Colombia’s Gold Rush: The Silver Lining for Paramilitaries and Guerrillas

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia’s Gold Rush: The Silver Lining for Paramilitaries and Guerrillas
September 2, 2011
This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Paula Lopez-Gamundi

September 2, 2011
.Colombian government neglect allows for guerrilla and paramilitary groups to extort and tax local miners.

.With no distinction between illegal and informal miners, the Colombian government continues to marginalize innocent miners to promote its interest and to facilitate the operations of multinational mining companies.

.Multinational mining companies may be funding paramilitary groups in an effort to relocate local populations.

With gold prices soaring to around USD 1,600 per ounce, Colombia has made a concerted effort to stimulate foreign investment in its mining sector.<1> As a result, the Colombian government has favored multinational mining companies over small to medium scale local miners. While this new gold rush represents a significant source of investment and finance for the federal government, it also helps fund Colombia’s four-decade long civil war. After years of government-sponsored eradication, paramilitary and guerrilla armies have begun to abandon coca production and are turning to gold mining, as well as the extortion of mining communities, to generate significant sources of revenue. Moreover, as a result of governmental favoritism, multinational mining corporations utilize national military forces and paramilitaries to harass native populations, local miners, and unionized workers in an effort to force them from their gold-laden lands.

More:
http://www.coha.org/colombias-gold-rush-the-silver-lining-for-paramilitaries-and-guerrillas/