Ariel Quinto Murillo, president of the Federation of Small Miners of Chocó and prosecutor of the National Confederation of Small Miners of Colombia, Conaminercol, said that “if they do not listen to us, we will also end up in Chocó.”
He denounced that the current national government is the one that has hit the small miners the most. “Small miners are not criminals, we are not partners in crime, we are victims of crime and lack of State protection. That they do not persecute us, that they do not destroy our machinery”.
“I invite all the small miners of Chocó to declare ourselves in a permanent assembly, take to the streets, do pedagogy and report on the situation that the sector is going through.”
“The government is unaware of the country’s mining reality. 65% of the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, of Chocó is given by mining. More than 25,000 families depend on mining, but 98% of the gold that is extracted is informally because 95% of the Chocó mining titles are in the hands of transnationals”.
“We need the control entities and the National Mining Agency, ANM, to exercise effective supervision. The transnational that operates today in Chocó has not paid a peso in royalties for more than 30 years. Cases like this cannot continue to happen in the country.”
“That the State establish the integral zones of mining technological development, geologically evaluating the mining potential of each region and thus define the equipment that must be used.”
“That they do not persecute us, that they do not destroy our machinery.”