WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

5.1 Who Does Water Belong to Having the Courage
to Stand up against the Powerful Companies
This modern-day pilfering of the nation’s own resources by foreign
companies is seen by the Bolivians as the continuation of a centuriesold
history of colonial exploitation, which lies deeply embedded in the
collective memory of the people.
In the sixteenth century, the Spanish conquered part of the Inca
Empire, territory which today belongs to Bolivia. The native peoples
were subjugated and the region’s silver deposits looted. During most
of the Spanish colonisation period, this area was known as Upper Peru
and came under the authority of the Viceroy of Lima. Upper Peru later
joined the Viceroyalty of Rió de la Plata. Bolivian silver mines produced
much of the Spanish empire’s wealth and Potosí was for many years
the largest city in the western hemisphere. At the beginning of the
nineteenth century, efforts to liberate the territory from the influence
of Lima and Buenes Aires intensified. The local population (miners,
businessmen, ranchers and others) wanted to create an independent
country in order to profit from the region’s wealth. The army of
General Antonio de Sucre gained several victories over the Spanish
and, on August 6, 1825, a constitutional congress declared the territory
independent. The new republic was named Bolivia after Simón
Bolívar, one of the liberators, who became the country’s first president
but who stayed in power for only a few months. The capital was named
in honour of Antonio de Sucre, who succeeded Bolívar, but only for a
couple of years before being deposed by Andrés de Santa Cruz, who
reunited Bolivia with Peru in 1836. This confederation was dissolved
three years later and during the following decades, Bolivia was rocked
by civil war and sank into anarchy.
As a result of the saltpetre wars against Chile (1879-1883), Bolivia
lost large areas of its national territory and – most significantly – its
access to the Pacific. Chile took possession of those regions which
were rich in saltpetre deposits (nitrate), at that time an important raw
material for the manufacture of fertilisers and gunpowder, and mining
was subsequently carried out for the most part by British and German
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