Crude Gold Series: Gran Colombia Gold

Crude Gold is a series of short documentary films showcasing 5 pivotal cases of foreign-funded mining exploitation connected to Canadian investors. 

 

Every year in Colombia numerous union leaders, union activists and union members are assassinated. Similarly, human rights defenders are targeted, threatened and murdered in a fog of impunity and unanswered questions. Activists, union leaders and indigenous peoples who are in resistance to profiled mining and petroleum extraction projects experience violence as a result of their actions. The overwhelming majority of crimes and human rights violations related to the armed conflict are concentrated in regions with a major presence of mining investment. According to the Office of the Auditor General of Colombia, these regions are the scene of 78% of crimes against trade unionists and 89% of violations of Native peoples’ rights. Amidst this context, mining companies registered in the Toronto Stock Exchange continue to benefit from the violent and ongoing armed conflict in Colombia. Each of the stories in Crude Gold highlights local activists who are confronting injustice.

 

“Gran Colombia Gold” is part of the Crude Gold series, and is focused on a particular mining company. The story of how Gran Colombia Gold came to be formed is the story of abuses of power against a worker’s union as a rightful owner of the mine. The story takes place in Segovia, a town with a long and proud tradition in gold mining. The Toronto-based corporation may be involved with the murder of president of the Regional Union Mining and Energy workers, Rafael Tobon Zea, in 2011, and has been accused of paramilitary connections. The film explores foreign investment conflicts, and the role and impacts to trade union members in a country that is labelled as the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist. These brave individuals engage in union resistance, demand justice for human rights violations and raise awareness for these important issues, often at great personal cost.