IN STEREO

This opinion is more personal than institutional. You know that we experienced the long 27 days of civic unrest, and some two or three years ago we had 19 days. But while it seems obvious that the patrimony is at risk, there are other external elements that affect us. The foreign tourist is afraid to come to Potosí and that is not because as a regional government we are not doing something. Instead, it’s basically because the population of Potosí, unfortunately, does not identify with the patrimony. I will cite an example. About 15 years ago, we still had the streets cobbled, and we had a mayor to whom it occurred to cover the road with concrete. About five or six of us refused, and the whole population told us, how was it possible that we didn’t want our city to improve? And well, those are the results.

The population is no longer from the city itself, but a migrant population. That is not [said] in a derogatory tone. It does not work because there are people, from the effect of the mining boom, [who] come to the city. They stay in the city for some time, investing in buying houses. Because they have money, they use it to build a mall. They recover the investment, and the next goal is to go live in another place. There are also, obviously, policies taken by the town council that perhaps complicate everything instead of making things easier. – Heritage Official