with us for all that used to be cocoa plantations. and the government has a radical at all the coca in the region. each day dozens of mules amble up and down these times loaded up with cans of cyanide like mercury it's used to extract the gold from before. we were in the heart of a rich gold bearing region. the mines are artisanal the techniques and so stroke the gold reserves have hardly been tapped. the big companies rarely venture out here but they already hold all the mining permits. and all this land is already tenured by the companies you know i never

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. 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. in order to work you have to pay the guerrillas. everyone pays the entire region of southern. this is the infernal trap the small scale miners were caught he had 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 let 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 too.

but. all the work sites have to pay the guerrilla groups that control the region and let you know. that in the columbia. wherever there are riches. there is armed conflict but people who want to make easy money from it they want to find a lot of. 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. 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 me. 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. 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. at this potters a bit pale yes it's past. all i give you two forty for it. to forty but it hit me 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. go but i don't watch the headlights they had be careful right this man an excavator driver got into a machete fight over money he owes his adversary for euro's. the closest hospital is a two day mule ride away while the bar owner takes on the role of dr. give me a pair of scissors austin made his wife i think she has them. 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 shit. here everyone blames the government the eternal absent. on sunday morning the village has

a hangover. we leave go more co the commander of the forks eight hundred front is waiting for us further up in the mountains. a two day journey. our guides are 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 guerrilla fighters it's the advanced 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.

and you know that in our instructions are to remove all the phone batteries turn off the radios and i and everything that's electrical on conceal ourselves in the forest. said 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 think bundling 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 would always have enough to survive on that even if the cocoa and gold disappear. at daybreak 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 organized 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 fly a plane. at the slightest sound of an engine the forks take cover. the fighters cut through the jungle. 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 a feat you must observe people's attitudes their behavior. if someone makes a phone call for example. the third the inhabitants facial expressions very carefully.

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been living this way since the seventeenth century. their rituals are strict. their communities on the silicon. they clearly distinguish between their own and the alien. and guard their family and faith as a treasure. a clear image of iraq after inflation. the trip through the country. the roads full of dangerous. clear evidence from north to south. of iraqi tragedy. after the war waiting for peace. taxi.

the column finally reaches the village all the villagers are they or their presence is obligatory.

as they must go by yet my dear comrades but it men and women. miners and 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 you know you need unity. i mean it is an estimate 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 in colombia that i don't name and 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 in mind if you can't just go shooting your gun off like that what if the gorilla came by just as a shooting if they were. if it. is our custom. one shot can generate panic in the whole community is what you have to correct these bad habits my friends. if 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 minors from flocking in. to 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 gen fifteen million pesos for you 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. 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 fox 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 you know it's every month it depends it's about four to five million pesos a partner seen it. two thousand euros per excavator you know berto zone there are dozen of them today at least one third of the eighteenth fronts revenues comes from gold.

as we leave these mountains we passed 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 it's 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 gold bearing zone of colombia here it's the criminal gangs that want their share of the spoils they are known as the buck 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 chremes 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. as it leaves the production server the country or when it arrives at its destination but this isn't the case for the go. to. be sent to him it is a small scale mine operator in the coke zero zero region like him hundreds of small

operators in this spec remote controlled zone or systematically held to ransom. 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 manager is a change their name and strategy but it is still the same in the murder as it was the end of a minimum of. 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 during come on. so. what's the problem. i'm having some equipment by river over there just to fork out guys yeah there's 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. it's i mean these guys got into the habit of living off other people's labor. you don't want to work. for. dissent 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 kilo of gold he'll spend the day on the phone

negotiating with the back reams to let his equipment through on the river. a silent war wages on the river netty the civilians are its 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. and we can be one of 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 him they don't ask any questions they just

kill people. why do they do that. for the us i guess they think they've come to spy on them amity i 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 miti in 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 coke cash in savannah's the landing strips of the drug traffickers are side by side with the open air mines. 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 a minority i mean what counts in this operation is the surprise factor to be able to catch them red had. 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.

those who refused to participate in the gold rush are few and far between. were in the deep south of columbia in the territory of the not so indians they have long opposed the mining operations and its devastating effects on the environment when the nasi 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 have you seen 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 to. 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 you'll see. 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. board.

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