Afro-descendant communities in Colombia are fighting to retain control of their ancestral goldmines in the face of pressure from private interests, which are apparently assisting the transnational AngloGold Ashanti. Local authorities in the town of La Toma, Cauca province, had planned to evict local miners on 6 August, but drew back at the last minute.
‘Thanks to all the pressure from within Colombia and from abroad, the mayor didn’t carry out the eviction order,’ says Lisifrey Ararat, a spokesperson for the estimated 400 miners affected. ‘Everything was ready for the eviction, including the security forces. But we’re ready too. No-one is going to leave the mine. We’re not going to let ourselves be moved on to Bogotá or to Cali. Who knows what we’d do there?’
