Gold mining has exploded in Nicaragua over the past few years, bringing in billions of dollars and becoming the country’s top export, surpassing even coffee and beef. International sanctions against the industry have done little to slow it down, with companies from China, Canada, the U.K. and Colombia setting up operations in ecologically sensitive areas — often near national parks and on Indigenous territory. A lack of government transparency has made it difficult to know how concessions are granted and what happens to them once mining begins. But activist groups say the industry continues to expand, with weak regulations and widespread corruption resulting in deforestation, pollution and human rights violations against Indigenous communities. “The whole process of invasion is like a time bomb that’s going to implode from the inside,” one Indigenous rights defender, who asked that his name be withheld for safety concerns, told Mongabay. One analysis by the land-use observatory Land Matrix América Latina counted 144 active mining concessions in Nicaragua covering 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres), an overwhelming majority of them granted since President Daniel Ortega took office in 2007. Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who’s been vice president since 2017, have cracked down on dissent and consolidated power through elections seen as flawed, drawing backlash from the international community. Gold offers a way of avoiding sanctions while laundering money and paying out the political elite — and there’s still room for the industry to grow, experts say. There are as many as 4.8 million…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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