ORURO, Bolivia, Feb 28, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - In a dimly lit mine shaft in
Bolivia, a man sharpens two knives next to a table laden with offerings:
wine, beer and coca leaves. Waiting nearby are five white llamas.

  The woolly animals' blood and hearts are the preferred food of El Tio (The
Uncle), a horned deity Bolivian miners believe offers them protection deep in
the bowels of the Earth.

  Statues of El Tio -- "Lord of the Underworld" -- abound in mines,
surrounded by offerings of alcohol and coca leaf, a stimulant the miners chew
to get through the long, dark hours underground.

  El Tio resembles the Christian devil, sporting fangs, goat's ears and,
nearly always, a burning cigarette placed in his mouth by believers. Once a
year, miners from the Oruro region, on the high planes of western Bolivia,
gather to offer sacrifices to appease El Tio.

  He is, they say, a wrathful god.

  "We bring the offerings... so that we can sleep well at night, to not have
accidents" in the workplace, miner Miguel Valdez, 33, told AFP at one such
sacrificial ceremony on Friday.

  "If we don't give him this offering, many things can happen."

  - Bloody offering -

  The miners also believe El Tio controls the abundance of silver, tin and
zinc they extract for a living.

  Valdez and hundreds of his colleagues looked on as the llamas, blindfolded
and their coats decorated with pink ribbons, were pushed into the mine on a
trolley to be slaughtered.

  To the tune of trumpets, drums and cymbals they danced, sipping from
bottles of beer and occasionally splashing some on the ground for the "Earth
Mother."

  Luciano Alejo, a yatiri, or Andean healer, wielded his knives as miners
crouched at the ready with bowls to be filled with llama blood, which some
then smeared on their faces.

  The hearts -- still beating -- were cut out and placed in larger
containers.

  A chosen few in the crowd then brought the filled vessels to the lower
levels of the mine, to place them before El Tio. With a burning cigarette
dangling from his sinister grin, he was dressed in colorful woollen garments
and miners' boots.

  After the animal sacrifice, the miners set fire to the other offerings they
had gathered on large tables, then made a rapid exit as the shaft quickly
filled with smoke.

  The ritual is performed once a year, in February or March, on the eve of
the street parade of the Oruro carnival. One of Bolivia's biggest festivals,
it is listed by UNESCO as an "intangible cultural heritage."

  The carnival resumed this year after being skipped in 2021 due to the
coronavirus epidemic.