As we crossed endless sand dunes, groups of men became visible among the filthy swamps. They were busily keeping diesel generators going, powering pumps that suck up mud, then spew it down carpeted ramps where gold particles are trapped. They work round the clock, only pausing at dawn to wash out the carpets and extract the gold that ends up in the markets of London or Zurich....Interestingly, it was an infrastructure project - the 1,600 mile Trans-Oceanic Highway - that opened up the opportunity for the gold rush. Not only people but equipment can be trucked into the formerly remote region. Among the 'services' that have sprung up in the boom-town atmosphere is prostitution, some of which is at least apparently forced; underage girls are involved.
We met Marco Suarez, a miner from Moquegua in southern Peru, who arrived here two years ago hoping to make a quick buck and return to his village to buy a plot of land.
'This is hell,’ he said. 'We’ve been in this spot a week and work sometimes 24 hours a day depending on how it goes. We find five, six, seven grams of gold a day, and I make up to 100 soles a day [£25]. We’re simply trying to survive. I wish there were other jobs.’
As he spoke, a couple of goldminers approached suspiciously, asking the motorcycle driver what I was doing there.
'People here don’t like to speak,’ Suarez resumed, wiping the sweat from his brow with his shirt, and pouring out the brownish water that had accumulated inside his green rubber boots. 'I know we’re destroying the forest, there were only trees here before, but what are we supposed to do?’
But, the article also features an environmentalist complaining about the damage the Trans-Oceanic Highway has done to the environment and deploring its construction. For those who think that infrastructure programs in more developed countries will be the cure for what ails 'em, that protest points to an unseen barrier that may become visible should the shovels actually hit the ground.
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