Huancavelica

Huancavelica embodies successional debt measured in centuries—the toxic legacy of colonial extraction persists in measurable poverty today. The Santa Bárbara mercury mine, established in 1563 at 4,350 meters elevation, was the only American source of the mercury required to refine silver at scale. Spanish officials called it the "mine of death" and a "public slaughterhouse." Life expectancy for workers forced into the mita labor system was typically two years, claimed by mercury poisoning, silicosis, or collapse. The "evil of Huancavelica"—tremors, psychosis, mouth ulcers, breathing problems—killed as many as one-third of the male population even after ventilation improved in 1650.

MIT research confirms the path dependence: areas subject to the colonial mita from the late 16th through early 19th century are precisely the poorest districts in 21st-century Peru. Huancavelica has Peru's highest chronic malnutrition rate, and poor general health compounds susceptibility to mercury exposure that persists in soil and water. The Santa Bárbara mine, exploited for over 400 years, now sits on UNESCO's tentative World Heritage list—recognition of its global historical importance even as its communities continue to bear the costs.

The region's modern economy barely sustains life: grazing and wool production have replaced mercury as the economic base. In 2002, USAID and Buenaventura Mining established an antipoverty support center, but development remains minimal. Huancavelica's high indigenous population was largely ignored by central governments for centuries—first exploited to power the global silver economy that caused international inflation, then abandoned when the resource was exhausted. The wealth flowed to Madrid and Lima; the mortality and poverty stayed behind.