IN STEREO

They have to stop working to preserve the conical shape. It’s that they do not work above 4400 metres. But these people are not just a few; there are thousands of miners. To give a solution to that, they would have to employ all these people, give them a place of work. But these people are not going to work for minimum wage, because they are partners: they own the mines, where they also employ other people and earn money from there, good money. So they cannot do that, throw out those workers. That can’t happen. I mean, the odds are low. Nobody has been able to solve it yet because the cooperatives are the ones who have legal advisers, so it is very complicated.

This situation is totally fucked now with the Manquiri Company. lt is not allowed to work above 4000 metres. I live in the camp, almost at the base of the mountain, and there has been a while of conflict. Journalists have gone up: “Ah, they are working above 4000 metres.” Then engineers, COMIBOL, members of the Civic Committee, they look. They have GPS that measure the height, and they were twenty metres above the limit. They say, “We are only twenty metres over.” Twenty metres is nothing; it is as if you were on the same level. But we’re not talking about 4000 anymore. Now we’re talking about around 4400. So what do they do next? – Victor