Small-scale miners look for gold at the Atrato River in Dona Josefa, Colombia, Sept. 26, 2024.
“I think that if I stop doing this, I’ll die quickly, because I’m so used to it,” said Ana Palacios Cuesta with a laugh. “The dredgers have emptied the whole river, so we hardly get anything anymore.”
The tiny amounts of gold sediment she collects are sold in the nearby town of Yuto, or in Quibdo, about 40 minutes away.
‘No other option’
Mercury and arsenic offer the industrial-scale miners a low-tech solution to extract the gold. But they get pumped into the water, poisoning the river and the surrounding lands. The tactic has been killing marine life, changing the natural flow of the river, and further debilitating some of the most vulnerable communities in the country.
Palacios, who has a degree in biology, said fish in the river have been “highly contaminated” by mercury, which gets passed through fish to humans and can cause damage to vital organs.
“Of course we continue to consume them because we have no other option,” he said.
Local women and their children stand in the river to wash their dishes and clothes, something only the most rural and needy communities do nowadays over fear of the water’s contamination.
Guardians face violence, threats
The guardians have a precarious job in an area controlled largely by rebel and criminal armed groups, like leftist guerrillas the National Liberation Army and Gulf Clan.
Mining machinery along the banks are overseen by these groups and miners are forced to pay them protection money — known locally as “vacuna” — to be allowed to operate freely without becoming targets.
“The act of raising awareness and denouncing the situations that the Atrato basin is experiencing means we face certain risks,” said guardian Maryuri Mosquera, especially her guardian colleagues in more rural areas.
Guardian Bernardino Mosquera has a bulletproof vest provided by the state after he got multiple death threats over the years, the last one in March. He has been kidnapped by Gulf Clan and had bullet shells placed under his door on several occasions “as warnings.”
He almost quit.
“But I realized that if we pull out of the process, we are giving them strength … no one is going to want to say what is happening, you’ll end up riddled with bullets,” Mosquera said as the tropical rain lashed the tin roof of his home.
“We must continue to make the process visible. It’s the only way for them (armed groups) to feel that we, too, are in the territory. So that stopped me and made me carry on … And here I am.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-11 20:45:00
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