LA MINERÍA DE ORO EN EL NORDESTE ANTIOQUEÑO. UN PALIMPSESTO EN LA HISTORIA REGIONAL DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE ANTIOQUIA–COLOMBIA

Abstract

The rise of extractive economies in the world is a topic of special interest that raises profound debates within national States and in different academic, social and political sectors that observe with concern the depredation of large environmental areas due to poor development planning. In the article, aspects of the reality -past and present- of the Northeast subregion, department of Antioquia, Colombia are exposed and, under the perspective of the extractive economy in Latin American countries, the idea of development is discussed based on reflecting on the effectiveness of the environmental policy of the Colombian State in the gold extraction process. The article analyzes a period of the microhistory of the region between 2000 and 2010 and contrasts some of the findings with the theories and criticisms of development applied to Latin America and, for such purposes, it is based on the contributions of political ecology and discourses of mining sustainability.