According to this Spanish-language article in Pagina Sieta, “despite quarantine and other containment measures, foreign companies carry out gold operations in rivers on which many indigenous peoples depend.
The mining companies that operate in the high regions of La Paz and Beni during this pandemic time continue to work and generate direct impacts on indigenous peoples living on the banks of rivers, such as the Lecos, Mosetenes, Chimanes, Tacanas and Uchupiamonas.
"They are Chinese and Colombian companies that are affecting with high degrees of mercury contamination in rivers and despite the fact that the government ordered quarantine and then other measures against the coronavirus, they have not stopped these extractive activities that afflict our territories ”Said the indigenous leader of the Amazon, Alex Villca, in an interview with ANF.
According to the bulletin “Monitoring our territories”, from the Bolivia Documentation and Information Center, one of the regions hardest hit by legal and illegal gold mining, before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, are the municipalities of Teoponte, Guanay, Tipuani, Mapiri, Apolo and San Buenaventura in La Paz and Rurrenabaque in Beni.
During this quarantine, these companies have not stopped and continue to operate, leaving the waste of mercury and other elements in the rivers, from where the indigenous people source, fish and live.”