Yes, Guamocó exists

21.06.08

By Ana Basanta
International Peace Observatory

The miners of Guamocó, in the San Lucas mountains (between Bolívar and Antioquia departments) are uniting forces against the expect entry of multinational corporations in search of gold, and to demand schools, health clinics and better infrastructure in one of the country’s most forgotten areas.

With the goal of defending land and human rights, and to educate the people on recent reforms to the mining code and improve areas such as healthcare, education and culture, the Association of Agro-Ecological and Mining Brotherhoods of Guamocó (AHERAMIGUA) was recently created.

Led by association president Mauricio Sánchez, and accompanied by the International Peace Observatory, AHERAMIGUA held its first tour, to present itself to the people of Guamocó and create grassroots committees known as “Brotherhoods for Life” from April 4-24.

A six-person commission visited the town of Los Canelos and the villages of Cañaveral, La Fortuna, Palma Chica, Raicero, Alto de las Brisas and Ventarrón. They were able to set up four Brotherhoods for Life (which can include one or more villages), and lay the foundation for more new Brotherhoods in the coming months.

This is a “red zone,” without roads, often without telephone service, where no newspapers enter and there is no publicly provided electricity or water, as in many rural areas of the country. The walk between one village and another can last more than 10 hours, depending on the weather. This makes sickness especially dangerous. Serious spider or snake bites are treated with home remedies, medicinal drinks made with local plants.

Mining Code Reform

The most touched-upon issues in AHERAMINGUA’s meetings was the reform to the mining code and the lack of education in the area, due to the lack of schools and teachers. Many times, it is the communities themselves that must take on the cost of building a schoolhouse for the children and paying a teacher’s salary.

In terms of the mining legislation, it is certain that the new laws favor big corporations and will be a detriment to the small miner, considered illegal because his work is unregulated. They are, ironically, poor people living in gold mines. Gold mining may happen in excavated tunnels or in the river with pans, from one person working alone to small groups or even dozens of miners working on a single dig. They may share the profits, each may take what he finds, or they may have fixed salaries with benefits.

The strategies are diverse, but what all the miners have in common is that they mine to put food on the table, not because they’re going to get rich. “The government considers us illegal miners, but it has sold out to the big corporations. It’s not just privatizing; it’s giving away the country’s wealth,” explains Mauricio Sánchez. “We get in trouble because this is a nature preserve, but why can some people work here and others not? We must organize against what is coming, legally. We all have the right to work and they want to take that away from us.”

Benefits and Traps Along the Way

The people here fear that Canadian industrialist John Miller’s interest in the area, with his promise of building a highway through Guamocó, could translate into more impoverishment for the small miners. This for a number of reasons: the companies would not hire the older miners, the illiterate or people in a poor state of health – in other words, only the strong young men will have jobs. As one woman in La Fortuna said, spontaneously, “everyone is remendados here.” The ones without lung problems have badly healed injuries, some finger lost to a machete, or simply chronic pains. It is the price they pay for the lack of doctors or drugs in the region.

Besides, they feel that the highway should not be built or designed by a foreign company, but rather that it is an obligation of the state. And that the state should always take the local residents’ opinions into account when planning the route – all simply more reasons for all of the villages to come together and get organized. They are also worried about the indiscriminate felling of trees, and the bad quality and scarcity of water. “We are an oxygen factory, but if we keep going this way, these highlands are going to deteriorate,” warns Mauricio.

But many Guamocó residents are not so concerned about the building of a highway or the environment. Their priority is their kids’ education, which is either entirely absent due to a lack of teachers, or is of low quality. Whichever it is, as long as the children are in school they are learning, their parents know where they are and they are not wandering around in the mountains or joining armed groups. One of the leaders of the village of Ventarrón explained it clearly: “Our children are being sold to go to war, because the state is not investing in a good education for them.”

Published in Spanish April 29, 2008

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