Bloomberg

“Murder on Rainbow Mountain”

Made in assignment for Bloomberg

2025

My latest assignment for Bloomberg took me deep into the Peruvian Andes, to Rainbow Mountain — one of the most photographed natural wonders in the world. Its mineral-colored stripes have turned it into a viral icon of the Andes, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

But behind the postcard images lies a darker truth. In the small Indigenous community of Chillihuani, home to just 500 people who for centuries lived from farming and herding alpacas, the sudden gold rush of tourism brought not unity and progress, but division, corruption, and mistrust. Millions of dollars from entry fees, horse rentals, and souvenirs poured into the village almost overnight. Instead of prosperity, this influx of money fractured the community — culminating in the brutal killing of Flavio Illatinco, a leader who had helped open the mountain to tourism.

Every day, tourists in vans and buses pass the very spot where Illatinco was murdered, their windows framing the breathtaking landscape, unaware of the violence and social breakdown beneath the surface. Chillihuani’s tragedy is part of a global story: from Machu Picchu to Venice, overtourism has strained local populations, concentrated wealth in few hands, and left behind cultural erosion, environmental damage — and here, even death.

As Flavio’s son, Ivcher Illatinco, told Bloomberg:
“When people realized that tickets to Rainbow Mountain could generate thousands, even millions of dollars, they didn’t know how to handle it. That’s when the problems began.” Recalling his father’s killing, he added: “He was unrecognizable. His face was disfigured, covered in blood, with a gaping wound in his head.”

Through my photographs, I wanted to capture the contrast between Rainbow Mountain’s spectacular beauty and the human cost of unregulated tourism — the story the postcards don’t show. In some portraits I chose to use a red light, a symbolic gesture to recall the blood spilled on a mountain that much of the world sees as beautiful, but that this community remembers as a place of mourning.

For a week, alongside journalist Marcelo Rochabrun, I walked, listened, and photographed in Chillihuani. I saw children playing beneath the same pole where a man had once been tied during that tragic night. I saw Ivcher selling his father’s alpacas to feed his family. I saw resilience amid grief. These were some of the hardest moments to photograph — because the fractures are not only in the landscape, but in faces, in silences, in daily life.

This story, published in Bloomberg and written by Marcelo, is a reminder that behind every image of beauty there can be an untold cost. Most visitors to Rainbow Mountain will never hear Flavio’s name. But his family, and his community, live every day with the consequences of a promise of prosperity that turned into tragedy.

Special thanks to journalist Marcelo Rochabrun for his powerful investigation in the field, and to photo editor Marie Monteleone for her trust and guidance throughout this project.

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