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