Cartel de Esmeralderos

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Boyacá Province in Colombia
Typical landscape in Boyacá
Emerald from the Muzo mine
Colombian emerald

The Cartel de Esmeralderos ( "Emerald Cartel" ) is a semi-criminal association of Colombian emerald prospectors in the Magdalena Medio area , a sub-region and extensive valley in the Andes in central Colombia, formed by the Magdalena River and the city of Honda . The cartel operates in particular in the emerald region in the Boyacá province , between Puerta Boyacá and Chiquinquirá .

Economical meaning

Emerald exports from Colombia generate a trade volume of 150 to 400 million US dollars per year, with 60 percent of the world's emeralds being mined in Colombia. Other sources estimate the annual trade turnover of Colombian emeralds at $ 1.5 billion. Triggered by the fabulous profits in the emerald trade, this zone has always been the scene of bitter fighting.

history

Muzo Indians as guardians of the mines

As early as the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors came into contact with the large gemstone deposits in the area around Muzo and Somondoco when they first received green emeralds as gifts from the Chibcha Indians. The misty mountain forests were guarded by the Indian tribe of the warlike Muzo, who were subdued and enslaved by the Spanish. In the humid tropical climate, the Indians had to work in the mines under inhumane conditions and weakened by diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, etc.

Division of the mines

In 1947 the emerald mines are handed over by the Colombian government to the family clans of prospectors and local caciques . The Murcia, Cañon, Rincón, Rojas, Gonzales and Pauna families received the rights to the Pauna, Briceño, Buenavista, Maripí and Tununguá mines. The more productive mines of Muzo, Quípama, La Victoria, San Pablo de Borbúr, Otanche and Coper went to the Carranzas, Triana, Obando, López, Campos, Moreno, Molina and Bohórquez.

Emerald War

In the Emerald War or "Guerra Verde" from 1960 to 1970, the fight for dominance of the emerald mines in the open-cast mining sites around Muzo, Coscuez, Chivor, Borbur, Somondonco and Otanche. The first prospecting work began under Efraín Gonzalez Téllez , a veteran from the civil war from 1948 to 1952, and Humberto Ariza Ariza ("El Ganso Ariza"), a murderer from Bogotá. Téllez, often referred to as Robin Hood in the Colombian press, was the chief judge in the lawless and extremely violent provinces of Boyacá and Santander . Téllez once said of the violence in the mining region: «Nos odiábamos. El problema es que aún no sabemos por qué nos matábamos »...« Yo perdí a toda mi familia. Eran cerca de 40 personas ». Téllez came from the province of Santander and gained extensive experience in modern warfare and torture as a Conservative officer during the Violencia of the 1950s . Under his leadership, an army of 15,000 outlaw bandoleros gathers, transforming the region around Muzo into a war zone.

In 1965 Gonzalez Téllez was shot in Bogotá . The military then attempted a large-scale operation under anti-guerrilla specialist José Joaquin Matallana to gain control of the prospect. Two army battalions moved into the region to destroy the “Mafia of the Poor” under Téllez's successors and Ariza. The fighting cost around 1200 lives, of which Ariza alone is said to have committed around 800 murders after the death of Téllez in order to manifest his power in the emerald mines. The effects of the Emerald War were felt in the gemstone traders in Bogotá and Miami .

Ecominas receives the mining rights

In 1966 the state mining company Ecominas took control of the emerald region again. In 1971 the government closed the mines until 1973, by decree of the Colombian President Misael Pastrana Borrero, the mining companies Esmeralcol and Tecminas received the mining rights for this contested mountain region. Both companies contacted drug dealers. The mining region around Muzo, Coscuez and Quimpama became a gathering point for guaqueros (rightsless rubble collectors, at the lowest level of the mine hierarchy with the status of serfs), mineros (mine workers), emerald dealers, cocaine dealers, right-wing death squads and left-wing guerrillas. Lawlessness ruled the area as early as the 1970s.

Takeover by the Paramilitares and second emerald war

In 1973 the army withdrew from the area and left the mining rights to Gilberto Molina and Luis "El Pekinés" Murcia. Molina and Carranza ran the high-yielding mines of Muzo and Quipama, and the Murcia family ran the legendary Coscuez mines.

In the 1980s, Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha of the Medellín Cartel began to build up paramilitary groups against left-wing peasant movements in the Medio Magdalena Valley and tried to use brutal armed force to gain control in the emerald region of Boyacá. In 1988 the sicarios hired by Gacha killed 18 people, including women and children, in a bloody massacre. In 1989, Pedro Julio Yaya, an ally of Victor Carranza from local politics, was tied alive in a plastic sack and thrown from an airplane over the Rio Itocó from a height of 300 meters as a deterrent. A mass grave with 50 nameless victims is found on a finca owned by Victor Carranza. In the same year, Gacha had his former patron and sponsor Gilberto Molina and 18 party guests killed by a paramilitary command at his finca "La Paz".

In 1990/1991 the conflict initially ended with over 5,000 deaths in more than 30 years of armed conflict.

Victor Carranza, Juan Beetar and Gilberto Molina as winners

The survivors of the Cartel de Esmeralderos emerged victorious in this conflict: Juan Beetar, a lawyer from Bogotá, Gilberto Molina and the “Emerald Tsar” Victor Carranza , born in 1940, who had already worked in the mines when he was 10 years old. Carranza is the owner of the Muzo mine and is said to have had contacts with the AUC . Because of the strong paramilitary presence in this region, the FARC was unable to gain a foothold here. Carranza owned the third largest private army in Colombia, which is deployed in the Meta Department against the left-wing Union Patriota . Carranza has interests in the mining companies Tecminas, Coexminas de Muzo and Esmeracol de Coscuez and does business with the diamond company De Beers .

literature

  • Joseph E. Pogue: The Esmerald Deposits of Muzo, Colombia . In: Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers , Evanston, Illinois, 1916.
  • Jeanette Erazo Heufelder : The Emerald King. Victor Carranza and the green gold of the Andes , Malik Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-89029-301-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Juan Carlos Garzón: Desmovilización de las Autodefensas del Meta y Vichada  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 7, 2017.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.verdadabierta.com  
  2. ↑ Paramilitarismo como política contrainsurgente de estado ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.reocities.com
  3. ^ Vientos de guerra verde .
  4. ^ Carlos Miguel Barber Kuri, Karla Rosa Dávila Ramírez: The Emerald Industry in Colombia. (PDF; 209 kB ) (No longer available online.) In: Journal of Business Case Studies (JBCS), Vol. 4, (2008), No. 10. The Clute Institute, October 2008, p. 7 , archived from the original on August 19, 2014 ; accessed on August 18, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cluteinstitute.com
  5. ↑ All is not green that glisters . In: The Economist , February 19, 1998.
  6. ^ Fighting Colombia's Green War: Treasure of the emerald forest .
  7. ↑ Chibchas Spanish God Bochica Earth Gold Chibchacum Colombia ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.economicexpert.com
  8. ^ Colombian Emerald from Muzo .
  9. ↑ Las esmeraldas Colombianas .
  10. ^ Spanish: Green War
  11. ↑ a b c d Los Jinetes de la Cocaína .
  12. ↑ El mito de Efraín González
  13. ↑ Claudia Steiner: Un bandolero para el recuerdo: Efraín González también conocido como “El siete colores” . In: Antropología, crítica cultural y crisis de sentido en el mundo contemporáneo , No. 2, Enero-Junio ​​de 2006, pp. 229-252 ( online ), accessed on April 7, 2017.
  14. ↑ “We hate each other. The problem is, we don't even know why we're killing each other anymore. I lost my whole family, there were almost 40 people. "
  15. ^ The Green Elephant . In: Time of June 17, 1974.
  16. ↑ Luis Ernesto Rodríguez Alarcón: Are the Characteristics of the New Colombian Mining Code Sufficiently Competitive in Attracting Investment to the Mineral sector? In: Mineral and Energy Raw Materials Report , Vol. 19 (2004), pp. 32-43.
  17. ↑ a b c d Colombians Concentrate On Emeralds Gem Dealers Forming Private Auction House . In: Sun-Sentinel , ISSN  0744-8139 , March 15, 1992.
  18. ↑ Autodefensas Campesinas de Meta y Vichada ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 7, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.verdadabierta.com
  19. ^ Emerald Magnate Slain At Home in Colombia . In: New York Times , March 1, 1989.
  20. ↑ Jaime Barrera, Milton Mahecha: Estudio administrative para determiner la situación actual de la empresa Coexminas Ltda.
  21. ↑ Una gema buscada por la fiscalía . In: El Tiempo , February 27, 1998.
  22. ↑ One is even richer than the richest , 20 minutes online.