Gold becomes the new cocaine of Colombian cartels
Illegal mining of gold and coltan threatens peace in Tolima, Colombia, where armed groups control extraction and extort residents.
Gold becomes the new cocaine of Colombian cartels
The illegal exploitation of gold and coltan is unleashing a new wave of violence in the department of Tolima, in central Colombia. What was once a region of peace following the agreement with the Farc now faces the return of organised crime, according to a report by NZZ.
Andrés Enciso, a 28-year-old man, had to abandon his rural home in 2008 along with his six siblings due to the kidnappings and attacks that were frequent in the area. Ten years later, after the 2016 peace agreement, he returned and found a transformed region where peasants cultivated coffee and stability seemed possible.
However, the situation has changed drastically. "Illegal mines are expanding like a cancer," Enciso states. The promise of quick wealth attracts people from outside, and with them the violent conflicts return. Kidnappings and extortion have come back: those with stable jobs or who own land are forced by criminal gangs to pay sums of money under the threat of killing their family members.
The governor of Tolima, Adriana Magali Matiz, confirms that violence has already returned. "It is not that we fear violence may return: it is already here," she declared. In the municipality of Ataco, the centre of the gold rush in the south of the department, two homicides were recorded last year, but by mid-May of this year alone they have already reached seventeen violent deaths. Prostitution, contract killing and drug trafficking have increased, according to the governor.
Farc dissidents and illegal groups control the area. They charge a toll for each machine that enters and demand fifteen per cent of gold production. The governor blames the government of President Gustavo Petro for having halted the licensing processes for legal mining, which has created a vacuum that illegal operators are exploiting.
Juan Camilo Nariño, president of the national mining association, criticises government policy. While the world creates tax incentives to attract mining investments, Colombia does the opposite, which allows criminal groups to dominate the extraction of natural resources with devastating environmental consequences.
Source: NZZ