Whose gold from Colombia?
In 2017, the Canadian mining company Gran Colombia Gold filed a hundreds of millions of dollars lawsuit against the Colombian government for failing to evict the traditional miners of mines that the company acquired in 2012 around the towns of Marmato and Ségovia. Colombia and Canada are signatories of a free trade agreement which constitutes the context for this trial managed by a branch of the World Bank, the ICSID.
The towns of Marmato and Ségovia in the Medellín region have been dedicated to mining for generations, but the mining methods are archaic and risky by modern stand-ards. Traditional small-scale miners are also easy prey for criminal and paramilitary groups, and the government had hoped to modernize and formalize mining with the presence of Gran Colombia Gold. The miners and their representatives retaliated with multiple legal strategies citing the Colombian constitution and thwarted the company’s progress.
Roger LeMoyne
Roger LeMoyne began his work as a photojournalist in 1991, covering conflicts in the Horn of Africa. Since then, he has worked on social and geopolitical is-sues on an international scale. He is the winner of more than 50 awards and scholarships, including a World Press Photo, the Bayeux Prize, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec. His book “Détails Obscurs” was published in 2005. He lives in Montreal with his wife and their two children.
Roger Lemoyne is the winner of the award from l’Association des journalistes indépendants du Québec (AJIQ) for its photo essay.
Exhibition presented within the framework of the Zoom Photo Festival Saguenay.
For more information on the Zoom Photo Festival Saguenay, consult the zoomphotofestival.ca
