Alert icon
We're changing our privacy policy. This stuff matters.  Learn more  Dismiss

Fault Lines: Colombia's gold rush

Loading...

Sign in or sign up now!
Alert icon
Upgrade to the latest Flash Player for improved playback performance. Upgrade now or more info.
17,063
Loading...
Alert icon
Sign in or sign up now!
Alert icon

Uploaded by on Jul 4, 2011

Gold fever is sweeping across South America. Nowhere is it more lethal than in Colombia, where the gold rush has become a new axle in Colombia's civil war. Turf wars are erupting between paramilitaries, and leftist rebel groups fighting to take control of mining regions. It's fueling an old ideological conflict and has displacing hundreds of people.

Helicopter raids by the Colombian Army on small community mining collectives have become commonplace, and the Colombian government is accused of targeting poor workers to protect big business interests, and operating with impunity from human rights violations.

Thousands have fled their homes where land is violently contested, and others live in fear they'll be removed from their land, arrested, or killed.

The multinationals are flooding in too. With gold now worth around $1,500 an ounce, everyone is getting in on the act, including North American mining companies. Colombia's pro-business mentality has seen arbitrary concessions by the state sold to multinational companies, often on indigenous land.

Fault Lines traveled to Colombia to speak to the people caught in the middle. The rural workers and artisan miners who've mined for generations, and some whose ancestors were enslaved during the first gold rush centuries ago. Others are former coca farmers, put out of work by the US-led Plan Colombia.




http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/faultlines/

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AJFaultLines
Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/AJFaultLines
Follow us on Tumblr: http://ajfaultlines.tumblr.com

See all episodes of Fault Lines: http://www.youtube.com/show/faultlines?s=2010

Meet the Fault Lines staff: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL2A3A165068A8A650

  • likes, 2 dislikes

Link to this comment:

Share to:

Uploader Comments (AlJazeeraEnglish)

  • Thank you! Glad you were watching.

Top Comments

  • To morrisproducciones in Colombia it has been a truly pleasure to work for Aljazeera during the last years. 100% pure journalism.

see all

All Comments (25)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • good old capitalism

  • Gangster miners. "Everyone has a price, the important thing is to find out what it is,"

    "Sometimes I am God, if I say a man dies, he dies that same day.": Pablo Escobar

    R.I.P. Father Jose Reinel Restrepo, Sept. 2/11, Marmato

    R.I.P. Rafael Tabon, July 26/11, Segovia

  • 15:06 bumboclaut. Paradise

  • very interesting video!

  • @AlJazeeraEnglish Please translate this to spanish for to share here in Colombia. Thanks.

  • @rochebalia 'Gold rush' usualmente se traduce como ' La fiebre del oro", asi que me imagino que el subtitulo podria ser: ' La fiebre del oro en Colombia".

  • Incredibly well done report. It captures very accurately the complex situation in these rural areas of Colombia. Very sad.

  • es muy triste lo que pasa, parece q fuera el eje de todo, realmente nos está comiendo el dragon

  • @rochebalia yo tambien lo necesito

Loading...

Alert icon
0 / 00Unsaved Playlist Return to active list
    1. Your queue is empty. Add videos to your queue using this button:
      or sign in to load a different list.
    Loading...Loading...Saving...
    • Clear all videos from this list
    • Learn more