Andean Scapes team · Updated
The Green Wars: Colombia’s emerald conflicts
For a quarter of a century the emerald towns of western Boyacá lived through three wars over the mines. This is what happened, war by war, from Colombian sources, and how it ended.
What were the Green Wars?
“Guerras verdes” is the name Colombians give to a series of conflicts between emerald dealers, the esmeralderos, fought mainly in Boyacá but with violence in other parts of the country. Spanish-language sources count three wars between 1965 and 1990.[1]
The Spanish-language record links emeralds and violence from the 1950s, when hired gunmen of the partisan Violencia reached Boyacá.[2] Most of what follows comes from Colombian press and books in Spanish, summarized here for readers who cannot read them.[1]
Why this section names no one
Colombian reporting names the bosses of every faction. We tell the events and what they meant for the towns, the guaqueros and the families, not the biographies of the men who ran the wars. The sources at the end of each page cover the rest.
Timeline
The conflicts grew out of a century of state concessions and an emerald rush in the 1960s, and ended with a peace signed in July 1990.[3]
The dates differ between sources, sometimes by years; each article on this section shows the versions side by side.[1][3]
1827–1828
The new republic’s Ministry of Finance grants the Muzo mines to a general and two private partners. Sources disagree on the year.[1][2]
1947
The Banco de la República takes over direct operation of the emerald mines, except Chivor.[3]
1950s
The relation between emeralds and violence becomes visible with the arrival of the partisan gunmen of La Violencia in Boyacá.[2]
1965–1975
First Green War. More than 1,200 dead in Chiquinquirá, Muzo, Coscuez, Borbur and Somondoco.[2]
17 July 1973
The government closes the mines and puts their operation out to public tender.[3]
1975–1978
Second Green War, ending with the first peace pact between the emerald dealers of western Boyacá.[1]
1984–1990
Third Green War, the deadliest, mixed with drug trafficking, guerrillas and paramilitary groups.[1]
6 June 1990
A ceasefire is agreed in an abandoned cockfighting pit in Quípama.[3]
12 July 1990
The peace is signed publicly with a declaration of respect for life.[3]
How many died
Nobody has an exact count, and the published figures differ widely. Read them as orders of magnitude, not statistics.[1]
For the first war: more than 1,200 dead according to Alfredo Molano[2]; at least 1,000 between 1967 and 1973 according to Semana in 1992.[3]
For the third war: about 3,000 according to Semana[3]; between 3,500 and 6,000 according to Spanish Wikipedia.[1] The municipal history of Maripí counts at least 5,000 deaths across the region between 1960 and 1991.[4]
Why the mines became a battlefield
At the root was control of the mines: who could work them, who could sell what came out, and who took the money.[3]
Money changed the stakes. After the 1967 exchange crisis made holding dollars illegal, emeralds became a way to take dollars out of the country, and contraband grew.[3] A 15 percent export subsidy led to over-invoiced shipments: registered emerald exports reached 80 million dollars in 1973, and the subsidy was withdrawn that December.[3]
In the 1980s drug money and armed groups arrived, and the mines became a strategic corridor as much as a source of stones.[3]
After 1990
The 1990 peace held where most Colombian ceasefires had failed; Semana noted in 1992 that it was being respected.[3]
Violence returned in the 2010s, and the region still lives with tension as foreign companies arrive and mining is restructured.[1]
Sources
- Guerras verdes. Wikipedia en español (citing El Tiempo, Semana, El Espectador and Verdad Abierta).(in Spanish)
- Molano Bravo, A. (5 September 2017). Esmeraldas y violencia, dos caminos cruzados. Semana.(in Spanish)
- Semana (10 May 1992). La reinserción de los esmeralderos.(in Spanish)
- Maripí. Wikipedia en español.(in Spanish)