Gold Digging in Colombia: Mining Throughout Latin America http://www.coha.org/gold-digging-in-colombia-mining-throughout-latin-america/#more-11745

Former President Uribe certainly encouraged foreign direct investment in Colombia. Before he left office in 2010, the number of hectares with mining concessions had increased eight-fold, showing his determination to stimulate the mining sector. But, as with many of his policies, this investment strategy had limited success. Foreign mining companies, like Greystar Resources and Colombian Mines Corporation, have dominated the Colombian economy while profits from natural extraction have inexorably gone abroad. When multinational corporations move into a country, they do so because the host country believes that the corporation will benefit the people by providing badly needed infrastructure and employment. In the case of Colombian Mines Corporation, a Canadian multinational operating in Colombia, they buy up mines in rural towns with the promise of offering employment. The reality is that the mining operations offer only short-term employment, displace the dwellers who had previously lived on the land, and leave behind a tell-tale crater where a community once stood.

The often ephemeral financial benefits brought on by the mining industry are reflected in the Colombian gross domestic product because the extraction takes place within the nation’s borders. However, the profits from the business actually factor into the Canadian gross national product rather than the Colombian, which economically is seen as the true measure of wealth. Thus, multinationals invest their capital into other countries, mine their resources over a finite number of years, displace the local people and disrupt their economies, all for the gain of the exporting country at the expense of the host.