Controversial Canada mining company sues Colombia for $700M
written by Adriaan Alsema April 12, 2017
Gran Colombia Gold, the Canadian-registered gold company once presided by Colombia’s former foreign minister, has sued the South American country for $700 million amid a series of exploitation disputes.
While formally registered on the Toronto stock exchange, the company is primarily owned by investors from Colombian and Venezuelan elites and has been controversial for years because of ongoing disputes with local miners.
Until her appointment as Bogota‘s Social Integration Secretary on January 1, 2015, Gran Colombia Gold’s president was Maria Consuelo Araujo, who was forced to resign as foreign minister in 2007 after prosecutors discovered extensive ties between her family and paramilitary death squads.
The company’s current CEO is Lombardo Paredes, a former executive of nationalized Venezuelan oil company PDVSA.
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Maria Consuela Araujo
