Pachamama's Tribute

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
In 2022, a 30-year-old man claimed he was buried alive as part of a sacrifice to Pachamama, when the earth is the hungriest.

---

Victor Hugo Mica Alvarez with mud and cuts on his face due to struggling out of coffin c.2022 (Source - Urgente.bo)

The Pachamama festival is celebrated by indigenous people, where offerings are made to the goddess in the form of sacrifices ranging from live animals, sheep fetus, desiccated llamas, eggs, minerals to coca leaves and sweets. They believe she "opens her mouth" for these offerings. This ceremony is especially important to those who are involved in agriculture.

Victor Hugo Mica Alvarez, 30, described where he had been attending a Mother Earth festival being celebrated on August 1, 2022 in Bolivia, where people gathered at dawn for a ritual to Pachamama also known as Madre Tierra.

He lived in Chile and came to Villa Victoria to attend the festivities, and perform with a group that presents Tobas dance. This is a folkloric dance that dates back to the Incas.

He said he met a friend at the festival celebrated in El Alto, Bolivia. The friend invited him to drink some beer. He was dancing and drinking, and then claims he couldn't remember anything else until he woke up inside a coffin.

---

Alex Magne who found Alvarez wandering after his escape & took him to the police (Source - TVNotas)

He described to local media stations that he dreamt he was in his bed, and felt the need to urinate, but as he came to he realized he couldn't move. He awoke and found himself inside a coffin with a partial glass lid.

Alvarez said, "When I pushed the coffin, I was able to break a glass that it had and that way I was able to get out. When I pushed the coffin I barely broke the glass and through the glass, dirt began to enter. They wanted to use me as a "sullu'". 
​
​The term "sullu" refers to any offerings commonly made to give back to Mother Earth, or Pachamama by Bolivians throughout the year, but especially in August. The word is Quechuan and refers to fetus. They are frequently used in inaugurations and acquisitions. The erection of a new building falls under this parameter. There is a reference to it in the 1612 book Vocabulario de la lengua aymara by Ludovico Bertonio, where it was referred to as Sulluna Churasita or abortion of rams.

The place where Alvarez was buried was in Achachicala, 50 miles from El Alto.

Alex Magne, the young man who found him wandering around Ceja de El Alto after he got out, said he was covered with dried mud and cement. He hand was also cut and bleeding.

---

Mica Alvarez believes he was buried alive as a sacrifice to Madre Tierra ( Source - Composición Líbero)

Victor Hugo Mica Alvarez claimed he was a human sacrifice that some fear are still offered, as they were in ancient times to satisfy Pachamama. He told police what happened to him, but they refused to believe his story, telling him he was too drunk to know how he ended up buried in a coffin, and to come back when "he was healthy."

His mother Lidia claimed her son was being sacrificed, by being buried under a structure that was under construction. She said her son was traumatized and had problems sleeping. She believed his drink was drugged, however they could not pursue it further because they lacked the money to bribe police and prosecutors into action.

---

The Incas worshipped gods like the Sun (Tiahuanaco pre-Inca culture), and the Pachamama (Chavin pre-Inca culture), which were adopted from earlier civilizations. (Source - MachuTravelPeru)

When asked why he thought he was being sacrificed, Alvarez said he was buried next to a building under construction, and that according to certain Aymara tradition, Pachamama demands an offering of a human life so the building will be strong and prosperous. This coupled with the timing in August, which is a very important month for the indigenous people where offerings are made to Madre Tierra, confirmed the intentions of who tried to bury him alive.

An Amauta leader, Juan Carlos Ballon said the best days to give offerings to Pachamama are Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday, but especially Thursday since among their people it is known as a "day of the rays".

Worship of Pachamama pre-dates the arrival of Europeans, and was adopted by the Incas in their traditions from the Chavin. The culture developed in the northern Andean highlands of Peru and adjacent areas of Bolivia, from 900 to 200 BC. 

---

Basket of offering including a sullu ready to be made to the mountain

It's reported that llamas, especially white ones are sacrificed to appease a demonic entity known as El Tio that guards the mines in Bolivia. 

A Bolivian miner said, "The most important part of the llama is the blood. Blood is life, and the gods don’t bleed. If we don’t give them blood, they will take miners’ blood instead."

The llama has its throat slit, the blood is collected and fed to the earth, painted on cheeks and thrown again the mouth of a mine. The butchered remains are distributed as meat for human consumption, the bones are burned into ash and given to El Tio, and the guts are buried.

The belief in witchcraft like the use of sullus, is so common that in La Paz there is the Calle de las Brujas (witches' market) that sells them. In El Alto mostly made up by Aymara and Quechua, Bolivia's two largest indigenous groups, ritualists' cabins  sells sullus along with other offerings that are burned beneath the 3 peaks of Illimani, La Paz's sacred mountain. 

There have long been rumors of human sacrifice, which coincides with Alvarez's story of being plied with alcohol in order to bury him as a live sacrifice.

In the 2008 Bolivian film El Cementerio de los Elefantes (The Elephants' Cemetery), the movie portrays a  man who spends the last weeks of his life drinking in a bar, where alcoholics are allowed to drink themselves to death. In his drunken recall of of his life, he remembers when he sold a drunk friend to builders to be buried as a sullu.

Alvarez's claim is not the first where a narrow escape is made, however there are others who disappear never to be heard of again. The homeless in Bolivia worry about where they go to sleep, since they fear being carted off to be buried as a sacrifice.

These incidents are rarely reported to the police.

Since August is known when sullu is offered to Pachamama by immuring human in the foundation of Bolivian buildings, it's thought wise to take care when drinking with strangers.

In October, 2022 Nohemi Lazaro disappeared after she told her family a friend had offered her a job as a cook in a new mine, located in the town of Sorata (Bolivia).  Then the family was told that when she heard how little she would be paid, she threw herself in the river.

Nohemi's family went to the mine and with firefighters searched the local river which is not deep, but nothing was found. Her mother doesn't believe her daughter committed suicide.

Iris the person who took Nohemi to the mine made contradictory statements to the police as did her husband and two other workers at the mine. They were arrested by police for human trafficking but the whereabouts of Nohemi have not been explained.

Her mother thinks that her daughter was enticed with the job, and then offered as a sullu at the mine.

---

In 2019, Telemundo did a short piece about the supposed abduction of drunkards in La Paz who were being immured in the foundation of buildings and bridges.

The belief is their souls would act as guardians of the buildings and keep it strong. There are claims that construction companies pay off bars to give them people who are insensible from drink.

A paranormal group came to investigate a certain area, who said the victims would be buried face down so they would bear the weight of the structure on their back. They said there were those who were buried alive in the area they investigated, and they offered a small ceremony for the repose of their souls.