Indigenous from the Bolivian Andean region of Malku Khota have kidnapped two engineers working for a subsidiary of Canadian South American Silver (TSX:SAC), demanding the immediate release of their leader Cancio Rojas, accused of torture, abduction and other crimes.
Residents of Malku Khota village (image), located 350 kilometres south of capital La Paz and close to the borders with Argentina and Chile, took hostage Thursday engineers Fernando Fernández and Agustín Cárdenas, who work for Compañía Minera Malku Khota, a subsidiary of the Canadian miner, reports EFE.
Malku Khota Mining, South American Silver's subsidiary, said in a statement e-mailed to the press that its employees are facing "serious risk,” as those groups are know for their hostility and fanaticism.
The company asked authorities to intervene for the early release of the hostages and act “with the full rigor of the law to punish the perpetrators of [the crime].” It added that intimidating executives might cause miners to withdraw from Bolivia, shattering the country’s dream of improving current poverty rates.
Continue reading at :http://www.mining.com/2012/06/29/two-south-american-silver-executives-kidnapped-in-bolivia/
