Hundreds of children are working in gold mines in central Tolima department and the Colombian government is “totally indifferent,” said one local mayor.
A study conducted by the mayor of Ataco, Jose Antonio Jimenez, suggests at least 450 children between the ages of 8 and 15 work in the gold mines in his small municipality in western Colombia.
“Neither the president nor the governor of Tolima are interested,” Jimenez said. Widespread poverty forces parents to bring their children with them when they go to work in the mines, the mayor claimed.
Angela, a mother interviewed by El Tiempo, has four children, three of which mine alongside her.
“On a good day with my children we take out a little less than a gram of gold from these mountains and the buyers pay $20 or $30, but not every day is the same,” Angela said.
Some children are paid to run behind large machines which remove the earth, causing injuries that are sometimes very serious. The heat is intense: between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Others work with only the most rudimentary tools, sifting for specks of gold in streams.
Ataco is the third poorest municipality in the Tolima department.