Latin America Advisor

Maiah Jaskoski, professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Northern Arizona University: “Illegal mining is entrenched in Latin America. For example, it contributes nearly 70 percent of Colombian gold and outranks all other criminal activities in Venezuela. Illicit mining, which disrupts topsoil and riverbanks, and employs and disperses toxic chemicals, has devastated areas of the Brazilian, Colombian, Peruvian and Venezuelan Amazon. State strategies to check the sector consist of a combination of repression and alternative development initiatives. This approach has yielded dismal results, due largely to the extraordinary promise of income from illegal mining. Powerful criminal organizations secure mine sites and transport routes, using payoffs and coercion. For locals, the labor-intensive sector generates considerable wealth relative to other occupations. Indeed, widespread involvement in unregistered mining in Peru’s Madre de Dios region—and the anticipated negative electoral repercussions of…”