Barrick Gold, Hands Off Dominican Republic!
Barrick Gold is a Canadian multinational gold mining company with a track record of killing
and displacing people from the Global South. Barrick Gold arrived to the Dominican
Republic in 2009 and started production in 2012 in Pueblo Viejo, Cotui. Barrick Gold’s
destruction of the central part of Dominican Republic, Cotui, Bonao has caused great alarm
among the Dominican masses. Barrick Gold’s looting of natural resources, the mineral
resources which are gold and copper have resulted in campesinos being displaced from
their land and dying slow tortured deaths. In 2019, Diario Libre reported that many women
in Cotui now have serious reproductive health disorders resulting in babies born with
strong developmental conditions. Barrick Gold’s use of the harmful cyanide poison in its
mineral extraction process poisons Dominican campesinos and their land. Dominicans have nicknamed the mining company El Monstruo (The Monster).
Barrick Gold is now planning to build a massive waste dam project named “Pueblo Grande,”
by the Ozama river which will affect many arteries, many rivers, corners of the country
and island. The municipal waters of important communities will be affected, from Villa
Mella to Santo Domingo Este. The Ozama river affects all these pockets of lands,
communities which are very much marginalized and oppressed. The environmental
destruction unleashed by the Barrick Gold also affects neighboring Haiti. The Dominican
government and the Dominican elite maintain close ties with foreign capitalists and
imperialist governments which is why Barrick Gold operates with impunity.
Barrick Gold frequently harasses and threatens radical organizers. The mining company uses social
media to hack and spy on radical activists. Recently, activists spotted a massive drone spying during a
mass and combative national assembly of anti- Barrick Gold organizers from all corners of DR in
Cotuí. According to campesino communities, they are in constant surveillance.
We denounce the Dominican government’s complicity with Barrick Gold and call on
President Luis Abinader to rescind the state’s contracts with the mining company. We also
call on progressive organizations and individuals, labor unions, student organizations,
environmental activists, feminist and LGBTQ organizations as well as writers and artists to
express solidarity with people in the Dominican Republic who continue to fight Barrick Gold
and other extractivist mining companies in the face of state repression.
Contact: maglut@yahoo.com