Protests broke out last Thursday in the region of Bajo Cauca, the epicenter of illegal gold mining financed by armed groups fighting each other in Colombia despite a 2016 peace deal that disarmed the FARC guerrilla group.
Miners used trucks and tree trunks to barricade roads in protest at a government campaign to destroy the equipment they use to extract gold.
Antioquia governor Anibal Gaviria told W Radio the miners have been harassing local business people into closing their shops, and were "preventing the use of all public and private infrastructure" including schools.
The protesters also tried to burn the Bajo Cauca municipal building, said Gaviria, who described the group as a "front" for the Gulf Clan drug cartel, allegedly financed in part by illegal mining revenues.
Saul Bedoya, a spokesman for the miners, urged the government on public radio to respect the group's "right to work."
The government has in the last decade seized and destroyed hundreds of pieces of heavy machinery in the fight against illegal mining, which contributes to deforestation and pollutes the rivers with mercury.
The country's leftist new President Gustavo Petro has vowed to intensify the clampdown.
As part of his stated quest for "total peace" in the violence-riddled country, Petro has proposed negotiating with the Gulf Clan and other armed groups to try and get them to give up arms in exchange for legal lenience.
The authorities suspect irregular gold extraction is almost as profitable as drug trafficking and one of the main sources of funding for organizations keeping the armed conflict alive.
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