Gold substituting cocaine as Colombian guerillas thrive

Selling cocaine is illegal
Selling cocaine and funding war is vehemently illegal
Selling Gold is legal
Selling gold and waging war is definitely illegal; but profitable

Yes! Colombian guerillas and maverick paramilitary corps are into illegal gold mining for the fourth reason.

The Colombian government has scaled up their massive offensive against coca crops lately. The country is the world's biggest producer of cocaine and has in the meantime identified that illegal gold mining is becoming the next big security threat.

Unlike cocoaine, gold can easily be traded in the economy and with prices going up, is returning the best kill possible.

“A stronger guerrilla would recruit better, make it easier to extort people and companies, and attack infrastructure and the military,” Alfredo Rangel, a former member of Colombia’s Security Council, said to Bloomberg. “All of which would have a terrible effect on security and investment expectations and be very negative for economic growth.”

Colombia is having a tumultuous past.

Wikipedia says:

“In recent years, the country has continued to be plagued by the effects of the drug trade, guerrilla insurgencies like FARC, and paramilitary groups such as the AUC, which along with other minor factions have engaged in a bloody internal armed conflict. Former President Andrs Pastrana and the FARC attempted to negotiate a solution to the conflict between 1999 and 2002. The government set up a "demilitarized" zone, but repeated tensions and crises led the Pastrana administration to conclude that the negotiations were ineffectual. Pastrana also began to implement the Plan Colombia initiative, with the dual goal of ending the armed conflict and promoting a strong anti-narcotic strategy.”

The strategy has borne fruit lately, as Colombia witnessed a scale down in narcotic activities.

“Eradicating coca production over the past decade has weakened the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Latin America’s oldest guerrilla group, as well as the smaller ELN and paramilitary groups that purchase weapons and secure manpower with drug money, kidnappings and extortion,” reports Bloomberg.

But, as cocaine production dipped Gold production climbed to a record 53.6 metric tons last year, according to Colombian government figures. Output of gold has climbed more than 300% from 15.5 tons in 2007.

Of course, the Colombian Govt. is not having exact figures related to illegal gold mining, but guerillas have ushered in sophistication in mining.

The day would turn dark when one day, Caterpillar trucks would cruise into the guerilla territories.

May be it's time that we recognised 'conflict gold' from Colombia too. But who will bell the cat, and how?