Independencia mining law protest
Independencia mining law protest 2014: A confrontation between the police and miners left two dead and 133 wounded in the Sayari Sector on the Cochabamba-Oruro highway on Monday night, March 31st (Opinión 2014b). The conflict began after miners organized roadblocks across the country to demand the modification of articles 132 and 151 of the Mining and Metallurgy Bill (Los Tiempos 2014). The controversial President Evo Morales’s administration authority over private tin, silver, and zinc miners’ dealings with private or foreign companies (Dangl 2014). The miners who participated in the blockade on Monday clarified protests were peaceful until the police confronted them by ambushing the miners from the hills and began throwing tear gas at them (Opinión 2014a). Among the miners and police officers, dynamite, Molotov cocktails, and firearms were used (Opinión 2014b). It remains uncertain who initiated the conflict.
Amid the conflict, Juan Manuel Cachaca Condori (18) was the first to die. According to his mother, he was hit by a tear gas capsule during the Sayari blockade and fell to the ground where one of the uniformed officers “le disparó a quemarropa” (shot him at point-blank range) (Opinión 2014a). The other decreased, Jhonny Huisa (30), was found with his face covered in blood. He left behind his mother, two children, and a pregnant wife. The president of the Kami Mining Cooperative, Michael Vargas, stated that the two dead were “dispararon a quemarropa con revólver y fusil” (shot at point-blank range with a revolver and a rifle) to the heads (Opinión 2014a). Miners declared two days of mourning for the decreased and maintained blockades on a western Cochabamba highway as they blamed the government for the violent events that occurred on Monday.
Of those wounded, three policemen–Wilber Calatayud (35), José Chávez Salvatierra (36), Hipólito López Ramos (29)–were taken hostage by cooperative members (Los Tiempos 2014). Miners took them to receive more favorable responses to their demands. They were eventually taken to be treated at a hospital in Kami to receive specialized care after getting blows to their head and body and sustaining “policontusiones, heridas y laceraciones” (contusions, wounds, and lacerations), Doctor Roger Ayra explained (Opinión 2014c).