We express our utmost concern regarding the serious violations of the rights of the Quechua community of Totoral Chico of the Ayllu Acre Antequera, Oruro, in Bolivia, including the organization of a false consultation on October 23, 2024.

This “consultation” seeks to legitimize the activity of the mining company La Salvada Sociedad Colectiva, owned by the Avicaya Mining Workers Union, who have been operating illegally in the territory since 2013 without obtaining consent from the Quechua and Aymara communities that inhabit it.

Reposted from Earthworks

By Paulina Personius

By Bobbie Chew Bigby (Cherokee)

By Bobbie Chew Bigby (Cherokee Nation) 

By Bobbie Chew Bigby (Cherokee)

By Marizol Huarachi Colomi 

Imagine traveling 150 kilometers from Cochabamba, Bolivia for approximately 5 hours and with great caution to reach the municipality of Independencia on a dirt access road that is narrow and winding. This journey is an opportunity to see dazzling desert, tropical, and valley landscapes and to experience their respective climates.

In October 2023, Cultural Survival and Qhana Pukara Kurmi, an association of Indigenous communities of the department of Oruro, Bolivia, submitted an alternative report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The report spotlights the rights violations suffered by the Quechua communities of the Ayllu Acre Antequera for the Committee’s consideration during its 111th session, which took place from November 20 to December 8, 2023.

In October 2023, Cultural Survival and our partner organization Qhana Pukara Kurmi submitted a joint alternative stakeholder report on the situation of Indigenous rights in Bolivia for the 111th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which will take place in Geneva from November 20-December 8, 2023.