Presentation short abstract

In 1984, the swedish mining company Boliden dumped 20,000 tons of toxic waste in Arica (Chile) with State approval. Homes were later built on the contaminated land, harming more than 12,000 people and inflicting slow violence. Despite resistance, the damage persists and the community stays neglected

Presentation long abstract

The Swedish mining company Boliden transported 20,000 tons of toxic waste to the city border of Arica, Chile. The waste arrived in 1984 during the Chilean dictatorship, and in 1990, under democracy, social housing was built in the contaminated area, exposing thousands to health risks. Authorities publicly acknowledged the danger only in 1997, after years of complaints that were dismissed. Medical professionals attributed illnesses to poverty and poor hygiene, using scientific discourse to deny the link to toxic exposure. This demonstrates how power and medical knowledge shaped what was recognized as harm, legitimizing practices that endangered marginalized communities. In 1999, part of the community sued the Chilean State. A 2005 ruling recognized the damage but compensated only some plaintiffs, fragmenting community unity. Later measures, such as a Health Center and Law 20.590, offered a palliative response without addressing the structural causes of the problem. In 2013, another group sought justice in Sweden by suing Boliden. However, in 2018 the company was acquitted, reinforcing how legal discourses reproduce colonial hierarchies by deciding whose suffering is acknowledged and whose is ignored. Despite more than four decades of slow violence, community resistance continues: Planeta Verde promotes environmental education; the Mamitas del Plomo Foundation advocates for strengthening Law 20.590; and the First Community Gathering for Environmental Justice brought together neighborhood associations to demand memory, reparation, and justice. This case reveals toxic waste colonialism as a prolonged regime of inequality that generates uneven geographies of harm while sustaining collective struggles for environmental justice in Latin-America.