Kolumbien: Massiver Schlag gegen den illegalen Bergbau der FARC-Rebellen

Noch ein informativer Nachtrag von letztem Monat, in welchem dem rohstoffreichen Südamerika-Staat Kolumbien ein erfolgreicher Schlag gegen den illegalen Bergbau gelungen ist. Hierzu ein Kommentar von Mining.com:

Major blow to illegal mining in Colombia’s Amazon: 59 arrested

Cecilia Jamasmie

Colombian soldiers patrol an area controlled by the FARC. (Image from archives)

Colombia's armed forces have arrested 59 people in one of the major crackdowns on illegal mining in the country’s Amazon, where guerrilla groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and criminal gangs are active.

Over 600 Special Forces supported by aircraft and inflatable boats carried out the operation in an area covering more than 700 square kilometres (270 square miles), blowing up machinery and arresting dozens, news agency EFE reported (in Spanish).

The operation, said Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón, will deprive FARC — oldest and largest group among Colombia's left-wing rebels and is one of the world's richest guerrilla armies — of about $9 million a month.

READ ALSO: How illegal mining became Latin America’s new cocaine

The operation, said the minister, covered 63 sites near the border with Brazil and Venezuela, where gold, tungsten and cobalt were being mined in Indian reservations. According to him, the sweep can be considered “the cleanest and hardest blow in more than a decade, possibly one of the biggest in history, against illegal mining.."

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