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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Bram Ebus in Nariño, Colombia. Photographs by Alex Kemman

Could gold mining help Colombia’s armed groups to finally lay down their weapons?

A man in a long-sleeved shirt, baseball cap and jeans sits on a bench in front of a group of men with guns
Royer Garzón, second in line of command of the Comuneros del Sur group, which is involved in the Colombia’s peace negotiations. Photograph: Alex Kemman

Dressed in civilian clothing with Pasto Indigenous motifs across his sleeves, Royer Garzón, a guerrilla commander and delegate at the peace negotiation table, sits alongside about two-dozen combatants on a small stand beside a concrete sports field in one of Nariño’s state-recognised Indigenous collective territories in Colombia.

Most wear military fatigues and rubber boots, matching a huge red-and-white banner reading FC Sur-ELN – Frente Comuneros del Sur, or National Liberation Army, the guerrilla group they once belonged to – an identity they have not lost.

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