With NAFTA and CAFTA being touted throughout Latin America, globalization is given a pretty face across mass media screens and within the pages of U.S. papers. An article in today’s New York Times, along with a flashy multi-media presentation, reveals a side of globalization that is reminiscent of the conquistadors’ mad dash for gold and disregard for local indigenous communities. U.S. owned mining company Newmont has been mining in the Yanacocha goldmine in Peru for some time now, earning billions of dollars. The company has done so thanks to back door deals with the publicly corrupt former secret police chief, Vladimiro Montesinos and exiled president Alberto Fujimori.

The trouble with gold mining is that while the bank accounts of Newmont, as well as those of affiliated French, Australian , and even the World Bank, grew, the resources of the local indigenous community waned. Gold mining requires water to be diluted with deadly cyanide which negatively impacted the health and livelihood of local communities. Add to the mix of secret handshakes and contamination a 2000 mercury spill (mercury is a by-product of gold mining) that the company hushed while locals scooped up the poisonous earth in desperate hopes of getting a piece of the golden pie.

The result of such blatant disregard for the local community and well, international laws, has led to a growing grassroots movement within the indigenous population, culminating in protests and general strikes that left Newmont removing gold via helicopters and locals, including the elderly, women and children, facing tear gas, shootings, and arrests.

This hasn’t stopped Newmont. According to the New York Times, the head of Newmont’s North American operations is quoted as saying:

We plan on being here a very long time.

This is a must read story, especially for those who wave off claims of U.S. colonialism err globalization and its negative impact on local communities.

Via/ New York Times