Siglo Veinte Mine, Llallagua, Rafael Bustillo Province, Potosí, Boliviai

Regional Level Types
Siglo Veinte Mine	Mine
Llallagua	Municipality
Rafael Bustillo Province	Province
Potosí	Department
Bolivia	Country

The name "Siglo Veinte", often also written "Siglo XX", means "Twentieth Century" and was given because serious mining of the tin ores began at the beginning of the century in 1901.

The mine is easily reached from Llallagua, a few minutes walk southwest of the city centre.

It was acquired in the 1910s by Simón Iturri Patiño, who was dubbed the "King of Tin." It was the site of continual labour strife, and many of its workers were active in the Union Federation of Bolivian Mine Workers (FSTMB).

The mine was nationalized following the "Bolivian National Revolution" of 1952 when the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) and its allies overthrew the military junta. Siglo XX and other mines were placed under the control of a new state agency, the Corporación Minera de Bolivia (COMIBOL). The Catavi-Siglo XX complex became the largest component of COMIBOL.

On June 24, 1967, government troops under the orders of General René Barrientos and a new military junta marched on the mine and committed the largest massacre of workers in Bolivian history. One witness and subsequent exile, Victor Montoya, put the casualties at twenty killed and seventy wounded. The incident was the basis for filmmaker Jorge Sanjinés's 1971 drama The Courage of the People.

In 1987, as part of an economic restructuring deal with the IMF and World Bank, the government shut down production at Siglo XX. Currently, mining operations are undertaken by members of several large cooperatives who work independently or in small groups.

Other Databases

Wikipedia:	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siglo_XX_mine
Wikidata ID:	Q1567693

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References