ABSTRACT
Minera San Cristobal (MSC) began assembling a team to manage construction and also let the first series of contracts for the construction of the road. Criticism and activism against the San Cristobal mine, much of it provoked and/or coordinated by Federacion Regional Unica de los Trabajadores Campesinos del Altiplano Sud, continued throughout construction and influenced thinking among some members of the three host communities. Tension was rising between the communities and MSC. The communities felt deceived and frustrated by the MSC management team. The company lost its social licence because it lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the community. Mine employees were also spending money more freely. Confident of the continuity of employment, they started to purchase goods that were beyond the financial means of non-employees. The first open evidence of this phenomenon was the appearance of large numbers of motorcycles on the streets of the three villages.
