to go via in northern colombia. mini thiis rusty sheds the country's richest gold mine it's operated by canadian multinational corporation gran colombia gold. today the army has taken over the sector for a high risk mission. transporting the week's production to a safe location. three gold ingots over twenty kilos each.

here we have sixty eight kilos ok. that makes one point two million euro. in colombia gold is highly coveted by the criminal organizations. so in order to avoid an ambush the time and day of the transfer or decided at the last minute might ask a think this is the most critical moment and on this side and the gold leaves the factory it up got to be transported to the city of midianites in. the ingots or carried away at a run. the soldiers mark alpha course. the operation is completed in four minutes. the precious cargo takes off towards midday the regional capital from where the gold will be exported.

this a goalie a gold mines are the oldest ones in south america they were own for a long time by an english company frontino gold mines but in two thousand and ten and gran colombia gold bought the entire concession. thanks to different tino mines the canada based multinational has become colombia's leading gold producer in two thousand and eleven. two and a half tons of yellow metal came out of these furnaces the checks are very strict everyone has body searched including the boss just things about. c.n.n. and my friend that the vice president of gone colombia moreover has a predestined name who is a auro all know being the spanish word for gold. thanks a lot see you later my friend. who's a or always cuban the late the former comrade to fidel castro he made the transition from marxism to capitalism with the greatest of ease. for him colombia is the new eldorado.

if it's very profitable to invest in colombia with that very profit and there's a very high return on investment and a large reserves of natural resources to exploit that all human and what's more easy resources they want to replace they you know the countries behold the fruit on the lower branches of the tree has been eaten and the any fruit left is at the top . whereas here there's still a lot of fruit left to pick up. but for the time being grown colombia is obliged to share its fruit while it officially wholly owns the enormous ago via deposit illegal mines have sprung up like mushrooms all over its concession. rafael to bone he's a manager oath. and a legal mind that has developed into a small company he and his partners were employed by the former company frontino gold mines bought out by grown colombia they've set up their activity here without

authorization. and i got to tell right that i couldn't understand it that it started after everyone works on the front you know that well x. frontino not only they forced us into doing this because they fired us and they threw us out and not only got an hour or so we came to find work here. under the virgin mary's protection the miners descend three hundred meters below ground. at the mine bottom air is in short supply. so is the water good. better than my wife. smiles on their faces but on their backs loads way eighty kilos. six eight ten cents per day. for most slave labor that can be fatal due to cave ins and yet there's no shortage of miners wanting to work here some of them can earn up to two thousand euros

a month four times the average salary in colombia. meter after meter the column moves forward. gold is embedded everywhere in the rock. miles and miles of these galleries eat away a grand columbia's concession. it seems that is money. that for the play all this belongs to the people not to the company. so that you know how we break it all back to own up pesos. such suffering be illegal that isn't even the. inside as on the outside it's the same anger because gone colombia is requesting that these illegal mines be closed down. it's all right for the i don't want in the new countries the doors go you know they come with new technologies to steal the riches of the colombian. yes just do it's ours to

get out of it as that lady says they come to steal what's ours because all of this is ours. this is how we make our living from salvaging rocks. if the illegal mines close down everyone will lose their livelihood the miners but also thousands of women who sort through the rock debris where bits of gold can still be found. i. think it was twenty four years old and i've been working at the mine for ten years now but imagine if they close down the mine what would we do. would be forced to leave to go via. this is where the money is. what the. fifty or so illegal mines such as el giotto are existing on borrowed time in this a go over your area. and as the price of the yellow metal continues to soar on world markets to go he is experiencing

a new lease on life people are coming out here from all over the country to seek their fortunes. a modern day gold rush in the heart of war played colombia. from the old children mine bianca carries bags of rocks to these antiquated mills. the rock is ground up for hours. to extract the gold particles a dangerous product is used mercury. this grey paste is obtained which contains the gold. we should wear long gloves and even masks but nobody uses any form of protection everyone just ignores the danger. and that's that when

people get older around here their hands such tremble. nervous disorders memory loss facts of mercury are devastating in the air in the water inside go via mercury is omnipresent it's one of the most contaminated zones in the world. these small scale miners sell their gold. to merchants gold is exchanged for large wads of notes and. so here everyone protects their business. this is to protect myself from thieves have already been held up twice. the mercury evaporates and the heat of the blow torches leaving behind the yellow metal which will be melted down into ingots this is how the gold from the illegal mines provides

a livelihood force the gobi is fifty thousand inhabitants. a parallel economy that has a auro head of gone colombia wants to eradicate completely. little by little we're going to regain control we have to do away with all of this but at the same time we have to give the people work opportunities. for his safety jose or all right around in an armored four by four he wants to show us that he's perfectly at ease and to go beyond that he's at home here everywhere even at the barber shop. if. someone wants to say hello. me my out of the major ally you get in have this and let me introduce you to some french journalists a major is the chief of the city police it's a very good friend of ours. we have a contract with the police a contract with the army a contract with the city hall. that we also have

a school that we find that the name. the company finances the police and the army which in exchange ensures that security but the company also uses its dollars to win over the inhabitants its latest project a local radio station. was that of most of you we've been the victim of a very strong demonization campaign you know and we think that's thanks to the radio. we're going to be able to change all that. but they have a good those facilities so if anyone wants to try to compete with this sort of influencing the population and i'm sorry but a level they're going to lose. to make it one of the it is that. while waiting to impose its power through the radio the multinational begins by imposing it through force. is just

a look at it we've been ordered to close down these mines. and for that one but it's out we can count on the support of the employees of grand colombia which owns the mining rights in this region to try to rescue. the company lends them its premises and is present during the whole operation. first target an illegal tunnel on the outskirts of town. weapons in hand the policeman besieged the mine the situation soon gets heated. up and i'm asking you the question do you have a mining permit. no one has a permit i applied for one but they never gave it to me. yeah so we're going to start standing up that's how it is that all of you want us to want to work so we're going to steal and kill or we'll start drug trafficking. and.

i think the only civilian amongst the policeman and engineer from gong colombia guides the troops now a list of the mines to be closed down is displayed on his mobile phone screen to seek him out if you want to take advantage of daylight we should continue on right away or you can go this guy meaning. but the operation is cut short the policeman fear a clash with the miners they content. themselves with carting away a dozen or so of them back to the police station the police also seize the dynamite used to blast the tunnels. and. they let you know i am part of a minor protests he was in the middle of negotiations with kong colombia to legalize his mining operation let me like to thank you knight as proof he holds out a business card in the name of who is a auro the head of the multinational into go via.

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your media projects and free media hearty dot com you. did it out of i i. i it appears that jose oro is far from having one over to go via i today made the first the employees are gone colombia are out in the street they're demanding wage increases. not small scale miners and local inhabitants are demonstrating alongside them. amidst the crowd one man personifies the revolt of the entire town. their clan but one thing that you know better that. the euro who are is president of the gobi a mine workers union today he's the multinationals leading adversary to contest the company's right to operate this a go be a mines which up until two thousand and ten belong to the frontier no company he

speaks. theft when i mean other like giving the minds of the frontino gold mines company to a multinational they have violated all rights to the money stolen patrimony that belong soley to the workers for the retired workers and to all the people of sago all of the out. a speech that he repeats thesis lee in front of the microphones and film cameras. rising is that then what do we demand is the most that we demand that once and for all they give us back the front you know minds you know those they are ours. it would seem that the mines belong to the employees to prove it by your ruin takes us to his office he wants to show us a document that he keeps preciously a notarized act dating back to one nine hundred seventy nine.

at that time frontino was in dire financial straits and it's english and american owners wanted to leave colombia but they owed years of unpaid wages to their employees so from their head office in new york they decided to bequeath the company and all its mines to them it's all there in black and white. don't document this by way of this document signed in the presence of a notary in new york. known as the new york act. yes there it is i mean the it's through this that the donation was made to the workers say by way of payment. the new york act orders the managers or from tino to transfer all the property to the workers and retired workers or to their unions it was authentic aided by the colombian consulate in one thousand nine hundred nine the document was then handed over to the government which was responsible for announcing the good news to the miners get us there what happened then. and then says trade ministry and these they

did that all employment ministry at the time and in mind the columbia consulate in new york kept this document secret deal. for twenty years the workers were unaware the frontino had between them the mines the company was run by local managers who got richer and richer wagon after wagon. but in two thousand while searching through the archives of the ministry of economy by pure chance a trade unionist and earth's the new york act from then on the workers are going to do everything in their power to recover frontino. but they have a dangerous man to contend with a certain carlos mario humanise alias macaco the macaque at the head of a paramilitary group of five thousand men he controls the entire region from the cocaine trafficking to the gold production activities. macaco is at that time one of the unofficial owners of the frontino minds he operates them illegally by way of

front might. be high in all our goal behind all our riches are the economic interests of armed groups like the paramilitaries. paramilitary groups such as macaco as were organized by rich landowners to control the marxist guerrilla group the fox. they terrorized the country for twenty years. often with the backing of the regular army. it's insecure via moreover where they perpetrate one of their first massacres in one nine hundred eighty eight forty three people are killed in the town center their favorite targets the trade unionists and leftist political activists. since that time the trade union leaders such as the euro ruah received death threats on a regular basis for their protection bodyguards permanently accompany them wherever

they go. in the early two thousand the trade unionists come up against the paramilitary leader macaco sold over the sea go via mines. they see their frontino heritage escape them little by little this territory rich in gold. so they take their case to court and the court rules in their favor. over those go a court and they did mean a court that deals with matters relating to labor disputes rendered its decision at the end of two thousand and six and recognize that the minds of the front a new gold mines company belong exclusively to the workers and retired workers in tell us about it in the space of let's sit and in two thousand and seven the supreme court of justice confirmed that decision. but strangely enough it's the

colombian government that opposes frontino being given to the workers it appeals and manages to overturn all the decisions in favor of the trade unionists. the government at the time is led by president alvaro. he becomes personally involved in the case the frontier no company is overindebted he places it under direct control of the state. they've been seeing down but already. gaith date the president. if there is from this region was very preoccupied and bitterly my nationality he had managed to resolve the major problems of the country but not those of his own regions. it was and this was like a thorn in his side for him or more now been in full. but elvira rebate has to deal with macaco the local paramilitary leader he names a commission of four experts to advise him on frontino his future according to our

investigation three of them have ties with macaco one of them is even his financial advisor role in day amid the heene businessman so here's a man who at the same time advises both the colombian president and a mafia leader as these documents from the chamber of commerce prove at the time the lindy runs at least two of macaco companies they serve as fronts for laundering money from cocaine trafficking. we make an unannounced visit to these mini offices equipped with a hidden camera linda has never been bothered by the legal authorities he wishes to remain discreet. that. bugged me. i won't give an interview i'm sorry but no. person to be on board because of the country's political situation your work and now that president or e bay is no longer in power you know that all those who helped him and are being

persecuted politically want to leave you out of that and we were simply a team of advisors in the private sector advisors. and we guided the president in his decisions here. but you pneumococcal personally. if he was one of my a long standing customers getting the boat tires from. lindy won't tell us anything more he denies this collude. between the mafia and the government which prevents the unionists from recovering frontino that in two thousand and eight president a rebate is going to become sole game master he manages to eliminate macaco and washington's request he extradite him to the united states together with the other main paramilitary leaders all accused of drug trafficking macaco is sentenced in florida to thirty three years imprisonment but there is still no question of handing over the mines to the workers the rebate looks for

a more powerful investor. frontino his fate is sealed in two thousand and ten the government sells the company to a newly set up canada based multinational corporation granted colombia gold in suburbia workers and trade unionists give vent to their anger. in some of these and we believe and are almost sure of it that the president already begun as financial interests in this matter say what he wants in fact and says to take our minds into. the unionist accuses of our rebate he can't prove that the ex-president has direct interest in the new company but strangely enough the main winners in this matter or people closely connected to a rebate. at the side of the foreign investors at the head of gran colombia we find mario pacheco his first campaign manager. martinez his minister of mines and more importantly occupying the post of chairman and managing director maria consuelo x.

minister of culture and a close friend of the president delighted to celebrate in two thousand and eleven the company's entry into the toronto stock market is little more such an act of theft is totally unprecedented. not only in colombia but in the world. i've never heard of such a case as ours where so much money and gold has been stolen for so many years. for the managers of the multinational the tree with claims or without foundation. many people thought that they would obtain this mine defacto. through violence and usurpation. but i think that the colombian government made the right choice and that they needed a company that had the technical capacity and experience to operate the miners i mean you know and if we didn't have any enemies unionists or others i mean i would be very worried. that would mean that our minds aren't worth much and. how do you

explain the death rates received by the trade unionists not you know no the contrary would be strange you know of year there's nothing unusual about someone receiving a threat. how often have we received threats some people have offered millions were done jose said. i mean if someone receives it right here it's. we don't really want to. the sailor from tino to grand columbia was concluded four months before the end of our rebase mandate. as a fighter for the people. who have strived for a safer more prosperous and more just country view the former president left power in two thousand and ten he tours around the country to defend his track record the long left colombia. still very popular he loves to mingle with the crowd but hates

interviews that we made several attempts to question him about from tino in vain we made another attempt during a political meeting in the baton region this and she go via the workers' union affronting will claim that the company belongs to them and that your government sold it to your friends or you have to say about that mr president you are serious as the president was yesterday. no answer but his campaign smile has disappeared we want to give us his version of the facts as for the trade unionists years ago via they continue their combat before the law courts they asked me colombian government for sixteen billion euros in compensation the value of the gold instructed from their mines over these past thirty years.

i. see.

live. lib.