IKN

Take physic, pomp

Tracking the political risk at Continental Gold (CNL.to) (from IKN362)

A small segment of this week’s edition of The IKN Weekly:


Colombia:
Government versus Paramilitary at Buriticá

Last week we reported how the
far-right wing “Urabeño” paramilitary group (also known as the “Úsuga Clan”)
had issued a formal death threat communique against personnel of Continental
Gold (CNL.to). This week we note that the Colombian government has not been
slow to respond: Firstly, in several actions against the paramilitary group the
government claims to have arrested (9) 135 Úsuga members including the people
responsible for the murder of three police officers at the end of last month
(at the same time, a separate grande attack in Buriticá left four police
officers seriously injured (10) (11). Secondly, President Santos has named the
head of the Úsuga/Urabeños clan, one Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, as the
country’s most wanted man and doubled the reward for information leading to his
capture to 3 billion pesos (U$1m and loose change).

The Santos government is playing
hardball with the threat posed by this paramilitary group and as part of the
back-story, we’re now getting another raft of “illegal gold trade now worth
more to criminal groups than drugs trade” articles, a theme that comes round on
occasion and is complete BS of course, but there’s no doubt the criminal bands
are behind at least some of the illegal gold mining activity and they’re using
it to help launder their ill-gotten gains. In sum it’s a situation that may or
may not turn out well for CNL.to and we certainly applaud the Santos government
for not backing down. They’re doing the right thing by confronting the
Úsuga/Urabeños but the reality of today’s situation must also be recognized;
the political and social risk of working Buriticá continues to be off-scale
high until the problems are resolved.

Don’t expect to read or hear about
this in any of the CNL corporate presentations.

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