serve the interests of the big multinationals. marked in red on the map of the country the land requested for mining concessions a vast area the multinationals bagged a major part of the mining rights about seventy percent of the andes is tenure and all covered by requests from mining concessions well you know if they when we see that it's easy to imagine that we're all going to find ourselves expropriated that's where we're going to grow the economy and people's food yet what's going to happen to our regions so this is a completely irrational gamble that. the mining permits are already allocated but the big companies aren't yet mining the n.d.s. gold. the largest reserves lie in the heart of the cordy era mountains where the revolutionary armed forces of colombia the fark operate at war with the colombian government for over fifty years no one can penetrate this region without their authorization with the help of divers go betweens we've established contact with

the fork guerrilla fighters they've authorized us to travel through their zone while waiting to receive us. the local economy is based on coca plant growing these small green leaves are the raw material of cocaine. after years of anti drug enforcement cocoa farming is going through a crisis more and more pickers are leaving the fields to work in the gold mines. we penetrate into the mining zone in the four controlled mountains we get there by mule a two day journey with a good guide. marie c.-o. is the president of a local small scale miners association. with it for all that used to be cocoa plantations. and the government has eradicated all

the coca in the region. each day dozens of mules amble up and down these paths loaded up with cans of cyanide like mercury it's used to extract the gold from the or. we're in the heart of a rich gold bearing region. the mines are artisanal the techniques ancestral the gold reserves have hardly been tapped. the big companies rarely venture out here but they already hold all the mining permits for the theorists and all this land is already tenured by the company's compass you know whenever a small farmer goes to request a mining permit he's told that the land has already been allocated that someone has requested it before and famous health in this way the small scale miners are

considered illegal by the colombian government they live under fark rule most of the time the guerrilla fighters are invisible but they come here regularly to collect their war tax and. in order to work you have to pay the guerillas. everyone pays the entire region of well moco and southern. this is the infernal trap the small scale miners are caught him subjected to paying extortion money as a result they're accused of supporting the guerrillas. it's an injustice. if we didn't pay the fox they close down the mine they don't get us work and they kick us out of the region. for decades there were just these galleries dug out in the mountain but not far from here our guide wants to show us some new forms of land exploitation much more destructive. in the heart

of the jumbo excavators dig up the river bed and eat away at the forest little by little. the machines dig up thousands of tons of earth which they unload into giant sifters where the gold is extracted using large quantities of mercury. after their passage nothing grows here again and the streams are destroyed. in order to be able to work the owners of these machines have received the go ahead from the farts who take their cut here to. all the work sites have to pay the guerrilla groups that control the region and let you know. that in the columbia sea wherever there are riches. there's armed

conflict but people who want to make easy money find it they want to fuss and let it. gold feeds the conflict but also provides a livelihood for thousands of people at the side of the work site workers by tuner and gold washers. yes. and. they collect the small stones from the gaping holes left by the machines it's a ceaseless activity the excavator is working day and night. at nightfall the miners meet up at lamarre sosa a village of wooden boards and sheet metal set in the middle of nowhere a true colombian far west that has been brought to life again with a new gold rush. during the weekend alcohol flows freely

i. and. the girls wait at the bar. in one night the miners spend their entire week's earnings. on here gold is sold in small stones. and this potters a bit pale yes it's past. it all and i give you two forty for it up. to forty got it and then at eleven and. this is to pay my debts with. and i have a few drinks. most of the miners have just arrived in the region they are former cocoa plant growers now it's money they've earned from gold that they bet on the cock fights. it always finishes bad before the cocks and

sometimes for the miners to. a go but i don't watch the head what's the head be careful i think this man an excavator driver got into a machete fight over money the old his adversary for euro's. the closest hospital is a two day mule ride away while the bar owner to. on the role of dr. don't get me a pair of scissors austin made his wife i think she has them the minute they were in the central core of the yet and richest land in the world and we don't even have a pair of scissors but we're really in deep shit. here everyone blames the government the good turtle absent. on sunday morning the village has a hangover. and. we leave go more coke the commander of the forks eight hundred front is waiting for us

further up in the mountains. but today journey. our guides our local farmers. the forks have long lived off of the cocoa plant more and more they are financing themselves from gold. and a bend in the path the first guerilla fighters it's the advance post. the fighting has been waging since morning on the other side of the valley. the gunfire. the army helicopters fire rockets at the rebel positions a routine occurrence for the guerrilla fighters. something that in our instructions are to remove all the phone batteries turn off their radios and i and everything that's electrical i want to conceal ourselves in

the forests a month and you. saw the major part of the troop is hidden close by beneath the trees. it's in a camp such as this one where ingrid betancourt was held captive for six years. these last few years the old marxist guerrilla group has suffered heavy losses but it still counts eight thousand men and women ready to die for the cause. today the guerrillas have received from their suppliers photos of the weapons offered for sale a machine gun and some coalition cough rifles. this machine guns. were in the process of negotiating the price at twenty thousand euros you know what i'm doing twenty thousand euros is ok but it's not too expensive i'm about it i keep on going up but when there's no money on one side there's always some on the other eye today on days as

a few thoughts that always have enough to survive on because that i mean if the coker and gold disappear in. a day break the rebels break camp. alberto the commander of the eighteenth front has just arrived to give them their instructions. but we're leaving because there are enemy movements and we have activities to organize elsewhere. on the program a meeting with the miners of the region a long walk begins toward the meeting place. the guerrilla fighters move around in small groups. the main danger comes from the sky. a plane.

at the slightest sound of an engine the forks take cover. the fighters cut through the jungle. moment. in the zone of the eighteenth front miners and excavator start arriving at the forks fear that spies might use this opportunity to infiltrate them. before the meeting a briefing session is necessary. to know that of a key you must observe people's attitudes their behavior. if someone makes a phone call for example. is served the inhabitants facial expressions very carefully. the first baby steps are joy. folds and bones are not

a big deal. but they can cause terrible trauma. for children can be broken by bare touch. and only the will of life can make old pains and sores. fragile people on r.t. . here the reindeer is everything for the herders. and when it suffers. people do their best to help go out. but the distances are. and the roads are tough and unpredictable. will the remedy be on time.

more news today violence is once again flared up the first these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are over the day . the column finally reaches the village all the villagers are there their presence

is obligatory. as they must go by yet my dear comrade but it more hit men and women farmers miners . a lot of new faces are present at the side of the villagers excavator drivers and gold washers who have just come out here each meeting with the civilians is a political platform with the arrival of the multinationals the anti government speeches have been injected with new life. unit in the. media isn't it that they mining operation is a capitalist strategy to win the trust of the investors they buy more and more helicopters planes and weapons in order to enable the multinationals to work in peace and colombia. that's the policy of trust for the investors.

after the fine speech practical questions the gorilla arbitrates all matters divorce is chicken faffed more respect for discipline. today the defendant is pedro an excavator owner when peter has had too much to drink he fires gun shots in the air and up with that commanded you can't just go shooting your gun off like that what if the gorilla came by just as if you're doing it if they were ever. at that. point that is our custom he won't be a one shot can generate panic in the whole community is what you have to correct these bad habits my friends see when it happens again the gorilla is going to confiscate all the weapons and you'll be made to pay a fine. the forks rule doesn't stop miners from flocking into their mountains after the meeting is over a man takes the commander to one side to propose him

a deal. you know if you let two or three excavators in that's always ten fifteen million pesos foyer and you have a lot of people to support. so we're going to help you think about it two or three small machine so we can all work together ok ok all right. alberto now discusses with the villagers the sharing out of the gold. this man rents his land to an excavator owner he's paid in gold and gives half of his share to the local farmers associations it's the farts who fix the price scale. always the guerrillas negotiate their share directly with the mine operators. they don't know what do you know selves percentage but not very much. i mean to be honest some of the machine owners i know is that every month it depends it's about four to five million pesos a partner she needs. two thousand euros per excavator

you know berto zone there are dozen of them today at least one third of the eight hundred france revenues comes from gold. as we leave these mountains we pass new excavators yet another group of miners eager to make their fortune and the rebels own even if it means supporting the fark war effort. since two thousand and eleven the guerrilla movement has stepped up its attacks in one year close to five hundred soldiers and policemen lost their lives in combat. today in medina if the funeral of a police chief killed in an ambush. but the fark aren't the only ones to regain strength thanks to gold the region of calcutta is the most violent of

gold bearing zone of colombia here it's the criminal gangs that want their share of the spoils they are known as the black creams for short. these groups are the heirs of the paramilitary organizations the lay down their arms in the early two thousand in order to retain control over the drug trafficking some of their leaders set up new groups the back rooms were responsible for over eight thousand murders in two thousand and ten. in cook asia it's from this army base that the raids against the back creams are launched. on this wanted poster their main leaders. for the back creams gold represent certain advantages over cocaine as this military intelligence officer explains to us. that it's easier to market. a lot of cocaine can be seized at any time in the dakotas as it leaves the production server of the country when it arrives at its destination but this isn't

the case for the go. to. dissent a human is a small scale mine. operator in the co causing a region like him hundreds of small operators in this spec cream controlled zone or systematically held to ransom. you. said but i've been working in this area for thirty years and i've always had to pay the armed groups. that is not a managers have changed their name and strategy but it is still the same in the murder is. this entire runs a small open air mining operation. once a week he collects the or amassed on these belts. the

dangers of mercury are the least of his worries. i've been doing this for thirty years and it hasn't killed me yet. in the late morning he gets a phone call bad news one of his goods boats has been blocked by a cream. we'll see what we can do given that in this country it's the sons of bitches your income on. but what's the problem. i'm having some equipment by river over there just it. is a village at the back rooms have taken over and they won't let anyone prosody know what they say that the rivers there is now that we have so many guys got into the habit of living off other people's labor. or don't want to work.

this int he dares to break the law of silence because he's at the end of his rope the small operator has put himself in debt to buy his machines and he has to pay security guards to protect his kilos of gold he'll spend the day on the phone negotiating with the back creams to let his equipment through when the river. a silent war wages on the river netty the civilians are at first casualties. all along the river dredges of all sizes scrape the bad in search of gold. the presence of the army doesn't change anything here the back creams organize cocaine trafficking and record tearing of the gold mine operators. three rival gangs fight for control of the river in the front line the water taxi drivers count the dead. american people when it's very complicated around here he

strangers who come out here have problems. with sort of problems but what sort of problems will. they kill and they don't ask any questions they just kill people. why did they do that and. for that i guess they think they've come to spy on them and he am. not a paranoid. in these villages the people aren't very talkative because the killers mingle with the local population dressed in civilian clothes the criminal gangs watch over the ports the districts the houses. we attempted to approach them nobody was willing to help us establish contact to dangerous.

in the gold shops transactions are made in cash with no questions asked enormous sums totally unmonitored the bank creams use gold to launder drug money. in a medieval region twenty million euros are believed to be laundered each year thanks to the yellow metal. seen from above the connection between gold and cocaine is blatant. in the call casion savannah's the landing strips of the drug traffickers are side by side with the. in order to dry up the armed groups money sources the police step up raids against the illegal mines everywhere in the gold bearing zones the same desolate landscapes forests and rivers devastated contaminated by mercury. in fact it's in the name of environmental protection that

the authorities intervene. running as and without it i mean what counts in this operation is the surprise factor to be able to catch them red handed that. one hundred fifty policemen surround a zone of unauthorized mining operations the commandos were deployed within minutes . but most of the time the workers have already bolted before the arrival of the troops who find only recently abandoned equipment the engine still wont. today sixteen miners are apprehended after a brief appearance in court they'll set off again in search of work in other illegal mines this excavator hidden before the arrival of the police doesn't escape notice by the aerial surveillance results of the day's operation eight machines immobilized and a dozen mines closed down. the forks in the mountains the

creams in the plains the multinational corporations that divide the pie amongst themselves and thousands of small miners who pick up the crumbs each one plays his role each one knows his place. but. those who refuse to participate in the gold rush are few and far between. were in the deep south of columbia in the territory of the naso indians they have long opposed the mining operations and its devastating effects on the environment when the naso saw the first gold seekers start to arrive they began by asking these new intruders to leave they finally lost patience. one morning the indians besieged the miners camp yet. you call that generating work if you see all this damage you can create employment by destroying the environment like this all this cyanide you think it's good for the earth so i went up with. the protectors of mother earth on

one side the gold seekers on the other a clash is inevitable. and set fire to it but it all. bring in more machines just saying. in order to disperse the indians the excavator guards pull out their guns. luckily no one is injured. but by attacking a mining operation for the first time the naso indians are sending a clear message their sacred mountains are worth much more than all the gold in colombia.

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by cutting. back. on. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for life you think you understand it and then he glimpse something else you hear sees some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. hold it. hold it. there are live.

that he does speak. to. her. i wish i was lucky. lucky good. luck just sleep. in a. little my bottom and a little. news that she could lumber tourny to mccurry was able to build the world's most sophisticated robots which on fortune.