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Labor conditions among the poor of South America, particularly in the mines, have been notorious since the times of Cortez and Pizarro. Though they have gradually improved over the centuries, they have had a very long way to go to reach even the relatively horrifying standard of Welsh coal mines. This Italian-made film is directed by the highly political Bolivian director Jorge Sanjines, whose earlier film Blood of the Condor caused an uproar in his native country while winning awards elsewhere. This film recounts the actions of the Bolivian government to suppress labor organizing by miners from 1942 until the massacre on the Night of San Juan in 1967. Here Sanjines displays no sympathy for the government's actions and indicates his belief that it consistently acted in response to U.S. interests without any concern for the justice of the situation. This dramatic film is shot in the actual mines of the story, and the majority of the cast is composed of miners.