Mining Cement in Misery: The Human Cost of Paraguay’s Construction Boom

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Cañete dreams of harnessing better technologies to speed up the work, from trucks to collection systems and stone crushers, as well as state university courses that would allow the miners to improve their skills and compete with larger companies.

Callizo, the labor lawyer, believes the mine workers of Vallemi should be granted special protections under the law given the “uniquely” dangerous conditions in which they work, which include exposure to extreme heat and long hours.

“There are some gaps in our labor law regarding them. They need special regulation, a specific approach, because I understand that neither the supervisors nor the miners have medical insurance, social security.”

As the local artisanal miners struggle, INC says it is also barely making ends meet, reporting annual deficits and a major drop off in production in recent years. The firm produced just 373 million kilograms of cement in 2023, down from 649 million kilograms in 2018.

That was also the year that the head of INC, Jorge Mendez Cuevas, stepped down from his post. He soon became the head of a new private firm, Cementos Concepcion (CECON), that is now positioning itself as the largest national cement producer — and INC’s biggest competitor.

Cementos Concepcion, known as CECON, installed a huge plant in San Lázaro, and now accounts for roughly 45% of the country’s cement production, using materials mined from its own quarries.

Mendez was one of a number of public officials in the administration of President Horacio Cartes — later sanctioned by the U.S for corruption — who have come under fire for benefitting from a so-called “revolving door” between government and private industry after Cartes left power in 2018.

INC adviser Zarate acknowledged that CECON and other large companies are better equipped than the state-owned cement company. "The big ones [large companies] even have better machinery than ours. They have a different level of exploitation and you see them working with a different approach."

But he said the miners interviewed by El Surti and OCCRP were exaggerating their troubles.

“They’re not lying, but there are some half-truths in their complaints,” he said.

“This is Where I am Going to Die” Juan Pablo Torres is hoping for a “good explosion.” The quarrymaster and his team place gelatin dynamites, which they call “bananas,” into holes in the rocky hillsides around Vallemí and light the fuse.

The explosion booms out across the landscape. A cloud of sand, stone, earth and dust surges upwards like a burst water pipe, and the ground shakes for hundreds of meters.

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Mining Cement in Misery: The Human Cost of Paraguay’s Construction Boom

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