Andean Scapes team · Updated
The first Green War (1965–1975)
The death of a bandit, a currency crisis and an army occupation turned the emerald rush into a war. It ended when the state put the mines out to tender.
When it happened
Spanish Wikipedia and the sociologist Alfredo Molano date the first Green War from 1965 to 1975.[1][2]
Semana, writing in 1992, dates the first great green war from 1967 to 1973.[3]
What set it off
It began with the death in 1965 of the bandit who had controlled a mine near Muzo. His men and the dealers who had worked with him turned on each other over the mines and the trade.[1]
The 1967 exchange crisis, which made holding dollars illegal, pushed emeralds into contraband as a way to move dollars, and Semana traces the first war to it.[3]
The army moves in
As fights over the mines spread, the government ordered the army to occupy the emerald mines.[2]
In Molano’s reading, the army’s entry into the area could only make the conflicts worse.[2]
The cost
More than 1,200 people died in Chiquinquirá, Muzo, Coscuez, Borbur and Somondoco.[2] Semana counted at least 1,000 between 1967 and 1973.[3]
Meanwhile the state company created in 1968 to run the mines took in only about 200 million pesos a year in registered exports, while the business under the table was enormous.[3]
How it ended
On 17 July 1973 the government closed the mines and put their operation out to public tender. The first step after the tender was to sign a peace, and it held only briefly.[3]
The mines were divided among private companies formed by the region’s dealers, a split that sealed the end of the first war.[2][1]