Rescued From Captivity to See the Glory of God. We have done an intensive work in city transformation and spiritual warfare. I saw the mighty hand of God transforming the hardest and most demonic city in my nation. It is surprising that the history of Potosi, Bolivia, is so little known throughout the world. It is as though hell itself has tried to erase its ill-fated history so that the consequences of its wickedness can continue to be transmitted unnoticed from generation to generation.
The enemy wanted to keep Potosi’s history a mystery because he knows it plays an important role in its spiritual condition. So, I will begin by sharing some of Potosi’s historical background. Around 1535, Spain was rife with internal struggles. Peru and northern Argentina were still unknown territories. Years prior, one of the last descendants of the Inca king, Huaina Capac, was told about the discovery of a fantastic mountain, which held an extraordinary treasure of silver of rare quality within it.
Around 1545, Captain Juan de Villarroel and other Spaniards discovered it and began its exploitation. Beginning in April of that year, Potosi became an important mining town. Thanks to the silver, it grew with breathtaking speed, becoming the largest city of the Americas in 1650, with more inhabitants than London and Paris. Its influence was known throughout Europe. The riches extracted from the mountain became a magnet for many people. For example, the Argentinean writer Raul Molina in his book “Historia de rio de la Plata” (History of the Silver River) , called it the “Mecca of Spanish commerce of that time.” How was such exploitation possible? What was the price for sending such tremendous wealth to the Iberian Peninsula? Miners paid a very high price for the production of silver. Some historians have estimated that, in a little over 350 years, 12 million men died extracting the silver in this part of America. The mining methods were deadly. The population was so heavily decimated that Spain needed to import African slaves. However, due to the geography and extreme cold, the slaves could not survive for more than a year. The city of Potosi is located 4,017 meters (about 13,200 feet) above sea level. In order to work the mines at this altitude, the miners chewed coca leaves to help invigorate them. This was an existing practice of the Inca people. This, of course, produced drug addiction. When the Spaniards arrived in America and discovered the properties of coca, they introduced it as a vital part of the exploitation process. The consumption of cocaine replaced eating, eliminated the will to fight, and turned the men into little less than machines. Each one of them could work close to 36 continuous hours, without needing to eat or sleep. However, after a few months, the results were tragic. The men were emaciated and malnourished, and their lungs were consumed by the acids they breathed in the mines. They saw alcohol as a way to escape their suffering. Until the beginning of the twenty-first century, Potosi was characterized as the only city in Bolivia with negative growth and a life expectancy of less than 47 years. When the “silver fever” ended, the city became a desolate place. Her former glory disappeared. The origin of riches for all of Europe, where an entire continent earned their living, simply disappeared. One of the practices that appeared in the Bolivian mines is called “The Uncle worship.” The Uncle is a representation of the devil, to whom sacrifices and offerings are frequently made. The reason is simple: it is believed that the devil is the owner of the mine’s riches and its only authority. This belief has contaminated nearby cities. Christianity has not grown in these regions after more than 100 years of preaching. In this city, typical characteristics of those who have been given to idolatry are manifest, such as unbelief, indifference, occult practices, and poverty. Spiritual fortresses govern the city and the Freemasons have also left their mark. This is only a sample of the tremendous spiritual problems facing Potosi. When I traveled to Potosi for the first time in 1995, I could verify some notable aspects of it. It was very difficult to expect to have any spiritual impact or to establish any form of spiritual warfare or group deliverance. My own experience trying to deliver someone in that city was hard and required lots of effort and divine power. You could feel the oppression and demonic control everywhere. The churches were small and made few converts every year. The authority and influence of the Catholic Church (a mix of Romanism and native cultures) was visible and what little remained of economic activity still depended upon the colossal mountain of silver, which had long since seen its glory days. The leadership of the Christian Church was divided; it was extremely difficult for Christian leaders to talk about working together for any length of time. During a time of intercession, our team received insight that Potosi was a blood altar, probably one of the highest on earth. It was undoubtedly the altar with the greatest number of lives sacrificed upon it. My first job was to try to bring together the leaders of the city. With God’s help and a pair of pastor friends, I succeeded in having a first meeting, during which I proposed evangelizing the city. Of the 95 churches in the city, 90 were present. It was a great success. After holding Communion, we began to plan what would prove to be the greatest mobilization of the Church in our history. The date set for the event was May 2001. All of this work took close to five years (and many breaking experiences). The strategy was simple. The evangelism would take a week, open to every church and with massive publicity. We wanted to impact close to 25,500 homes, visiting them one by one. We also needed to do a spiritual assault, “binding the strong man.” This would be accomplished a week prior. It would be a closed event with the participation of no more than 70 intercessors. During our five-year period of preparation for the two-week initiative, we traveled nearly every month and a half to do an intense study of the city. We did spiritual mapping and visited every museum and place of idolatry. We also entered the mines and sought every possible trace of the one who was spiritually “guilty” of this entire disaster. In spite of all that research, if you had asked me who the strong man of Potosi was, I would not have known how to answer your question. We entered a very special time of intercession. I was not prepared for what happened. For more than three hours, the Lord allowed us to have an experience like I had never had before. Angels appeared among us, and they took us to spiritual places where the city was held captive. It is one thing to know the Bible and settle doubts about a place or region with the help of a dictionary. I knew how to do that well, thanks to my theological education. However, it’s another thing to be in those spiritual places and to actually see them , face to face. We learned that the Queen of Heaven, in the form of a large dragon, was the jailer of the city. This is one of the most powerful rulers in Satan’s kingdom and is the strongest feminine deity in all the pagan religions. She rules under different names such as Isis in Egypt, Ishtar in Babylon, Asera and Astarot among the Philistines, Diana of the Ephesians, the Black Madonna, Guadalupe, and all of the virgins that are just a disguise of the Roman and Greek goddesses and many others. The list is too long to mention all of them. As we prayed over the city, past and present mixed together in images that were alive. So much pain, so much harm had been committed against the earth and against Potosi. We could hear creation groaning to be set free. We could hear the sound of all the blood shedding linked to pain and iniquity as we earnestly interceded. Thankfully, angels came to assist us. Our prayer took a higher dimension in the spirit realm. We were able to see all the structures of evil over the city along with the horrible covenants that kept it captive. As we released the power of God over our enemy we saw chains being broken and covenants destroyed. This was an amazing experience that I could only describe as the apostle Paul said, ” … whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know …” (see 2 Cor. 12:3). I only know what I “saw,” and it was real. In that time of intercession, we understood that the spirit of the Queen of Heaven had taken the blood of those millions of men in the mines in order to establish her throne. This throne had two powerful spiritual elements: one was the fact that it was in a very high place, the top of the mountain overseeing Potosi is close to 5,300 meters, or about 17,400 feet above sea level; the second was the fact that the blood of these victims was shed in an almost ritualistic manner. The spiritual guardians of the Queen of Heaven are usually Mammon (riches) and Death. It was evident that these two principalities had openly manifested in the city. After we fought along with God’s angels to deliver the city, the Spirit of the Lord led us to restore the city and the land. We prayed for the blood of Christ to cover it and for the generational pain to be healed. At a certain point, the Lord led us to take Potosi out of captivity from the scary spiritual dungeons that had held it prisoner for generations. Afterward, we declared that the riches of the nation were being freed. Just months after this prayer initiative, immense deposits of natural gas were discovered in our country. Only five people participated in this high-level warfare, which took place in three sessions. In each of them, something broke, and we saw signs in the heavens. In one of them we saw the spirit of occult over the city, it had the appearance of a huge ape who cast spells on the inhabitants to make them captives. As in the previous case, God’s angels helped us break their influence, and we opened the prisons. It was beautiful to see them set free after so many years of oppression. After the last intercession, something amazing happened. The people began to come to Christ all by themselves, one by one. There were times when a group would approach our team, requesting prayer and wanting to know the Lord. One whole community of farmers asked for someone to visit their community because everyone there had received Jesus in their heart. The evangelistic mobilization began. More than 400 evangelists were sent to the streets to conduct home visits. Evangelism teams worked using music and dramas, movies were shown in the different town squares, we held meetings in movie theaters and offered free medical care to the needy. God was visiting Potosi. In a little over ten days of evangelism, there were 40,790 decisions for Christ. This was unprecedented. In the second day alone, the supply of 17,000 decision cards (which had been prepared by the city’s team of pastors) ran out. People received the Lord even after midnight, in the middle of winter, at minus 11 degrees Celsius (12.2 degrees Fahrenheit). Inmates, city authorities, students, and thousands of children received the Lord. The captivity of Potosi was destroyed. Thanks to the leading of the Holy Spirit, the whole city came out to freedom and the people automatically came to Jesus. It is just as simple as that. Three months after the assault, the nation’s president, who led the country in corruption, resigned. A few months later, he died, afflicted by a terminal illness. The most influential political parties of the previous 50 years disappeared along with him. The Lord’s explanation was very simple, “The invisible government fell. [Therefore,] the visible government falls.” In just three years’ time, Potosi obtained second place in the nation in economic and investment projections. Urban development was visible. Even the local soccer team won a place in the famous Conquerors of America championship—for the first time in its history. The city pastors continue praying together frequently, holding prayer walks. The hiring of children to work in the mines has been prohibited by law. Glory to God! The Lord is doing something there. Surely Potosi still needs much prayer and help, but one thing is undeniable: a visible transformation of the community has begun. “Can a nation be born in a day?” asked the prophet (Isaiah 66:8). “Yes, it is possible!” I declare it, because I have seen it.