Cooperative miners in Bolivia have been dealt a blow by the government after ministers decided to reverse previously agreed to concessions and establish tough new rules for the sector.
One decree passed by the Cabinet on Thursday morning bans the cooperative miners from conducting their own business with transnational companies. “The first decree explicitly states that signed contracts of lease and sublease between the mining cooperatives with domestic or foreign private companies reverts to the domain of the state,” Mining Minister Cesar Navarro said at a press conference.
The government estimates that there are currently 31 contracts signed with private companies for at least 25 years; in some cases the contracts are indefinite. The president of the Bolivian mining corporation, Comibol, Marcellin Quispe, claims there are just seven contracts signed between cooperative miners with private companies, both national and transnational.
The government says the aim of the new legislation is allow “real” mining cooperatives to develop their activities in the framework of the new mining law. However, those “camouflaged” as mining cooperatives which are just “companies exploiting men and women” will have their licences revoked according to authorities.
The Minister for Labor Gonzalo Trigoso also announced the guarantee of worker rights of all workers serving in cooperatives. “From today these citizens are under the protection of labor legislation and the right to unionize is in full force,” Trigoso said.
The announcement comes a week after violent blockades by miners, which claimed the lives of five miners and former Deputy Minister of the Interior Rodolfo Illanes.
President Evo Morales revealed to teleSUR that Illanes was tortured for six hours by miners before he was murdered. “My colleagues told me that Deputy Minister Illanes suffered more than Christ,” Morales said.
— source telesurtv.net