President Petro insists on re-establishing state monopoly on gold to curb mafias and money laundering
Illegal mining in Colombia grows year by year. Photo: Courtesy: Istock
TL;DR
- President Petro proposes re-establishing a state monopoly on gold purchases to combat money laundering, criminal mafias, and violence linked to illegal mining.
- He argues that the liberalization of the gold market in 1992, coinciding with neoliberalism, led to the market being captured by illegal structures.
- Petro links the rise in drug trafficking and paramilitary activity to the gold market's liberalization, as it became an effective mechanism for laundering assets.
- The escalating international price of gold since 2008 has worsened the problem, making illegal gold exploitation a major criminal economy and causing significant environmental degradation.
- He criticizes the current Mining Code, attributing reforms under previous governments, particularly the Andres Pastrana administration, for facilitating the concentration of titles in large companies and displacing small miners, thereby criminalizing them.
- Petro announced a decision to nationalize mining policy in Antioquia to recover institutional control over title granting and promote rational exploitation schemes for small producers.
- He accuses the Congress of blocking reforms due to interests linked to illegal economies, stating that 'gold mafias control enough parliamentarians to prevent the mining code from being reformed.'
- The proposed reform project has not been debated in the legislature, hindering changes to regulations that, according to Petro, facilitate the expansion of gold mafias and money laundering.