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AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting from the World Peoples’ Summit on Climate
Change and Rights of Mother Earth in the Bolivian town of Tiquipaya just outside Cochabamba.
We’re actually in the information building of Universidad del Valle, Univalle, as they
call it.
One of the participating organizations at the dissident workshop 18 was the Regional
Federation of Peasant Workers of the South Altiplano, or FRUCTAS. It’s a grassroots
organization of community members from Nor LÃpez province of the central PotosÃ
region of Bolivia. They’re in the midst of a struggle against the Japanese trading
giant Sumitomo Corporation, which owns the massive San Cristóbal mine.
The silver-lead-zinc mine has been in operation for more than three years, but for the past
week and a half it’s been largely shut down by blockades, marches and office takeovers.
The protesters are demanding the mine replenish the water used in the extraction processes
and that it be taxed. The mine uses 600 liters of water every second.
Francisco Quisbert Salinas is the ex-leader of FRUCTAS who came to participate in the
World Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change. He lives less than twenty miles from the San
Cristóbal mine. Democracy Now! producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous spoke with him yesterday
just outside mesa 18. He began by asking him how the mine has affected his community.
FRANCISCO QUISBERT SALINAS: [translated] Initially, now you can’t see the impacts like
right away, but the use of the subterranean waters and the fossil waters at the quantity
of 15,000 cubic meters a day is affecting us slowly, little by little. The waters that
used to come out of the hill of San Cristóbal, they are drying out. And as these waters go
and as you go closer to the mine, you can see how the water flow is getting less and
less and how some small springs are drying out.
But also, what we feel is that the drought is getting worse. There’s less rain.
We’re not sure if it’s because of the mining of the San Cristóbal mining
company or if it’s because of climate change or global warming. But what we can
see for sure is that the communities close to the mine are impacted negatively by the
San Cristóbal mining company.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And for the last week and a half, the mine has been shut down by
protesters. Were you involved in that? And why?
FRANCISCO QUISBERT SALINAS: [translated] This is an anecdotal case, because what is happening
here is that we, as Rural Workers Federation, we have been struggling from many years ago,
especially we started in ‘99 to fight for our water resources. And we have even
contracted a hydrologist, an hydrologic engineer; with our own money, we contracted this engineer.
But also we had some help from some NGOs and the local municipal government. But nobody
had enough courage to actually go and talk to the mining company to denounce what was
going on. It had to be a us who had start to denounce the problems that were going on,
and we had to discover that what the mining company was telling us wasn’t actually
the truth.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: What are your demands?
FRANCISCO QUISBERT SALINAS: [translated] Our demand is that they should use less water.
We ask that they pay for the right to use that water, because now they don’t
pay a penny for the water. And that’s what this protest is about. It is an anecdotal
case, but we’ve been preparing this struggle for many years. So our demand is
that there should be a legislation, there should be a law, that means that they pay
for the use of the water. It is not right that they can use the water for free, because
we also pay for it.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And why are you here at mesa 18, outside of the official conference?
FRANCISCO QUISBERT SALINAS: [translated] Look, what I want to say is that we can have beautiful
discourses, beautiful speeches, and we have beautiful, excellent speeches in all the working
groups, but in practice, we’re not putting things into practice. So, in the other
working groups, they’re talking more about international issues, but there’s
no—they’re not touching the national-level issues here in Bolivia, because
the capitalism doesn’t only exist in the industrialized and the developed countries.
Capitalism is present here in our country. For example, through the San Cristóbal
mine. There are other mining companies. So what we need to see, what is going on in our
own house and what we need to do.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And finally, your message to President Evo Morales?
FRANCISCO QUISBERT SALINAS: [translated] What we would like our brother Evo Morales to do
is to make sure that there is legislation that really takes care of the environment
and that the legislation that we already have, that that is implemented, because if there’s
no presence of the state, then the mining companies just do whatever they like. That’s
why we ask for more presence of the state, that they should take care of the environment,
and that the transnational companies shouldn’t just be able to do what they like, and that
our people is listend to. That’s what we’ve been always asking for.
AMY GOODMAN: Francisco Quisbert Salinas is the ex-leader of FRUCTAS who came to participate
in the World Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change. He lives less than twenty miles from
the San Cristóbal mine.