The Gold Mines of Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Weekend Edition August 23-25, 2013

"This is a fight that we cannot afford to lose.”

The Gold Mines of Colombia
by CARL WORSWICK

Father Jose Reynal Restrepo is on edge. Flustered and eyes flicking frenetically across the room, his shirt is unbuttoned and he sweats. A video camera rolls. “The voice of the people is the voice of God,” he announces. “If the people stick together and put their faith in God we won’t be beaten.”

“I believe in non-violent peaceful protest and violence should be only used as a last resort. But if we have to use it, we will. And we may have to.”

It’s August 2011 and Father Restrepo is being interviewed for a documentary featuring locals from Marmato, a gold mining town of around 2,000 people on the slopes of the western Andes in central Colombia. They are arguing passionately against government plans to move the population to a new location several kilometres away.

Father Restrepo is one the project’s fiercest critics and he accuses the government of ignoring the wishes of the local population in favour of a Canadian multi-national mining company that, over the last four years, has been busily buying up mining titles in the area.

Gran Colombia Gold wants to create an opencast mine on the El Burro mountaintop where the town is perched. To do so they need to displace the people and blow the top off the hill. Understandably, the people of Marmato have been left unimpressed.

“I’m a parish priest and if they come for me and tell me to leave they will have to do so with their machetes and guns,” Father Restrepo warns.

Two days after the documentary is uploaded to YouTube, the father is murdered.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/23/the-gold-mines-of-colombia/

[Judi Lynn]

1. The assassination of Fr. Jose Reynel Restrepo

The assassination of Fr. Jose Reynel Restrepo
by John Dear SJ

~snip~

Fr. Jose Reynel Restrepo, the 36 year old pastor of the Catholic Church in the town of Marmato in Colombia, was assassinated Sept. 1. He was riding his motorcycle through the countryside on his way home after visiting his family when he was stopped and shot dead.

A few days before, Restrepo had publicly condemned the mammoth Canadian/Colombian mining company "Gran Colombia Gold" for their plan to wipe out his entire parish and town. The week before, he had traveled to Bogota to meet with government officials to prevent the mind-boggling injustice.

This evil behemoth, Gran Colombia Gold, along with the Colombia government, was going to force the entire town of Marmato to move from its ancient present location. Founded in 1540, Marmato has a population of 10,000 people. It is one of the historic gold-mining regions of the hemisphere.

After the residents of Marmato were displaced, Gran Colombia Gold was going to dig a new open-pit gold mine in its place -- and make a fortune. Canadian mining in Colombia is favored by the so-called "Free Trade Agreement" between Canada and Colombia, and like evil U.S.-Colombian multinational partnerships, wreaks havoc upon the poor rural communities.

More:
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/video/assassination-fr-jose-reynel-restrepo/8262