The socio-economic rights of the Aymara and Quechua peoples of Bolivia, the lithium industry, and the geopolitics of natural resources

Abstract

This commentary focuses on the importance of recognising the rights of the Aymara and Quechua peoples to benefit from the lithium industry. It analyses the sources of international law and Bolivian constitutional law that recognise the rights of indigenous peoples to natural resources. It makes the case for implementing the right to economic development of indigenous peoples. It highlights the legal and ethical obligations of the Bolivian government and transnational corporations to invest their profits, from the exploitation of lithium, in social and economic projects to remedy unjust exploitations of natural resources and the labour force of indigenous peoples.

Keywords:

• industrialisation and exploitation of lithium
• indigenous peoples’ rights
• natural resources law
• Bolivian constitution
• UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• China’s foreign direct investments
• Latin America’s economic dependency
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
• International Covenant on Economic
• Social and Cultural Rights
• history of the Inca Empire
• the lithium triangle
• ethnic division of labour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 See Fabiola Escárzaga, ‘Comunidad Indígena y Revolución en Bolivia: El Pensamiento Indianista-Katarista de Fausto Reinaga y Felipe Quispe’ (2012) 37 Politica y Cultura 185.

2 World Bank Group, Indigenous Latin America in the Twenty-First Century: The First Decade (World Bank 2015) 22–25. In Bolivia, there are 4.12 million indigenous peoples.

3 MD Sanchez-Lopez, ‘Geopolitics of the Li-Ion Battery Value Chain and the Lithium Triangle in South America’ (2023) 14(1) Latin American Policy 22 at 23.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid 28.

6 Brantly Womack, ‘China’s Future in a Multinodal World Order’ (2014) 87(2) Pacific Affairs 265.

7 Jeffrey Feltman, China’s Expanding Influence at the United Nations – and How the United States Should React (The Brookings Institution, September 2020).

8 See, generally, Barbara Stallings, Dependency in the Twenty-First Century? The Political Economy of China–Latin America Relations (Cambridge University Press 2020).

9 Daniel Ramos, ‘Bolivia Taps China, Russia’s Rosatom in Bid to Unlock Huge Lithium Riches’ (Reuters 29 June 2023) <www.reuters.com/world/americas/bolivia-seals-14-bln-lithium-deals-with-russias-rosatom-chinas-guoan-2023-06-9/#:~:text=LA%20PAZ%2C%20June%2029%20(Reuters,resources%20of%20the%20battery%20metal> accessed 16 December 2023.

10 Heng Xie, Jing Li and Shuo Liu, ‘Research on Power Battery Enterprise Value Assessment Model: Taking CATL as an Example’ (2023) 6(9) Industrial Engineering and Innovation Management 24.

11 Stallings (n 8) 68.

12 See, for instance, Ivo Ganchev, ‘China Pushed the Pink Tide and the Pink Tide Pulled China: Intertwining Economic Interests and Ideology in Ecuador and Bolivia (2005–2014)’ (2020) 183(4) World Affairs 359 at 370–381.

13 Stallings (n 8) 67–68.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Mining Technology News, ‘Bolivia’s YLB Signs Lithium Agreements with Russian and Chinese Companies’ (30 June 2023) <www.mining-technology.com/news/ylb-lithium-russian-chinese/?cf-view> accessed 10 December 2023.

18 Regarding Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, see Michael Kelly, ‘The Role of International Law in the Russia-Ukraine War’ (2023) 55 Case W Res J Int’l L 61.

19 Reuters, ‘Bolivia’s Lithium Partnership with Germany’s ACI Systems Hits Snag’ (3 November 2019) <www.reuters.com/article/us-bolivia-germany-lithium-idUSKBN1XE01N/> accessed 7 December 2023.

20 See Anatoly Kurmanaev and Clifford Krauss, ‘Ethnic Rifts in Bolivia Burst into View with Fall of Evo Morales’ (NY Times, 17 November 2019) <www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/world/americas/morales-bolivia-Indigenous-racism.html> accessed 5 December 2023.

21 For an analysis of the failure of a pilot plant for lithium-ion cathodes, at La Palca in 2012 as a joint venture between the Bolivian government and the Korean Consortium KORES-POSCO, see Janine Romero Valenzuela, Natural Resources Governance, Grievances and Conflict, the Case of the Bolivian Lithium Program (Springer VS 2018) 203.

22 Rodrigo Campos and Lucinda Elliott, ‘Bolivia’s Arce Open to EU Lithium Tie-ups to Rev Battery Metal Output’ (Reuters, 20 September 2023) <www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/bolivias-arce-open-eu-lithium-tie-ups-rev-battery-metal-output-2023-09-20/> accessed 7 December 2023; Business Standard, ‘India's Altmin & YLB, Bolivia Signs a Strategic Partnership Agreement for Lithium & C-LFP Technology’ (16 November 2023) <www.business-standard.com/content/press-releases-ani/india-s-altmin-ylb-bolivia-signs-a-strategic-partnership-agreement-for-lithium-c-lfp-technology-123111601043_1.html> accessed 7 December 2023.

23 YLB (the state Bolivian lithium company) has an agreement with the Indian company (Altmin Private Ltd) for research, development, and the establishment of bilateral supply chain projects of Bolivian lithium. The Times of India, ‘Altmin Inks Pact with Bolivian YLB’ (17 November 2023) <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/altmin-inks-pact-bolivian-ylb-lithium/articleshow/105275656.cms> accessed 7 December 2023.

24 Regarding the importance of the engagement of developed countries in Latin America and the importance of this region not relying only on Chinese economic investments, see Stallings (n 8) 70.

25 For an analysis of the Aymara and Quechua people’s worldview on Mother Earth, see for instance Theodore Butcher-Cornet, ‘Recognising Indigenous Conceptions of Custodianship in Environmental Law’ (2020) 28 Austl L Libr 156, at 157.

26 Regarding the international division of labour and international relations between the centre and the periphery, see generally Stallings (n 8).

27 For a systematic analysis of Bolivia’s lithium strategy, see generally Romero Valenzuela (n 21).

28 For an analysis of how the Spanish invasion of indigenous territories created the conditions to place them at the lowest levels of the socio-economic structure, see Tzvetan Todorov, La Conquista de America: El Problema del Otro (Siglo XXI de España Editores, SA 2007).

29 See Xavier Albo, ‘The “Long Memory” of Ethnicity in Bolivia and Some Temporary Oscillations’ in Jhon Crabtree and Laurence Whitehead (eds), Unresolved Tensions: Bolivia Pasta and Present (University of Pittsburg Press 2008) 15–20.

30 Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Lithium Extraction and Industrialization: Opportunities and Challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean (United Nations 2023).

31 Amanda Romero, José Aylwin, and Marcel Didier, Globalización de las empresas de energía renovable: Extracción de litio y derechos de los pueblos indígenas en Argentina, Bolivia y Chile, Triángulo del Litio (Observatorio Ciudadano 2019) 11.

32 The descendants of the Inca empire, the Aymara- and Quechua-speaking peoples, are part of the population where the main lithium salt flats are located including Uyuni in Bolivia, Atacama in Chile, and Salinas Grandes y Laguna de Guayatayoc in Argentina. In the fourteenth century, all these territories were part of the Collasuyu, one of the main regions of the Inca empire. See, for instance, ibid 13.

33 For a systematic analysis of Tawantinsuyu, see for instance Maria Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, History of the Inca Realm (Cambridge University Press 1999). The territories of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina and Chile were part of Tawantinsuyu. The south-east part of the Inca Empire was Collasuyu.

34 In the places where lithium salt flats are located, the Aymara and Quechua peoples established sophisticated agricultural systems including methods for irrigation of the land. After the Spanish invasion of the Inca realm, indigenous peoples were forced to work, in slave-like conditions, and pay taxes for the exploitation of salt. See Romero, Aylwin, and Didier (n 31) 13.

35 See, for instance, Carlos Vladimir Schmidt Colque, Suyunpacha, Epigenética de la Sabiduría del Tawantinsuyu, Auge y Ocaso (Producciones CIMA Editores 2021).

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid.

38 See generally Massimo Livi Bacci, Conquest: The Destruction of the American Indios (Carl Ipsen trans., Polity 2008). See Magda von der Heydt-Coca, ‘When Worlds Collide: The Incorporation of the Andean World into the Emerging World-Economy in the Colonial Period’ 24 (1999) Dialectical Anthropology 1, at 14.

39 See Romero Valenzuela (n 21).

40 Regarding the contributions of indigenous peoples to the global economy, see von der Heydt-Coca (n 38) 4.

41 Romero Valenzuela (n 21) 173.

42 See Ward Stavig, ‘Continuing the Bleeding of These Pueblos Will Shortly Make Them Cadavers: The Potosi Mita, Cultural Identity, and Communal Survival in Colonial Peru’ (2000) 56(4) The Americas 529–562.

43 See Henry Stobart, ‘Bolivia’s Anti-racism Law: Transforming a Culture?’ in Peter Wade, James Scorer, and Ignacio Aguiló (eds), Cultures of Antiracism in Latin America and the Caribbean (University of London Press 2019) 191, 193.

44 See generally Fernand Molina, Racismo y Poder en Bolivia (Oxfam/FES 2021).

45 For a general analysis of genocidal actions against indigenous peoples, see David Maybury-Lewis, ‘Genocide Against Indigenous Peoples’, in Alexander Laban Hinton (ed), Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide (University of California Press 2002) 44. For an analysis of cultural genocide, see Johannes Morsink, ‘Cultural Genocide, the Universal Declaration, and Minority Rights’ (1999) 21 HUM. RTS. Q. 1009.

46 Molina (n 44).

47 Ibid Regarding the legal progress for indigenous peoples in Bolivia, see Stobart (n 43).

48 Molina (n 44).

49 Ibid.

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid.

52 art 8, UN General Assembly, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Resolution adopted by the General Assembly, 2 October 2007, A/RES/61/295.

53 Ibid art 8.2.

54 For an analysis of racism against indigenous peoples in Bolivia, see Maral Shoaei, MAS and the Indigenous People of Bolivia (USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations 2012) <https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/4401>

55 Molina (n 44).

56 See Livi Bacci (n 38); see also Nathan Wachtel, The Vision of the Vanquished: The Spanish Conquest of Peru Through Indian Eyes 1530–1570 (Harvester Press 1977) 21–24.

57 See Maybury-Lewis (n 45).

58 See Michael A McDonnell and Dirk Moses, ‘Raphael Lemkin as Historian of Genocide in the Americas’ (2005) 7 J Genocide Rsch 501. Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin created the legal concept of genocide and analysed it in relation to indigenous nations.

59 See John L Hammond, ‘Indigenous Community Justice in the Bolivian Constitution of 2009’ (2011) 33 Hum Rts Q 649.

60 See Schmidt Colque (n 35).

61 See, for instance, David Choquehuanca in Alfonso Ibáñez, ‘Un acercamiento al Buen vivir’ (2011) 5 Contextualizaciones Latinoamericanas 1. .

62 John Wayne Janusek, ‘The Changing “Nature” of Tiwanaku Religion and the Rise of an Andean State’ (2006) 38(3) World Archaeology 469 at 470.

63 For an example of how the Incas believe in the forces of nature as sacred (huacas), see Rostworowski (n 33) 88–89.

64 Janusek (n 62) 470.

65 Ibid 471.

66 Ibid.

67 See Schmidt Colque (n 35).

68 Ibid.

69 Gordon E McEwan, The Incas: New Perspectives (WW Norton & Company 2006).

70 Ibid.

71 Ibid.

72 Ibid 58–60.

73 See Rostworowski (n 33) 88–89.

74 David Choquehuanca in Alfonso Ibáñez, ‘Un acercamiento al Buen vivir’ (2011) 5 Contextualizaciones Latinoamericanas 1 at 7. Bolivia legally recognized the idea of ‘vivir bien’ (living well) as a norm in its 2012 Framework Law of Mother Earth and Integral Development for Living Well. V/Lex <https://bolivia.vlex.com/vid/ley-300-554287174> accessed 7 November 2023.

75 See Brian S Bauer and others, ‘Vilcabamba and the Fall of the Inca Empire’ in Brian S Bauer, Madeleine Halac-Higashimori, and Gabriel E. Cantarutti (eds), Voices from Vilcabamba: Accounts Chronicling the Fall of the Inca Empire (University Press of Colorado 2016).

76 See Pedro Cieza de Leon, The Discovery and Conquest of Peru (Alexandra P Cook and Noble D Cook eds and trans, Duke University Press 1998).

77 See Robert A Williams, Jr, ‘Columbus’s Legacy: Law as an Instrument of Racial Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples’ Rights of Self-Determination’ (1991) 8 Ariz J Int’l & Comp L 55–56.

78 Ibid.

79 For indigenous perspectives regarding the conquest of the Inca Empire, see Richard N Luxton, ‘The Inca Quipus and Guaman Poma de Ayala’s “First New Chronicle and Good Government”’ (1979) 5 Ibero-Ameikanisches Archiv 315. For an analysis of the Aymara Worldview, see generally Weston La Barre, ‘The Aymara: History and Worldview’ (1966) 79 J Am Folklore 130.

80 Héctor Hugo Trinchero (2006) ‘The Genocide of Indigenous Peoples in the Formation of the Argentine Nation-State’ (2006) 8(2) Journal of Genocide Research 121.

81 See John Howland Rowe, ‘The Incas Under Spanish Colonial Institutions’ (1957) 37 Hisp Am Hist Rev 155.

82 For the actions of the Bolivian state to assimilate indigenous peoples to Hispanic culture, see Juliana Ströbele-Gregor, ‘From Indio to Mestizo … to Indio: New Indianist Movements in Bolivia’ (1994) 21(2) Latin Am Persp 106.

83 Eva Fischer, ‘From Rebellion to Democracy: The Many Lives of Túpac Katari’ (2018) 29 Hist & Anthro 493.

84 For an example of the historical social-Darwinist views in Bolivia, see Government of Bolivia, 1900 Census, ‘The Slow and Gradual Disappearance of the Indigenous Race’ in Sinclair Thomsonand others (eds), The Bolivia Reader (Duke University Press 2018) 251–255.

85 Herbert S Klein, A Concise History of Bolivia (2nd edn, Cambridge University Press 2011) 286–288.

86 Ibid 288–289.

87 Ibid 290–291.

88 For a description of the Bolivian Constitution, see Hammond (n 59) 649.

89 See, for instance, Almut Schilling-Vacaflor, ‘Bolivia’s New Constitution: Towards Participatory Democracy and Political Pluralism?’ (2011) 90 Eur Rev Lat Am & Caribbean Stud 3. For an analysis of the political influence of Aymara, Quechua and other indigenous peoples in the politics of Bolivia, see Raúl L Madrid, ‘The Rise of Ethnopopulism in Latin America’ (2008) 60 World Pol 475 at 484–499.

90 Preamble, Plurinational State of Bolivia, Bolivian Constitution (Oxford University Press 2009) <www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Bolivia_2009> accessed 5 November 2023 .

91 Ibid.

92 Ibid art 1.

93 Ibid.

94 Ibid art 2.

95 Ibid.

96 Ibid art 3.

97 Ibid art 5.

98 Ibid art 8.

99 Ibid art 30.II.

100 Ibid art 30.II.

101 Ibid art 30.II.

102 Ibid art 410.II.

103 Ibid art 178.I.

104 Ibid art 179.III.

105 Ibid art 179.

106 Ibid art 349.I.

107 Ibid art 369. I.

108 Ibid art 369.I.

109 Ibid art 369.II.

110 See Anthony Carty, Philosophy of International Law (Edinburgh University Press 2007). For the use of legal ideas including state sovereignty against indigenous peoples’ interests, see generally Robert A Williams Jr, The American Indian in Western Legal Thought: The Discourses of Conquest (Oxford University Press 1990). .

111 Carty (n 110) 105.

112 Hiroshi Fukurai and Richard Krooth, Original Nation Approaches to Inter-National Law (Palgrave Macmillan 2021) 55.

113 One historical example of this was the indigenous resistance movements in Northern Potosi (1777–1780). Regarding the characteristics of this indigenous people’s struggle, Professor Serulnikov writes: ‘ … the Aymara peasants were able to turn official narratives of the conflict upside down: Indian collective violence now appeared as juridical acts, and the actions of political authorities as forms of arbitrary violence’. Sergio Serulnikov, ‘Disputed Images of Colonialism: Spanish Rule and Indian Subversion in Northern Potosí, 1777–1780’ (1996) 76(2) The Hispanic American Historical Review 189 at 217.

114 Human Rights Committee, General Comment No 12: Article 1 (Right to Self-determination) The Right to Self-determination of Peoples, 21st sess, UN Doc HRI/GEN/1/Rev.9 (vol I) (13 March 1984) (‘HRC General Comment 12’).

115 art 25, UN General Assembly, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 December 1966, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol 993, p. 3; art 47, UN General Assembly, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16 December 1966, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol 999, 171.

116 art 15.1, International Labour Organization (ILO), Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, C169, 27 June 1989, C169., art 15.1.

117 art XXIX.1, The American Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is an example of this, Organization of American States (OAS) G.A. Res. 2888, at 3 (15 June 2016).

118 For a systematic analysis of the rights of indigenous peoples, self-determination, property rights and natural resources, see Harry Hobbs and others, ‘Amicus Curiae Brief in the Case of the Indigenous Maya Q’Eqchi’ Agua Caliente Community v Guatemala – Caso De La Comunidad Indígena Maya Q'Eqchi' Agua Caliente Contra Guatemala’ (11 February 2022) <http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3402234> accessed 7 November 2023.

119 See Xavier Albo, Raíces de América: el mundo Aymara (Alianza America 1988).

120 Yaneth Katia Apaza Huanca, ‘Non-Western Epistemology and the Understanding of the Pachamama (Environment) Within the World(s) of the Aymara Identity’ (2019) 8(3) Int’l J For Crime, Just & Soc Democracy 6.

121 See Andrea Mensi, Indigenous Peoples, Natural Resources and Permanent Sovereignty (Brill-Nijhoff 2023) 129–133.

122 Ibid 129–130.

123 Ibid.

124 Ibid.

125 Ibid 138–139.

126 See, for instance, Robert H Jackson and Gregory Maddox, ‘The Creation of Identity: Colonial Society in Bolivia and Tanzania’ (1993) 35 Compar Stud Soc’y & Hist 263.

127 For an analysis of the exploitation of the labour force of indigenous peoples, see Thomas Duve, ‘Indigenous Rights in Latin America: A Legal Historical Perspective’, Max Planck Inst. for European Legal History, Research Paper Ser. No. 2017-02 in (The Oxford Handbook of Historical Legal Research 2017) <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2976301> accessed 7 December 2023.

128 For a description of the revolution and the creation of the Bolivian State (1809–1841), see generally Klein (n 85) 89–117.

129 Yolanda T Chekera and Vincent O Nmehielle, ‘The International Law Principle of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources as an Instrument for Development: The Case of Zimbabwean Diamonds’ (2013) African Journal of Legal Studies 6(1) (2013) 69.

130 Ibid.

131 Ibid 78.

132 ILO, Convention No. 169, Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (1991).

133 OAS, American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, OEA/Ser.P AG/RES.2888 (XLVI-O/16), 15 June 2016,Article IX (ADRIP).

134 For an example of a legal authoritative narrative, see Erica-Irene A Daes (Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples’ Sovereignty over Nat. Res.), Final Rep. on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Indigenous Peoples: Indigenous Peoples’ Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/30.

135 Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources, UN General Assembly Resolution 1803 (XVII) New York, 14 December 1962.

136 art 1, UN General Assembly, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16 December 1966, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol 999, 171.

137 UN General Assembly, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 December 1966, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol 993, 3.

138 Jérémie Gilbert, Natural Resources and Human Rights: An Appraisal (Oxford University Press 2018) 21.

139 Chekera and Nmehielle (n 129) 69–101.

140 Ibid 77.

141 Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources, UN General Assembly Resolution 1803 (XVII) New York, 14 December 1962.

142 art 32.2, UN General Assembly, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Resolution adopted by the General Assembly, 2 October 2007, A/RES/61/295.

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Notes on contributors

Yuri G Mantilla

Yuri G Mantilla, Ph.D. is Professor of Law at Liberty University School of Law in the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, an LL.M. from American University Washington College of Law, and an LL.B. equivalent from Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev, Ukraine. He has done undergraduate studies at the University of San Andres School of Law in La Paz, Bolivia. He was awarded a Graduate Certificate in International Relations by Harvard University Extension School. As part of his previous international work, he has met with government leaders, including presidents of Latin American countries, and diplomats at the United Nations and Organization of American States. He is one of the authors, together with other scholars in the field of indigenous peoples' rights, of an Amicus Curiae Brief for the case of the indigenous Maya Q'eqchi' Agua Caliente Community v. Guatemala, which was submitted to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.