:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/DXKTDQEKS5OKZ6U7HJUVGZLGIA.jpg "Nearly 40 illegal mines are destroyed in Antioquia 1")
Van approximately 40 illegal mines destroyed in Antioquia by public force. In a coordinated effort between different institutions, after the strong message of the national government against irregular rents, a significant amount of machinery and equipment was seized and destroyed.
It should be remembered that recently the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, assured that the authorities will go completely against criminal finances. Thus, the intervention of various mines which operate irregularly has been announced.
“The order is peremptory: total war against criminal finance. Today in Bajo Cauca, Antioquia, five large dredgers that generated wealth for illegal armed organizations were destroyed,” Defense Minister Iván Velásquez said in one of the first reports he handed over. .
It should be noted that the national government’s announcement regarding the destruction of illegal mines has caused a serious public order situation in some areas of Antioquia, particularly in Bajo Cauca, where informal miners declared a strike.
The resumption of major operations against illegal rents did not go very well. However, despite the miners’ strike, the police continue to take action against illegal rents in the mining sector.
The miners’ strike, which ended one day, and the operations carried out by the police and the national army did not stop in this area of the department of Antioquia.
According to information provided by the army’s 14th brigade, 39 illegal mines located in the village of El Bagre, in Caracolí.
According to information known to date, irregular mines apparently they belonged to the Jorge Iván Arboleda Garcés substructure of the Clan del Golfo criminal group.
Likewise, as part of investigative work carried out by the authorities, it was established that these irregular mines would have provided this criminal structure with income of more than 1,500 million pesos each month.
Despite the public order situation created by the miners’ protests, apparently under pressure from members of the Clan del Golfo, the authorities carried out the operations in which the 70 dredges, two excavators and more than 100 motor pumps, among other elements used to carry out irregular work in this territory,
Colonel Manuel González, commander of the National Army’s 14th Brigade, added that more than five thousand grams of gold per month were produced in these mines.
“In this operation, it was possible to allocate all the material that was there from dredgers, yellow machines. These mines produced 5,600 grams of gold, the equivalent of 1,500 million pesos per months,” explained Colonel González, quoted by the Blu Radio station.
The resumption of large-scale operations against illegal mining has annoyed the miners of Bajo Cauca, Antioquia, who since the weekend were preparing to launch an indefinite strike in case the public force continued their actions.
It should be remembered that these agents they had been suspended since 2022 when an agreement has been reached. The police would not intervene while a characterization of the workers was carried out to find a solution to this problem.
However, recently the Ministry of the Environment made a visit to the sector, in which it was established that there was a serious impact on the environment. This is why operations have resumed.
Faced with this situation, small miners block the trunk of the Caribbean coast, at the height of the Caucasus, and the road that leads to the northeast of Antioquia.
It should be noted that some miners hope that a dialogue table will be set up with the national government.