Are the rumours of human sacrifice in Bolivia true?

One summer a few years ago, I joined a group of miners in Potosí, Bolivia, to toast the Andean Mother Earth. I had just moved to La Paz, the country’s political capital, to try my hand as a journalist. As we chatted, a cup of warm beer and shots of spirits were handed around the circle. Before drinking, we had to pour a little on the earth and a little on the head of the white llama that was trussed up between us. My notebook from that day is specked with brownish stains. After we’d finished passing around the spirits, the llama was held down and its throat was cut.

‘The most important part of the llama is the blood,’ one miner said. ‘Blood is life, and the gods don’t bleed. If we don’t give them blood, they will take miners’ blood instead.’ He looked at me with a slightly menacing smile.