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July 06, 2009
Colombia's Blood Emeralds
From 1989 to 1996, my family lived on the North side of Bogotá. In those days, while Colombia's capital city had some of the highest violent crime rates of any capital in the world, it did not experience the level of political and drug-related violence that devastated other regions of the country. Despite frequent muggings and carjackings and occasional murders, few places in Colombia were calmer than Bogotá's wealthier North side.
Nevertheless, the business district down the hill from my neighborhood saw frequent mafia-style shootouts. In Medellín or Cali, people would immediately attribute mass shootings to drug cartels or, less frequently, political violence. In this area of Bogotá, however, passersby immediately knew that the violence was between rival emerald traders.
Colombia is famous around the world for its emeralds. When Colombians come in contact with foreigners, most of them eventually give a laundry list of the country's redeeming qualities, including biodiversity, beautiful women, modern urban transportation, etc etc. Often, the list will include emeralds.
Sadly, however, Colombia's emerald trade has a dirty, corrupt, violent history.
I chose to bring up emeralds because over the weekend, Victor Carranza, who is known as Colombia's emerald czar, survived an assassination attempt. While travelling in a caravan with several bodyguards in central Colombia, he was attacked with mortar fire and grenades. At least three of his bodyguards died, but he survived and managed to walk to safety. The attackers fled from the scene, but it is thought that they may have been from some unknown paramilitary faction.
Recently, top paramilitaries speaking from prison have detailed their links to Carranza, who allied with them in the Boyacá department (directly east of Bogotá) to traffic drugs, fight guerrillas, expand his emerald business and eliminate any competition. Carranza, who still operates a successful emerald business, has denied such links.
Given recent global awareness campaigns exposing the hidden human tragedy caused by the trades in diamonds, minerals used to make cell phones, gold and other products, I wanted to take the opportunity to add Colombian emeralds to this list.
Although, in all these cases, one must avoid generalizations, it is pretty clear to me that the emerald trade has always had a criminal dimension and is responsible for plenty of death and corruption. The fact that the country's largest emerald trader is quite obviously involved with some mafia groups and paramilitary death squads only confirms the rumors about emeralds that used to circulate around crime scenes in Northern Bogotá.
Posted by Pablo Rojas at July 6, 2009 04:00 PM
