Friday, April 23, 2010

Colonization Part 2

When the Spanish first came to Costa Rica, in 1502, they started capturing and killing the native indians. Throughout all the Spanish Colonial Age, there were various indian revolutions, most of them lead by the famous indian leader Garabito who was later killed by the Spanish. Many Indians then decided to flee towards the deep forests of Talamanca, located in a southern Costa Rica and surrounded by the country's tallest mountains. Since then, the indians haven't come out and while there is regular contact with the rest of the country, they still live in the woods and there are no cities there.

Now, coming back to the XXI century, the indians are still there. Nevertheless, they are now faced by a new threat and no, its not the second Spanish invasion. Its actually a Norwegian invasion. A Norwegian millionaire, named Helge Haaversen, plans to open a mine in Talamanca. In 1974, studies by a US company found big amount of gold and copper buried in Talamanca. Since then, lots of mining companies have tried to gain the rights to open a mine in Talamanca, but their requests have been denied. This new mine, by the name "Crucitas", plans to open a "cielo abierto" mine. This means they will chop down half of the forest, destroy the environment, get the gold and get away. The Indian population of Talamanca has declared its opposition to the project, even if it means new job opportunities for them and development for the region. They said that they prefer preserving nature, who protected them for so long, rather than earning some bucks.