Same resource, different conflicts: an analysis of the relationship between gold, conflict, and crime in six departments of Colombia
| Autor | Angelika Rettberg, Juan Camilo Cárdenas and Juan Felipe Ortiz-Riomalo |
| Páginas | 331-386 |
Same resource, dierent conicts:
An analysis of the relationship
between gold, conict, and crime
in six departments of Colombia*
A R, J C C
J F O-R
Introduction
T make up this book a re based on a fundamental prem-
ise: In order to understand the dynamics of armed conict and crime in Co-
lombia, one needs to adopt a regional standpoint, on the basis of the resources
which dominate subnational economies. In short, we, the dierent authors
of its chapters, argue that the characteristics of the process of producing and
commercializing the resource which distinguishes a g iven regional economy
inuence the decisions the armed or cri minal actors make about occupying or
competing for the territory and the resu lting forms of violence. is emphasis
on the subnational order is important, because it shows the way in which a rmed
conicts have regionally di erent manifestations, even when their protagonists
have agendas and aspirations of a national scope. is is a n important contribu-
tion to the global literature on the polit ical economy of armed conicts, which
tends to favor the national level in its analyses of the links between resources
and wars, and is coherent with the loca l turn in peacebuilding stud ies. e re-
source discussed in t his chapter, gold, prompts us to explore yet a further level
of dierentiation related to the variation withi n the same resource in terms of
its relation to the armed conict and cr ime in dierent regions.
* To cite this chapter: http://dx.doi.org /./..
1/04/20 4:49 p.m.
different resources, different conflicts?
Map . Gold-producing zones in C olombia
Source: Map drawn by Paola Lu na, Cartogr aphy Laboratory, Universidad de lo s Andes, based on dat a
from the Colombia n Mining Inform ation Service (SIMCO), a nd the United Nations Oce on
Drugs and Cri me (UNODC)
1/04/20 4:49 p.m.
,
Colombian mining was, at one point declared the d riving force of the coun-
try’s growth by former president Juan Manuel Santos (-, -).
In recent years, mining has been cha racterized by a large inow of foreign in-
vestment, competition for mining rights and t itles needed for exploration and
exploitation, big expectations of prot by the large companies devoted to the
gold business and hopes for royalties by the Colombian state, due to the recent
high prices of this minera l. e same expectations also spread to t he armed and
illegal organiz ations: gold has become a resource for nancing armed organi-
zations who were previously devoted to illegal crops (Massé and Camargo ;
Massé ; Rettberg and Ortiz-Rioma lo ).
Despite a slight fall in the price of gold recently, it continues to be above its
historic average (see gure ) and thus, in addition to formal businesspeople,
there are people who undertake th is extractive activity in conditions of infor-
mality and il legality due to the high revenues derived from the high prices.
In the mining regions, however, the reality of the production a nd commer-
cialization of gold entails diverse pos sibilities with regard to its relation to the
formal (or informal) economy, social order (or unrest), political stability, violence
and crimina lity. is is shown by the examples of the municipalities — located
in six depart ments — discussed in t his essay: Caucasia, Tarazá and Zaragoza,
in Antioquia, in the sub-region of the Bajo Cauca; Ma rmato, in Caldas; Quibdó
and Tadó in Chocó; La Llanada and Los Andes, i n Nariño; California, i n Santan-
der; and Cajamarca in Tolima. ese regions have been the protagonists of gold
production in Colombia for reasons and historical paths which are di erent in
many cases. Among them, the Bajo Cauca of Antioqu ia is the prototype of the
relation between the resource and violence, since its high levels of v iolence testify
to the competition for the territory and the resource by di erent armed organi-
zation. In contrast, in the municipa lities of the mining distr ict of La Llanada, in
Nariño, gold is extracted and commercia lized in a partia lly isolated form from
illegal armed ac tors. In Quibdó and Tadó, in Chocó, a department whose mining
tradition goes back to the colonial era, d ierent ways in which gold mining may
be associated with con ict and crime converge: a conict between dierent ty pes
of mining operations (informal mini ng, mostly illegal and mechaniz ed versus
artisana l mining, with much less mechani zation but mostly legal) and between
illegal min ing and other economic activities such as shing; a rmed actors who
seek to illegally seize the revenues derived from the activity (mainly through
medium scale mechanized operations); and certication schemes which seek
to increase formal and responsible practices along the whole value chain and
thus make it easier to guard it from the i llegal armed actors.
California, a nother municipality w ith a gold mining tradition dating back
several centuries, located i n the area of inuence of the páramo (high Andean
moor) of Santurbán, felt the inuence of the armed actors who entered the region
1/04/20 4:49 p.m.
Para continuar leyendo
Solicita tu prueba