Kathryn Cook

Compañero

A young miner, cheeks full of coca leaves, rests next to a barrel full of rock before it is lifted out of a mine shaft in the Robertito mine in Potosi, Bolivia. The mines were first worked through slave labor, consisting mostly of Quechua and Aymara indigenous peoples. In the 1980s, a decree to privatize much of the mining industry left thousands of miners without work. Many turned to a viable alternative - coca cultivation - for its high market price. This migration eventually created the backbone of the militant coca farmers' movement, President Evo Morales' political base. Today, the mines continue to be exploited under workers' cooperatives.
A young miner, cheeks full of coca leaves, rests next to a barrel full of rock before it is lifted out of a mine shaft in the Robertito mine in Potosi, Bolivia. The mines were first worked through slave labor, consisting mostly of Quechua and Aymara indigenous peoples. In the 1980s, a decree to privatize much of the mining industry left thousands of miners without work. Many turned to a viable alternative - coca cultivation - for its high market price. This migration eventually created the backbone of the militant coca farmers' movement, President Evo Morales' political base. Today, the mines continue to be exploited under workers' cooperatives.