Like other people in the area, he says the local communities accepted the mining companies out of necessity, with hope that they would generate employment and development in an area with a subsistence economy.
“The communities wanted to contribute to the country. They wanted to generate work, connect to the world,” he says. “Maybe we didn’t do it right. We don’t know.”
The answer to that question is simple, says Pablo Bergese, mining sustainability coordinator of the Mining and Hydrocarbons Secretariat of Jujuy. Other efforts to ease poverty in the area have failed, he says. The only way to develop the area is to take advantage of the mineral wealth, he adds.
“People have developed in terms of homes, they have better fixtures, they have better bathrooms, they have better buildings, they have community centers,” Bergese says. “Unfortunately, development has an impact on the environment, and that’s what we are complaining about. Human beings impact the environment in all their activities. Mining is one of them.”
Still, many local people feel left behind.
José Sajama, a leader of the Abra Pampa community, north of Salar de Olaroz, is the son and grandson of miners. But he has a vastly different vision of the mining here in the Puna region.
“They’ve done mineral development in the better part of the Puna. So, why are the people still poor? What is the development? Or who is the development for?” he asks.
María Arce, GPJ, contributed to this story.