recent study of the acid drainage in the economically vital, but heavily polluted Rio Pilcomayo downstream from Potosi. The study found concentrations of

heavy metal contaminants to exceed government permitted levels at all tested sites, leading the

authors to conclude that the discharge from the mines exceeds regulatory levels too. This particularly a problem since the local population is then exposed to these chemicals through ingestion of contaminated water, agricultural products (which are also sold all over the country, thus spreading the contamination further) and fish (since lower Rio Pilcomayo is a major commercial Bolivian fishery).What is really striking in all this is the lack of choice. Juan Jose is one of the lucky ones able to escape from the twelve-hour backbreaking days, six days a week at a daily rate of 100 Bolivianos (a mere $12.50 US). Most miners are not so lucky, yet as far as they are concerned there are no alternatives. They are largely uneducated and provide unskilled

labour, so even if they did know of other opportunities, most would be powerless to do anything about it.

The real human tragedy here lies in the loss of the lives of millions of miners in places like Potosi, dying prematurely, slowly and painfully. Their situation and working conditions have changed little in the last few centuries and they see no prospect for change. In light of the Chilean miner entrapments, a huge opportunity to put pressure on the powers at be for real change by highlighting these people’s appalling working conditions and lack of health and

safety regulation enforcements in the industry they (and 500 years of their ancestry) gave their lives too, has largely been missed in the recent media mining frenzy. Slavery may have been abolished one hundred and fifty years ago, but enslavement (through lack of choice) in mining all over Latin America is still a reality. Yet the focus of even the most trusted and prestigious news outlets in the last six months has been more concerned with gossip and trivial information about the 33 survivors in Chile. If the media can evoke such interest and sympathy for a group of miners who were trapped beneath the earth’s surface for 69 days, it should be able to build on

that and give its attention and support to people who have been trapped beneath an oppressive

industry for the last 500 years.

(Ioulia is Global South Development Magazine’s Regional Editor for Latin America and can be reached at

275971@soas.ac.uk)